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Pte Fred Potts: Pic from Berkshire Yeomanry Museum
Pte Fred Potts was awarded the Victoria Cross for his bravery
Listen to his own words
Portraits of the Great War survivors
The family of a Reading soldier awarded the Victoria Cross have met the relatives of the soldier he saved at Gallipoli in World War I for the first time.
Fred Potts, serving in Berkshire Yeomanry, dragged fellow soldier and townsman Arthur Andrews to safety on a shovel under heavy enemy fire in 1915.
Both men's families met at the Imperial War Museum, where Mr Potts' medal is displayed, as part of a documentary.
Reading MP Martin Salter has called for a memorial to be built to Pte Potts.
Pte Potts was a part-time soldier in the Berkshire Yeomanry, formed in 1794 following the declaration of war by France a year earlier.
In April 1915, the regiment sailed for Egypt and from there a few months later they were shipped to the Gallipoli peninsula where, against the Turks, they first saw action.
It was during a bloody battle on 21 August that Pte Potts earned the first yeomanry VC for "most conspicuous bravery in rescuing a comrade under heavy fire".
Shot in groin
On that fateful day he had been shot at in his left thigh - "the bullet had gone clean through".
Pte Andrews was gravely wounded after being shot in the groin but his fellow countryman dragged him for a staggering two days to safety.
Norah Andrews, Pte Andrews' daughter-in-law, said: "It is amazing that they [Pte Potts' family] lived so close and we did not know anything about them.
"I would not have had my lovely family if he had not been rescued."
(L-r) Pte Potts' grandson Bob Binham and granddaughter Ann Ames; Pte Andrews' grandson Christopher, daughter-in-law Nora and granddaughter Penny Poutney Both families paid tribute to Pte Potts' bravery
Meanwhile, Ann Ames, granddaughter of Pte Potts, said of the meeting: "It is quite extraordinary [to meet Pte Andrews' family].
"My grandfather was very much a family man."
Berkshire Yeomanry Museum in Windsor houses a collection of letters and photographs which describe the soldiers' experiences.
Pte Potts, who attended Katesgrove Primary School, is commemorated for his heroics as one of their old boys on a plaque on a wall.
In 1994 the 200th anniversary of the Yeomanry was marked by a massed parade of all surviving Yeomanry units in front of The Queen n Windsor Great Park.
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