llage was
decorated, and the hero was received by Tipperary crowds, with bands
and banners; and, better still, War Loan stock to the value of L240,
subscribed for by as many as 1,500 of the local Tipperary community,
was presented to him at a public meeting by Major-General Friend,
Commander of the Forces in Ireland. At the meeting Mr. B. Trench,
secretary to the reception committee, made the remarkable statement
that out of a total of eighty Victoria Crosses then awarded for
services in the war eighteen had been won by Irishmen. "If the people
of Great Britain had done as well," said Mr. Trench, "they ought,
according to their population, to have received 220 Victoria Crosses."

Sergeant Somers is a well-built, good-looking young fellow of
twenty-one, full of high spirits, and was boyishly delighted with all
the attention paid to him in Ireland. His father was for several years
sexton in the parish church, Belturbet, county Cavan; and he himself
was a footman in Bantry House, county Cork, before he joined the
Inniskilling Fusiliers in 1912. Like Dwyer, of the East Surreys, he
got the V.C. for a daring bombing exploit. The official record of the
award is as follows:--

"For most conspicuous bravery. On the night of July 1st-2nd,
1915, in the southern zone of the Gallipoli Peninsula, where,
owing to hostile bombing, some of our troops had retired from a
sap, Sergeant Somers remained alone on the spot until a party
brought up bombs. He then climbed over into the Turkish trench,
and bombed the Turks with great effect. Later he advanced into
the open, under heavy fire, and held back the enemy by throwing
bombs into their flank until a barricade had been established.
During this period he frequently ran to and from our trenches to
obtain fresh supplies of bombs. By his gallantry and coolness
Sergeant Somers was largely instrumental in effecting the
recapture of portion of our trench which had been lost."

Recounting his experiences, Sergeant Somers said that the Turks
advanced to the trenches and compelled the Gurkhas and the
Inniskillings to retire. He alone stopped in the trench, refusing to
leave. He shot many Turks with his revolver, killed about fifty with
bombs, and forced them to retire. The enemy, however, rushed into a
sap trench, and he commenced to bombard them out of it, but twice he
failed. Just before dawn he stole away for the purpose of getting men
up to the