A rare medal awarded to a Dundee jute worker who risked his life to save two soldiers during the First World War could fetch between £5000 and £7000 at auction.
Lance Corporal James Collins received the gold Albert Medal after fearlessly putting his foot on a bomb in a bid to spare his comrades the worst of the blast.
Despite suffering devastating injuries and being told he would have to have his leg amputated Collins astonished doctors by going on to play professional football for Swansea Town, now Swansea City.
The medal, which was presented to the Lochee-born soldier by King George V at Buckingham Palace, will go under the hammer at Spink in Bloomsbury, London, on Thursday.
Only 70 such medals were awarded between their introduction in March 1866 and 1971, when the George Cross replaced them and just 45 of those were awarded for saving a life on land.
Collins, who served with the Royal Army Medical Corps, was awarded the honour in recognition of his gallant action in saving life in France.
According to the citation, on November 11, 1917, near an advanced dressing station at La Bergere, a “lunatic soldier” escaped from his escort and ran away along a trench.
Collins ran after him and when he got near him the man threatened to throw a bomb at him. Collins closed in regardless and the man then withdrew the pin from the bomb and let it fall in the trench.
In an effort to save the patient and two other soldiers he put his foot on the bomb, which exploded and killed the invalid.
Collins’s feet were left so riddled with shrapnel that doctors told him that his “only hope was amputation”.
But he refused to give up hope and after 14operations in two years, Collins captained Swansea to the Third Division South championship in 1924-1925, then led them to the semi-finals of the FA Cup in 1926.
Collins was born at 56 Marshall Street, Lochee, at 1.30 am on November 6,1895. The dramatic incident in France took place five days after his 22nd birthday.
At the time of the 1911 Census, Collins was living with his mother, Margaret, and his brothers, David and Harry, and sister, Maggie, at 4 Lorne Street, Dundee.
His mother was a widow who single-handedly brought up four children and also worked as a school cleaner.
Collins eventually returned to his beloved Lochee and died there at 3 South Road, Lochee on September 201963, aged 67.