Memorial paving stones are to be placed in the district in honour of two soldiers who received Victoria Crosses for their feats of outstanding bravery in the First World War.

The specially-designed slabs will be laid at places of birth across the UK to recognise all those who earned the highest medal for valour “in the face of the enemy” as part of plans to mark the next year’s centenary of the outbreak of the 1914-18 conflict.

The two VC winners to be honoured in the district are Bradford-born Private George Chafer and Second Lieutenant Thomas Maufe, who was born in Ilkley.

Communities Secretary Eric Pickles yesterday announced a national competition to design the stones which will be presented to councils in the areas where VC recipients of the First World War were from.

Mr Pickles said: “It is our duty to make sure their bravery for King and Country is not forgotten. Laying paving stones to mark these Victoria Cross heroes will ensure that there is a permanent memorial to all the fallen who fought for our country and the competition is a great way for people from all corners of the United Kingdom to get involved.”

The Government has also announced more help will be made available for local communities to restore and refurbish their First World War memorials, with a new website to be created to make sure people across the country can get funding and support so that all memorials are in good condition for November 2018.

Pte Chafer, 22, was serving in the 1st Battalion, The East Yorkshire Regiment, on June 4, 1916, east of Méaulte, Somme, France, when he retrieved under enemy fire an important written message to his commanding officer being carried by another soldier who was left half buried and unconscious by an exploding shell.

He took the message from the soldier’s pocket and, although severely wounded, choking and blinded by gas, ran along the ruined parapet under heavy shell and machine-gun fire, to deliver it.

Second Lt Maufe was a 19-year-old serving in the Royal Garrison Artillery when on June 4, 1917, under intense artillery fire, he repaired, unaided, the telephone wire between the forward and rear positions, thereby enabling his battery to open fire on the enemy.

He also saved what could have been a disastrous occurrence by extinguishing a fire in an advanced ammunition dump caused by a heavy explosion.

By the end of the war he had achieved the rank of major, one of the youngest to hold that rank. After the war Major Maufe completed his interrupted education at Clare College, Cambridge and the Royal School of Mines.

He served in the Home Guard as a volunteer during the Second World War in 28th West Riding (Otley) Bn but he was killed in an accident with a misfiring trench mortar during training at the age of 43 on March 28, 1942, near Ilkley. He is buried in Ilkley Cemetery.

Two other First World War VC recipients with links to Bradford will be similarly honoured at their places of birth.

Harrogate-born Second Lieutenant Donald Bell was killed in action, aged 25, at the Somme in 1916, two years after he helped Bradford FC, later Bradford Park Avenue, win promotion to the First Division. Corporal Samuel Meekosha, who grew up in Bradford, was a 22-year-old serving with the West Yorkshire Regiment when he saved the lives of four wounded comrades by digging them out of a trench in 1915.