The family of a hero soldier who was posthumously awarded Britain’s highest military honour has accepted the medal from The Queen.

L/Cpl James Ashworth died while serving in 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards as a result of enemy action while on patrol in the Nahr-e Saraj district of Helmand province in Afghanistan.

It will be a year since the 23-year-old’s death next Thursday.

His father Duane Ashworth, of Moat Way, Queenborough, his wife Caroline, son Coran, 22, and James’s mum Kerry were presented with the award at Buckingham Palace last month.

James, who was on his second tour of Afghanistan, is only the 10th member of the British Army to receive the VC since the Second World War.

He was given it for putting himself in the line of fire to protect his colleagues, an action which has been described as supremely courageous and inspiring.

Mr Ashworth, complex manager at Shurland Dale holiday park in Eastchurch and himself a former Grenadier Guardsman, says the medal is being kept secure in a safe in London, but he has a copy he keeps with him.

The 45-year-old said it was a fantastic day and the family felt very proud.

“The Queen spent about 15 minutes with us and she knew a lot about James and what he had done,” he said.

Mr Ashworth has been made patron of the Victoria Cross Trust, which works to maintain the graves of VC heroes, and he opened its official visitors’
centre in Doncaster on Wednesday.

To raise money for the trust, he is taking part in a fundraising bike ride on Saturday, August 24, which will be from the resting place of the last VC recipient – James – who is buried in Corby to the resting place of Charles Lucas VC who was the first soldier to be given the award.

He is buried in Mereworth, near Maidstone.