The Victoria Cross (VC) of a war hero who stormed an enemy bunker has been added to the display at the Green Howards Regimental Museum, in Richmond, North Yorkshire.

The VC of Lieutenant Basil Weston, awarded posthumously for action in Burma in 1945, has been put on permanent loan at the museum by his nephew and namesake, Basil Weston, from Ulverston, Cumbria.

The museum now has 16 out of the 18 VCs won by members of the Green Howards.

All 18 medals are currently on display for a special exhibition, for which Lt Weston's VC, along with two others, was generously loaned.

Thanks to Mr Weston's generosity, his uncle's medal will remain on view in the Harrison Medal Gallery when the display closes at the end of October.

Lt Weston, who was born in Ulverston, was commissioned into the 2nd Battalion The Green Howards in February 1944, at the age of 20.

After jungle warfare training, he went with the battalion to Burma in September 1944, where he patrolled the jungle laying ambushes for the Japanese.

In late December 1944, he volunteered to be posted to Imphal to help train soliders for the jungle.

He stormed an enemy machine gun bunker in a raid on Meiktila, the Japanese military base 70 miles south of Mandalay.

He led his men across open ground, and at the bunker entrance he was hit, falling forwards. His men saw him pull the pin from the grenade he was holding and roll it forward into the bunker.

He was killed along with the enemy, in an action that was instrumental in helping the British to take Meiktila.

Lt Weston, who is buried in Taukkyan war cemetery, 20 miles north of Rangoon, was immediately recommended for the Victoria Cross, which was presented to his brother, Denis, and his aunt, Esther Hathaway, by King George VI at Buckingham Palace, in December 1945.

The curator of the regimental museum, Lieutenant Colonel Neil McIntosh, said yesterday: "We are very honoured that Mr Weston has decided to let us display his uncle's Victoria Cross in the museum.

"It is an act of great generosity, and one for which we are very grateful."

To find out more about the Green Howards and their Victoria Cross winners, visit the Internet website at www.greenhowards.org.uk