Medal sale of Afghan hero who lost a VC for bigamy

£95,000 for gunner's 1880 gong

- ALICE CLIFFORD

A CAMPAIGN medal won by a hero whose Victoria Cross was declared forfeit after he was jailed for bigamy has sold for £95,000 - almost five times more than expected.

Gunner James Collis was awarded a the gongs for his bravery during the Second Afghan War in 1880.

But after he married a woman in the a UK while he already had a wife in India, b he was jailed for 18 months with hard labour and his VC was struck off.

Two years after his death in 1918, his sister, Hannah Haylock, petitioned the War Office to cancel the forfeiture. The Secretary of State for War, Winston Churchill, opposed the move but King George V was sympathetic.