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The plaque on a wall at Mossley Station reads:

In memory of
Private Ernest Sykes VC
27th (Service) Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers (Tyneside Irish Brigade)
(4th April 1885 - 3rd August 1949)

Ernest Sykes was born in Mossley and worked as a platelayer for the
London & North Western Railway at Micklehurst. He enlisted into the 7th Bn.
Duke of Wellington's (West Riding) Regiment on 31st August 1914, seeing
action at Gallipoli, where he was seriously wounded. Following his recovery,
he joined the 27th (S) Bn. Northumberland Fusiliers (Tyneside Irish Brigade),
and was posted to France. On 9th April 1917, attacking near Arras, his battalion
was held up in advance of its lines, and suffered heavy casualties from machine
gun fire. He went forward under intense fire and recovered four wounded
comrades. Returning for a fifth time in mortal danger from sustained gunfire,
he remained to bandage those casualties that could not be moved.

For his gallant actions he was presented with the Victoria Cross by
King George V at Buckingham Palace on 21st July 1917.
He returned to the railway after the conflict, and
served in the Home Guard during the Second World War.