A First World War soldier will be commemorated in Convent Garden.

Canadian John Chipman Kerr was one of 64 Freemasons awarded the Victoria Cross in The Great War for his bravery on September 16, 1916.

Special commemorative stones are to be laid outside the Freemasons’ Hall in Great Queen Street, Convent Garden to remember the 64 members awarded the highest medal for bravery in the army.

Private Kerr was awarded the honour for his actions in a bombing attack leading to the capture of 62 prisoners and 250 yards of enemy trenches near Courcelette, France.

Knowing that enemy bombs were running short, he ran along the parados under fire, he opened fire at point-blank range and inflicted heavy losses.

This led to the enemy to believe they were surrounded and led to their surrender.

His citation reads: “Before carrying out this very plucky act one of Private Kerr’s fingers had been blown off by a bomb.

“Later, with two other men, he escorted back the prisoners under fire, and then returned to report himself for duty before having his wound dressed.”

Kerr served with the 49th Infantry Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force during the First World War.

He joined the Elstree Lodge No. 3092 as a Hertfordshire Freemason in September 1917, whilst recovering in the Perkins Bull Convalescent Hospital for Canadian Officers.

The hospital was opened by William Perkins Bull Past Master of the Elstree Lodge which now meets at the Masonic Hall, The Rose Walk, Radlett.

Records from the lodge show a number of Canadian servicemen joined the Freemasons during this time.

Kerr was born in Fox River, Nova Scotia, on 11 January 1887 and worked as a farmer and a lumberjack before the outbreak of war.

Afterwards Kerr returned to Canada where he worked as a forest ranger before returning to serve in the Second World War.

In 1951 Mount Kerr in Jasper National Park was named after him. He died in 1964 in Port Moody, British Colombia where a park is dedicated to his memory.