COUNCIL officers hope developers of new housing estates will step forward to name streets after the borough's Victoria Cross heroes.

As the Star revealed last month, the go-ahead has been given to commemorate John Molyneux, John Thomas Davies, Frederick William Hall and Norman Harvey .

each will have streets in the borough named after them after St Helens Council gave plans the green light.

The streets are expected to be as close as possible to where each of the four men lived. The council hopes developers will seize the chance to put the names on new estates, though the option of installing plaques at older estates will be looked at if builders do not take up the offer.

The VC heroes to be recognised are:

‘Jack’ Molyneux was born on November 22, 1890 in Sutton and left school at 12 to work in the mines.

He was awarded the VC for bravery in action on October 9 1917, after organising a bombing attack to clear a trench of enemy soldiers in Belgium in 1917 in which a number of machine guns were killed and a machine gun was captured. On his way to a house occupied by the enemy, he became engaged in hand-to-hand combat and 20 to 30 prisoners were taken.

John died on March 25, 1972 aged 81 and his VC is displayed at the Royal Fusiliers Museum in the Tower of London.

John Thomas Davies was born on September 29, 1895 in Birkenhead, before moving to Sutton. He won his VC on March 24, 1918, when,he mounted the parapet, fully exposed, and fired his gun into the German line, checking their advance to allow part of his company to get safely across a stream.

John was a Captain in the Home Guard in the Second World War. He died in October 1955 and is buried in St Helens Cemetery.

Born in Newton-le-Willows in 1899, Norman Harvey enlisted at 15. He won the VC on October 25, 1918 when his battalion suffered severe casualties from machine-gun fire at Ingoyhem in Belgium.

He rushed two machine gun points single-handedly, killing 20 men and capturing two guns.

Norman continued in military service after the war and in 1942 was a Quartermaster Sergeant in the Royal Engineers and killed in action in Haifa, now in Israel. He was buried in Khayat Beach cemetery.

Frederick William Hall, born in Kilkenny, Ireland in 1885, lived on Ormskirk Street before his family’s emigration to Canada in 1910. Frederick won his VC on April 24, 1915 when during a German attack, under heavy gunfire Frederick crawled out of his trench towards a wounded soldier.

He slid himself underneath the man to lift him up but was killed when he raised his head to assess his position.