The bravery medal awarded to a pigeon which became an unlikely war hero has sold for more than £35,000.
Tommy was taking part in a race from Dorset to Cumbria in 1942 when he was completely blown off course in a storm.
The blue cock pigeon ended up in Nazi-occupied Holland where a Dutch postman discovered him in an exhausted state.
He passed Tommy to Dutch Resistance member and pigeon fancier, Dick Dryver, who identified him as a British bird from his leg ring.
Dryver nursed Tommy back to fitness then attached a message container to him so he could fly back to Britain carrying secret information.
The Germans, aware that pigeons were being used to relay messages to the Allies, ordered a homing pigeon cull.
Shortly after Tommy began his flight home he was spotted by a German sniper and shot through the wing.
Although he was wounded and bloodied the plucky pigeon somehow survived the 400-mile flight back to Dalton-on-Furness, Cumbria, to be reunited with his owner, William Brockbank.
Brockbank, a blacksmith’s striker, was overjoyed to see his pigeon six weeks after he started the race from Christchurch on the south coast.
Attached to Tommy was a Resistance message which read ‘God bless Queen Wilhelmina and long live Winston Churchill’.
Thinking there might be more to it, the Brockbanks handed in the message to the local police, who passed it on to the British intelligence services.
It later emerged the message contained instructions which led to the RAF to destroy a German arms site in a bombing raid.
Tommy was presented with the PDSA Dickin Medal, the animal equivalent of the Victoria Cross, in 1946 for his crucial role in the mission.
He received the medal at a special ceremony at the Dutch embassy in London and became a local celebrity touring the county.
There is a plaque in his honour at Dalton Leisure Centre and he was buried at the Brockbank family’s pigeon croft.
The medal has passed down generations of the Brockbank family before being put up for sale at Laidlaw Auctioneers, of Carlisle, Cumbria.
It was given an estimate of £6,000 to £10,000, however a bidding war led to the hammer going down at £30,000 to a round of applause in the saleroom.
With auctioneers fees included, the buyer, believed to be an undisclosed institution who will display the medal, paid £35,400 – three and a half times the valuation.
Auctioneer Paul Laidlaw said on the rostrum: ‘It is an absolute pleasure and privilege to handle this rare and powerfully poignant Dickin Medal.
‘It is an astonishing story.
‘There was both institutional and private interest and I believe the medal has gone to an institution and it will go on display.’
The 2005 film Valiant was inspired by pigeons like Tommy who flock together to deliver vital messages to the frontlines.
The Dickin Medal was created in 1943 by Maria Dickin, the founder of British veterinary charity the People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals, to honour animal gallantry during the war.
It has been awarded to 74 animals including dogs, pigeons, horses and one cat.
One of the earliest recipients of the medal was the pigeon White Vision who flew for nine hours in October 1942 to rescue 11 crewmen who were stranded in sea off the Hebrides.
In December the Dickin Medal presented to Antis the Alsatian who flew in over 30 wartime combat missions with his master sold for £60,000.
The vast majority were granted for acts of bravery in the Second World War but several wards have been made to Arms and Explosives Search Dogs of the Royal Army Veterinary Corps for their gallantry in Iraq and Afghanistan.
