On this Day in History ... 05 November

The London Gazette 21997. War-Office, May 5, 1857.

The Queen (age 37) has been graciously pleased to signify Her intention to confer the Decoration of the Victoria Cross on the undermentioned Officers of Her Majesty's Army, who have been recommended to Her Majesty for that Decoration,—in accordance with the rules laid down in Her Majesty's Warrant of the 29th of January, 1856,—on account of acts of bravery performed by them before the Enemy during the late War, as recorded against their several names ; viz.

Grenadier Guards. Colonel Hon. Henry Hugh Manvers Percy (age 39). Date of Act of Bravery, 5th November, 1854 [ at the Battle of Inkerman]

At a moment when the Guards were at some distance from the Sand Bag Battery, at the Battle of Inkerman, Colonel Percy charged singly into the battery, followed immediately by the Guards; the embrasures of the battery, as also the parapet, were held by the Russians, who kept up a most severe fire of musketry.

At the Battle of Inkerman Colonel Percy, found himself with many men of various regiments, who had charged too far, nearly surrounded by the Russians, and without ammunition. Colonel Percy, by his knowledge of ground, though wounded, extricated these men, and, passing under a heavy fire from the Russians then in the Sand Bag Battery, brought them safe to where ammunition was to be obtained, thereby saving some fifty men, and enabling them to renew the combat. He received the approval of His Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge, for this action, on the spot.—Colonel Percy was engaged with, and put hors de combat, a Russian soldier.

7th Regiment. Lieutenant William Hope. Date of Act of Bravery, 18th June, 1855.

After the troops had retreated on the morning of the 18th June, 1855, Lieutenant W. Hope being informed by the late Serjeant-Major William Bacon, who was himself wounded, that Lieutenant and Adjutant Hobson was lying outside the trenches badly wounded, went out to look for him, and found him lying in the old agricultural ditch running towards the left flank of the Redan. He then returned, and got four men to bring him in. Finding, however, that Lieutenant Hobson could not be removed without a stretcher, he then ran back across the open to Egerton's Pit, where he procured one, and carried it to where Lieutenant Hobson was lying.

All this was done under a very heavy fire from the Russian batteries.

7th Regiment. Assistant-Surgeon Thomas Egerton Hale, M.D. Date of Act of Bravery, 8th September, 1855

First. For remaining with an officer who was dangerously wounded, (Captain H. M. Jones, 7th Regiment), in the fifth parallel, on 8th September, 1855, when all the men in the immediate neighbourhood retreated, excepting Lieutenant W. Hope and Dr. Hale; and for endeavouring to rally the men, in conjunction with Lieutenant W. Hope, 7th Royal Fusiliers.

Secondly. For having, on 8th September, 1855, after the regiments had retired into the trenches, cleared the most advanced sap of the wounded, and carried, into the sap, under a heavy fire, several wounded men from the open ground, being assisted by Serjeant Charles Fisher, 7th Royal Fusiliers

Coldstream Guards (late of the 49th Regiment). Brevet-Major John Augustus Conolly Date of Act of Bravery, 26th October, 1854.

In the attack by the Russians against the position held by the Second Division, 26th October, 1854, Major Conolly, then a Lieutenant in the 49th Regiment, while in command of a company of that regiment, on outlying picket, made himself most conspicuous by the gallantry of his behaviour. He came particularly under the observation of the late Field-Marshal Lord Raglan, while in personal encounter with several Russians, in defence of his post. He ultimately fell, dangerously wounded. Lieutenant Conolly was highly praised in General Orders, and promoted into the Coldstream Guards, as a reward for his exemplary behaviour on this occasion.