The Victoria Crosses of the Crimean War by James W. Bancroft

Author:James W. Bancroft [Bancroft, James W.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Modern, 19th Century, Europe, Great Britain, General
ISBN: 9781526710635
Google: 82HNDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2017-09-30T00:32:03+00:00

George Gardiner

George Gardiner was born in 1821, at Clonallon, Warrenpoint in County Down, Ireland. All four soldiers of the Middlesex regiments who gained the Victoria Cross in the Crimea were from Ireland, and George enlisted into the 57th (West Middlesex) Regiment, being posted to Lifford Barracks in 1846. The regiment had earned the nickname the ‘Die Hards’ after the bloody Battle of Albuera, fought during the Peninsular War on 16 May 1811, when their colonel having been struck down and wounded, urged his men on by shouting: ‘Die Hard, the 57th, Die Hard!’

His award of the Victoria Cross was announced in the London Gazette of 4 June 1858, and he received the medal from Brigadier General William Marcus Coghlan, the British representative in Aden, on 5 October 1858. He also received the Crimea Medal with Inkerman and Sebastopol clasps, the Distinguished Conduct Medal and the Turkish Crimea Medal.

He saw service during the Maori Wars, for which he received the New Zealand Medal, 1860–6. He discharged from the regular army in 1861, and enlisted for the Prince of Wales’ Own Donegal Militia. Another double tragedy devastated the family in 1869, when their only daughter, Elizabeth Jane, died on 7 April, aged 12, and their only surviving son, Richard, died a week later, aged 3. They were probably victims of the Irish potato famine, and in consequence of this he retired as sergeant major from the Militia on 17 July 1869. For his service he received a ‘railway clock’ at Lifford Barracks, with the inscription: ‘as a token of appreciation of the zealous and impartial manner in which he performed his military duties, and of his most obliging conduct in civil life … ’.

His wife died in 1882, and George passed away on 17 November 1891, aged 70, at his home of Lifford House in County Donegal, and he was buried at the Clonleigh churchyard in Lifford, where there is a headstone. His medals are at the Princess of Wales’ Royal Regiment and Queen’s Regiment RHQ in Canterbury.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.