Three Mayo soldiers awarded Victoria Cross for gallantry in Indian rebellion

By Tom Gillespie

THE Victoria Cross (VC) is the highest recognition for valour ‘in the face of the enemy’ that can be awarded to members of the British or Commonwealth armed forces of any rank in any service, and civilians under military command.

It was introduced on January 29, 1856, by Queen Victoria to honour acts of valour during the Crimean War. Since then, the medal has been awarded 1,358 times to 1,355 individual recipients.

Among them are three Mayo soldiers - Edward Jennings from Ballinrobe, Patrick Mylott from Hollymount and Patrick McHale from Killala - who excelled during the Indian rebellion of 1857.

Edward Jennings (1820-1889) enlisted with the Bengal Artillery as a 16-year-old in 1836. He served in the First Afghan War (Ghazni) and the First Sikh War of 1845-1846.

His correct name was actually Edmond, but a clerical error at the time of his citation shows him as Edward.

He served as a rough rider with the Bengal Artillery of the British Indian Army during the 1857 rebellion.

During the relief of Lucknow from November 14 to 22, Jennings performed a daring act of gallantry which was seen as worthy of a recommendation for the Victoria Cross, though the actual act was not officially recorded in his citation.

During the relief of the city, he and two companions were returning from carrying a message to headquarters when Jennings heard a cry for help from a European.

Telling his companions to keep a look out, he urged his horse to jump over a high wall and found himself in a narrow street. At the far end he found a British lieutenant backed against a wall with a small group of natives wielding swords attacking him. Without hesitation, Jennings galloped forward, and hacked at the assailants until they fled in panic. Jennings then dismounted and lifted the badly wounded officer onto his horse and took him to the medical tent.

A few days later, Jennings received a summons asking him to go to the hospital where the officer was recuperating. On arrival at his bedside, Jennings was rewarded with 1,000 rupees for his rescue from his grateful officer.

He was pensioned from the Army in 1859 and returned to England. Sadly, his return to England was delayed so much that he was too late for his investiture with the VC at Windsor Castle on October 9, 1860.

It is not recorded how he eventually received his medal.

Jennings chose to settle in the northeast of England and became a road sweeper, working for the local corporation in North Shields.

Sadly, he obviously fell into financial hardship as he was forced to sell his VC to a private collector late in life.

On May 10, 1889, he died aged 69, and, as a pauper, and was buried in an unmarked grave in Preston Cemetery, North Shields.

In 1997, following an exhibition at Newcastle Central Library of recipients of the VC, Edward Jennings’ great-granddaughter, Kathleen Lough, and her two brothers decided to ask North Tyneside Council for help in a campaign to get a proper headstone for his grave.

After £2,000 was raised in an appeal, a headstone was placed on his grave on September 10, 1997.

Patrick Mylott (1820-1878) was born in the parish of Kilcommon, Hollymount. Little is known of his early life except that he enlisted with the 84th Regiment of Foot (later York and Lancaster Regiment) in the 1840s.

Mylott served in India prior to the outbreak of the Mutiny in Meerut in 1857.

He served throughout the Mutiny, spending the majority of 1857 in the struggle for the relief and capture of the Residency of Lucknow.

Mylott’s citation for the Victoria Cross describes his actions as follows: On July 12, 1857, Private Mylott was with his Regiment when they were trying to capture an enemy enclosure which was across a road which was being swept by enemy musket fire.

Mylott stormed across the road, through a hail of musket balls, and captured the enclosure. He was then involved in several other incidents of gallantry until Lucknow was taken in September 1857. Mylott was selected for his award by the private soldiers of his Regiment.

Mylott returned to England after the end of the Mutiny, and came out of the Army. He was presented with his Victoria Cross by Queen Victoria on January 4, 1860, at Windsor Castle.

Mylott decided not to return to Ireland and instead settled in Liverpool. Sadly, as many ex-soldiers of that time, he fell into debt and struggled to adjust to civilian life.

He was in and out of the workhouse, and, tragically, on December 22, 1878, aged 58, he died in the Brownlow Hill Workhouse Hospital in Liverpool.

The workhouse hospital is now the site of the Roman Catholic Cathedral.

Mylott was buried in an unmarked grave in the Roman Catholic section of Anfield Cemetery. His grave remained unmarked until 1994, when a new headstone was erected.

Patrick McHale (1826-1866) enlisted with the 5th Regiment of Foot (later Royal Northumberland Fusiliers) as a six-foot-two-inch recruit on December 18, 1847. Six months later, the regiment sailed to the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean, where it stayed until the outbreak of the Mutiny nine years later.

The 5th was one of the regiments closest to India and were soon attached to the columns that relieved isolated European posts. One such defensive setting was the small garrison at Arrah where eight British and 60 Sikhs held off 2,000 rebels for 10 days.

On August 3, 1857, led by Major Vincent Eyre of the Bengal Artillery, the 5th attacked and drove off the mutinous sepoys.

The regiment then joined Havelock’s column and were part of the relief force column that forced its way into the Residency of Lucknow on September 25, 1857.

Private McHale, as part of that force, then performed two separate acts of gallantry which would lead to the award of the VC on June 19, 1860.

Firstly, on October 2, 1857, at Lucknow, he was the first man to lead the assault and capture of one of the guns at the Cawnpore Battery; and again on December 212, 1857, he again, with a bold charge, took possession of one of the enemy’s guns, which had sent several rounds of grape through his company. On every occasion of the attack, he was the first to meet the enemy, who were so distracted by his courage it left little for the support soldiers to do.

After the Second Relief of Lucknow in November, McHale and his regiment stayed with General Sir James Outram at the Alumbagh from where the men could harry the enemy until Sir Colin Campbell’s main force returned in March 1858.

McHale received his VC from Lady Hersey at Fort William, Calcutta, on December 12, 1860. He returned to England shortly afterwards, and remained in the Army.

On October 26, 1866, he died while on duty at Shorncliffe, Kent. He was buried in the Shorncliffe Military Cemetery.

His comrades decided to erect an impressive gravestone in his honour. His medals are held by the Northumberland Fusiliers Museum, Alnwick Castle.