John Taylor (VC)

John Taylor VC, CGM (1822 – 25 February 1857) was a sailor in the Royal Navy and an English recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.

John Taylor
Depiction of the Siege of Sebastopol
Born1822
Bristol, Gloucestershire
Died25 February 1857 (aged 34–35)
Woolwich, London
Buried
Woolwich cemetery
Allegiance United Kingdom
Service/branch Royal Navy
RankCaptain of the Forecastle
Battles/warsFirst Anglo-Chinese War
Crimean War
Second Anglo-Burmese War
AwardsVictoria Cross
Conspicuous Gallantry Medal
Légion d'honneur (France)

Details

Taylor was about 33 years old, and a captain of the forecastle in the Royal Navy, serving in the Naval Brigade, during the Crimean War when the following deed took place for which he was awarded the VC.

On 18 June 1855 in the Crimean Peninsula, immediately after the assault on Sebastopol, a soldier of the 57th Regiment, who had been wounded in both legs, was observed sitting up and calling for help. At once the second-in-command (Henry James Raby) of the scaling party, another seaman (Henry Curtis) and Captain of the Forecastle Taylor left the shelter of their battery works and ran forward a distance of 70 yards, across open ground, through heavy gunfire and succeeded in carrying the wounded man to safety.[1]

Further information

John Taylor's Cross is currently held in the Sheesh Mahal Collection in Patiala, India. The group formed part of the Maharaja Bhupendra Singh's collection, which was bequeathed to the Museum on the death of the Maharajah's son in 1947, and consists of the VC, Conspicuous Gallantry Medal (1st type), China War Medal 1842, India General Service Medal 1854 clasp Pegu, Crimea Medal with clasps Inkermann and Sebastopol, Légion d'honneur and Turkish Crimea Medal.

John Taylor was buried in Woolwich cemetery in southeast London.

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References
  1. "No. 21971". The London Gazette. 24 February 1857. p. 653.
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