Alfred Ablett

Threw a Live Shell Clear of Ammunition and Powder.

Alfred Ablett grew up in Weybread, Suffolk, in the family of Samuel and Elizabeth Ablett. Before becoming a soldier he worked as a labourer. By the 1851 census he was serving with the Grenadier Guards at Windsor. He went on to serve in the Crimean War with the 3rd Battalion, Grenadier Guards, service number 5872. He fought at Alma and Inkerman and in the siege of Sebastopol. His campaign service also included Balaclava, where the Guards Brigade was present in support but took no part in the fighting. He also received the Distinguished Conduct Medal.

On 2 September 1855, during the siege of Sebastopol, a live shell fell into a trench among ammunition cases and gunpowder. Ablett seized it and threw it outside. It exploded on reaching the ground. In his own later account, he recalled being knocked down and covered in gravel and dirt, but said that nobody in the crowded trench was hurt.

The complete Victoria Cross citation, published in the London Gazette on 24 February 1857, page 657, reads:

“On the 2nd September, 1855, seeing a shell fall in the centre of a number of Ammunition-cases and Powder, he instantly seized and threw it outside the trench; it burst as it touched the ground.”

By the time Queen Victoria presented his medal at Hyde Park on 26 June 1857, Ablett was a sergeant. After leaving the Army, he worked with the Harleston Volunteers and later served in the dock police in London.

He died on 12 March 1897 and was buried in St Andrew's churchyard at Weybread. A plaque inside the church commemorates his courage, preserving the village's connection to the Guardsman who removed an immediate threat to his comrades.