Anthony Dickson Home

Anthony Dickson Home was born on 30 November 1826 in Dunbar, East Lothian, Scotland, the son of George Home, a cordwainer, and Margaret Milligan. He studied medicine at the University of St Andrews, graduating with his Doctor of Medicine degree in 1847. Following postgraduate clinical instruction in Paris, he qualified as a Member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1848. On 17 March 1848, he entered the Army Medical Department as an Assistant Surgeon in the 3rd West India Regiment, embarking shortly thereafter for service in Barbados. Transferred to the 72nd Regiment of Foot later that year, he completed brief assignments in Nova Scotia and Great Britain before joining the medical staff in 1852.

With the outbreak of the Crimean War, Home was attached as Surgeon to the 8th Light Dragoons in August 1854 and subsequently served with the 13th Light Dragoons. He provided medical treatment during the heavy cavalry engagements at Balaklava and throughout the prolonged siege operations before Sebastopol, earning the Crimea Medal with two clasps alongside the Turkish Crimea Medal.

Promoted to Surgeon of the 90th Regiment of Foot (Perthshire Volunteers) on 6 February 1857, Home embarked with his battalion for active service. Originally dispatched toward China, the troopships received altered orders at the Cape de Verde Islands directing them to India following the eruption of the Indian Mutiny. Arriving at Calcutta in late July 1857, the 90th Foot joined the relief force commanded by Major-General Sir Henry Havelock at Cawnpore and advanced toward Lucknow in September.

During the relief of the besieged Residency garrison on 26 September 1857, Havelock's advancing column forced its way through dense urban fighting. The litter transport carrying the wounded fell behind the main body and was cut off in an open space known as Dooly Square near the Motimahal. As native litter-bearers fled under concentrated musket fire, Surgeon Home and Assistant Surgeon William Bradshaw took charge of the isolated detachment. Exposing himself to direct fire, Home dragged wounded men out of the exposed stretchers into an adjacent masonry house. Joining a small escort comprising soldiers from the 78th Highlanders, 90th Foot, and 1st Madras Fusiliers—including Privates James Hollowell, Peter McManus, and John Ryan—the defenders fortified the building against hundreds of armed insurgents.

When mutineers set fire to the structure, Home directed the evacuation of the wounded to a nearby shed, where the small party maintained a continuous defense for more than twenty-two hours until a relief force reached their position. By the time assistance arrived, the effective fighting force had been reduced to Home and six uninjured soldiers.

Certain modern popular accounts erroneously state that Home was born in 1839 in Stirling, served as a Lieutenant in the Royal Engineers, and received the Victoria Cross for blowing up a gate at Subjee Mundee near Delhi on 17 January 1858. Official War Office rolls, the London Gazette entry of 18 June 1858, regimental casualty returns, and Army Medical Department records confirm that he was an Army surgeon born in 1826, and that he earned the award at Dooly Square, Lucknow, on 26 September 1857.

Queen Victoria invested Home with the Victoria Cross at Buckingham Palace on 8 June 1859. Following his service in India, he was appointed Staff Surgeon and deployed to China in December 1859 for the Second Opium War, participating in the capture of the Taku Forts and the entry into Pekin. Stationed in New Zealand between 1863 and 1865 during the Third New Zealand War, he directed field medical support for British operational columns. Promoted to Surgeon Major in 1866, he served as Principal Medical Officer under Major-General Sir Garnet Wolseley during the Third Anglo-Ashanti War of 1873–1874 in West Africa. Wolseley cited Home's administrative arrangements in official despatches, leading to his appointment as a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in 1865 and promotion to Knight Commander (KCB) in 1874.

Home subsequently filled senior administrative appointments within the medical hierarchy. He served as Principal Medical Officer in Cyprus in 1878, reached the rank of Surgeon General in April 1880, and led the medical services for British forces in India from 1881 to 1885. His final active assignment was Principal Medical Officer of the Southern District in England before retiring on 30 November 1886. In retirement, he compiled his military memoirs, published in 1912 as Service Memories. He died at his residence in Kensington, London, on 10 August 1914 at eighty-seven years of age and was buried in Highgate Cemetery. The Army Medical Services Museum in Mytchett, Surrey, holds his Victoria Cross.

The official citation for the Victoria Cross was published in The London Gazette on 18 June 1858:

"For persevering bravery and admirable conduct in charge of the wounded men left behind the column, when the troops under the late Major-General Havelock, forced their way into the Residency of Lucknow, on the 26th September, 1857. The escort left with the wounded had, by casualties, been reduced to a few stragglers, and being entirely separated from the column, this small party with the wounded were forced into a house, in which they defended themselves till it was set on fire. They then retreated to a shed a few yards from it, and in this place continued to defend themselves for more than twenty-two hours, till relieved. At last, only six men and Mr. Home remained to fire. Of four officers who were with the party, all were badly wounded, and three are since dead. The conduct of the defence during the latter part of the time devolved therefore on Mr. Home, and to his active exertions previously to being forced into the house, and his good conduct throughout, the safety of any of the wounded, and the successful defence, is mainly to be attributed."