Anthony Dickson Home

Anthony Dickson Home built one of the most distinguished careers in the Victorian Army Medical Department, earning the Victoria Cross not by leading an assault, but by refusing to abandon wounded men during the desperate fighting at Lucknow. He 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. On 17 March 1848 he entered the Army Medical Department as an Assistant Surgeon in the 3rd West India Regiment and shortly afterwards embarked for service in Barbados. He transferred to the 72nd Regiment of Foot later that year and, after further service in North America and Britain, joined the medical staff in 1852. With the outbreak of the Crimean War, Home was attached to the 8th Light Dragoons in August 1854 and subsequently served with the 13th Light Dragoons. He was present during the Crimean campaign and the prolonged operations before Sebastopol. For his service he received the Crimea Medal with the clasps Balaklava and Sebastopol, together with the Turkish Crimea Medal. Promoted to Surgeon of the 90th Regiment of Foot, the Perthshire Volunteers, on 6 February 1857, Home embarked with the regiment for overseas service. The battalion had originally been intended for China, but after news of the uprising in India reached the expedition, its destination was altered. Arriving in Calcutta in July 1857, the 90th Foot joined the forces operating for the relief of Lucknow. On 26 September 1857, during the advance into Lucknow by Major-General Sir Henry Havelock's force, Home became responsible for wounded men who had fallen behind the main column. The litter convoy and its escort were cut off near Dooly Square as the fighting moved ahead. When many of the native litter-bearers fled under fire, Home and Assistant Surgeon William Bradshaw remained with the wounded and helped move them from their exposed stretchers into a nearby building. Among the soldiers involved in the defence were men of the 78th Highlanders, 90th Foot and 1st Madras Fusiliers, including James Hollowell, Peter McManus and John Ryan. The isolated party was soon surrounded. When the building in which they had taken shelter was set on fire, the defenders moved the wounded to a nearby shed and continued to resist repeated attacks. The defence lasted for more than twenty-two hours. Casualties steadily reduced the effective strength of the party until only Home and six unwounded soldiers remained capable of firing. Home's conduct in caring for the wounded, organising their protection and maintaining the defence formed the basis of his award of the Victoria Cross. The Victoria Cross was announced in The London Gazette on 18 June 1858. Home was later invested with the decoration by Queen Victoria at Buckingham Palace. His service during the Indian Mutiny also brought him the Indian Mutiny Medal. His medal group records the clasps Defence of Lucknow and Lucknow. Following his service in India, Home returned to staff medical duties and proceeded to China in December 1859 during the Second Opium War. He served in the operations that included the capture of the Taku Forts and the advance to Pekin, receiving the Second China War Medal with the clasps Taku Forts 1860 and Pekin 1860. Home subsequently served in New Zealand during the campaigns of 1863 to 1865. His performance there was officially recognised, and in September 1866 he was promoted to Surgeon-Major for the ability and zeal he had displayed during the operations. The Gazette He had already been appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath, CB, in 1865, an honour entirely separate in chronology from his later Ashanti service. victoriacrossonline.co.uk In 1873 Home was given the local rank of Deputy Surgeon-General while employed on the West Coast of Africa and served as Principal Medical Officer during the Ashanti expedition of 1873–1874. His work was mentioned in the despatches of Major-General Sir Garnet Wolseley. Home was promoted to the substantive rank of Deputy Surgeon-General in December 1873. In March 1874 he was advanced in the Order of the Bath from Companion to Knight Commander, KCB. This distinction should not be confused with his earlier appointment as CB in 1865. The Gazette Home continued to occupy senior medical appointments throughout the later years of his career. He served as Principal Medical Officer in Cyprus in 1878, attained the rank of Surgeon General in 1880, and was Principal Medical Officer to the British forces in India from 1881 to 1885. He returned to Britain in 1885 to serve as Principal Medical Officer of the Southern District and retired from the Army Medical Department on 30 November 1886. victoriacrossonline.co.uk In retirement, Home recorded the experiences of a military medical career that had taken him from the Caribbean and Crimea to India, China, New Zealand, West Africa and Cyprus. His recollections were published in 1912 as Service Memories, and the surviving manuscript is preserved within the Royal Army Medical Corps collections. Wellcome Collection Sir Anthony Dickson Home died at 7 Palace Gardens Terrace, Kensington, London, on 10 August 1914, aged eighty-seven, and was buried in Highgate Cemetery. His Victoria Cross has long been associated with the Army Medical Services collection, now represented by the Museum of Military Medicine. The museum's former public galleries at Keogh Barracks, Mytchett, closed in August 2025 as the institution prepared for its move to Whittington Barracks, home of the Defence Medical Services. Museum of Military Medicine The official citation for Home's 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."