Anthony Palmer

Enlisting in the British Army on 14 March 1838 at Cross Lane Barracks in Salford, Anthony Palmer entered the 3rd Battalion, Grenadier Guards under service number 3571. Born in Brereton Green, Cheshire, on 10 March 1819, his early service record reflected the stern disciplinary environment of the early Victorian military. A promotion to corporal in August 1840 was followed four months later by reduction to private and a period of confinement. Over twenty-five years of regular service, he experienced court-martial reductions to private on three separate occasions, establishing a pattern of soldiering marked by periods of misconduct alongside proven battlefield capability.

When the Grenadier Guards deployed to the Crimean peninsula in 1854, the 3rd Battalion entered heavy front-line combat across four major operational phases: Alma, Balaklava, Inkerman, and the Siege of Sevastopol. The defining combat episode of Palmer's career occurred on 5 November 1854 during the Battle of Inkerman. In dense fog along the Kitspur, Russian infantry forces pushed back British outposts and threatened to overrun the Sandbag Battery, a position commanding the approaches to the Guards Brigade's encampments.

Brevet Major Sir Charles Russell called for volunteers to dislodge Russian troops occupying the earthworks. Private Palmer, together with Sergeant Norman and Private Bailey, stepped forward to join the assault. During the hand-to-hand fighting inside the battery, a Russian soldier moved to bayonet Russell. Palmer discharged his musket into the assailant, killing him and preserving Russell's life. In the same action, Palmer joined a small group of guardsmen whose counter-charge prevented the capture of the battalion's Colours.

The morning after the battle, Palmer was promoted to corporal on parade. Following the institution of the Victoria Cross by Royal Warrant, his award appeared in the Supplement to The London Gazette on 24 February 1857 (Issue 21971, page 656). The full citation recorded:

"Present when the charge was made in defence of the Colours, and also charged singly upon the enemy, as witnessed by Sir C. Russell; is said to have saved Sir C. Russell's life."

Queen Victoria decorated Palmer at the initial investiture in Hyde Park on 26 June 1857. Alongside the Victoria Cross, his formal campaign recognition comprised the Crimea Medal with clasps for Alma, Balaklava, Inkerman, and Sevastopol, the Turkish Crimea Medal, and the Army Long Service and Good Conduct Medal. Major-General Sir Henry Bentinck also awarded him the Bentinck Medal for Gallantry, an unofficial regimental honour created to recognise exceptional service in the Guards Brigade prior to the establishment of the Victoria Cross.

Palmer completed his regular military service in 1863 and subsequently worked as Head Constable for the Millwall Dock Company. He later accepted a commission as Captain in the 5th (Plaistow and Victoria Docks) Essex Rifle Volunteer Corps in May 1874. His original Victoria Cross was lost during a public house brawl, leading Queen Victoria to authorize a replacement cross; the original decoration was eventually recovered and placed in the collections of the Grenadier Guards Regimental Headquarters at Wellington Barracks. Palmer died at Crumpsall Hospital in Manchester on 12 December 1892 at age seventy-three and was buried in Heywood Cemetery, Rochdale.