Edward Spence (VC)

He stood exposed to shield rescuers from fire at Fort Ruhya.

Edward Spence served as a private in the 42nd Regiment of Foot, the Black Watch. A Scot associated with Dumfries, he served in the Crimean War before his regiment's operations in India during the uprising of 1857-58.

On 15 April 1858, during the assault on Fort Ruhya, Lieutenant Willoughby was mortally wounded on the glacis beneath the fort's defenders. Spence and Lance Corporal Alexander Thompson volunteered to help Captain William Café bring him away. As the party withdrew with the officer, Spence deliberately occupied an exposed position to cover it. Enemy fire struck him and inflicted a mortal wound.

He died on 17 April and was buried at Fort Ruhya. Thompson and Café received the Victoria Cross, but Spence's death initially prevented an award under the practice then followed. After the authorities reconsidered earlier posthumous cases, his name appeared in the London Gazette on 15 January 1907.

The Cross went to his family after a search for surviving relatives and later entered the Black Watch collection in Perth. His place in the regiment's history rests on the choice to remain exposed so that a rescue party could get clear of the defenders' fire.

Official Victoria Cross citation

Private Edward Spence, 42nd Regiment, would have been recommended to Her Majesty for the decoration of the Victoria Cross, had he survived. He and Lance-Corporal Thompson, of that Regiment, volunteered, at the attack of the Fort of Ruhya, on the 15th April, 1858, to assist Captain Groves, commanding the 4th Punjab Rifles, in bringing in the body of Lieutenant Willoughby from the top of the Glacis. Private Spence dauntlessly placed himself in an exposed position, so as to cover the party bearing away the body. He died on the 17th of the same month, from the effects of the wound which he received on the occasion. (The London Gazette of 27 May 1859, Numb. 22268, p. 2106) VICTORIA CROSS. Errata in the London Gazette of Friday, May 27, 1859. In the notifications of the Acts of Bravery performed by Lance Corporal Alexander Thompson and the late Private Edward Spence, of the 42nd Regiment, For Captain Groves, commanding the 4th Punjaub Rifles, Read, Captain Cafe, commanding the 4th Punjaub Rifles. (The London Gazette of 21 October 1859, Numb. 22318, p. 3793) War Office, January 15, 1907. The King has been graciously pleased to approve of the Decoration of the Victoria Cross being delivered to the representatives of the undermentioned Officers and men who fell in the performance of acts of valour, and with reference to whom it was notified in the London Gazette that they would have been recommended to Her late Majesty for the Victoria Cross had they survived:– London Gazette, 27th May, 1859. “Private Edward Spence, 42nd Regiment, would have been recommended to Her Majesty for the decoration of the Victoria Cross had he survived. He and Lance-Corporal Thompson, of that Regiment, volunteered, at the attack of the Fort of Ruhya, on the 15th April, 1858, to assist Captain Cafe, commanding the 4th Punjab Rifles, in bringing in the body of Lieutenant Willoughby from the top of the Glacis. Private Spence dauntlessly placed himself in an exposed position so as to cover the party bearing away the body. He died on the 17th of the same month from the effects of the wound which he received on the occasion.”

The London Gazette of 15 January 1907, Numb. 27986, p. 325