Edward Thackeray

He battled magazine fires while enemy bullets struck nearby.

Edward Talbot Thackeray was a Bengal Engineer whose Victoria Cross action involved extinguishing fire beside explosive stores. Born at Broxbourne, Hertfordshire, on 19 October 1836, he trained at Marlborough, Addiscombe and Chatham before entering the Bengal Engineers in 1854.

On 16 September 1857 British troops had captured the Delhi Magazine, but fighting continued around its enclosure. Fire broke out in a shed holding combustible material. Under close musketry fire, Second Lieutenant Thackeray worked to put it out despite the danger of an explosion. His action preserved the position and earned the Victoria Cross, formally announced in 1862.

Thackeray continued in engineering appointments across India. During the Second Afghan War he commanded a company of Bengal Sappers and Miners and was severely wounded in 1879. He later became colonel and retired in 1888. Appointed a Companion of the Bath in 1886, he advanced to Knight Commander in 1897.

After moving to Italy he remained active in humanitarian work. During the First World War he helped soldiers through the British Red Cross and St John organisations at Bordighera and was mentioned in despatches despite his advanced age. He died in Italy on 3 September 1927. His long career extended from the siege of Delhi to relief work for a later generation of servicemen.

Official Victoria Cross citation

For cool intrepidity and characteristic daring in extinguishing a fire in the Delhi Magazine enclosure, on the 16th of September, 1857, under a close and heavy musketry fire from the enemy, at the imminent risk of his life from the explosion of combustible stores in the shed in which the fire occurred.

The London Gazette of 29 April 1862, Numb. 22621, p. 2229