Francis David Millet Brown

He saved a wounded soldier while enemy cavalry closed on him

Francis David Millet Brown was born at Bhagalpur, India, on 7 August 1837, the son of a Bengal civil servant. Educated in England, he entered the East India Company's military service in 1855 and joined the 1st European Bengal Fusiliers. During the Indian Rebellion he served in the Delhi and Lucknow operations.

At Narnoul on 16 November 1857, Lieutenant Brown saw a wounded soldier of his regiment lying exposed to enemy fire. He ran to the man and carried him to safety despite the approaching enemy cavalry, then only forty or fifty yards away. His Victoria Cross was gazetted in February 1860 and presented in India by Sir Hugh Rose later that year.

Brown continued his Indian military career after the rebellion. He served in the Umbeyla campaign in 1863, later joined the Indian Staff Corps and worked as assistant principal of the Thomason Civil Engineering College at Roorkee. Promotion took him to lieutenant-colonel and subsequently colonel.

He married and raised a family, including sons who entered military service. After retiring, he died at Sandown on the Isle of Wight on 21 November 1895 and was buried at West Hill Cemetery, Winchester.

Victoria Cross citation

For great gallantry at Narnoul, on the 16th November, 1857, in having, at the imminent risk of his own life, rushed to the assistance of a wounded soldier of the 1st European Bengal Fusiliers, whom he carried off, under a very heavy fire from the enemy, whose cavalry were within forty or fifty yards of him at the time.