Frederic Brooks Dugdale

He gave his horse to a wounded man and saved a second rider.

Frederic Brooks Dugdale was born at Burnley on 21 October 1877, a son of Colonel James Dugdale. Educated at Marlborough College and Christ Church, Oxford, he entered the 5th Royal Irish Lancers as a second lieutenant in October 1899. The South African War took him to the force fighting to relieve Ladysmith. He was promoted lieutenant in March 1900 and subsequently served in operations extending from Natal to Belfast and Cape Colony.

On 3 March 1901, near Derby in South Africa, his outpost came under heavy fire and was ordered to retire. A sergeant and two men were hit and their horses disabled. Dugdale rode back through the fire and gave his own horse to a wounded man. Having secured another horse, he returned again, mounted a second wounded man behind him and brought him out. Both rescues exposed him to concentrated rifle fire at short range.

His Victoria Cross was announced in September 1901. After returning to Britain, he received it from Edward VII at Buckingham Palace on 24 October 1902. His military career ended less than three weeks later. While hunting with the North Cotswold Hunt on 13 November, his horse fell and rolled on him. Dugdale suffered fatal injuries and died without regaining consciousness, aged 25. He was buried at Longborough, Gloucestershire. His brief service had encompassed the relief of Ladysmith and a succession of later South African operations, commemorated by six clasps to his Queen's South Africa Medal and the King's South Africa Medal.

Official Victoria Cross citation

On 3rd March, 1901, Lieutenant Dugdale, who was in command of a small outpost near Derby, having been ordered to retire, his patrol came under a heavy fire at a range of about 250 yards, and a Sergeant, two men, and a horse were hit. Lieutenant Dugdale dismounted and placed one of the wounded men on his own horse; he then caught another horse, galloped up to a wounded man and took him up behind him, and brought both men safely out of action.

(The London Gazette of 17 September 1901, Numb. 27356, p. 6101)