Frederick Hitch

He kept ammunition flowing after shots smashed his shoulder.

Frederick Hitch was born in Southgate in 1856. He enlisted in the 24th Regiment in March 1877 and went to southern Africa.

During the defence of Rorke’s Drift on 22–23 January 1879, Hitch helped maintain communications with the hospital and supported its evacuation alongside Corporal William Allen. Both were severely wounded. Unable to handle their weapons effectively, they nevertheless continued supplying ammunition to the defenders through the night. Hitch received the Victoria Cross.

His shoulder injury ended his Army career. Queen Victoria presented his medal while he was a patient at Netley Hospital in August 1879. He married Emily Meurisse in 1881 and struggled to find work he could manage with his disability. Later employed as a London cab driver, he died in Chiswick in January 1913 and was buried at St Nicholas Churchyard.

Official Victoria Cross citation (London Gazette, 2 May 1879; joint citation with Corporal William Allen):

It was chiefly due to the courageous conduct of these men that communication with the hospital was kept up at all. Holding together at all costs a most dangerous post, raked in reverse by the enemy's fire from the hill, they were both severely wounded, but their determined conduct enabled the patients to be withdrawn from the hospital, and when incapacitated by their wounds from fighting, they continued, as soon as their wounds had been dressed, to serve out ammunition to their comrades during the night.