George Gardiner (VC)

In the cold, mud-slicked trenches surrounding the Russian naval fortress of Sevastopol during the early spring of 1855, siege warfare had devolved into a grueling war of position along the Crimean Peninsula. Garrisons assigned to the forward sap lines worked under continuous artillery bombardment, facing constant threat from sudden Russian night sorties. On the night of 22 March 1855, Russian infantry launched a determined assault against the Allied trench networks on the Left Attack at Green Hill. Sergeant George Gardiner of the 57th (West Middlesex) Regiment of Foot was serving as Orderly Sergeant to the Field Officers of the trenches when the Russian strike drove back the forward British covering parties. Moving directly into the collapsing sector, Gardiner halted the retreating troops, re-established a defensive firing line, and led a prompt counterattack that recovered the lost trench line. Gardner was born around 1821 in the parish of Clonallon, near Warrenpoint, County Down, where his father, Francis Gardiner, worked as a local farmer. He enlisted in the British Army at Lisburn on 29 May 1840, joining the rank and file of the 57th Foot—a regiment historically nicknamed the "Die Hards". His initial fourteen years of service consisted of garrison postings across Ireland and overseas deployments to Mediterranean outposts in Malta and Corfu, followed by duty at Aden. He received promotion to corporal in December 1846 and sergeant in August 1848. During a home assignment in May 1849, he married Elizabeth Courtney, the daughter of a regimental sergeant. The 57th Foot deployed to the Crimea in 1854, joining siege operations against Sevastopol following the Allied landings. Three months after his actions during the March night sortie, Gardiner took part in the bloody assault on the Great Redan on 18 June 1855. The advancing British columns were met by overwhelming Russian canister and musket fire, which disabled nearly half the participating officers and a third of the rank and file. Cut off near the enemy parapet, Gardiner gathered surviving soldiers in shell craters. Utilizing the bodies of fallen comrades to construct makeshift breastworks under direct fire, the small group maintained rifle fire against the fortifications until their ammunition was exhausted, successfully suppressing enemy defenders along that section of the parapet. For his conduct during the assault, he was promoted to Colour-Sergeant the following day. Gardner's Victoria Cross was officially gazetted on 2 June 1858. Because the 57th Foot was en route to India to assist in quelling the Indian Mutiny, the decoration was presented to him at Aden on 5 October 1858 by Brigadier-General W. M. Coghlan. The official citation published in The London Gazette on 2 June 1858 reads:

"57th Regiment of Foot. Sergeant George Gardiner. Date of Acts of Bravery, 22nd March, and 18th June, 1855. For distinguished coolness and gallantry upon the occasion of a sortie by the enemy, and when he was acting as Orderly Serjeant to the Field-Officers of the trenches,–Left Attack upon Sevastopol,– in having rallied the covering parties which had been driven in by the Russians, thus regaining and keeping possession of the trenches. Also, for unflinching and devoted courage in the attack on the Redan, on the 18th June, 1855, in having remained, and encouraged others to remain in the holes made by the explosion of shells, from whence, by making parapets of the dead bodies of their comrades, they kept up a continuous fire until their ammunition was exhausted, and the enemy cleared away from the parapet."

Following twenty-one years of army service, including eleven years in overseas garrisons, Gardiner took his discharge at Cork on 11 June 1861. The following day, he entered the permanent staff of the Prince of Wales's Own Donegal Militia at Lifford as Sergeant-Major, a position he held until June 1876. He died at Lifford on 17 November 1891 at seventy years of age and was buried in Clonleigh Churchyard. His Victoria Cross and associated campaign awards are preserved by the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment Museum.