George Monger

Helped carry a wounded corporal away under fire near Lucknow

George Monger was born at Woodmancott, Hampshire, on 3 March 1840. He entered the 23rd Regiment of Foot as a boy in 1855 and went to India during the uprising of 1857. He was only seventeen when the regiment took part in the relief of Lucknow.

On 18 November 1857, during fighting around the Secundra Bagh, a corporal lay wounded in an exposed position. Monger assisted Lieutenant Thomas Hackett in bringing him to safety despite the heavy enemy fire. Their attempt required them to leave the protection available to the other soldiers and remain exposed while moving a man who could not escape unaided. Both received the Victoria Cross. Monger's award was gazetted in April 1859, and he received the decoration in India the following year.

His campaign service extended beyond the original relief operation. The two clasps on his Indian Mutiny Medal, Relief of Lucknow and Lucknow, distinguish that service. He eventually left the Army and settled in Hastings, where he worked as a plasterer.

He married Mary and raised a large family, although several of the children died in infancy. His ability to work declined as respiratory illness became more severe. Former officers and local supporters attempted to assist him when he could no longer maintain his family through his trade. His later life was marked by the difficulty of supporting a household after military service, rather than by the public career that his decoration might suggest.

He died in Hastings in August 1887. He was buried in the town cemetery. His grave and the surviving accounts of his poverty subsequently became important parts of the local remembrance of this young soldier's conduct at Lucknow.

Victoria Cross citation: For daring gallantry at Secundra Bagh, Lucknow, on the 18th of November, 1857, in having volunteered to accompany Lieutenant Hackett, whom he assisted in bringing in a Corporal of the 23rd Regiment, who was lying wounded in an exposed position.

The London Gazette of 12 April 1859, Numb. 22248, p. 1482