Henry Mitchell Jones

Wounded at the quarries, he held his post through the night.

Henry Mitchell Jones was born at Crumlin, County Dublin, on 11 February 1831. He entered the Army as an ensign in 1849 and served in the 18th Regiment before transferring to the 60th Rifles. In 1854 he joined the 7th Royal Fusiliers and went with them to the Crimea.

At the Alma in September 1854, Jones carried the Queen’s Colour and was severely wounded in the jaw. After recovering sufficiently to return, he took part in the fighting before Sevastopol. On the night of 7 June 1855, the British captured the Quarries and then faced repeated Russian counterattacks. Jones continually led his men forward to repel them. Although wounded early in the evening, he stayed at his position until after daylight. This sustained defence brought him the Victoria Cross.

He was promoted captain and received the French Legion of Honour for his Crimean service. He resigned his commission in 1857 before the formal announcement of his Victoria Cross and moved into diplomacy. His military decoration was presented at Canterbury in 1863, as his new career was developing.

Jones served as British consul in Fiji and Tonga, then as consul-general at Tabriz in Persia. Later appointments took him to Christiania in Norway and Philippopolis in the Balkans. In 1889 he became minister resident at Bangkok, and in 1895 he moved to South America as minister resident and consul-general at Lima and Quito. His work therefore extended from the Pacific to Europe, Asia and the Americas.

Retiring in 1898, he settled in Eastbourne, Sussex. He died there on 18 December 1916 and was buried with military honours at Ocklynge Cemetery. His descendants later donated his medals to the Army Museum of New South Wales, preserving the group of a soldier who had become a long-serving diplomat.

Official Victoria Cross citation

For having distinguished himself, while serving with the party which stormed and took the Quarries, before Sebastopol, by repeatedly leading on his men to repel the continual assaults of the enemy during the night. Although wounded early in the evening, Captain Jones remained unflinchingly at his post until after daylight the following morning.

The London Gazette of 25 September 1857, Numb. 22043, p. 3194