Jacob Thomas (VC)

He carried a wounded soldier to safety through hostile fire.

Jacob Thomas was born about February 1833 at Coed-Y-Bwddy Farm in Llanwinio, Carmarthenshire. His father worked as a farmer and carpenter. Thomas became a fitter before enlisting in the East India Company's artillery at Cardiff on 6 July 1853. He served in India during the uprising of 1857.

On 27 September 1857, while serving with the Bengal Artillery at Lucknow, he joined an attempt to put enemy guns out of action. The sortie met heavy resistance. When a soldier of the Madras Fusiliers was wounded, Thomas went to his assistance and carried him back towards the British barricades under fire. His conduct earned the Victoria Cross, gazetted in June 1858. The episode formed part of the prolonged fighting around Lucknow, where artillery detachments and infantry repeatedly had to cross ground exposed to enemy positions.

Thomas married Margaret Hamilton, a widow, in Delhi in March 1859. Queen Victoria presented his cross at Windsor on 4 January 1860. He transferred to the Royal Artillery in 1861, became a hospital sergeant the following year and a quartermaster-sergeant in 1863. His military career ended after a riding accident: he was discharged as medically unfit at Darjeeling on 30 October 1866.

He remained in India rather than returning permanently to Wales. Drawing on the trade he had learned before enlistment, he is believed to have worked as a fitter in the Hooghly district near Calcutta. He died there on 24 April 1896 and was buried at Bandel. His grave remained unmarked, although his name survived in the records of the Royal Artillery and among the Welsh recipients of the Victoria Cross.

Official Victoria Cross citation

For distinguished gallantry at Lucknow on 27th September, 1857, in having brought off on his back, under a heavy fire, under circumstances of considerable difficulty, a wounded soldier of the Madras Fusiliers, when the party to which he was attached was returning to the Residency from a sortie, whereby he saved him from falling into the hands of the enemy.

The London Gazette of 24 December 1858, Numb. 22212, p. 5519