James Gorman (VC)

On 5 November 1854, during the Battle of Inkerman in the Crimean Peninsula, Russian infantry launched an attack through heavy fog against British defensive positions guarding the siege lines around Sebastopol. Positioned at the Right Lancaster Battery, Seaman James Gorman served ashore as part of the Royal Naval Brigade detachment drawn from the 90-gun line-of-battle ship HMS Albion. Russian troops breached the battery perimeter three times, forcing British infantry back under overwhelming numbers. When the detachment received orders to retire and abandon the position, Gorman and four fellow seamen refused to leave the wounded soldiers lying inside the battery.

Gorman and two surviving seamen, Thomas Reeves and Mark Scholefield, mounted the raised banquette along the defense works. Exposing themselves to heavy direct fire, the three men maintained rapid defensive fire against the advancing enemy columns. Wounded soldiers sheltered beneath the parapet loaded muskets continuously and passed them up to the seamen on the banquette. The defense held the battery until reinforcements arrived to re-establish the line. Earlier in the campaign, Gorman had executed another critical action when he defended Captain Stephen Lushington, commander of the Naval Brigade, after Lushington was unhorsed and surrounded by enemy soldiers.

The Royal Navy established the Victoria Cross in 1856 to recognize acts of gallantry during the Crimean War, and Gorman was named among the initial group of recipients in the official publication of 24 February 1857. The citation published in the London Gazette recorded:

"Thomas Reeves, Seaman, James Gorman, Seaman and Mark Scholefield, Seaman. At the Battle of Inkermann, 5 November 1854, when the Right Lancaster Battery was attacked, these three seaman mounted the Banquette, and under a heavy fire made use of the disabled soldiers' muskets, which were loaded for them by others under the parapet. They are the survivors of five who performed the above action."

Born in Islington, London, on 21 August 1834, Gorman entered naval service on 4 March 1848 aboard Admiral Nelson's former flagship, HMS Victory, as a Boy Second Class. He was among the first cohort of two hundred boys accepted into the Royal Navy under a new formal apprenticeship scheme. He gained seamanship experience aboard HMS Dragon, HMS Howe, and HMS Queen before his assignment to HMS Albion in July 1850 as a Boy First Class. He advanced to Ordinary Seaman in May 1852 and Able Seaman in July 1852.

Following his service in the Crimea, Gorman transferred to the steam gunvessel HMS Coquette and subsequently to the brig HMS Elk. Promoted to Captain of the After Guard on 21 February 1858, he deployed to the East Indies and China Station during the Second Anglo-Chinese War. Aboard HMS Elk, he participated in operations along the Canton River, including the naval engagement at Fatshan Creek in May 1857, and served ashore with the Naval Brigade during the capture of Canton between December 1857 and January 1858. His Victoria Cross was delivered and formally presented to him while serving aboard HMS Elk off the China Station.

Between 1858 and 1860, HMS Elk served on the Australia Station, making port visits to Sydney and Melbourne. Gorman was discharged at Sheerness on 21 August 1860 upon completing thirteen years of continuous naval service. In January 1863, he boarded the merchant ship Fairlie at Plymouth, emigrating to New South Wales. Arriving in Sydney on 29 April 1863, he became the first Victoria Cross recipient to reside in the colony.

Gorman worked initially as a sailmaker in Sydney before joining the staff of the New South Wales Government in 1867 as a foundation officer aboard the nautical school ship NSS Vernon. Moored in Sydney Harbour and later off Cockatoo Island, the vessel served as an industrial school and training ship for destitute and neglected boys. Over fourteen years aboard the Vernon, he served as Drill Master, Gunnery Instructor, Master at Arms, and Third Officer, instructing boys in cutlass drill, seamanship, and trade skills. In June 1881, he transferred to the New South Wales Ordnance Department as foreman of the gunpowder magazines on Spectacle Island in the Parramatta River. Gorman died following a stroke on Spectacle Island on 18 October 1882 at forty-eight years of age. He was buried with naval and Masonic honours in Balmain Cemetery.