John McDermond

A Scottish foot soldier who enlisted in Glasgow on 23 October 1846, John McDermond held service number 2040 in the 47th (The Lancashire) Regiment of Foot. His early military years took him through overseas garrisons in the Ionian Islands and Malta before the outbreak of hostilities with Russia pulled his regiment into active deployment. By mid-1854, the 47th Foot landed on the Crimean Peninsula, entering pitched battle at the Alma—where McDermond suffered a wound—followed weeks later by heavy skirmishing during the action at Little Inkerman.

The critical moment of his military career occurred on 5 November 1854 during the Battle of Inkerman. In thick fog and chaotic close-quarters combat on Home Hill, the commanding officer of the 47th Foot, Lieutenant Colonel William O'Grady Haly, mounted a charge against an advancing Russian column. Dismounted after his horse was shot, Haly was bayoneted in the leg and encircled by enemy infantry. McDermond, then a twenty-two-year-old private, drove into the surrounding cluster of soldiers alongside Captain Hugh Rowlands, killed the Russian soldier who had struck the colonel, and defended the fallen commander until he could be evacuated to British lines.

His action was formally recognized in the London Gazette on 24 February 1857:

"For saving the life of Colonel Haly, who was lying wounded on the ground, surrounded by the enemy. Private McDermond rushed to the rescue, and killed the man who had wounded the Colonel."

Major General Sir James Scarlett presented the Victoria Cross to McDermond on the parade ground at Southsea on 12 March 1858, by which time he had been promoted to corporal. In addition to the Cross, his wartime service earned the French Médaille militaire and the Crimea Medal with clasps for Alma, Inkerman, and Sebastopol.

Ankle injuries sustained aboard ship during a troop movement to Canada ended his nearly sixteen-year army career, leading to his discharge as invalided in 1862. Returning to Scotland, he married Margaret Watterson in Glasgow in October 1863 and raised two children while living on a modest military pension. He died of typhus in Glasgow on 19 July 1866—or according to alternative parish records, 22 July 1868—and was buried in an unmarked grave at the Eastern Necropolis. Decades later, his Victoria Cross re-emerged in historical discussion when a mudlark discovered an unmounted 1854-dated Cross in the River Thames foreshore in December 2015, believed to belong to either McDermond or Sergeant John Byrne.