Lewis Halliday

He fought through a siege despite a terrible shoulder wound.

Lewis Stratford Tollemache Halliday was born at Medstead, Hampshire, on 14 May 1870. Educated at Elizabeth College, Guernsey, he entered the Royal Marine Light Infantry in 1889 and became a captain in 1898. In May 1900 he landed in China from HMS Orlando to help guard the foreign legations in Peking.

On 24 June, Boxer and Imperial troops attacked the British Legation. Halliday led a small party through a breach to clear adjoining buildings. Badly wounded in the shoulder, he continued fighting, then ordered his men to carry on and returned to the legation alone rather than weaken their party. He received the Victoria Cross in 1901.

His later career included staff training, appointments at Sandhurst and the Naval War College, wartime staff service and the British delegation to the Versailles peace conference. He became Adjutant-General Royal Marines and a full general. Knighted in 1930, he retired that year and later served as Gentleman Usher to the Sword of State. He died at Dorking on 9 March 1966; his ashes were buried at Medstead.

Official Victoria Cross citation

On the 24th June, 1900, the enemy, consisting of Boxers and Imperial troops, made a fierce attack on the west wall of the British Legation, setting fire to the West Gate of the south stable quarters, and taking cover in the buildings which adjoined the wall. The fire, which spread to part of the stables, and through which and the smoke a galling fire was kept up by the Imperial troops, was with difficulty extinguished, and as the presence of the enemy in the adjoining buildings was a grave danger to the Legation, a sortie was organized to drive them out. A hole was made in the Legation Wall, and Captain Halliday, in command of twenty Marines, led the way into the buildings and almost immediately engaged a party of the enemy. Before he could use his revolver, however, he was shot through the left shoulder, at point blank range, the bullet fracturing the shoulder and carrying away part of the lung. Notwithstanding the extremely severe nature of his wound, Captain Halliday killed three of his assailants, and telling his men to “carry on and not mind him,” walked back unaided to the hospital, refusing escort and aid so as not to diminish the number of men engaged in the sortie.

The London Gazette of 1 January 1901, Numb. 27262, p. 3