Sir Nowell Salmon

From the Guns of Lucknow to the Summit of the Royal Navy

How does a 22-year-old Royal Navy lieutenant under concentrated enemy fire become one of Britain's earliest Victoria Cross heroes, then rise more than forty years later to the highest rank in the Royal Navy? The answer is found in the remarkable career of Admiral of the Fleet Sir Nowell Salmon VC GCB, a sailor whose life stretched from the age of sail and Victorian imperial warfare to the highest levels of naval command.

Born in 1835 at Swarraton, Hampshire, Nowell Salmon entered the Royal Navy in 1847, beginning a career that would last for more than half a century. As a young officer he served aboard HMS Thetis on the South American Station before joining HMS James Watt during the Baltic campaign of the Crimean War. His service there earned him the Baltic Medal, the first campaign decoration in what would eventually become an exceptional group of British honours.

His defining moment came not at sea, but amid the savage fighting of the Indian Mutiny of 1857. By then a lieutenant, Salmon was serving with the Naval Brigade of HMS Shannon under the celebrated Captain William Peel. Naval guns and sailors had been brought ashore to support British operations at Lucknow, where heavily fortified positions had to be taken under intense enemy resistance. On 16 November 1857, during the attack on the Shah Nujjiff, or Shah Najaf, Mosque, Salmon faced the action that would make his name part of Victoria Cross history.

The position was proving exceptionally difficult. Enemy fighters were firing and throwing grenades from the fortified complex, causing serious casualties among the Naval Brigade. Captain Peel called for volunteers for an extraordinarily dangerous task: someone had to climb a tree beside the Shah Nujjiff and expose himself to enemy fire in order to answer and help suppress the defenders' position.

Salmon volunteered.

Along with Leading Seaman John Harrison, he climbed into the exposed tree while enemy fire was directed toward them. Salmon was struck and wounded in the thigh, but the mission succeeded. Royal Museums Greenwich confirms that Salmon and Harrison received the Victoria Cross for the action. The National Archives' official Victoria Cross register records Lieutenant Nowell Salmon, Royal Navy, Lucknow, 16 November 1857.

The official Victoria Cross citation captured the danger in characteristically restrained Victorian language, recognizing Salmon “for conspicuous gallantry at Lucknow” in climbing the tree beside the Shah Nujjiff after volunteers had been called for the hazardous duty. His award was announced in the London Gazette on 24 December 1858, and Queen Victoria personally presented Salmon with the Victoria Cross at Buckingham Palace on 8 June 1859.

Salmon's Indian service brought further recognition. His Indian Mutiny Medal carried the clasps Relief of Lucknow and Lucknow, documenting his participation in two major phases of the campaign. His surviving medal group later also included the Baltic Medal, his Victoria Cross, and the senior distinctions accumulated during the remarkable career that followed.

For many Victoria Cross recipients, that single moment of gallantry becomes the dominant chapter of their lives. For Nowell Salmon, it was only the beginning.

Promoted commander in 1858, Salmon later commanded HMS Icarus and continued through a succession of increasingly important appointments. His career eventually carried him from ship command to flag rank. He became Commander-in-Chief of the Cape of Good Hope and West Coast of Africa Station, later commanded the China Station, and rose to admiral in 1891. Between 1894 and 1897, he served as Commander-in-Chief at Portsmouth, one of the most important appointments in the Victorian Royal Navy.

His service at Portsmouth placed him at the centre of one of the greatest naval spectacles of Queen Victoria's reign. Salmon's responsibilities included the 1897 Diamond Jubilee Naval Review at Spithead, when the strength of the Royal Navy was assembled before the world in celebration of Victoria's sixty years on the throne. That same year he became First and Principal Naval Aide-de-Camp to Queen Victoria.

Royal recognition followed his rise in command. Salmon had been appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in 1887, and in 1897 he was advanced to Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath, GCB, the highest grade of the Order. His surviving honours also included the Queen Victoria Diamond Jubilee Medal of 1897, King Edward VII Coronation Medal of 1902, and King George V Coronation Medal of 1911. These later distinctions charted a career that had begun under the young Queen Victoria and continued into the reign of her grandson.

Then came the final professional distinction. On 13 January 1899, Nowell Salmon was promoted Admiral of the Fleet, the highest rank in the Royal Navy. The young lieutenant who had once climbed a tree under enemy fire at Lucknow had reached the summit of Britain's naval profession. He remained an Admiral of the Fleet until his death, having retired from active service in the early years of the twentieth century.

Sir Nowell Salmon died on 14 February 1912. By then his naval career connected several distinct eras of British history. He had served in the Baltic during the Crimean War, fought ashore with the Naval Brigade during the Indian Mutiny, commanded warships across the empire, directed major naval stations, served Queen Victoria personally, and ultimately worn the rank of Admiral of the Fleet.

Yet for all the rank, ceremony and distinction that followed, the most enduring image of Admiral of the Fleet Sir Nowell Salmon VC GCB remains that of the young lieutenant at Lucknow.

Captain Peel called for volunteers. Salmon stepped forward. He climbed into an exposed tree beside the Shah Nujjiff, faced enemy fire, was wounded, and completed the dangerous task. More than forty years later he stood at the very summit of the Royal Navy, but his place in military history had already been secured on 16 November 1857.