Sir Garrett O'Moore Creagh

He held a small cemetery against overwhelming enemy attacks.

Sir Garrett O'Moore Creagh was born on 2 April 1848 at Cahirbane, County Clare, Ireland. Educated at the Royal Naval School and Sandhurst, he was commissioned into the British Army's 95th Regiment of Foot in 1866. He went to India in 1869 and transferred to the Bombay Staff Corps in 1870. The following year he became adjutant of the Merwara Battalion.

Promoted to captain in 1878, Creagh served in the Second Anglo-Afghan War. On 21 April 1879 he led two companies, about 150 men, from Dakka to protect Kam Dakka on the Kabul River. The next morning approximately 1,500 Mohmands attacked. When villagers joined the enemy, he withdrew his detachment to a nearby cemetery and organized its defence. His men repeatedly repulsed assaults until relief arrived at about three in the afternoon. The Victoria Cross citation credited his leadership with preventing the detachment's destruction. His award was gazetted on 18 November 1879.

Creagh subsequently served with the Kurram Field Force and returned to the Merwara Battalion. He commanded the 29th Bombay Infantry from 1890 and later held staff appointments in Bombay and command at Aden. During the Boxer Rebellion he commanded an Indian brigade in China, subsequently commanding British forces there. While visiting Japan in 1902 he received the Order of the Rising Sun, with royal permission to accept it.

Promoted to general in 1907, he served at the India Office before succeeding Lord Kitchener as Commander-in-Chief, India, in 1909. His honours included the Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath, Knight Grand Commander of the Order of the Star of India and Knight of Grace of the Order of St John. He retired in 1914 and advised the Central Association of Volunteer Training Corps during the First World War.

Creagh married twice. His second marriage, to Sarah Elizabeth Reade in 1891, produced a daughter and a son, the future Major General Sir Michael O'Moore Creagh. He died in South Kensington, London, on 9 August 1923 and was buried in East Sheen Cemetery.

Official citation

"On the 21st April Captain Creagh was detached from Dakka with two Companies of his Battalion to protect the village of Kam Dakka on the Cabul River, against a threatened incursion of the Mohmunds, and reached that place the same night. On the following morning the detachment, 150 men, was attacked by the Mohmunds in overwhelming numbers, about 1,500; and the inhabitants of Kam Dakka having themselves taken part with the enemy, Captain Creagh found himself under the necessity of retiring from the village. He took up a position in a cemetery not far off, which he made as defensible as circumstances would admit of, and this position he held against all the efforts of the enemy, repeatedly repulsing them with the bayonet until three o'clock in the afternoon, when he was relieved by a detachment sent for the purpose from Dakka.

The enemy were then finally repulsed, and being charged by a troop of the 10th Bengal Lancers, under the command of Captain D M Strong, were routed and broken, and great numbers of them driven into the river. The Commander-in-Chief in India has expressed his opinion that but for the coolness, determination, and gallantry of the highest order, and the admirable conduct which Captain Creagh displayed on this occasion, the detachment under his command would, in all probability, have been cut off and destroyed."