Peter Brown (VC)

He gave water to two wounded men while taking severe wounds.

Peter Brown was born in Sweden in 1837 and later made his home in southern Africa. He served as a trooper in the Cape Mounted Riflemen, one of the colonial formations employed in the region's frontier wars.

On 8 April 1879, his unit was assaulting Morosi's Mountain in Basutoland. The attack met heavy fire, and the troopers took cover while awaiting the order to advance again. Brown heard two wounded men calling for water from exposed ground ahead.

He left shelter with his water bottle and made his way to the men, who had crawled behind a rock. While giving water to the first casualty, he was shot through the thigh. A second bullet shattered his right arm. He nevertheless continued trying to help until another shot pierced the bottle and made it useless.

His Victoria Cross was announced in April 1880. The wounds left him permanently disabled, and he was invalided out of the Cape Mounted Riflemen. His South Africa campaign medal accompanied the cross in the group later preserved by the Amathole Museum.

Brown remained in South Africa after military service. He died in Cape Town in September 1894 and was buried in Woltemade, or Maitland, Cemetery. His grave was unmarked and was subsequently reused. His surviving medals and the contemporary account of the rescue preserve the story of the wounded trooper who continued giving water while himself under fire.