Peter Gill (VC)

He rescued a trapped family amid the armed fight at Benares.

Peter Gill was born in Dublin and worked as a tailor before joining the East India Company's Bengal Artillery in February 1842. He sailed to India and served during the First and Second Sikh Wars. Promoted through the enlisted ranks, he transferred to infantry and became a sergeant major in the Ludhiana Regiment before the uprising of 1857.

On the evening of 4 June 1857 at Benares, an attempt to disarm a native infantry regiment developed into confused fighting. Captain Brown, a pension paymaster, and his family were trapped in a detached bungalow. Gill volunteered with Sergeant Major Rosamond to reach them and bring them to the barracks.

During the same fighting Gill intervened when a sepoy bayoneted the quartermaster-sergeant of another regiment. He killed the attacker and saved the wounded man's life. His Victoria Cross citation also recorded his confrontations with other armed men and reports that he twice saved Major Barrett from attack.

Gill remained in India and received a commission as an ensign in April 1858. His Victoria Cross was announced that August and presented in India in 1859. He subsequently became a lieutenant and performed barrack-master duties, continuing a career that had begun as an artillery gunner.

His later appointments took him to Morar near Gwalior. He died there on 24 October 1868 and was buried in the Artillery Lines Cemetery. His campaign medals reflected service extending from the Sikh Wars through the uprising. The Victoria Cross remained in private ownership for many years and was offered at auction in 2012.

Official Victoria Cross citation

This Non-Commissioned Officer also conducted himself with gallantry at Benares, on the night of the 4th of June, 1857. He volunteered, with Serjeant-Major Rosamond, of the 37th Regiment of Bengal Native Infantry, to bring in Captain Brown, Pension Paymaster, and his family, from a detached Bungalow to the Barracks, as above recorded, and saved the life of the Quartermaster- Sergeant of the 25th Regiment of Bengal Native Infantry, in the early part of the evening, by cutting off the head of the Sepoy who had just bayonetted him. Serjeant-Major Gill states, that on the same night he faced a Guard of 27 men, with only a Serjeant’s sword; and it is also represented that he twice saved the life of Major Barrett, 27th Regiment of Bengal Native Infantry, when attacked by Sepoys of his own Regiment.

The London Gazette of 24 August 1858, Numb. 22176, p. 3903