Peter Grant (VC)

He fought with a captured sword to protect his own officers.

Peter Grant was born in Ireland about 1825. He served in the 93rd Highlanders during the Crimean War and then went to India during the rebellion of 1857. Little is securely known about his early civilian life.

At the Secunderabagh, Lucknow, on 16 November 1857, Grant fought at close quarters with a sword taken from the enemy. His citation records that he killed five men who were attempting to follow the officers into a fortified building. He was selected for the Victoria Cross and received it at Ambala in December 1859.

Grant returned with his regiment to Aberdeen in 1867. Granted Christmas leave, he was last seen leaving a Dundee public house on 27 December. His body was recovered from the River Tay on 10 January 1868. He was buried in Dundee’s Eastern Necropolis.

Official Victoria Cross citation

For great personal gallantry, on the 16th of November, 1857, at the Secundra Bagh, in killing five of the enemy with one of their own swords, who were attempting to follow Lieutenant-Colonel Ewart, when that officer was carrying away a colour which he had captured. Elected by the private soldiers of the Regiment.

The London Gazette of 24 December 1858, Numb. 22212, p. 5515