Peter Leitch (VC)

He built a crossing under fire while wounded in the assault.

Peter Leitch was born at Orwell, Kinross, in 1820. A carpenter, he joined the Royal Sappers and Miners in Glasgow in 1843. He served at Gibraltar and in the Baltic, where he constructed protective works and gun platforms during the operations at Bomarsund.

During the assault on the Redan at Sevastopol on 18 June 1855, Sergeant Leitch advanced with the leading ladders. Despite wounds and heavy fire, he helped form a passage across the ditch and a ramp into the enemy works. His determined engineering work earned the Victoria Cross.

He subsequently served in South Africa and received his decoration there in 1858. Returning to Britain in 1867, he became sergeant major in 1869 and left the Army in 1872. He died at Hammersmith on 6 December 1892 and was buried in Margravine Cemetery.