Raymond de Montmorency

He rode back under fire to rescue the fallen fellow officer.

Raymond Harvey Lodge Joseph de Montmorency was born in Montreal on 5 February 1867 into a military family. Educated at Marlborough and Sandhurst, he was commissioned into the Lincolnshire Regiment in 1887 and transferred to the 21st Hussars, later the 21st Lancers.

After the regiment’s charge at Omdurman on 2 September 1898, he returned to assist Second Lieutenant Grenfell. Discovering that Grenfell was dead, he tried to recover the body, facing the enemy at close range with his revolver. With comrades’ help he regained the regiment. The action earned the Victoria Cross.

Promoted captain in August 1899, he went to South Africa and raised Montmorency’s Scouts. He continued reconnaissance work during the Boer War until killed near Stormberg on 23 February 1900. He was buried at Molteno. He did not live to inherit his father’s viscountcy.

Official Victoria Cross citation

At the battle of Khartum on the 2nd September, 1898, Lieutenant de Montmorency, after the charge of the 21st Lancers, returned to assist Second Lieutenant R. G. Grenfell, who was lying surrounded by a large body of Dervishes. Lieutenant de Montmorency drove the Dervishes off, and, finding Lieutenant Grenfell dead, put the body on his horse which then broke away. Captain Kenna and Corporal Swarbrick then came to his assistance, and enabled him to rejoin the Regiment, which had begun to open a heavy fire on the enemy.

The London Gazette of 15 November 1898, Numb. 27023, p. 6688