Samuel Evans

He volunteered for dangerous trench work under hostile fire.

Samuel Evans was born at Paisley about 1821 and apprenticed as a shawl weaver. He enlisted in the 26th Regiment in 1839, served in India and China and later transferred to the 19th Regiment. He fought in the Crimea at the Alma and Inkerman.

On 13 April 1855 before Sevastopol, Evans repeatedly volunteered with another man to lead a small party repairing an embrasure in an exposed part of the lines. He carried out the work under heavy, continuous enemy fire. His conduct earned the Victoria Cross. Later that year he was seriously wounded while assaulting the Redan and was treated at Scutari before returning to Britain. Queen Victoria presented his VC at Hyde Park in 1857.

Discharged through disability in 1856, he married Margaret McNicholl, the widow of a comrade killed at the Alma. He worked as a timekeeper and lodge keeper at Holyrood Palace, later keeping a general dealer’s business in Dumfries. He returned to Edinburgh in old age and died on 4 October 1901. He was buried at Piershill Cemetery.

Official Victoria Cross citation

For volunteering to go into an embrasure, thereby rendering very great assistance in repairing damage, under a very heavy fire from the enemy, 13th April, 1855.

The London Gazette of 23 June 1857, Numb. 22014, p. 2165