Thomas Cadell

He turned back twice under fire to bring wounded soldiers in

Thomas Cadell was born at Cockenzie, East Lothian, on 5 September 1835. Educated at Edinburgh Academy and elsewhere, he was commissioned into the 2nd Bengal European Fusiliers in 1854 and served in India.

At Delhi on 12 June 1857, an enemy attack drove in the Flagstaff picket. Cadell brought a wounded bugler from among the attackers under heavy fire. Later that day, during the withdrawal towards Metcalfe House, he returned with three men for another severely wounded soldier and carried him to safety. These rescues earned the Victoria Cross.

He later served in the Oudh campaign and held military and political appointments, including work with the Malwa Bheel Corps and as political agent at Alwar. From 1879 to 1892 he was chief commissioner of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. He retired as a colonel, received CB in 1907 and died at Edinburgh on 6 April 1919. He was buried in the family vault at Tranent.

Official Victoria Cross citation

For having, on the 12th of June, 1857, at the Flag-staff Picquet at Delhi, when the whole of the Picquet of Her Majesty’s 75th Regiment and 2nd European Bengal Fusiliers were driven in by a large body of the enemy, brought in from amongst the enemy a wounded Bugler of his own regiment, under a most severe fire, who would otherwise have been cut up by the rebels. Also, on the same day, when the Fusiliers were retiring, by order, on Metcalfe’s house, on its being reported that there was a wounded man left behind, Lieutenant Cadell went back of his own accord towards the enemy, accompanied by three men, and brought in a man of the 75th Regiment, who was severely wounded, under a most heavy fire from the advancing enemy.

The London Gazette of 29 April 1862, Numb. 22621, p. 2229