William Connolly (VC)

Three times wounded, he stayed beside his gun until he fell.

William Connolly was born in Liverpool around 1817 and worked as a stableman before entering the East India Company's army. He enlisted in May 1837 and reached India that December. As a gunner in the Bengal Horse Artillery he accumulated considerable campaign experience before the event that earned his Victoria Cross.

His earlier service included the Gwalior campaign of 1843, the Sutlej fighting of 1845-46 and the Punjab campaign of 1848-49. The associated medals record Punniar, Moodkee, Ferozeshuhur, Sobraon, Chilianwala and Goojerat. By 1857 he was an experienced artilleryman rather than a new recruit confronting battle for the first time.

At Jhelum on 7 July 1857, Connolly worked as second spongeman, helping keep the gun ready for safe reloading after each discharge. The Victoria Cross citation published in the London Gazette on 3 September 1858 describes how a musket ball struck his thigh. Despite pain and blood loss, he stayed with the gun team as it changed position. A second wound also failed to persuade him to leave.

Later, with the guns much closer to the enemy, he was wounded a third time in the other leg. He continued helping load until loss of blood overcame him and he collapsed unconscious. The award therefore recognized sustained refusal to abandon an essential task through successive wounds, not a single moment of assault (citation transcription and supporting pension documents: https://merseysidebiographypages.weebly.com/william-connolly-vc.html).

Connolly recovered but could not resume a full military career. He received his Victoria Cross in India in February 1859 and was medically discharged that year after more than twenty-one years' service. Returning to Liverpool, he lived as an Army pensioner, lodging with local families. An 1883 testimonial associated with him described persistent illness following his long Indian service.

He sold his Victoria Cross in 1886, but later records challenge the often-repeated claim that he died penniless. Pension, savings and probate evidence indicate that he made provision for his funeral and left an estate to his doctor. Connolly died on 31 December 1891 and was buried at Kirkdale Cemetery. His later life deserves that documentary qualification rather than a romantic account of unavoidable destitution.

Official Victoria Cross citation

This Soldier is recommended for the Victoria Cross for his gallantry in Action with the Enemy, at Jhelum, on the 7th of July 1857. Lieutenant Cookes, Bengal Horse Artillery, reports, that “about daybreak on that day, I advanced my half Troop at a gallop, and engaged the Enemy within easy musket range. The Sponge-man of one of my Guns having been shot during the advance, Gunner Connolly assumed the duties of 2nd Sponge-man, and he had barely assisted in two discharges of his Gun, when a musket-ball, through the left thigh, felled him to the ground; nothing daunted by pain and loss of blood, he was endeavouring to resume his post, when I ordered a movement in retirement, and though severely wounded, he was mounted on his horse in the Gun-team, and rode to the next position which the Guns took up, and manfully declined going to the rear when the necessity of his so doing was represented to him. About 11 o’clock, A.M., when the Guns were still in Action, the same Gunner, whilst sponging, was again knocked down by a musket-ball striking him on the hip, thereby causing great faintness and partial unconsciousness, for the pain appeared excessive, and the blood flowed fast. On seeing this, I gave directions for his removal out of Action; but this brave man hearing me, staggered to his feet, and said, ‘No, Sir, I’ll not go there, whilst I can work here’, and shortly afterwards he again resumed his post as Sponge-man. Late in the afternoon of the same day, my three Guns were engaged at one hundred yards from the Walls of a Village with the defenders, viz., the 14th Native Infantry – Mutineers – amidst a storm of bullets which did great execution. Gunner Connolly, though suffering severely from his two previous wounds, was wielding his sponge with an energy and courage which attracted the admiration of his comrades, and while cheerfully encouraging a wounded man to hasten in bringing up the ammunition, a musket-ball tore through the muscles of his right leg; but with the most undaunted bravery he struggled on; and not till he had loaded six times, did this man give way, when, through loss of blood, he fell in my arms, and I placed him on a waggon, which shortly afterwards bore him in a state of unconsciousness from the fight.”

The London Gazette of 3 September 1858, Numb. 22179, pp. 4014-15