William Henry Dick-Cunyngham

Under fire on the hilltop he rallied the wavering attackers.

William Henry Dick-Cunyngham was born at Prestonfield, Edinburgh, on 16 June 1851, the son of Sir William Hanmer Dick-Cunyngham. After education at Glenalmond and Sandhurst, he joined the 92nd Highlanders in 1872. India became the setting for most of his early service. When the Second Afghan War began, he worked with the Quetta Field Force's transport organisation before returning to his regiment.

By December 1879 British forces around Kabul faced a spreading Afghan uprising. On 13 December the Highlanders attacked a spur of the Takht-i-Shah heights. The climb brought them under heavy fire. At the crest the assault faltered: men who had already been driven back hesitated under the defenders' fire, and the success of the attack hung on restoring their momentum.

Dick-Cunyngham deliberately exposed himself, encouraging the men and leading by example until they advanced again. His Victoria Cross citation praised the combination of courage and composure that rallied the attackers. It explicitly describes his exposure “to the full fire of the enemy” and credits his example with restoring men wavering at the top of the hill (London Gazette, 18 October 1881, issue 25027, page 5140). The official wording calls the position the Sherpur Pass; the fuller campaign account places the attack on the heights south of Kabul.

He remained in the Afghan campaign, joining Roberts's march from Kabul to Kandahar and fighting at Kandahar in September 1880. Queen Victoria presented his Cross at Windsor on 1 December 1881. He also served during the First Boer War. Appointments in Britain and India followed, eventually taking him to command of the 2nd Gordon Highlanders as lieutenant-colonel.

In 1883 he married Helen Wauchope. Their only son died in 1897 while trying to save another boy from drowning. Two years later Dick-Cunyngham took his battalion into the South African War. Wounded at Elandslaagte, he recovered while the British garrison was besieged in Ladysmith.

On 6 January 1900, as a major Boer assault struck the defences, a chance bullet mortally wounded him. He died the following day and was buried in Ladysmith. His medals are preserved at the Gordon Highlanders Museum in Aberdeen, linking the young officer who steadied an Afghan hilltop assault with the battalion commander lost twenty years later.