William Norman

He captured two scouts alone without alerting nearby troops.

William Norman was born at Warrington about 1832. A labourer, he joined the local militia in 1853 and transferred to the 7th Regiment the following year. He went to the Crimea and served outside Sevastopol.

On the night of 19 December 1854, Norman stood alone well ahead of an outlying picket in the White Horse Ravine. Three Russian soldiers approached through the brushwood to reconnoitre. Norman captured two without alarming the enemy picket about three hundred yards away. His vigilance and courage earned the Victoria Cross, presented at the first Hyde Park investiture in 1857.

He later served in India and left the Army on pension in 1865 as a corporal. Back in Warrington, he joined a volunteer battalion. Moving to Manchester in 1885, he worked as a labourer and then a shopkeeper. He died at Salford on 13 March 1896 and was buried at Weaste Cemetery.

Official Victoria Cross citation

On the night of the 19th December, 1854, he was placed on single sentry, some distance in front of the advanced sentries of an outlying picquet in the White Horse Ravine, a post of much danger, and requiring great vigilance; the Russian picquet was posted about 300 yards in his front, three Russian soldiers advanced, under cover of the brushwood, for the purpose of reconnoitring. Private William Norman, single-handed, took two of them prisoners, without alarming the Russian picquet.

Supplement to The London Gazette of 24 February 1857. 24 February 1857, Numb. 21971, p. 658