William Peel

He hurled a burning shell away from the powder and his crew.

William Peel was born in London on 2 November 1824, the third son of Sir Robert Peel and Julia Peel. He attended Harrow before entering the Royal Navy as a volunteer in 1838. His early service took him to the Mediterranean, including the operations against Acre in 1840. He developed particular skill in gunnery and advanced rapidly through the officer ranks, becoming a captain while still in his twenties.

Between naval appointments he travelled in the Middle East and northeastern Africa. His account, A Ride through the Nubian Desert, appeared in 1852. He also acquired an estate at Sandy in Bedfordshire, where his interest in improvement included the development of a small railway. These pursuits ran alongside a professional career that soon brought him into the Crimean War.

Commanding HMS Diamond, Peel served ashore with the Naval Brigade. His Victoria Cross citation records three distinct actions. On 18 October 1854 he picked up a live Russian shell that had landed among powder cases and threw it over a parapet before it exploded. At Inkermann on 5 November he helped officers of the Grenadier Guards defend their colours at the Sandbag Battery. On 18 June 1855 he volunteered to lead the ladder party in the assault on the Redan and carried the first ladder until wounded. The citation describes the shell’s fuse as “still burning” and credits his intervention with saving the magazine and nearby men (The London Gazette, 24 February 1857; reproduced at https://www.victoriacross.org.uk/bbpeelw.htm).

These three episodes resulted in one Victoria Cross, rather than three separate awards. His service also brought British campaign medals and decorations from allied governments. The original naval Victoria Cross, with its blue ribbon, survives in the National Maritime Museum.

After recovering from his Crimean wound, Peel commanded HMS Shannon. Diverted from a voyage towards China during the Indian uprising, he landed a Naval Brigade and took part in operations around Lucknow. He was seriously wounded there in March 1858. While recovering and travelling towards the coast, he contracted smallpox at Cawnpore and died on 27 April 1858, aged thirty-three.

His death ended a career combining seamanship, artillery command and repeated service ashore. The surviving medals and contemporary accounts preserve both the celebrated Crimean actions and his subsequent leadership of Shannon’s men in India.