William Reynolds

He rallied shaken men around the colours under Russian fire.

William Reynolds was born in the Stockbridge district of Edinburgh in 1827. He trained as a stonemason before deciding to become a soldier. In April 1846 he enlisted in the Scots Fusilier Guards, the regiment later known as the Scots Guards. His military career would last more than twenty years.

The regiment went to the Crimea in 1854. Private Reynolds served with No. 4 Company and was among the men supporting the colour party during the Battle of the Alma on 20 September. The advance took the Guards towards Russian positions on the heights above the river, where artillery and musketry disrupted their formation.

His Victoria Cross citation concentrates on the response to that disorder. It credits him with conspicuous conduct “in rallying men around the Colours” (The London Gazette, 24 February 1857, issue 21971; citation reproduced by cemetery historian John Clarke, https://www.john-clarke.co.uk/reynolds_vc.html). The action involved encouraging men to regroup and continue while under heavy fire. The colours provided a visible point around which the broken formation could be restored.

Reynolds continued through the Crimean campaign, including Balaklava, Inkermann and the siege of Sebastopol. His surviving Crimea Medal bears the Alma, Balaklava, Inkermann and Sebastopol clasps, and he also received the Turkish Crimea Medal. These campaign awards record service beyond the one action recognized by the Victoria Cross.

Queen Victoria presented the cross at the first great investiture in Hyde Park on 26 June 1857. Reynolds remained in the Guards for another decade. He was discharged to a pension at his own request in October 1867, aged about forty.

He settled in London and obtained work as a bank messenger. His civilian life was short: he died on 20 October 1869 in the Strand Union workhouse dispensary and was buried at Brookwood Cemetery. The grave initially lacked a substantial permanent memorial.

The Scots Guards Association and researchers later identified the burial, and a memorial was dedicated in April 2007. His medals remained with the regimental collection at Wellington Barracks. The surviving service and cemetery records connect a former Edinburgh tradesman, a long-serving guardsman and a London messenger whose later circumstances were far removed from the public ceremony at which he received his decoration.