VC heroes whose lives ended in tragedy or disgrace
They are among the bravest of the brave but for some who received Britain’s highest honour, winning the medal was easier than wearing it, reveals a new book
including alleged peoplesmuggling and turning a blind eye to bootlegging.
Although he was never convicted he returned home, his health failing from malaria that he had caught in the trenches. He died in 1961 aged 70. JOHN BYRNE, Durham Light Infantry AS THE very first soldier of his regiment to be awarded the VC, Private Byrne was once described as a “fine soldier who in peacetime spent most of his time in the cells”.
He was only 22 when he showed his bravery during the Crimean War and was twice recommended for the VC. The first was in 1854 for defying an order to retire from the battlefield to rescue a wounded colleague, and the second a year later for killing a Russian soldier in hand-to-hand combat on the parapet of a British trench near Sebastopol. It was this act which was acknowledged in the citation to his VC, published in the London Gazette of February 24, 1857.
Byrne, who was promoted to sergeant before leaving the army in 1872, struggled to cope with civilian life. A period in a lunatic asylum followed before he managed to get work as a labourer in Newport. After a workmate made some disparaging comments about him, Byrne got a gun and on July 10, 1879, shot the terrified 18-year-old in the arm. He then fled back to his lodgings. But hours later, surrounded by the police and a large crowd, he turned the gun on himself. He was 46. JOHN GRANT, New Zealand Expeditionary Force LIKE many soldiers Grant, who rose to the rank of lieutenant in the First World War, found coping with life after the army difficult SHAME: A drunken John Grant slapped Lady Mountbatten on the bottom