Gerald Graham VC GCB (1831 - 1899)

Born 27 Jun 1831 in Acton, Middlesex, England

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 17 Dec 1899 at age 68 in Bideford, Devon, England

Gerald Graham VC GCB was awarded the Victoria Cross.

Biography

Lieutenant General Sir Gerald Graham VC GCB GCMG was a senior British Army commander in the late 19th century and an English recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.Six feet four inches high, and of massive build, Graham looked every inch a soldier. Of a retiring and reserved disposition, Lord Wolseley once spoke of him as ' a man with the heart of a lion and the modesty of a young girl.' Both morally and physically he did not seem to know what fear was. His portrait was painted for the corps of royal engineers by Sir E. J. Poynter; president of the Royal Academy, was exhibited at the Royal Academy exhibition of 1886, and now hangs in the royal engineers' mess at Chatham.

Family

Gerald Graham was born on 27th June 1831 at Acton, Middlesex, England; the only son of Robert Hay Graham, MD, of Eden Brows, Cumberland, and his wife, Frances (1797–1898), daughter of Richard Oakley (1763–1833) of Oswaldkirk, Yorkshire, and Pen Park, Bristol.

Graham married Jane Dinah Durrant, in London at St . Peter's, Eaton Square, on 29 April 1862, By her he had six children. She was the daughter of George Durrant , who died in January 1877, aged 83 years , of South Elmham Hall in Suffolk , and of his wife Esther Payne , who died in 1873 , aged 76 years , daughter of John Norman of Suffold , Suffolk . Jane was the widow of the Rev . Valentine Samuel Barry Blacker (d. 1858),. rector of East and West Rudham, Norfolk.

Graham ' s sister, Joanna (Graham) Durrant , married the Rev .Reginald Durrant , a son of George Durrant , so that the families were doubly allied . Mrs Graham had already two children ( twins ) by Mr Blacker , a daughter , Emma , and a son Edwin , a confirmed invalid from childhood , who died in 1875 at the age of twenty - two years.

Sir Gerald had six children : ( 1 ) Gerald Graham , born in 1863 , for a short time in the Norfolk Regiment , afterwards in Canada , and lately serving in South Africa with the Canadian Contingent ; ( 2 ) Jane Gertrude , born in 1864 ; ( 3 ) Francis Gordon Graham , born in 1866 , godson of Major - General Charles George Gordon ,consulting mining engineer , married Nina , daughter of John Turnley , Esq . of Drumnasole ; ( 4 ) Maxwell Henry , born in 1870 , settled on a farm in Ontario , Canada , married Elizabeth Wilson ; ( 5 ) Walter Burns , born in 1872 , in holy orders , curate of Birkenshaw , Bradford , Yorkshire ; and ( 6 ) Olive Mary , born in 1875 .

Military

After studying at Wimbledon and Dresden he was admitted in 1847 to the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich and completed his military training in the School of Military Engineering, Chatham. A Lieutenant in the Corps of Royal Engineers during the Crimean War, he was awarded the Victoria Cross (VC) for determined gallantry at the head of a ladder party at the assault on the Redan at Sebastopol and for bring in wounded officers and men on numerous occasions. He was awarded the Crimean Medal.^[1]

During the Second Anglo-Chinese War he again displayed great courage and skill and, although seriously wounded in the storming of the Taku forts on 21st August 1860, subsequently entered Peking with the victors.^[1]

From 1861 Graham admirably commanded engineers successively at Brighton, Aldershot, Montreal, Chatham, Manchester, and York. In 1877 he was appointed assistant director of works for barracks at the War Office.^[1]

For his services in one campaign he for a third time received the thanks of both houses of parliament, was decorated with the grand cross of St. Michael and St. George, and had another clasp added to his Egyptian medal. His despatches are to be found in Parliamentary Papers, Egypt (13) 1884, and in the 'London Gazette of 28 June and 25 Aug. 1885.

In 1888 he declined an offer of the government of the Bermudas. On 14 June 1890, in accordance with the regulations, he was placed on the retired list. He was decorated with the grand cross of the Bath on 20 May 1896, and appointed a colonel-commandant of the royal engineers in 1899. He died, after a few days' illness, on 17 Dec. 1899, at his residence, Springfield. Bideford, Devonshire, and was buried in the Darish churchyard there on 22 Dec. His funeral was attended by the mayor and corporation of Bideford and by representatives of the navy, army, and volunteers, besides his own corps and relations and friends.

Graham contributed several papers on professional subjects to the 'Professional Papers of the Corps of Royal Engineers' (see new series, vols. vi. vii. xi. xiv. and xix., and occasional series, vol. iv.) His translation from the German of the official account, by Captain Adolphe Goetze of the Prussian engineers, of the 'Operations of the German Engineers and Technical Troops during the Franco-German War of 1870-1,' with six maps, was published in 1875. He was also the author of ' Last Words with Gordon,' which originally appeared in the 'Fortnightly Review' of January 1887, and was published separately the same year with additions and appendices. His 'Life, Letters, and Diaries were edited by the present writer (London, 1901, 8vo).

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Graham Wikipedia profile: Gerald Graham; accessed 22 Oct 2019

• Vetch, Robert Hamilton. Life, Letters and Diaries of Lieut.-General Sir Gerald Graham ...: With Portraits, Plans, and His Principal Despatches.. Edinburgh: William Blackwood and Sons. 1901.https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=7j0JAAAAIAAJ&hl=en&pg=GBS.PA382
• https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-11193