Victoria Cross interest: Notebook belonging to Lieutenant Francis David Millett Brown, V.C., 1st Bengal Fusiliers, 97 x 75mm., half calf green marble boards, first page inscribed in pencil, ‘Note Book of Frank Brown, Lt, 1st Eupn Fusiliers’, notebook contains various monetary accounts, rough sketches and brief notes on his location and activities on a day-by-day basis, spine and boards damaged, faded and in a fragile state £200-300

V.C. London Gazette 17 February 1860.

‘On 16 November 1857 at Narnoul, India, Lieutenant Brown, at the risk of his own life, rushed to the assistance of a wounded soldier, whom he carried off under heavy fire from the enemy, whose cavalry were within 40 or 50 yards of him at the time’ (ref. The Register of the Victoria Cross).

In the notebook, the notes on his location and activities embrace the period, May 1857-September 1858, covering the capture of Delhi and Lucknow. His entry for the above date reads merely, ‘Narnaul 8 guns’.

Francis David Millett Brown was born in Bhagalpur, Bengal, India, on 7 August 1837. He was gazetted an Ensign in the Bengal Army on 8 December 1855 and was promoted to 2nd Lieutenant in the 1st Bengal European Fusiliers in March 1856 and to Lieutenant in June 1857. He served in the suppression of the Indian Mutiny and received the medal with clasps for Delhi and Lucknow. For his great gallantry at Narnoul, he was awarded the Victoria Cross. Brown later served with the Bengal Staff Corps and in 1881 attained the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. He was placed on the Unemployed Supernumerary List in 1894 and died in Sandown on the Isle of Wight on 21 November 1895.