Orders, Decorations and Medals

An important campaign service pair awarded to Garrison Sergeant-Major H. Gallagher, South Wales Borderers, who was the old 24th’s second most senior N.C.O. present at the defence of Rorke’s Drift, where he had charge of the south barricade - according to his grandson, on the anniversary of the action each year, he ‘requested to be left alone with his memories’

South Africa 1877-79, 1 clasp, 1877-8-9 (81 Sergt., 2-24th Foot); India General Service 1854-95, 1 clasp, Burma 1887-89 (1590 Cr. Sergt., 2d Bn. S. Wales Bord.), very fine or better (2) £25,000-30,000

Ex A. A. Upfill-Brown collection, Dix Noonan Webb, 4 December 1991 (Lot 263).

Henry (Edward) Gallagher was born at Killinane, Thurles, Co. Tipperary in March 1855 and enlisted in the 24th Foot at Brecon, South Wales in March 1874, being assigned to ‘B’ Company, 2nd Battalion. Clearly a talented soldier, by October 1877 he had gained rapid advancement to Sergeant, shortly before his battalion was embarked for South Africa.

Subsequently among those members of ‘B’ Company assigned to guard duties at Rorke’s Drift, he was one of five N.C.Os, under Colour-Sergeant Frank Bourne, his immediate senior, who made their way up to the hills behind the mission station in the afternoon of 22 January 1879, from which vantage point they heard the pounding of artillery coming from Isandhlwana and saw clouds of smoke, which facts they reported on their return. Later that the same afternoon, their fears were confirmed by the arrival of a panic-stricken Trooper, fresh from scenes of a massacre.

In the momentous action that followed at Rorke’s Drift, and in his capacity as second senior N.C.O., Gallagher was placed in charge of the south wall, the barricade for which included two wagons, the whole manned by several sharpshooters. One of Gallagher’s grandchildren, Major Edward Lane, R.E., later recalled:

‘My grandfather gave graphic pictures of the defence of Rorke’s Drift and the way in which ‘B’ Company withstood the attacks so fearlessly. He remembered the initial horror felt at the sight of the first wave of the attack as so many Zulus in battle array came down on them. But as the fighting progressed all fear left him because he was so busy shooting. He was in charge of the south wall of bags and wagons, and was later stationed in the mealie-bag redoubt. All the defenders were in a state of collapse when the fighting was done. He carried the scars of the defence with a permanent blue mark on the right side of his nose, which was a powder burn caused by the backflash each time he fired his rifle.’

Soon after the Battalion’s return to Brecon at the end of 1880, Gallagher was advanced to Colour-Sergeant in the newly titled South Wales Borderers and in January 1883 he was embarked for India. Subsequently employed in the Burma operations of 1887-88, he was hospitalised for a month in the Summer of 1893, in Aden, with ‘severe wear of the foot’, but on returning to England that November, he was permitted to extend his service beyond 21 years. Then in August 1895 Gallagher was appointed to the Army Staff as a Garrison Sergeant-Major, in which capacity he served in Egypt from September 1895 to March 1897, where he was noted for being a stickler for “turn out” - as his grandson would later recall, ‘I am sure he was the terror of any soldier who appeared to be idle or slovenly’. Finally discharged back at Gosport in May 1897, after 23 years with the Colours, he found employment as Barrack Warden at Portsmouth. He was also awarded the Meritorious Service Medal in Army Orders of 1910, with an annuity of £10 - an award that today is held in the collection of the Royal Artillery Museum, together with two renamed campaign medals.

A rather charming portrait of Gallagher in retirement was also left by his grandson:

‘I remember him from about 1919-20 until his death. During that period I regularly spent two or three weeks annually at his home in Augustine Road [“Wisteria” at Drayton, Hampshire]. He was very fond of his grandchildren, and we loved him. He had a great sense of humour and a real Irish sense of fun. When I first got to know him he would tell me stories of his soldiering, especially South Africa and Rorke’s Drift in particular. He was proud of his regiment, the Twenty-Fourth, and maintained his soldierly smartness and appearance all his life. He was a great story-teller on any subject true or fictitious. He was very fond of walking, especially on the Portsdown Hill. We would walk many miles on what he called “campaigning”, me asking him questions, and he giving the answers - which I fully believed. But sometimes his deliberate exaggerations gave the clue that it was all his “Irish blarney” coming out. He loved his small garden, where he grew most of his vegetables and kept chickens. He died very suddenly in 1931, when strangely, I was staioned with the Royal Engineers in Ireland, quite close to Thurles, and from where I kept up a correspondence with him.’

Gallagher, who was 75 years old at the time of his death on 17 December 1931, was buried with full military honours at Christ Church, Portsdown Hill, Cosham, Hampshire; for further details and pictures, see the excellent biographical entry in James W. Bancroft’s Deeds of Valour (House of Heroes, 1994).