Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Victoria Cross, copy, suspension bar inscribed, ‘Sergeant J. McGuire, 1st Bengal Eurasian Fusiliers’, the centre, ‘14th Sept. 1857’, nearly very fine £100-150

V.C. London Gazette 24 December 1858.

Awarded to Sergeant James McGuire, 1st Bengal Fusiliers, for his courageous action at Delhi, 14 September 1857. When troops were waiting at the Kabul Gate, reserve ammunition was being carried up on to the ramparts and stored in a small magazine awaiting use. An enemy shot hitting the magazine caused three boxes of ammunition to explode and two others were set on fire. Sergeant McGuire and Drummer M. Ryan, who were part of the ammunition guard, seeing the danger, seized the two boxes that were alight and threw them over the ramparts and into the canal, thereby saving many lives. Both were awarded the Victoria Cross.