Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The outstanding Indian Mutiny V.C. group of six awarded to Private Patrick Donohoe, 9th Lancers, who at the Battle of Bolondshuhur on 28 September 1857, went to the aid of his severely wounded officer, Lieutenant Robert Blair V.C., bringing him out alive through a mass of enemy cavalry ‘under that rogue Nana’.

Donohoe was among a select group, unique to his unit, to be present at all three great military episodes of the rebellion - the Siege of Delhi, the Relief of Lucknow and the final capture of that city. Indeed, the 9th Lancers - ‘the beau ideal of all that British Cavalry ought to be in Oriental countries’, or to the mutineers simply the ‘Delhi Spearmen’ - was rewarded with thirteen V.C.s during the mutiny - a record for a single Victorian Campaign, such was the degree of action witnessed.

Following his heroics outside Delhi, Donohoe was himself wounded during the double V.C. action at the Musa Bagh, Lucknow on 19 March 1858 but recovered to undertake the passage home with the Regiment in 1859, by now among a mere handful of comrades to have survived the entirety of its 17 hard years in India - a feat reflected in his ‘grand slam’ of medals and clasps to the ’ninth’ for the period

Victoria Cross, reverse of suspension bar engraved ‘Private P Donohoe 9th Lancers’, reverse of Cross engraved ‘28 Sep 1857’; Punniar Star 1843 (Private Patk. Donohoe H.M. 9th or Queen’s Royal Lancers) reverse hook replaced with contemporary silver ring and cast copy ‘V.C.’ suspension bar; Sutlej 1845-46, for Sobraon 1846, no clasp (Patrick Donohoe 9th Lancers); Punjab 1848-49, 2 clasps, Chilianwala, Goojerat (P. Donohoe, 9th Lancers.); Indian Mutiny 1857-59, 3 clasps, Delhi, Relief of Lucknow, Lucknow (Patk. Donohoe, 9th Lancers); Army L.S. & G.C., V.R., 3rd issue, small letter reverse (1170 Patk. Donohoe, V.C. 9th Lancers) the earlier medals with edge bruising and contact marks, therefore generally about nearly very fine (6) £140,000-£180,000

Provenance: Glendining’s 23 May 1919 [The property of J. Galwey Foley, Esq., J.P., Balintoher House, Nenagh, County Tipperary.]

V.C. London Gazette 24 December 1858:
‘For having, at Bolundshahur, on the 28th of September 1857, gone to the support of Lieutenant Blair, who had been severely wounded, and, with a few other men, brought that officer in safety through a large body of the enemy’s cavalry.
(Despatch from Major-General Sir James Hope Grant K.C.B., dated 8th April 1858).

Patrick Donohoe was born at Nenagh, County Tipperary, Ireland in 1820 and attested for the 17th Lancers at Dublin on 12 June 1839, giving his trade as ‘coachmaker’. On 1 April 1842, he transferred to the 9th Lancers, then authorized for India where, ‘it was to see, in the short space of seventeen years, more and fiercer fighting, and with more honour and glory, than in the whole of its previous century and a quarter of chequered service.’ (The 9th Queen’s Royal Lancers 1715-1936 by Reynard refers).

Disembarking at Calcutta in the late summer of 1842, the regiment was immediately put under orders to march up country to the notoriously undesirable station of Cawnpore; within a month of their arrival on the sub-continent, over eighty of the establishment of 746 all ranks had already died of cholera. In June 1843, of the remaining 597 other ranks in the regiment, half this number were in hospital and such was the severity of heat apoplexy that there were often eight bodies in the mortuary per day.

The spell was broken however when war broke out at the end of 1843 against the Mahratta state of Gwalior. Donohoe saw his first action in this campaign, being present at the battle of Punniar on 29 December 1843, and would go on to participate in all the campaigns of the period in which his regiment was represented: in 1845-46, he served in the Sutlej Campaign and was present at Sobroan on 10 February 1846; in the Second Sikh War he was present at the passage of the Chenab at Ramnuggur, and at the battles of Chilianwala and Goojerat.

Between the conclusion of the Punjab Wars and the outbreak of the Indian Mutiny, Hope Grant, perhaps the most celebrated and distinguished of all the famous officers who served in the 9th Lancers, rose to effective command, bringing the regiment through his own personal zeal and uprightness to a readiness which was admired by none other than Commander on Chief Napier and which would also soon be tried in the acid test of war. And so in the burning summer of 1857, as the disaffected soldiery of the Bengal Army first mutinied at Meerut, the four squadrons of the 9th Lancers were divided between the 1st and 2nd Brigades of the Delhi Field Force, which, having effected a junction with Brigadier Archdale Wilson’s Meerut Brigade, marched from Ambala toward Delhi under Yule and routed the mutineers at Badli-ki-Serai before immediately advancing to and seizing the Ridge on the 8th June. Of this action General Sir Hope Grant later noted: ‘The 9th Lancers behaved gallantly, charged into the midst of the enemy, captured a 9-pounder which the mutineers were endeavouring to withdraw, turned the gun upon a village where the enemy had taken refuge, and dislodged them from it.’

V.C. Action at Bolunshuhur
After three months gruelling service on the Ridge culminating in the Fall of Delhi, the 9th Lancers, now reduced from 500 to 320 men, were detailed to join the Moveable Column under Colonel Edward Geathed which on the 23 September moved out from Delhi to scour the area between the Ganges and the Jumna for mutineers fleeing into Oudh.

Early on the morning of the 28 September, the forward elements of the Column arrived at a crossroads, leading in one direction to Boolundshuhur, and in the other to Maolghur. At dawn, gunfire was exchanged between Greathed’s vedettes and rebel skirmishers, and it was soon confirmed that a strong body of the enemy intended to make a stand at Boolundshuhur. The full scale battle which now occurred here was in effect the last major resistance by the Delhi rebels and the 9th Lancers were to win no less than five Victoria Crosses. At the advance of the column, the enemy’s artillery opened fire and the rebel cavalry fell back. The 75th Regiment pushed forward, capturing two 9-pounder guns, and drove off the enemy holding a strong position in the gaol and a walled serai in front of the town. Greathed’s cavalry, comprising the 9th Lancers and Punjab Cavalry detachments under Lieutenants Probyn, Watson and Younghusband, captured a third gun, and then took up the pursuit through the narrow streets of Boolundshuhur.

Regarding the 9th Lancers specifically, the Regimental History gives the following account of the Bolundshuhur action:
‘On the 28th, Lieutenant-Colonel Ouvry, riding well ahead of the main body with his cavalry, encountered a rebel brigade strongly entrenched in the village of Bulandshahr. The horse artillery opened fire on the hostile guns, but our infantry showed unusual timidity.
"They could not be got,” says Anson, "to look round a corner or to advance in any way.” Ouvry therefore decided to rush the position with his cavalry alone, and, ”forming the 9th Lancers into threes,” he says in his journal, “I ordered them to charge through the main street. I went through with them myself. We passed through a shower of musketry from both sides of the houses. We met with no loss till we got to the other side of the city. There the enemy made a stand for the moment, but the head squadron charging, the rebels took to flight. We had no business to charge into the town, but I know that unless we did so they would have held the town against us.”
It was a most gallant exploit - no less than five Victoria Crosses were won during the course of it, by Lieutenant Blair, Trumpeter Kells, and Privates Donohoe, Roberts, and Jordan [Private Henry Jordan died of wounds shortly afterwards, and owing to the statutes in force at the time his V.C. would never be gazetted or awarded] - but the losses of the regiment were heavy in proportion. Captain Drysdale was badly hurt when his horse was shot under him, and Kells and Jordan won their V.Cs. by rescuing him. Lieutenant Blair was wounded in a fight with a band of rebel sowars, and owed his safety to Donohoe's heroism and coolness.’

Lieutenant Blair had, in fact, been sent with ten men of the regiment, including Donohoe, to bring in an abandoned ammunition-waggon when he was surrounded by the party of sowars - which numbered about fifty; they forced their way through, but Blair, while in the act of running a man through, was cut down by a rebel of the 14th Irregular Cavalry, the blow falling on the top of his shoulder and severing the joint. The arm was taken out of the socket, a piece removed, and the limb then replaced. He was awarded the V.C. for his gallantry, as was Donohoe for going to his officer’s aid and bringing him out alive through the mass of rebel cavalry.

Donohoe remained with Greathed’s column, which having evacuated its wounded to Meerut, now hoped to effect a junction with Sir Henry Havelock’s column and assist in the relief of the beleaguered garrison at Lucknow. However, a diversion to Agra was decided upon to assist the European families which had incarcerated themselves there in the fort. Upon the column’s arrival in Agra on 10 October, the panic appeared to have subsided and the men stood down before, quite unexpectedly, a band of rebels disguised as jugglers turned on their audience of 9th Lancers, while elsewhere on the parade-ground the quarter guard of the same regiment was suddenly attacked by rebel Sowars wearing uniform similar to the 2nd Punjab Cavalry. ‘Although taken so completely by surprise, the British troops reacted with a promptness and energy that one observer described as ‘simply astonishing’ - within minutes the British force was ready to repel the attack, many of the 75th in their shirt-sleeves, some of the 9th Lancers still in their stockinged feet.’

Continuing with his regiment to Lucknow, Donohoe was present at the Second Relief of Lucknow and the Siege and Capture of Lucknow, during the latter stages of which, on 19 March 1858, Donohoe was wounded during a double VC action. On this date two squadrons of the 9th Lancers were engaged under Sir Hope with Sir James Outram’s division, in dislodging the rebels from Musa Bagh, where they had congregated after the fall of Lucknow. The squadrons followed up the rebels for four miles and took six guns. Captain T. Hutchinson received a death-wound in this engagement while in the act of cutting down a rebel, who, getting beneath his sword-cut, pierced him in the eye with a poisoned spear, the thrust penetrating to the brain. He died two or three days after. Sir J. Outram stated: “The conduct of the officers and men of the 9th was most gallant, as they undauntedly charged masses of the enemy.” Troop-Sergeant-Sergeant-Major Rush and Private Robert Newell so distinguished themselves by attacking and cutting up a party of the enemy’s infantry that they were both awarded the V.C.

When Donohoe departed India for England with the 9th Lancers on 1 May 1859, the regiment’s record stood intact and proud. During the mutiny It had marched over three thousand miles and uniquely among all the units in India, had been present at all three great episodes of that campaign, the Siege of Delhi, the Relief of Lucknow and the final capture of that city. It had won admiration from all who had seen it in action, particularly the enemy, themselves the best judges of its prowess, who had bestowed upon it the nickname of the ‘Delhi Spearmen’.

Indian Mutiny Victoria Crosses awarded to the 9th Lancers
The number of Victoria Crosses won by individuals serving with it, thirteen (fourteen including Jordan), was never equalled by any unit serving in any single campaign anywhere right up to the Great War and its high casualty rate reflected the dedication and sacrifice rendered.

Lieutenant A. S. Jones - Budlee-ki-Serai 8 June 1857
Lieutenant R. Blair (attached) - Boolundshuhur 28 September 1857 (Cross held by the Lord Ashcroft Collection)
Regimental Sergeant Major D. Spence - Shamsabad 27 January 1858 (Cross held by the 9/12 Lancers Museum)
Troop Sergeant Major D. Rushe - Lucknow 19 March 1858 (Cross held on loan by the 9/12 Lancers Museum)
Sergeant H. Hartigan - Agra 10 October 1857
Lance-Corporal Freeman - Agra 10 October 1857 (Cross held by the Lord Ashcroft Collection)
Trumpeter R. Kells - Boolundshuhur 28 September 1857 (Cross held on loan by the 9/12 Lancers Museum)
Private P. Donohoe - Boolundshuhur 28 September 1857
Private W. Goat - Lucknow 6 March 1858 (Cross held by the 9/12 Lancers Museum)
Private T. Hancock - Delhi 19 June 1857
Private R. Newell - Lucknow 19 March 1858 (Cross held by the Lord Ashcroft Collection)
Private J. Purcell - Delhi 19 June 1857
Private J. R. Roberts - Boolundshuhur 28 September 1857 (Cross held by the 9/12 Lancers Museum)

Donohoe’s V.C. was one of fifteen forwarded by the Secretary of State for War on 19 February 1859 for presentation in India but by the time the Victoria Crosses arrived the 9th Lancers had been several months at sea on their way to England, and the crosses were returned to London again. Finally on 4 January 1860, Donohoe, proceeded to Windsor and was there presented with his Victoria Cross by Her Majesty the Queen.

On 9 September 1864, after 25 years and 90 days service, Patrick Donohoewas finally discharged in Dublin in consequence of his being unfit for further service [chronic bronchitis]. He died at Ashbourne, County Meath, Ireland on 16 August 1876 and is buried in Donoughmore Catholic Churchyard, County Cork.


Postscript:
Possible connection to an American Congressional Medal of Honor recipient
James P. Tierney, Colonel, US Army Retired, Regimental Historian of the 69th (New York Infantry) Regiment, US Army in consultation with descendants of Timothy Donoghue, a Medal of Honor recipient who earned his Medal of Honor during the American Civil War serving with the 69th New York Infantry at Fredericksburg, Virginia, has produced research suggesting that Timothy Donoghue was the brother of Patrick Donohoe, V.C.
Records show that both men were born in Nenagh, County Tipperary, Patrick in 1820 and Timothy in 1825, the latter, who is known to have had an older brother named Patrick, arriving in the US on the City of New York with his wife and son, also Patrick, on the 10 April 1862. Timothy Donoghue enlisted into the service of the 69th Regiment on 15th September 1862, four months after landing in the United States. So far no records have been found detailing Patrick Donohoe’s precise family background, but if correct this would be the only case of a family receiving the highest gallantry award of both Britain and America.