| Philip Salkeld [1830-1857] |
 On 14 September
1857 at Delhi, India, Lieutenant Salkeld, with another lieutenant, D.C.
Home, a sergeant, John Smith and a bugler R. Hawthorne showed
conspicuous gallantry in the desperate task of blowing in the Kashmir
Gate in broad daylight under heavy and destructive musket fire,
preparatory to the assault.
Philip was the son of the rector of Fontmell Magna where a memorial can be found in the churchyard. Philip's award was the first Victoria Cross to be awarded posthumously, just one year after the award was instituted. He was recalled by former village resident Sir Newman Flower with the words - "To us he was the national hero. Greater than Nelson, greater than Wellington. We never understood how his pre-1857 rifle could put bullet holes through the maypole's cock's tale from the Rectory nearly a mile away. But there the bullet holes were." |
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