Personal info
- Name: Joel HOLMES
- D.O.B: 1st Feb, 1821
- D.O.A: 25th Sep, 1857
- D.O.D: 2nd Aug, 1872
- Award: Victoria Cross
- Occupation at time of action: Private, 2nd Battalion 84th (York and Lancaster) Regiment of Foot
- Book: The Complete History - Volume 1
The Advance to the Char Bagh Bridge, Lucknow, India 25 September 1857
25 September 1857
The Indian Mutiny 1857-59
Havelock and Outram had originally intended to make a wide circuit round Lucknow in order to approach the Residency from the north, the strategy adopted by Sir Colin Campbell two months later. However, much of the ground was waterlogged and impassable so instead they advanced up the road to the Char Bagh and the adjoining bridge over the canal. At the bridge there was an enemy battery of six guns. Captain F C Maude’s battery, which was in the leading column, came under heavy musket and artillery fire and many of his men were wounded or killed. One of the first men to volunteer to fill their places was Private J Holmes, 2nd Battalion, 84th Regiment. Lieutenant Colonel Fraser Tytler and Lieutenant H M Havelock VC then charged the bridge. The capture of the bridge and the enemy battery cleared the way for the advance into Lucknow.
Citation
For distinguished conduct in volunteering to assist in working a gun of Captain Maude’s Battery, under a heavy fire, from which gun nearly all the Artillerymen had been shot away. (Extract from Field Force Orders of the late Major-General Havelock, dated 17th October, 1857.)
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