“George Ravenhill joined the 1st Battalion of The Royal Scots Fusiliers when he was seventeen, in 1889. He spent six years in India before transferring to the 2nd Battalion in South Africa during the Second Boer War. There, at the battle of Colenso on December 15th, 1899, Ravenhill made several forays to assist the artillery officers in withdrawing the guns of two batteries of the Royal Field Artillery after all their crews had been killed. He was wounded during this action, shot through the forearm. He was gazetted for his Victoria Cross in June 1901. Ravenhill became the last man to forfeit a Victoria Cross in 1908 when he was convicted of the theft of some iron and could not pay the 10 shilling fine. The pension he was entitled to as a recipient of the Victoria Cross was also revoked. He fell into poverty and three of his children were removed from his care to be fostered in the United States. He died in Birmingham in 1921 at the age of only forty-nine.”
This episode was written by Murray Dahm.
Murray is an ancient and medieval military historian from New Zealand, living in Australia. He has written more than 100 articles on various aspects of ancient and medieval military history and other historical topics from all periods. He is the author of Macedonian Phalangite vs Persian Warrior, Athenian Hoplite vs Spartan Hoplite and Leuctra 371 BC, all from Osprey Publishing. He is a regular on the Ancient Warfare Podcast.