When the first actions were gazetted in The London Gazette on February 24th, 1857, the first name to appear was that of Cecil Buckley. The action for his award was performed in May 1855 while he was a lieutenant but he had been promoted Commander soon after and so was the highest ranking naval officer gazetted in that initial list. Another lieutenant, Hugh Talbot Burgoyne, and a gunner, John Robarts, acted with Buckley but Burgoyne, although he was also promoted to Commander, was promoted later (in January 1856) and was also later in the alphabet than Buckley (Robarts was in the initial gazette too, although he appeared third, after the two commanders, being the next highest in rank).
The gazette entries were usually made according to the rank of the man at the time of the gazette, not at the time of the action (many recipients were promoted immediately after their action). The two men who acted with Buckley in May 1855 (Burgoyne and Robarts) were also gazetted on February 24th, 1857 although both are misidentified – Burgoyne as John (his famous father and famous grandfather’s name), and Robarts’ name is misspelled as ‘Roberts’. This trend of misspellings in gazette entries can have frustrating results for research into Victoria Cross recipients. Lucas, as a lieutenant of the Naval Brigade was gazetted even later (in 24th position); he too was promoted immediately after his action.
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, as well as other historical topics from all periods (ranging from the history of opera to the runic alphabet and recipients of the Victoria Cross). He is the author of COMBAT 40: Macedonian Phalangite vs Persian Warrior: Alexander confronts the Achaemenids, 334-331 BC from Osprey publishing. He is a regular on the Ancient Warfare Podcast.
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