|
|
| Page revised: 15 January, 2008 |
Lieutenant James DUNDAS VC |
| Born: | Edinburgh, Scotland - 10 September 1842 | 
|
|
| Died: | Sherpur, Afghanistan - 23 December 1879 | ||
| Burial details: | Seah Sang, Afghanistan. | ||
| Corps service: | Commissioned into the Bengal Engineers in 1860 and transferred to the Corps in 1862 when the Bengal Engineers were absolved into the Corps after the re-organisation of the East India Company Army carried out in the aftermath of the Indian Mutiny (1857). He was killed by a mine whilst trying to blow up an enemy fort, Sherpur Cantonment, Afghanistan, during the Second Afghan War. | ||
| VC awarded: | Won VC at Dewangiri, Bhutan, on 30 April 1865, (Bhutan
War 1864-66) |
||
| VC unit: | Royal Engineers attached | ||
| VC presented: | VC presented by Major General Fordyce, commanding the Presidency Division, at The Maidan, Calcutta on 23 March 1868. | ||
| VC citation: | (to be read in conjunction with Lieutenant
WS Trevor) For gallant conduct at the attack on the blockhouse
at Dewan-Giri, in Bhootan on 30 April 1865. Major General Tombs, VC, CB, the officer in command at the time, reports that a party of the enemy, from 180 to 200 in number, had barricaded themselves in the blockhouse in question, which they continued to defend after the rest of the position had been carried, and the main body was in retreat. The blockhouse, which was loopholed, was the key of the enemy's position. Seeing no officer of the storming party near him, and being anxious that the place should be taken immediately, as any protracted resistance might have caused the main body of the Bhooteas to rally, the British force having been fighting in a broiling sun on a very steep and diff cult ground for upwards of three hours, the General in command ordered these two officers [Lt Dundas and Lt Trevor ] to show the way into the blockhouse. They had to climb a wall which was 14 feet high, and then to enter a house occupied by some 200 desperate men, head foremost through an opening not more than two feet wide between the top of the wall and the roof of the blockhouse. Major General Tombs states that on speaking to Sikh soldiers around him, and telling them in Hindoostani to swarm up the wall, none of them responded to the call until these two officers had shop the may, when they followed with the greatest alacrity. Both of them [Lt Dundas and Lt Trevor] were wounded. (London Gazette: 31 December 1867) |
||
| VC location: | Privately held | ||
| Background: | Dundas was awarded his VC for his part in the Bhutan War. In 1864 a civil war broke out in the Bhutan, located just east of Nepal, the British wishing to protect their interests sent a peace mission to restore order. The British mission's attempts to to broker a peace were rejected, so Britain declared war on Bhutan in November 1864. The Bhutan, armed with matchlocks, bows and arrows, swords, knives and catapults, were no match for the well equipped Anglo-Indian force and were defeated in five months. | ||
| Source:
Additional material: SC Fenwick, FoREM Links to further reading:
|
Royal Engineers Museum main site
