Herbert Taylor READE. Victoria Cross Surgeon.
Extract from Veterans Affairs Canada
Herbert Taylor Reade was born in Perth, Ontario, on the 20th of September 1828. He was the son of Staff Surgeon George Hume Reade, who was Colonel of the 3rd Regiment of the Leeds Militia in Upper Canada, (today’s Ontario), and who was killed during the Crimean War in 1854. Reade attended schools in Quebec and in Ireland.
Reade entered the British Army in November 1850 as Assistant-Surgeon to the 61st Regiment of Foot, later known as the Gloucestershire Regiment. In 1857, he was promoted to Staff Surgeon 2nd Class.
In 1857 Indian born soldiers (Native Infantry) of the Bengal Army mutinied. Many British families were murdered and their property looted and burned. The 61st of Foot were occupying the City of Delhi and were amongst the troops to storm the city and crush the 60,000 mutineers.
On the 14th September 1857, Surgeon Reade was attending to the wounded in a street in Delhi when up to 300 Mutineers began to fire down on them from the rooftops. Immediately Reade gathered together about ten men, drew his sword and led them in a charge of such determination that the enemy withdrew. Two days later he succeeded, single handed, in putting out of action one of the enemy's cannon. Surgeon Read's courage during the siege was recognised by the award of the Victoria Cross.
http://www.victoriacrossonline.co.uk/herbert-t-reade-vc/4587984426
