MILLION DOLLAR VC ~ Thomas Henry KAVANAGH, V.C.
The famous Indian Mutiny ‘Siege of Lucknow’ V.C. awarded to Mr. Thomas Henry Kavanagh, Bengal Uncovenanted Civil Service.
Thomas Henry Kavanagh was born on 15 July 1821 in Mullingar, Co. Westmeath and was educated in Ireland. His father was the Bandmaster of the 3rd Foot (Buffs), but little else is known about his early life. When still in his teens he entered the Indian Uncovenanted Civil Service in the Office of the Commissioner of Meerut and in 1849 was posted to Oudh with Sir Henry Lawrence, becoming a member of the Punjab Commission.
Kavanagh proceeded to a small room in the slaughter-yard where he disguised himself as a budmash or swashbuckler, with sword and shield, native made shoes, tight trousers, a yellow silk koortah (or jacket) over a tight-fitting white muslin shirt, ‘a yellow-coloured chintz sheet thrown round my shoulders, a cream-coloured turban, and a white waistband or kumurbund. My face down to the shoulders, and my hands to the wrists were coloured with lamp black, the cork used being dipped in oil to cause the colour to adhere a little.’ Thus attired he entered Napier’s room who did not recognise him. Outram himself daubed him once more with burnt cork and oil and he and Napier warmly pressed his hand with a few encouraging words. Then at half-past eight accompanied by Kananji Lal, the scout, Kavanagh was let through the British lines by Captain Hardinge and reached the right bank of the Goomtee. ‘I descended naked to the stream, with the clothes on my head rolled into a bundle. The first plunge into the lines of the enemy, and the cold water, chilled my courage immensely and if the guide had been within my reach I should, perhaps, have pulled him back, and given up the enterprise.’
- Mr Thomas Henry Kavanagh, Clerk, Bengal Uncovenanted Civil Service, 9 February 1857, Siege of Lucknow, Indian Mutiny.
- Mr Ross Lowis Mangles, Assistant Magistrate at Patna, Bengal Civil Service, 30 July 1857, Arrah, Indian Mutiny (Cross held by National Army Museum).
- Mr William Fraser McDonnell, Magistrate of Sarun, Bengal Civil Service, 30 July 1857, Arrah, Indian Mutiny (Lord Ashcroft Collection).
- Master George Bell Chicken, Indian Naval Brigade, 27 September 1858, Suhejnee, near Peroo, Bengal, Indian Mutiny (Two crosses known. One engraved with incorrect unit and date held by Lord Ashcroft Collection. Another, correctly engraved, with documentation of award to next of kin, is privately held),
- Reverend James William Adams, Chaplain to Kabul Field Force, Bengal Ecclesiastical Department, 11 December 1879, Killa Kazi, Second Afghan War (Lord Ashcroft Collection).