Reginald Clare Hart VC

Name: Reginald Clare Hart

Conflict: Afghan War

Gazetted: June 10, 1879

Service: Army

Place/date of birth: Scarriff, Co Clare, Ireland/June 11, 1848

Rank when awarded VC (and later highest rank): Lieutenant (later General and Sir)

Date of bravery: January 31, 1879

London Gazette citation:

Royal Engineers. Lieutenant Reginald Clare Hart.

For his gallant conduct in risking his own life in endeavouring to save the life of a private soldier. The Lieutenant-General commanding the 2nd Division Peshawar Field Force, reports that when on convoy duty with that Force on 31st January, 1879, Lieutenant Hart, of the Royal Engineers, took the initiative in running some 1,200 yards to the rescue of a wounded Sowar of the 13th Bengal Lancers in a river bed exposed to the fire of the enemy, of unknown strength, from both flanks, and also from a party in the river bed.

Lieutenant Hart reached the wounded Sowar, drove off the enemy, and brought him under cover with the aid of some soldiers who accompanied him on the way.

Click here to see full Gazette entry.

Other decorations: GCB, KCVO and the Royal Humane Society’s Silver Medal

Place/date of death: Bournemouth, Hampshire (now Dorset)/October 10, 1931

Grave/memorials: Netherbury Churchyard, Dorset

Origin of VC to the Lord Ashcroft collection: Purchased at auction, Sotheby’s, Billingshurst, West Sussex, 1993

Current location of VC: Displayed on rotation at The Lord Ashcroft Gallery: Extraordinary Heroes exhibition, Imperial War Museum