Reginald Clare Hart VC
Name: Reginald Clare Hart
Conflict: Afghan War
Gazetted: June 10, 1879
Service: Army
Reginald Clare Hart VC
Medal group
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.
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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