- Harry Hampton
Harry Hampton VC (
14 December ,1870 —2 November ,1922 ) was an English recipient of theVictoria Cross , the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.Details
He was 29 years old, and a
sergeant in the 2nd Battalion,The King's (Liverpool) Regiment ,British Army during theSouth African War (Boer War) when the following deed took place for which he was awarded the VC.On
21 August 1900 atVan Wyk's Vlei ,South Africa , Sergeant Hampton, who was in command of a small party of mounted infantry, held an important position for some time against heavy odds, and when compelled to retire saw all his men into safety and then, although he himself had been wounded in the head, supported a lance-corporal who was unable to walk until the latter was hit again and apparently killed. Sergeant Hampton received another wound some time later.Further information
He later achieved the rank of
Colour-Sergeant . After retiring from the Army after WW1 he returned to the Richmond area taking employment in the City of London as a Commissionaire with a firm of London Solicitors. In 1919 whilst dismounting from a bus in Richmond his leg, injured during the Boer War gave way. He continued to live at the family home of 151 Halliburton Road, St Margarets, Twickenham until his fatal accident in November 1922.Although reported as having taking his own life by jumping in front of a train at Richmond rail station, he did in fact surcumb to multiple injuries sustained from falling against a Shepperton train passing through St Margarets station Twickenham. In the subsequent inquest there was no mention he may have taken his own life the opinion of the coroner being that a leg injured when he had fallen from a bus approximatley two years before his death had given way as the Shepperton Train passed through St Margarets station.
His funeral was held in St Margarets, after which his coffin was carried on a gun carriage with a military escort. He was conveyed from St Margarets, across Richmond Bridge, and on arriving outside Richmond Town Hall, the Mayor, Councillors, and a crowd of several thousand had assembled to pay their respects, many of which then followed the gun carriage to Richmond Cemetery.
He is buried in Richmond Old Cemetery, but where for over 40 years his grave remained unmarked. In 1986 the location of the grave was re-discovered by Ron Buddle, a Metropolitan Policeman and Victoria Cross historian, who with financial assistance from the Kings Regimental Association erected the present headstone. However the date of death shown on the headstone of the 4 February 1920 was incorrect, the error being corrected when the grave was restored in 2008 as part of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames ' Adopt a Grave' scheme.Fact|date=March 2007
The medal
His Victoria Cross is displayed at the
Museum of the King's Regiment "(Liverpool, England)".References
*
Monuments to Courage (David Harvey, 1999)
*The Register of the Victoria Cross (This England, 1997)
*Victoria Crosses of the Anglo-Boer War (Ian Uys, 2000)External links
* [http://www.homeusers.prestel.co.uk/stewart/surrey.htm Location of grave and VC medal] "(Surrey)"
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