Lt Gen Sir Lewis Stratford Tollemache Halliday V.C.

From time to time I will add biographies of famous Hallidays. Where better than to start with our only Victoria Cross holder.Lt Gen Sir Lewis Halliday 14/5/1870-9/3/1966 became Adjutant General of the Royal Marines and Honorary Colonel Commandant. He was awarded the V.C. as a Captain in the Boxer Rebellion. He was descended from John Halliday of Castlemains in Kirkcudbright and Antigua.


Citation: On the 24th June, 1900, the enemy, consisting of Boxers and Imperial troops, made a fierce attack on the west wall of the British Legation [at Peking], setting fire to the West Gate of the south stable quarters, and taking cover in the buildings which adjoined the wall.


The fire, which spread to part of the stables, and through which and the smoke a galling fire was kept up by the Imperial troops, was with difficulty extinguished, and as the presence of the enemy in the adjoining buildings was a grave danger to the Legation, a sortie was organized to drive them out. A hole was made in the Legation Wall, and Captain Halliday, in command of twenty Marines, led the way into the buildings and almost immediately engaged a party of the enemy.

Before he could use his revolver, however, he was shot through the left shoulder, at point blank range, the bullet fracturing the shoulder and carrying away part of the lung. Nothwithstanding the extremely severe nature of his wound, Captain Halliday killed three of his assailants, and telling his men to "carry on and not mind him," walked back unaided to the hospital, refusing escort and aid so as not to diminish the number of men engaged in the sortie.



(London Gazette Issue 27262 dated 1 Jan 1901, published 1 Jan 1901.)