Herbert Taylor Reade

Early Life

Herbert Reade was the son of Staff Surgeon George Hume Reade (1793–1854) and Sarah Anne Bailey (1798–1873). His father was an Irish veteran of the Napoleonic Wars who had retired to Canada. Reade attended the Perth Grammar School until his father was recalled to the militia during the Lower Canada Rebellion of 1837 and posted to the Quebec Citadel.

Reade completed his education in Quebec City and went to Ireland when his father returned there. In 1849, Reade graduated from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland at Dublin with a Doctor of Medicine degree.

In 1850, Reade received a commission as assistant surgeon in the 61st (South Gloucester) Regiment of Foot. When he joined the regiment, the 61st was at Peshawar in India, where it had been serving since 1845. Reade was promoted surgeon in 1857.

Indian Mutiny

In the mid-19th century, India was not a unified country, but rather a collection of different territories controlled by a variety of rulers, of which the British East India Company was the largest. In March 1857, a mutiny broke out by native Indian soldiers, known as sepoys, most of whom were serving in the Bengal Army of the East India Company. The revolt spread to Meerut in May and then to Delhi, Kanpur, and Lucknow. Yet the company’s Madras and Bombay armies mostly remained loyal, and large portions of the subcontinent were not involved. (Although widely known as the Indian Mutiny or Sepoy Mutiny, some modern Indian historians refer to it as the First War of Independence.)

While the sepoys were discontented about pay and conditions in the army, broader concerns also played a role, including taxation, the imposition of social reforms, and Christian missionary activity under the Company regime. The ultimate catalyst for the mutiny was the introduction of new rifle cartridges, which many sepoys incorrectly believed were greased with a mixture of beef and pig fat; cows are held sacred by Hindus, and pigs are believed to be unclean by Muslims.

Although the British imposed increasingly harsh punishments to maintain control, the mutiny spread, accompanied by massacres of British soldiers and their families. The mutineers occupied several locations, including the walled city of Delhi, with 40,000 men, and besieged others. Slowly but surely, the British began to reassert control, supported by many Indians. On 8 June 1857, they established the 6,000-man Delhi Field Force to retake the city and set up a large camp on ridges to Delhi’s north.

The mutineers attacked the British camp several times over the next three months, but the British held firm, adding reinforcements and a siege train to breach the city walls. By early September, the Delhi Field Force comprised 9,000 men: a third were British regulars, while the rest were Sikhs, Punjabi Muslims and Gurkhas. At 3:00 a.m. on 14 September, the British launched their attack, stormed the Kashmir Gate and advanced into Delhi.

Daring at Delhi

When the mutiny broke out, the 61st Regiment of Foot was stationed at Ferozepore (now Firozpur) in Punjab, about 400 km northwest of Delhi. On 13 June, the regiment began a two-week march to join the Delhi Field Force. During the assault on 14 September, the 61st Regiment formed part of the Fifth Column, a reserve force to be committed to the battle after the first stage of the attack. At the time, Herbert Reade was attending to some wounded British soldiers along one of the city’s streets when a group of rebels got into some nearby houses.

When the mutineers fired on the wounded from the rooftops, Reade rallied about 10 nearby British soldiers, drew his sword, attacked the rebels and forced them from their position, all the time under heavy fire. Two of the soldiers who accompanied Reade were killed, while another five or six were wounded.

Two days later, on the morning of 16 September, Reade accompanied the regiment during the final assault on Delhi and was one of the first through a breach in the wall of the city’s powder magazine. Reade and a sergeant from the 61st also spiked one of the rebels’ guns. By 21 June, the British had retaken the city. For these two actions, Reade was awarded the Victoria Cross.

The Victoria Cross

Queen Victoria instituted the Victoria Cross (VC) by Royal Warrant on 29 January 1856 to acknowledge the bravery of many soldiers and sailors during the Crimean War (1854–56). All 111 awards were made retrospectively to the start of that war in the fall of 1854.

The next major conflict for which VCs were awarded was the Indian Mutiny, which resulted in 182 medals. The official announcement of the award to Herbert Reade was published in the Royal Gazette on 5 February 1861, and the governor of Jersey presented him with the medal in July 1862.

Later Career

Herbert Reade married Anne Duhamel in 1863. He was promoted brigade surgeon in 1879 and later that year was appointed deputy surgeon general of the British Army. In 1885, he married again, this time to Cornelia Roberts, who was almost 20 years his junior. The next year, Reade was appointed surgeon general, the highest position in the army for a medical officer.

Reade retired in 1887 and was made a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB). In 1895, he was appointed honorary surgeon to the royal household by Queen Victoria. Reade died at Bath in 1897 and was buried in the local Locksbrook Cemetery.

Memory

Herbert Reade’s Victoria Cross and his other medals are on display at the Soldiers of Gloucester Museum in Gloucester, England. The Archeological and Historic Sites Board of Ontario erected a plaque in his honour next to Royal Canadian Legion Branch 244 in Perth. There is also a plaque in his honour in Britain’s National Memorial Arboretum (along with other British VC recipients), near Alrewas, Staffordshire. There is an additional plaque honouring him on Toronto’s Victoria Cross Memorial in York Cemetery in North York, which has individual plaques for all 99 VC recipients who are associated with Canada.