BY JOHN FITZGERALD
A County Kilkenny village has a “heroic” link with Afghanistan. It is unique on these islands for having yielded two winners of the Victoria Cross.
Walter Hamilton of Inistioge died fighting in the war-torn country-but not in any of the recent conflicts in that part of the world. He met his end in September 1879, while defending the British embassy in Kabul from a rebel attack. Six months before, he had been awarded the Victoria Cross for valour.
In picturesque Inistioge, feted as the location of such films as Widow’s Peak and Circle of Friends, Lieutenant Walter Richard Pollock Hamilton received a belated recognition for his bravery at the turn of this century. His name was unknown to villagers until an obscure memorial plaque was unearthed by a team of dedicated local researchers.
A group led by the late Cllr. Andy Cottrell noted all churchyard and grave stone inscriptions in the locality for inclusion in a book on the village. While working on the project in St. Mary’s Churchyard, Betty Gannon found the plaque and read the small print relating to a local man who lost his life in “foreign climes.”
The letters “V.C.” after his name caught her attention immediately. She knew these as the initials of Britain’s highest award for valour. But the discovery startled her: Betty knew of Inistioge’s other V.C. winner, Captain Robert Johnston, who was killed in the Boer War and is buried in St. Columcille’s Churchyard.
She was unaware of a second recipient of the famous medal in the area. “I was just doing my job”, Betty told me, “collecting details from the hundreds of crosses and tombstones in the churchyard. It’s good to learn of this forgotten hero from the village.”
Other locals felt that Walter Hamilton’s deeds may have been overshadowed by the behaviour of the Black and Tans in Inistioge during the War of Independence. One man surmised: “The bitterness and resentment generated locally by the Tans and the whole struggle against British rule could have resulted in this brave man’s memory being brushed aside or suppressed. But that’s all in the past. We can now salute a great Irishman and local hero.”
The inscription on the plaque reads: “Walter Richard Pollock Hamilton, Lieutenant, Staff Corps and Corps of Guides, Indian Army. He fought in the 2nd Afghan war. He was 22 years old when he received his V.C. award for bravery on 2nd April, 1879 at Futtehbad, Afghanistan.
“Lt. Hamilton led a charge of the Guides Cavalry against very superior numbers of the enemy. When his commanding officer fell, the Lieutenant, the only officer left with the regiment, assumed command and cheered his men on to avenge the death of the commanding officer.
“In this charge, seeing that a soldier was down, entangled with his dead horse, and being attacked by three of the enemy, Lt. Hamilton rushed to the rescue, cutting down all three and saving the life of the soldier.
Walter Hamilton was killed on September 3rd 1879 at Kabul, Afghanistan, aged 23 years and 16 days.”
The Inistioge research group went on to elicit further information on Walter Hamilton from Internet Web sites dealing with the Wars of the British Empire. This data revealed that he was born on August 18th, 1856, the fourth son of Alexander and Emma Hamilton of Inistioge. He was gazetted to the 70th Regiment in 1874, before transferring to the Corps of Guides, an elite regiment of the Indian Army.
Partly due to his courageous action at Futthebad, which won him the V.C., he was chosen to command the 75 men of the Corps of Guides who accompanied the British mission to Kabul. Under a Treaty signed in April 1879, between the British and Amir Yakub Kahn of Afghanistan, Britain proposed to establish an embassy in Kabul, the capital.
The Treaty guaranteed the mission’s safety, and the Amir gave his word that no harm would come to British personnel or servants of the embassy. So, the mission set off for Kabul in July 1879.
But on September 3rd, Afghan troops launched a sudden and unprovoked attack on the British residency. These troops were soon joined by thousands of civilian rebels. Four Britons and 69 Indian soldiers faced this overwhelming force.
An urgent message went out to the Amir, reminding him of the Treaty and his word of honour regarding the mission’s safety. The message was ignored. Fierce fighting raged throughout the day. Hamilton’s fellow British officers were cut down.
The Afghan warlords called upon the tiny garrison to surrender, but Hamilton was not “the surrendering kind”. He and his Guides fought desperately, without fear and without hope. They charged repeatedly out of the Residency to bayonet the crews of artillery ranged against them.
The residency was ablaze and the building started to collapse. After 12 hours of fighting, the surviving defenders charged to their deaths. The 73-strong force accounted for over 600 Afghans before being wiped out by the attackers. Among the fallen was Walter Hamilton.
Cllr. Cottrell, who represented Inistioge for many years, found it ironic that Hamilton’s heroic exploits had come to light at a time when Afghanistan was again in the news for all the wrong reasons.
He opined: “He was a very brave man, and I believe Inistioge now has yet another claim to fame. Heroism is timeless and we’re proud of Walter Hamilton. We’ve checked up on this and we know that Inistioge in the only village in the British Isles that can boast of two V.C. winners. Great credit is due to Betty Gannon and her colleagues on the FAS sponsored research project.”
So, coupled with the resolve it showed in the face the Tans, Inistioge with its two VCs could well lay claim to be a village of heroes!
