52 AWARDED FOR VALOUR
It is nonetheless disturbing that all of the privates’ statements are virtually
identical, word for word. It is even more disturbing that a comparison with
Daubeney’s letter shows them to be written in the colonel’s own hand.
They were not just dictated in his presence, but to him personally. One
of two scenarios can explain this irregularity: either Daubeney coerced his
subordinates to verify his claim and then recommended them to buy their
silence, or Daubeney simply cut a deal with these men, one recommendation
for another. In either eventuality, the War Office was having none of it; of
the officers and men recommended by Daubeney, only one private, Thomas
Beach, and one officer, Brevet Major Frederick Cockayne Elton, received the
VC, both gazetted 24 February 1857 in the first group of Cross winners.^32
A year passed without any reaction by the War Office. Daubeney grew
anxious as to his prospects for a Cross, and enlisted the aid of the senior
colonel of the 55th, Major General Sir James Holmes Shoedde. In the letter
Daubeney wondered if the recommendations originally submitted were
‘perhaps either informally drawn up, or not sufficiently particularized’ and
therefore dismissed out of hand. He reiterated how at the Alma he rallied
his troops round the colors under fire. At Inkerman he led the retaking of an
enemy-held section of the breastworks and later charged a deploying Russian
battalion with about forty men ‘and so effectively destroyed its formation
that it was compelled to retire.’ He cited eyewitnesses to his gallantry and
what he terms as ‘parallel cases’ of similar acts that won VCs by Gazette
numbers 1, 2, 3, 9, 11, 12, 13, and 18. He also included affidavits and
extracts from letters concerning the events.
It is worth noting that while the extracts from letters written by his
superior officers did mention his valour, they said nothing about any recom-
mendations for awarding the same. Essentially, this new packet consisted
of his own personal recommendation of himself, some vague references to
his heroism by superior officers, and a pair of affidavits from officers under
his command, Captains Harkness and Richards. He closed with a plea for
personal recommendation:
I now beg permission to forward through you, as the Colonel of
the Regiment, supplementary recommendations for this highly prized
Decoration – & request you will be good enough, should you deem them
worthy of such attention, to submit them to His Royal Highness the
General Comd. in Chief.^33
Schoedde forwarded the new application and threw his weight behind the
Daubeney recommendation in a separate letter to Major General Sir Charles
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