Captain Henry Mitchell Jones VC

Henry Jones was born in Dublin on 11th Feb 1831. He entered the army as an ensign in 1849 and exchanged to the 7th Royal Fusiliers in 1854 during the Crimean War. As a lieutenant at the Battle of the Alma on 20 September 1854, whilst carrying the Queen's Colour he was severely wounded by gunshot through the lower jaw. He carried the bullet in his jaw for thirty years until he complained of a toothache. He saw a doctor who removed the bullet which had been lodged in his jawbone. Jones was promoted to Captain in 1855 and was awarded the VC "for having distinguished himself, while serving with the party which stormed and took the Quarries, before Sebastopol, by repeatedly leading on his men to repel the continual assaults of the enemy during the night. Although wounded early in the evening, Captain Jones remained unflinchingly at his post until after daylight the following morning." This took place on 7 June 1855, during the Siege of Sebastopol, and Jones's Victoria Cross was gazetted on 25th September 1857. Jones resigned his commission three months prior to the notification of the award of his Victoria Cross, and entered the Diplomatic Service. He was appointed Consul in the Fiji and Tonga Islands 1863, Consul-General at Tabreez 1868, at Christiania 1875, and at Philippopolis (now Plovdiv) 1880. In 1889 he was appointed Minister Resident at Bangkok and in 1895 he was transferred to be Minister Resident and Consul-General at Lima and at Quito. He retired from the Diplomatic Service in 1898 and died in Eastbourne, Sussex, on 18 December 1916.