Private Samuel Evans VC

Samuel Evans was born in 1821 in Paisley, Renfewshire, the son of James and Anne Evans. He enlisted at the age of 18 into the 26th Cameronian Regiment, on 30 Sep 1939 and served in the China War of 1842. The next year the Cameronians returned to Edinburgh for a spell of 8 years. In 1848 he was promoted to corporal but it only lasted 131 days before he was demoted to private. In 1851 he responded to a call for volunteers to be drafted into the 19th who were on their way to South Africa for the Kaffir Wars. The group of 22 men went to Devonport to join the regiment in Feb 1852. He was again promoted to corporal in Sep 1853, and again demoted, this time within 111 days. The 19th never went to South Africa, that year as the Crimean War broke out and they were diverted to the Black Sea.
Evans fought at the Alma and was employed as a sharpshooter at Inkerman. He spent 5 months in the trenches before Sebastopol in the winter of 1854/5. By April 1855 he had a reputation for volunteering for hazardous work so was asked to repair a breach in the wall (embrasure) where guns were placed. He and another private leapt into the battery, under heavy fire, and in difficult circumstances repaired the breach. For this he was recommended for the VC, but he further proved himself in the assault on the Redan on 8 Sep 1855 where he was seriously wounded. He was sent to the hospital at Scutari and then back to Britain. He was discharged from the army at Chatham on 13 May 1856. His award of the Victoria Cross was gazetted on 23 June 1857. In 1856 he married Margaret McNicholl who had been a nurse at Scutari under Florence Nightingale. They lived first in Dumfries and then Edinburgh for the last 13 years of his life. The 19th regiment invited him for a visit on two occasions and he bequeathed his medals to them. He died on 4 Oct 1901, two years after his wife. When the 1st Battalion returned from South Africa they had a memorial built to Samuel and his wife over their graves in Portabello Cemetery, Piershill, Edinburgh.

Regimental Details | Soldiers