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the first recipient of the Victoria Cross to live in New South Wales. |
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Captain of the Afterguard Second Mate. NSS VERNON
In the period from the 2nd March 1848 till 21st August 1860 there were at least three James Gorman’s who served in the Royal Navy. A further complication arose when some years after the war James Devereux of Southwark (b Suffolk, 1819) claimed that he had changed his name when he joined the Navy and that he was James Gorman VC.
Research proves Devereux was an impostor, who apparently convinced the British press during the last 20 years of his life, that he was James H Gorman VC. Research also reveals that two of the James Gorman’s had been discharged from the Navy in disgrace. The fourth of these men was Captain of the Afterguard James Gorman VC who had been awarded the Victoria Cross for his courageous devotion to duty at the Battle of Inkermann on the 5th November 1854. Devereux, may genuinely have believed that he was entitled to the Victoria Cross. It is possible that he was as he claimed at Sebastopol under the command of Midshipman William Nathan Wrighte Hewett (later Vice Admiral) on the 26th October 1854, participating in the action for which Hewett was awarded his Victoria Cross. Devereux too may have deserved the Cross, and may have even been recommended for it, but he certainly was not James Gorman VC. Devereux‘s story was so convincing and readily available that successive VC reference works published in the UK including the 1999 ‘Monuments to Courage’ have all referred to him. In 1984 John Winton, author of The Victoria Cross at Sea, (1979), had acknowledged that his story of James Gorman VC published in this book although written to the best of his knowledge at that time, was complete codswallop. The 1986 edition of ‘They Dared Mightily’ was the first to publish what they believed was the truth about the Devereux fraud. This was followed by a number of articles published in Australia and England that confirmed this story. The current edition of ‘The Register of Victoria Cross’ has finally printed the correct details and deleted any reference to Devereux. For those who still have doubts, Devereux claimed he was awarded the Cross for the Battle of Sebastopol, and that he had medals for Inkermann, Balaclava, Sebastopol, Indian Mutiny and Relief of Delhi. This information conflicts with official records of Gorman’s service. Devereux was born in 1819 fifteen years earlier than Gorman, which makes it unlikely that he would have grown three inches during his time in the navy as Gorman did. With the help of friends who researched the primary sources in England, and my own research of the well recorded life and death of James Gorman VC, from his emigration to Australia in 1863 till his death in 1882 aged 47. I have been able to write the following story. James Gorman's VC and his life In the Royal Navy Captain of the Afterguard JAMES GORMAN VC was born in Islington, Middlesex, on 21st August 1834, his parents Patrick James Gorman a Nurseryman and his wife Ann (nee Furlong) had been married at St Martins in the Field Church, Westminster on the 23rd of November 1829. At thirteen years of age James joined the Navy as one of the first group of two hundred boys that were accepted into the Royal Navy as apprentices. He entered HMS Victory as a boy second class on the 2nd March 1848. The 2,164 ton Victory her keel laid at Chatham in 1759, was completed and launched at Chatham on the 7th May 1765, was to remain afloat for over 150 years. Victory carried 104 guns, 30 of these on the lower gun deck, 15 32 pounders on either side, 227 ft in length she had a beam of 52ft and a draught of 25ft. Her crew of over 800 men were needed only in battle less than 100 were needed to sail her. HMS Victory which has been described as the largest and finest ship ever built and was Admiral Horatio Nelson's Flagship at Trafalgar. Completing six months training on board the HMS Victory, Gorman was transferred with sixty nine other apprentices to HMS Rolla. The Rolla a paddle wheel and sail tender to Victory, was a "Cherokee" Class 10 gun brig sloop of 231 ton that had been completed in 1829 in Plymouth Dockyard. These seventy apprentices cruised the channel on the Rolla until they were declared fit to go to sea. Gorman was kept beyond his allotted time on HMS Rolla to work as an Instructor with the second intake of apprentices. At the completion of his duty on HMS Rolla he was transferred to Dragon for only a short period from the 13th September 1849 till the 1st of November 1849, before being transferred to Howe where he stayed until 12th July 1850. He then transferred from Queen, (a floating barracks) to HMS Albion, his first ship as a boy first class on the 13th July 1850. Records show that at that time he was 5ft 2in (155cm) tall, with blue eyes, had light brown hair and a ruddy complexion. It was also noted that he had been vaccinated against Smallpox. He was on Albion on the 13th May 1852 when he was promoted to Ordinary Seaman 2nd Class, and two months later to Able Seaman. During the Crimean War, he was a member of The Naval Brigade from the 1st October 1854 to the 9th September 1855. The Naval Brigade consisted of 1.020 officers and men from HMS Albion, Britannia, Bellerophon, Diamond, London, Queen, Rodney, Trafalgar and Vengeance, who were under the Command of Captain Stephen Lushington of the Albion The Brigade had been formed at the request of Lord Raglan who had sought assistance from the Navy. At first the sailors only worked around the camps in a non combatant role then as more of the Soldiers were either killed or wounded they replaced them. For the first time War correspondents reported directly from the battlefield and sent their eyewitness accounts of the Crimean conflict to the London Newspapers. The reports by William Howard Russell of The Times were thought to be the most graphic. In describing the Battle of Inkermann. Russell quoted Lushingtons own words, "it had commencing at half past seven on a cold misty morning and was a determined attempt by the Russians to force the British from the heights above the town of Sebastopol. A long day of heavy fighting followed and the Russians were eventually driven back". Among the acts of bravery Russell reported was the determination of five sailors from the Albion who when ordered to withdraw and leave the wounded, were reported to have replied " They wouldn’t trust any Ivan getting within bayonet range of the wounded". These five brave sailors then mounted the defence works banquette and with the help of the wounded soldiers laying in the trench below them, (who were reloading rifles and passing them up to the sailors) were able to keep up a continual and rapid rate of firing which drove the enemy back three times, after they had gotten to within forty yards of the wounded soldiers, The Russians finally fell back and gave them no more trouble. Victory did not come cheaply. Two of these sailors were killed during the battle. And their names have never been recorded. A search of the records list only three of the Albion crew killed on the day of the battle. On the 7th June 1856 the three surviving sailors, James Gorman, Thomas Reaves and Mark Scholefield were recommended by Sir Stephen Lushington, to Queen Victoria as being worthy recipients of the Victoria Cross. On the 24 February 1857 their names appeared along with the names of 82 others upon whom the Queen had conferred this honour. The Queen presented his decoration to Thomas Reeves in Hyde Park, London, on the 26th June 1857. On the same day two Victoria Crosses were dispatched through the War Office to be presented to Gorman and Scholefield who were both serving in the China War. Twenty eight of the eighty-five Crimean Victoria Crosses where awarded to Officers, twenty eight to NCOs with the remaining twenty nine being awarded to privates or seamen. Gorman’s Victoria Cross was one of the 15 awarded for the Battle of Inkermann. His service medals at this time were the Crimea Medal with Clasps for Inkermann & Sebastopol. The Turkish Crimea Medal, the Sultan of Turkey had presented to him. Gorman left HMS Albion with a "Very Good Conduct" when he was discharged / disposed at Fisguard on the 5th January 1856. The following day the 6th January 1856 he signed on HMS Coquette as an AB. HMS Coquette was a 670 ton wooden screw steam gun vessel of 200 horsepower, she carried 4 guns and had a top speed of 10.8 knots, she had been built by Green Blackwall on the Thames in 1855. On the 17th March 1856, Gorman was transferred to Haslar Hospital in Gosport, Hampshire where he was hospitalised with ‘Rheumatism’ for six weeks. When discharged from the Hospital on the 2nd May 1856 he returned to HMS Coquette from where he was discharged from Her Majesties Service three weeks later. After two weeks ashore Leading Seaman James Gorman re-enlisted from the Chatham Volunteer’s for duty on the HMS Elk when the Sloop was commissioned at Chatham. HMS ELK was a brig sloop of 12 guns having been built in 1847, she was 105 ft long and 482 ton. It was to become one of the first ships to be part of the Australia Station of the Royal Navy. It was on the 31st March 1867while serving on HMS Elk that Gorman received his first payment of the pension of 10 pounds per year that had been granted to recipients of the Victoria Cross. He received a payment of 24 Pounds and eleven pence, the pension having been back dated to the 5th November 1854. Following this initial payment Gorman received a quarterly payment of 2 Pounds ten shillings for the rest of his life. On the 26th May 1857 Gorman was awarded a Good Conduct Badge and then on the 21st February 1858 he was made Captain of the Afterguard. During the time he served on HMS Elk he took part in operations in the Canton River at the taking of Fatchan and Canton from 28th December 1857 to 5th January 1858 for this service. He received the Second China Medal with the Canton Clasp. With the then Captain of the Afterguard James Gorman on board HMS Elk visited Australia on three occasions. Sydney. the 31st December 1858 and January 1860. Melbourne in March 1859. James Gorman VC was Paid Off at Sheerness on the 21st August 1860, his 26th Birthday, he was recorded as being 5ft 5in (162 1/2cm) in height. HIS LIFE IN AUSTRALIA The life of James Gorman VC, from the time he boarded the 755-ton ‘FAIRLIE’ at Plymouth to sail to Australia on the 7th January 1863 till his death in Sydney on the 18th October 1882, is well recorded. His arrival in Sydney on the 29th April 1863, makes Gorman the first recipient of the Victoria Cross to live in New South Wales. Gorman first resided at 259 Kent Street, from where he would have been able to look out over the busy wharves of Darling Harbour, once the centre of Sydney’s maritime industry, now the site of the National Maritime Museum, he was quickly employed as a Sailmaker,. While still working as a sailmaker he moved to a dockside house in Sussex Street, he met twenty year old Marianne (Mary Ann) Jackson. Mary Ann had emigrated with her parents Robert (a bricklayer) and Elizabeth (nee Coates) from Methwold, Norfolk on the "Beyapore" arriving in Sydney on the 6th January 1853. On November 10th 1864 James and Mary Ann married at St Philip’s Church, Sydney. The following year while residing at 259 Kent Street, their only child a daughter Annie Elizabeth Gorman was born. On 17th April 1867 James was employed as a foundation staff members on the Colonies first Nautical School Ship. The NSS Vernon which had been a East Indian paddle-wheel steamer before being purchased by the New South Wales government from the merchant Robert Towns for the sum of 3,950 pounds ($7,900). Her paddles were removed and she was converted to full sail and refitted as a training ship for the homeless neglected and destitute boys of the Colony. James was employed as drill master and gunnery instructor. As he was required to live on board the NSS Vernon six nights a week Mary Ann and Annie moved to 230 Kent Street which was near a butcher shop owned by her uncle William Coates. Henry Parkes, The Colonial Secretary, of New South Wales. With the support of the Premier James Martin QC. Had been successful in having Legislation passed which empowered the police to place homeless boys found vagrant or begging in the streets. Before two JPs, who could place him on the Vernon. They [Parkes & Martin] hoped to clear the streets of Sydney of the thousands of destitute and neglected boys, and provide these boys with an education and training that would allow them to be apprenticed as seamen. In 1869 while holding the position of Master at Arms and gunnery instructor Gorman told a select committee of Parliamentarians that he believed the younger boys would be better served if they were given more schooling, recreation and rewards for good behaviour. In place of the continual scrubbing of the decks that they [the boys] were required to do daily, he maintained that from 4.30am till they went to bed at 8.00pm the boys did not have a half-hour to call their own during the whole day. In 1872 he was promoted to Sail Maker and Officer in charge of the lower deck and many of his suggestions made at the inquiry were adapted to the benefit of the boys. Boys from 23 months to seventeen year of age where sent to the Vernon The annual reports from the Superintendent of the NSS Vernon, Captain James Seton Veitch Mein to the Colonial Secretary repeatedly show that James Gorman V.C. was well respected by both the boys and the other officers. ... of the Scarlet Fever that had been in the ship for several months, and that at present we are quite clear of sickness. The great attention and care of the sick by Mr James Gorman, that was specially reported and commended earlier, I think is worthy of notice again here, for it was no doubt due to his skilful nursing that many of the boys recovered so quickly. It affords me great satisfaction to be enabled to state that no death has taken place during the last twelve months. (1873 annual report)
There was one death during the year by accident, the second fatal accident since 1867, there were less colds and sore throats than any other year due to fumigating the lower decks, The Officer in Charge of the Lower deck, Mr James Gorman VC. is a careful and expert hand in the use of this remedy and preventative; he deserves every praise for the care of the sick. (1874 annual report) During the period James Gorman VC was employed on the NSS Vernon, no Officer had ever been appointed to look after the boys while they were in the sick bay. And following Gorman’s promotion there had been nobody allocated to replace him as drill master to instruct the boys in the art of sword, gun and sail drill. Gorman carried out these duties in addition to his appointed duties, when asked if he could drill the boys, he replied that he would drill the boys in his spare time. In February 1869 beside his allocated duties he was drilling boys for five and a half hours a day. Gorman’s concern for the welfare of the boys. The lack of experienced staff. And the attempt to keep the cost of running the establishment down, all contributed to the additional work carried out by Gorman who was kept fully occupied from 6am to 9pm each day. Besides Gorman only the two boatswains had served in the Royal Navy. On Monday 1st April 1878, James Gorman VC was promoted to the position of Second Mate with a salary of 130 Pounds ($260) per year, he retained this position as third officer of the NSS Vernon until the 7th June 1881. When he transferred to the Ordnance Department to take up the position as the Foreman of the Magazines on Spectacle Island for a yearly salary of 175 Pound ($350). Spectacle Island had been first chosen in 1863 as the site of a powder magazine for the Port of Sydney, but officially it was not declared as such until 25th September 1876, it was handed over to Her Majesties Navy early in 1883, the powder magazine that was built in 1865 is still in use today. On the 20th July 1881, just six weeks after taking up this position, he married for the second time. His new bride was thirty-five year old Deborah King, who with his daughter Annie, then lived with him in a stone cottage on Spectacle Island. HIS DEATH On the 15th of October 1882, aged only 47 years James Gorman VC suffered a severe stroke. Three days later with his wife and his sixteen year old daughter Annie Elizabeth at his bedside he died. His funeral was conducted on the 20th of October 1882 by W.H.Wood and Sons, at Figtree Point Balmain and followed by a Graveside service in the Church of England section of the Balmain Cemetery, Norton Street, Balmain. Among the large number who gathered at the graveside were the Officers and a strong detachment of the boys from the NSS Vernon. A firing party comprising of the boys gave the usual Naval salute. A Headstone erected on the grave of James Gorman VC was later destroyed by the Leichhardt Council in 1944, when Balmain Cemetery was converted to a public park now known as Pioneer Memorial Park, the inscription on the headstone was as follows:- In Memorial James Gorman VC Late Spectacle Island, also 15 years NSS Vernon. Died 18th Oct 1882. Aged 47 years. Awarded VC brave deed, first VC. June 21st. 1854. VC instituted Jan. 29th.1856. A Memorial stone archway, dedicated as "A lasting tribute to the pioneers of the District" was erected at the Norton Street entrance in 1944. The path through the entrance leads to a monument that was erected as a memorial to the fallen soldiers of Leichhardt in both World War One, and World War Two, the names of those who did not survive these conflicts are inscribed on this Memorial. There are three individual plaques on the memorial for Victoria Cross winners. On the front of the memorial there are two plaque’s in honour of World War One VC recipient, Private William Matthew Currey who had been awarded his VC for his actions on the 1st September 1918 at Peronne, France, he had attended school in Leichhardt and World War 2 recipient Corporal John Bernard Mackey who had been killed at Tarakan, North Borneo in the action that was to see him awarded the VC, he had been born in Leichhardt in 1923. On the northern side of the memorial just above the plaque recording that Sir Walter Davidson K.C.M.G. the then Governor of New South Wales unveiled the monument on the 9th April 1922. When the monument stood in its original position in the grounds of the Leichhardt Town Hall, on the corner of Marion and Norton Streets. Is a third plaque most likely added when the memorial was relocated in 1949.
Plaques on the walls of the Sailors, Soldiers and Airmans Club in Leichhardt, in memory of Currey, Gorman and Mackey. Have now been removed and at 11am on the 11th November 2001 with a fourth plaque in memory of Pte William Jackson they were placed on the steps of the Balmain War Memorial, which is located on the corner of Darling and Beattie streets, Balmain. Of Gormans companions at Inkermann, Thomas Reeves was born in Portsmouth in 1828. He was an apprentice baker when he joined "Victory" aged seventeen and a half in August 1846. An ordinary seaman when he joined "Albion" in September 1850 and one of the Ship's Yeomen of signals when he won his Victoria Cross. He volunteered for ten years service in April 1856 but he never served his full engagement because he was discharged in June 1860, at only thirty two years of age, for `Age and Infirmity'. He died of consumption in August 1862 at Portsea and was buried in a pauper’s grave at the Portsea Island General Cemetery, which later became open space and called Mile End Gardens, now the car park for the Portsmouth continental ferry port. Mark Scholefield was born in Middlesex in April 1828. He joined the navy as a Boy Second Class in 1846 and served on "Tortoise". Joining "Albion" as an Ordinary Seaman in October 1850. He like James Gorman was paid off from "Albion" in January 1856 He went out to China in "Acorn", where he was Quartermaster and Petty Officer, he died at sea in February 1858. Three men from ‘Albion’ were reported killed on the 5th November 1854, were two of them the two Sailors who gave their lives in the action for which Gorman, Scholefield and Reeves received the Victoria Cross? They were Thos Geoghegan, A.B., Edward Snow, Private and Jno Wood, A.B., probably the John Woods who died that day and is buried near the 3rd division camp in the Crimea, he was aged 38. The Muster Book of the Albion held at the Public Records Office at Kew, reveal that 29 Men and boys from the crew of Her Majesty’s Ship Albion were killed during Oct-Nov 1854. One matter that still remains unsolved, did James Gorman VC really lose a leg? His daughter Annie Gorman, who was aged seventeen at the time of her fathers death, told of how her father had lost a leg from wounds he received when he saved the life of Admiral (then Captain) Lushington, when he [Lushington] had been surrounded and unhorsed by the enemy. Photographs and sketches of Gorman working on the NSS Vernon all show him using a walking stick. Another fact that adds to the mystery is that at a Government inquiry in Sydney, James was asked "Did you not come on shore in the ship’s boat?" his reply was to explain that he could not land in the usual place from the ships boat when leaving the NSS Vernon as it was too difficult for him. Whenever he was on liberty he had to be taken by a Waterman to Circular Quay." So the question remains unanswered, was the need for a walking stick at thirty three years of age made necessary by arthritis or had he in fact lost a leg? During the time James Gorman VC served on NSS Vernon, 1130 destitute boys were received on the Ship. These boys were trained and educated for a minimum of two years then at the minimum age of twelve years they were apprenticed. Those apprenticed remained on the books of the Vernon until released on their eighteenth birthday. James Gorman VC lived a short life but it was a full, exciting and caring one in which much was achieved including. His thirteen years in the Royal Navy followed by his great work done while on the NSS Vernon, this to me was his greatest achievement, keeping in mind how the lives of the boys of the Vernon were changed from those of misery and shame to ones full of promise. Strong evidence of the success of the NSS Vernon comes from the fact that a very small number of the boys trained on her, slightly over 1 percent, were ever imprisoned for any offences. The remainder settled down as respectable and industrious citizens. James Pickering the shoemaking instructor on the NSS Vernon is quoted as saying of James Gorman VC. "He was always among the boys. He was a terror to the bad boys, and the good boys regarded him with affection, and would not do anything to displease him. In fact he had only to speak and all was peace and quietness".
© Harry Willey 1999 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am indebted to the following people who have assisted me during my twenty year search for information from which I have now been able to write the true story of the life of James Gorman VC:- Patricia Blackett Barber, formerly Curator of Uniforms, Medals & Weapons at the National Maritime Museum, London. For the last twelve years Patricia has been querying and deleting my mistakes, while at the same time providing me with some very strong evidence as to the truth. I must add that I had been writing to Authorities in England for nine and a half years with out any acknowledgment of my letters until Patricia wrote to me. Further assistance came from England via Patricia Martin, a Military Historian and John Winton, during the last twelve months I have received valuable information from Bert Gedin, a member of the Crimean War Research Society and Tom Healy DCM MID RN (Rtd). a Royal Naval Genealogist. In Australia assistance has come from Anthony Staunton, of the Military Historical Society of Australia, and Peter Vanderfield of Kirribilli, NSW both of whom for a number of years have believed that James Devereux who had been credited by British historians as having been awarded the Victoria Cross was not James Gorman VC.
Sergeant John Park VC and Private Alexander Wright VC, of the 77th Regiment of the British Army, were in fact the first recipients of the Victoria Cross to set foot in Australia, they arrived in mid 1857. And were presented with their Medals early in 1858 before leaving for India. Gorman first visited Australia in December 1858. Other early Victoria Cross’s to be presented in Australia were those presented to Pte Frederick Whirlpool VC, of the 3rd Bombay European Regiment, in Melbourne in 1861 and Captain of the Foretop Samuel Mitchell who was decorated in Sydney in 1864.
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