On the way to
find graves in Rochdale I went via Heywood to have a coffee with this brave
man. It took about twenty minutes to find his grave. I didn't
know as I sat in the car on the drive pouring coffee that it was visible from
there - oh well. It's easy looking back isn't it?
Here lies
Anthony Palmer and there's only one photograph him out there - probably because
he fought in the Crimean War which took place from October 1853 to February
1856. His act of bravery occurred when he was 35 years old on Sunday 5th
November 1854. He was a private fighting with the Grenadier Guards in Russia
against the Russian Army. At the Battle of Inkerman
he volunteered with two others to join their Major to dislodge a party of
Russians from the Sandbag Battery. Under heavy fire they attacked the Russians
and succeeded in killing them. The major was being bayoneted to death but
Palmer shot the Russian in time to save his boss. Anthony was also a member of
a small team who were vastly outnumbered when under attacked from the enemy,
leading his peers away from capture and probable death.
He was awarded
the Victoria Cross in June 1857 by Queen Victoria in Hyde Park, London. After
leaving the army in 1863 he rose to become the Head Constable of The Millwall Dock Company. His Victoria Cross medal was stolen during a bar brawl and a
replacement was issued on the instructions of Queen Victoria (the original
medal was eventually recovered.)
He died aged
73 in 1892 in Crumpsall Hospital in Manchester. He
joins his parents in this grave. Wood Street in Heywood has since been named
after this brave man. I had a coffee with him, did one of my stiffest salutes
and left.