A YOUNG man, a soldier, led his men up a steep slope on the borders of India and Afghanistan so as to gain a hilltop position from where the enemy was firing down on his unit.

He was wounded, but by his efforts gained the hilltop position and so silenced the enemy. Unfortunately, the position was later recaptured, so once again he had to lead his men up the steep hill. Although it was secured for a second time, he was severely wounded. But the enemy were driven off, and the low ground made safe for his comrades.

He was awarded the Victoria Cross. It could be a story from last week’s news. In fact, it dates from 1863 – but it was much the same area, and against the same sort of enemy, that British troops are fighting today.

That young man, Henry Pitcher, had a close association with Jersey, and his Victoria Cross will shortly be arriving back in the Island, bought from his great-great-niece, Anne Allen-Stevens, who lives in the UK. The purchase was arranged by a new Jersey charity, Raise the Standard!, which supports the UK charity Help for Heroes.

She is donating the money to Help for Heroes, which helps the treatment and recuperation of soldiers wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan. So both Help for Heroes and Jersey benefits from this agreement – the charity receives a significant donation and the VC medal and associated two-campaign medal come back to Jersey.

Raise the Standard! co-ordinator Frank Falle, pictured, thanked all the donors and the ‘enormous amount of work and fund-raising’ done by the Army Benevolent Fund. He said he was delighted that the money was going to such a good cause – a medal for past heroism helping directly today’s generation of heroes.

The first chapter of this  story takes place on India’s North-West frontier, in 1863, during the Umbeyla Campaign, where the hero of this story, Lieutenant Henry  Pitcher (aged 23), gained his VC.

He had been born in India in 1840, the second son of an officer serving in the 6th Madras Light Cavalry, who had died young. Together with his elder brother, Duncan, he was sent back home for his education, part of which was at Victoria College, which he entered in the autumn term of 1856 at the age of 15.

The school had been opened by Queen Victoria three years before, and Dr Henderson, the headmaster, was a relation of his mother, Emelie.  A laconic note in the school register says: ‘possibly joined the army’.

There was a strong family connection with the Island, both historically and in the years to come – Jersey’s own hero, Major Francis Peirson of Battle of Jersey fame, was a distant relation, and his mother was the daughter of Vice-Admiral George Le Geyt (1786–1861), who would later remarry the Rector of St Martin, the Rev Thomas Le Neveu. Duncan Pitcher also joined the Indian Army and retired as a colonel in 1896. He returned to live in Jersey, where his mother died in 1901, and where he died in 1924. It is his great-great-grand-daughter, Anne Stevens, who has donated the proceeds of the sale of Henry Pitcher’s medals to Help for Heroes.

Straight after leaving Victoria College a year later, Pitcher was commissioned Ensign (Second Lieutenant), and set sail for India, arriving in December, at the height of the Indian Mutiny.

He was attached to the Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders, under the command of Sir Colin Campbell, and although posted to 1st Punjab Infantry (Coke’s Rifles), served with the 79th Highlanders for the remainder of the Mutiny, seeing action through the campaign of 1858–1859. He was present at the siege and capture of Lucknow, as well as at many other actions which restored peace and order to India’s plains.

He was promoted Lieutenant in May 1858, and was free to join Coke’s Rifles, one of eight regiments which, together with the Guides’ Infantry and Cavalry, were to become known as the Punjab Frontier Force, the famous ‘Piffers’ – supreme exponents of mountain warfare. The regiment’s uniform was not khaki, which was then being introduced for such warfare, but black ‘siah post’ (black coats), which rendered the men notoriously conspicuous against the dun-coloured mountains of the Frontier.

Pitcher was appointed Adjutant of the 4th  Punjab Infantry and served in fierce fighting in a  number of frontier campaigns. In late 1863, a 5,600-strong force, including Pitcher’s own regiment,  was formed with the aim of putting an end to raiding by former mutineers and fanatical Muslim tribesmen from the hills of North-West India – the present border area of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Its line of advance was through the Umbeyla Pass, but great difficulty was experienced in getting the elephants of the baggage train through the defile. After three days, the entire expedition came to a stop, penned in on low ground, with surrounding heights occupied by an alliance of hostile local tribes.

The key to the defence of the column was a high and steep hill, Crag Piquet, which commanded all the low ground. A small party of 12 men – as many as could be contained on the hilltop – was sent to hold it, but just before dawn on the following morning, the sound of heavy firing from the hill showed that the defending force was being hard-pressed by the enemy.

A force of 20 men commanded by a Major Keyes, with Lieutenant Pitcher, advanced with about 20 picked men to their assistance, but before they could reach the top of the crag the small party there had been overpowered and driven off the top of the hill.

Keyes ordered his men to take cover under over-hanging rocks, about 20 paces from the top, and waited for dawn and reinforcements. As dawn broke, he directed his men to fix bayonets and charge.

Because the paths up the hill were so narrow and steep, the attack was made in single file, with Pitcher taking one path and another officer leading a second attack from a different direction.

Pitcher led his men almost to the top, until he was wounded in the moment of victory by a boulder hurled by the enemy. After a most ‘exciting and hand-to-hand fight’, the Crag Piquet was recovered, with the enemy driven out at the point of the bayonet. With the Crag Piquet taken, the rest of the enemy quickly disappeared down the mountain, leaving behind 54 killed and seven wounded.

In Major Keyes’ report he described the ‘high, soldier-like qualities’ of Lieutenant Pitcher, for which he would later receive the Victoria Cross, one of only two in that campaign, both gained in the same action.

But a fortnight later it was all to do again. The position on the summit of Crag Piquet had been strengthened and enlarged, and was defended by 160 men – but not enough to deal with an attack in strength by massed tribesmen. The defenders retreated down the hill and, because of the importance of this position, it had to be recaptured immediately.

The charge up the hill was led by Lieutenant Pitcher, who was severely wounded, and only with great effort and further reinforcement was the Crag once again retaken, with the enemy driven back over the hills.

In his report of the action, Major Keyes wrote of  ‘the admirable manner in which Lieutenant Pitcher performed this important duty. He was by many yards the foremost of his party, and the gallant bearing of this excellent young officer was the admiration of all spectators. It is impossible to say too much or to over-rate his services.’

A month later it was agreed that the hostile tribes had been sufficiently weakened, and thus the objectives of the campaign had been carried out. Designed to be little more than ‘a military promenade’, it lasted three months and cost nearly 2,000 casualties.

Lieutenant Pitcher recovered, and was awarded his VC the following year. He was promoted to captain, but at the age of 34, in 1875, he died of heatstroke  and was buried at the Garrison Church at Kohat in the North-West Frontier. He was still serving with his regiment – a Piffer to the last.

The name of this forgotten hero of the North-West Frontier sank into oblivion in Jersey, but the name has always been visible on a stained glass window in St Martin’s Church. In modern times, nobody was sufficiently curious to do any research until Mr Falle, who is also the chairman of the Société’s history section, noticed it,  and wondered to whom it might refer.

Research by him and the Société uncovered Pitcher’s story, established his connections with the Island and set the events in train that have led to his medals coming home – and money going to help today’s generation of soldiers injured in the service of their country.