Unconventional - Helping a Brother in Distress

Helping a Brother - Crimea

Helping a Brother - During the Crimean War (1853-56) the Russian held city of Sevastopol was besieged by British and French forces. On the 8th September 1855 the British forces made an assault on the Great Redan, a key part of the city’s fortifications; despite heavy casualties they did capture the Redan, but they only held it for two hours before having to withdraw.

Helping a Brother in Distress continued - During the attack Captain Herbert M. Vaughan of the 90th (Perthshire) Light Infantry had led a party of his men in an attempt to capture one of the Redan’s guns. Most were killed in the attack, and Captain Vaughan was himself about to be bayoneted by Russian soldiers when he happened to catch the hand of a nearby Russian officer, and instinctively gave a Masonic grip. The Russian officer was also a Freemason, and true to his obligation to assist poor and distressed Masons he deflected the bayonet thrusts away from his wounded Brother, and ordered that he be carried into the Redan for his wounds to be dressed.

Unfortunately when out of sight of that officer Captain Vaughan was not to be well treated. When the Russians abandoned the Redan a couple of days later a British patrol found Captain Vaughan lying on the floor in a dreadful state, and he sadly died on the 12th September 1855 aged just 27

Helping a Brother in Distress continued - below piece from the Llangoedmor War Memorial project website:

A fellow officer wrote:

"He was found at 8 a.m., on the 10th of September, sitting on the lower step of a staircase that led to the upper floor of the building. His leg was badly broken; he had nothing on him but a flannel shirt and a pair of socks, and when first spoken to he was delirious; he appeared to be very cold, as he was shivering.

I procured him water, and it was distressing to see the avidity with which he swallowed it. I procured a stretcher and placed a feather bed on it, and I never left him until I deposited him safely in the lines of the 90th, under the care of Dr. Anderson, the excellent surgeon of that regiment; the first stretcher did not do, and I had it changed at the Redan.

His mind wandered frequently, and he then almost always spoke in French,: but by speaking gently to him and by holding his hand, I was generally enabled to make him understand what he was talking about, and then he gave me a clear account of what had occurred to him.

Helping a Brother in Distress continued - He was wounded very soon after entering the Redan. After the attack was repulsed, the Russian officers gave orders that he should be taken carefully to the rear, and while in their presence he was well treated, but I fear he was treated with much brutality as he was being conveyed to the rear.

He complained that the men who were taking him dragged him along roughly, and that his broken limb frequently came into contact with gabions, stones, etc, giving him great pain. Upon arriving at the building where I found him, which was full of dead and dying, he appears to have been unkindly treated.

Helping a Brother in Distress continued - His wound had not been dressed. He repeatedly supplicated for water, but no-one gave him a drop. Thank God! they were not Englishmen. It is impossible to conceal that the gallant gentleman's sufferings must have been intense, but he had a gallant heart to meet his fate, and endure the pain that God thought fit to inflict upon him."

He died in camp near Sebastopol of his wounds on 12 September aged 27 and was later mentioned in General Simpson's despatches for his gallantry.

This Helping a Brother in Distress post has been provided by the West Kent Military Lodge. If you would like to know more about the Lodge contact us here