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George Channer

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George Channer
General George Nicholas Channer VC
Born7 January 1843
Allahabad, British India
Died13 December 1905
Westward Ho!, Devon
Buried
East-the-Water Cemetery, Bideford
Allegiance United Kingdom
Service / branchBritish Indian Army
Years of service1859-1901
RankGeneral
Unit1st Gurkha Rifles
Battles / warsSecond Anglo-Afghan War
Perak War
Umbeyla Campaign
Awards Victoria Cross
Order of the Bath

General George Nicholas Channer VC CB (7 January 1843 – 13 December 1905) was a recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.

Life

The grave of George Channer VC in East-the-Water Cemetery in Bideford

George Channer was born at Allahabad, India, on 7 January 1842, the eldest surviving son of eight children of George Girdwood Channer[1] (1811–1895) and Susan (d. 1895), eldest daughter of Nicholas Kendall JP, vicar of Talland and Lanlivery, Cornwall.[2] He was educated at Cheltenham College. He served with the 89th and 95th regiments until 7 August 1866.[2]

He was 32 years old, and a captain in the Bengal Staff Corps, Indian Army, and 1st Gurkha Rifles during the Perak War when, on 20 December 1875 in Perak, Malaya, Captain Channer was the first to jump into the enemy's stockade to which he had been despatched with a small party to obtain intelligence of its strength and position. The stockade was formidable and it would have been impossible to bring guns to bear on it because of the steepness of the hill and the density of the jungle. If Captain Channer and his party had not been able to take the stockade in this manner it would have been necessary to resort to the bayonet, with consequent great loss of life.[3]

He later achieved the rank of General.

He died on 13 December 1905 at Westward Ho!, Devon,[4] and was buried in East-the-Water Cemetery[5] in Bideford, in a grave adjacent to that of Gerald Graham VC. His Victoria Cross medal group is in the Lord Ashcroft Gallery at the Imperial War Museum.

Family

He married in June 1872, Annie Isabella, daughter of John William Watson.[4]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ "Graham - Milburn Family tree". Retrieved 4 March 2013.
  2. ^ a b H. M. Vibart, rev. James Lunt. "Channer, George Nicholas (1842–1905)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/32362. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  3. ^ "No. 24314". The London Gazette. 14 April 1876. p. 2476.
  4. ^ a b Wikisource This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Vibart, Henry Meredith (1912). "Channer, George Nicholas". In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography (2nd supplement). London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  5. ^ George Nicholas Channer VC on the 'Memorials to Valour' website
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