Presentation of the Victoria Cross by Rear Admiral Sir Michael Seymour, Commander in Chief of HM Ships and Vessels on the East India and China Station, Canton, 1858

Posted: April 26th, 2026 | No Comments »

An 1858 watercolour by the naval artist Frederick Le Breton Bedwell of the “Presentation of the Victoria Cross by Rear Admiral Sir Michael Seymour, Commander in Chief of HM Ships and Vessels on the East India and China Station” to:

• Boatswain John Sheppard, HMS Cruiser;

• Colour Sergeant John Pretty John, HMS Sans Pareil;

• Able Seaman James Gorman, HMS Elk.

Present at the ceremony were:

• His Excellency Sir John Bowring, Governor of Hong Kong;

• Rear Admiral Sir C. Rigault de Genouilly, C-in-C of HM Naval Forces India and China;

• Major General C T van Straubenzee, Commanding British Forces, Seamen and Royal Marines of the Allied Forces.

Now what is interesting is that this ceremony is taking place in “the Palace of the Tartar General in the City of Canton”, the official residence and administrative seat (yamen).

Yet Pretty John was awarded the VC in 1854 at the Battle of Inkerman against the Russians as part of the Crimean War. Gorman also earned his VC at Inkerman while Sheppard was got his for attempting to blow up the Russian Flagship at Sebastopol.

What happened was that all three men were on ships that left the Crimea at the end of the war in 1856 for China. In early 1858, British and French forces occupied Canton (Guangzhou) and the Palace of the Tartar General. So the medals finally caught up with the recipients who had then gone on to fight in the Second Opium War and received their Crimean War medals in occupied Canton.

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