Campbell Mellis Douglas VC
(August
5, 1840, Quebec City - December 31, 1909), Assistant Surgeon, 2nd
Bn., 24th Regiment (later The South Wales Borderers), British Army
On 7 May 1867 at the island of Little Andaman, , eastern India, in
the Bay of Bengal, Assistant Surgeon Douglas and four Privates
(BELL, D., COOPER, J., GRIFFITH, W. and MURPHY, T.) of the 2/24th
Regiment risked their lives in manning a boat and proceeding through
dangerous surf to rescue some of their comrades who had been sent to
the island to find out the fate of the commander and seven of the
crew, who had landed from the ship Assam Valley and were feared
murdered by the cannibalistic islanders.
Source: http://www.victoriacross.net/award.asp?vc=340
CAMPBELL MILLIS DOUGLAS (sic)
(Assistant-Surgeons, now
Brigade-Surgeon, Retired M.D., L.R.C.P.)
2nd Battalion 24th (2nd
Warwickshire) South Wales Borderers.
One of our ships, the Assam
Valley, had put in at the island of Little Andaman, in the Bay of
Bengal and some of the crew went ashore. Apparently they must have
been set upon and murdered by the natives, for none of them ever
returned. To ascertain their fate, a part of the 24th regiment was
sent by steamer from Rangoon, and on some of them landing on May 7th
1867, they were attacked by the natives. Meantime a storm arose and
turned the surf into a raging sea, and the soldiers on shore being
in great peril, Dr. Douglas and four men most gallantry manned a gig
and attempted to reach them. They very nearly succeeded in their
endeavours, but, the boat beginning to fill rapidly, they were
forced to retire. They then made a second attempt and were
successful in reaching the shore, taking off five men. On these
being placed safely on board, the doctor and his four brave men
turned once more to the rescue of the rest of the soldiers, and by
their strenuous efforts the entire party was eventually taken off
the island.
The London Gazette states that Dr. Douglas accomplished
his trips through the surf by no ordinary exertion. He stood in the
bows of the boat and worked her in an intrepid and seamanlike
manner, cool to a degree. The four privates behaved in an equally
cool and collected manner, rowing through the roughest surf when the
slightest hesitation or want of pluck would have been attended with
the bravest results. Their bravery and devotion were the means of
saving seventeen men from an awful fate. The four privates with
Dr. Douglas were Thomas Murphy, James Cooper, David bell and William
Griffith and the Victoria Cross was awarded to them all. They were
the first recipients of the decoration in the “Old Green Howard’s,”
which famous regiment had now sixteen to its credit, of which seven
were gained at Rorke’s Drift in the Zulu War 1879. Fortunately it
has been possible to reproduce photographs of Bell and Murphy, but
those of Cooper and Griffiths, in spite of many inquiries, have not
been able to be found.
Dr. Douglas retired in 1882. He is the son
of Dr. George Mellis Douglas
and his wife Charlotte Saxton Campbell, (1820-1852), and was born in Quebec, being educated at St.
John’s Canada, and Laval’s University, Edinburgh. Joined the 24th
Regiment in 1863; was Medical Officer in charge of Field Hospital
during the 2nd Riel Expedition 1885.
Early in 1883, Brigade Surgeon Douglas gave the very first First Aid
training course of St. John Ambulance in Canada. The course was
given in Quebec City. His class raised £3 3s 0d for the charity.
He died at Horrington (near Wells), Somerset, at the age of 69, and
is buried in the Wells Cemetery. His medals, including the Silver
Medal of the Royal Humane Society, are in the collection of the
Canadian War Museum, Ottawa.
He married the young widow of Surgeon Valentine Munbee McMaster,
78th Highlanders, also a V.C., won at Lucknow in the Sepoy Mutiny
who died leaving a year old son Bryce McMaster. (1934 Bryce was
living at 15 Park Crescent, Oxford.)
Campbell M Douglas' sons were:-
- George Mellis Douglas, born circa 1870, an explorer by canoe
of the remote Canadian Northwest and a well-known author. (His
adventures are told in "Lands Forlorn" published by the
Knickerbocker Press, Putnams N.Y. 1914.) In 1937 he was living
at Lakeside, Ontario and a snapshot taken 5 years earlier shows
him, lean and bronzed, with white hair, standing beside his
canoe "Alcyone" and strongly resembling my(Dorothy May Campbell)
father and his brother Kenneth.
- Lionel Douglas, who in 1934
was the Captain of the "Empress of Japan", the ship in which
Chester and I(DMC) and our 3 boys came from Japan to British
Columbia in 1925.
Any contributions will be
gratefully accepted
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