Lieutenant-Colonel Ferdinand Simeon Le Quesne, VC (25 December 1863 – 14 April 1950) was a

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

surgeon and recipient of the

Victoria Cross The Victoria Cross (VC) is the highest and most prestigious award of the British honours system. It is awarded for valour "in the presence of the enemy" to members of the British Armed Forces and may be awarded posthumously. It was previously ...

, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

and Commonwealth forces.

Details

Le Quesne was educated at King's College London before he joined the

as surgeon captain on 28 July 1886.Hart′s army list, 1903 After the

Third Anglo-Burmese War The Third Anglo-Burmese War ( my, တတိယ အင်္ဂလိပ် – မြန်မာစစ်, Tatiya Anggalip–Mran cac), also known as the Third Burma War, took place during 7–29 November 1885, with sporadic resistance conti ...

, local leaders started a guerilla war against the British forces who now occupied the country. Le Quesne's action was during this period. He was 25 years old, and a surgeon in the Army Medical Service (later the Royal Army Medical Corps) serving with the Chin Field Force in

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

when the following deed took place for which he was awarded the VC.

Further information

Le Quesne served with the Chin-Lushai expeditionary force in 1890, and with the Wuntho Field Force in 1891, and was promoted to surgeon major on 28 July 1898. He served in the

Second Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the South ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

, from which he returned in August 1902. He later served in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, and retired in 1918 with the rank of lieutenant colonel.British Medical Journal obituary
/ref>

The medal

His VC is held at the Jersey Museum in St Helier.

References

Location of grave and VC medal
''(Avon)'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Le Quesne, Ferdinand Simeon 1863 births 1950 deaths Alumni of King's College London Fellows of King's College London Royal Army Medical Corps officers British Army personnel of the Second Boer War Victoria Cross recipients from Jersey British Army recipients of the Victoria Cross