Hedley Shafto Johnstone Vicars (7 December 1826 – 22 March 1855) 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 Gurkha ...

officer and evangelical who was killed in action during the

Crimean War The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia. Geopolitical causes of the war included the ...

Life

Vicars was born in

Mauritius Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label= Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It ...

on 7 December 1826, where his father, Captain Richard John Vicars, (d. 1839), a captain in the

Royal Engineers The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is a corps of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces and is head ...

, was then stationed. His mother Marianne Williams was a native of

Newfoundland Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region ...

. He was the eldest of several siblings. After passing his examinations at Woolwich on 22 December 1843 he received a commission in the 97th Foot, and in the following year proceeded to

Corfu Corfu (, ) or Kerkyra ( el, Κέρκυρα, Kérkyra, , ; ; la, Corcyra.) is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea, of the Ionian Islands, and, including its small satellite islands, forms the margin of the northwestern frontier of Greece. The isl ...

. On 6 November 1846 he obtained his lieutenancy. In 1848 his regiment was removed to

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of Hispa ...

, and in 1851 to

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...

. In November of that year his mind took a serious turn, and henceforward his character was changed. He associated with Dr. Twining, the garrison chaplain at Halifax, became a Sunday-school teacher, visited the sick, and took every opportunity of reading the scriptures and praying with the men of his company. In 1852 he became adjutant of his regiment. In May 1853 the regiment returned to England, and in August he resigned the adjutancy. He also became a frequent attendant of meetings held at Exeter Hall and an active member of the Soldiers' Friendly Society, besides holding meetings with railway navvies on many occasions. Before his regiment left England for the Crimea, early in 1854, it was reported that ''"since Mr. Vicars became so good, he has steadied about four hundred men in the regiment."'' At the Piraeus many men of the 97th died of

cholera Cholera is an infection of the small intestine by some strains of the bacterium '' Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea that lasts a few days. Vomiting an ...

, and Vicars while conducting the burial parties took every opportunity of addressing the spectators at the graves. On 3 November 1854 he was promoted to the rank of captain. On 20 November 1854 he landed in the Crimea, and, with his regiment, took part in the

Siege of Sebastopol A siege is a military blockade of a city, or fortress, with the intent of conquering by attrition, or a well-prepared assault. This derives from la, sedere, lit=to sit. Siege warfare is a form of constant, low-intensity conflict characteri ...

. Here he continued his religious work, holding prayer meetings in his tent, visiting the sick in the hospitals, and carefully looking after his men. On the night of 22 March 1855, while he was in the trenches, the Russians made a sortie in force from Sebastopol, and, taking the English by surprise, drove them out of their trenches. Vicars, keeping his men in hand, fired a volley into the enemy at twenty paces, and then 'charging' with the 97th he drove the Russians back and regained possession of the trenches. He was killed in a sortie by the Russians from Sebastopol, 22 March 1855. He cut down two men with his own hand before he fell, bayoneted and shot through the right shoulder. He was buried on the following day on the Woronzoff road, close to the milestone. In his despatch on 6 April,

Lord Raglan Baron Raglan, of Raglan in the County of Monmouth, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 20 October 1852 for the military commander Lord FitzRoy Somerset, chiefly remembered as commander of the British troops ...

made special mention of Vicars' gallantry. ''The Memorials of Captain Hedley Vicars'' (with a portrait and a view of his grave), by the author of 'The Victory Won,’ i.e. Catherine M. Marsh, was published soon after his death. The memorials are dedicated "to her whom God graciously chose to sow in his young heart its first imperishable seed." It had a large circulation, and was translated into French, German, Swedish and Italian.

References

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Memorials of Capt Hedley Vicars
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vicars, Hedley 1826 births 1855 deaths Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment officers British Army personnel of the Crimean War British military personnel killed in the Crimean War