Dudley Stagpoole

Dudley Stagpoole VC, DCM (1838 – 1 August 1911) was a British Army soldier and an Irish recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.

Stagpoole was born in Killunan, County Galway in 1838.

Stagpoole was about 25 years old, and a Drummer in the 57th Regiment of Foot (later The Middlesex Regiment (Duke of Cambridge's Own), during the Second Taranaki War campaign of the New Zealand Land Wars when the following deed took place on 2 October 1863 at Allan's Hill near Poutoko in Taranaki, for which he and Ensign John Thornton Down were awarded the VC, and a separate incident at Kaipakopako for which he was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal:

For their conduct at Pontoko, on the 2nd October, in rescuing a wounded comrade from the rebel Maories. They succeeded in bringing in the wounded man, who was lying at about fifty yards from the bush,although the enemy kept up a very heavy fire from the bush at short range, and also from behind fallen logs close at hand.

The man had been wounded during an engagement with the rebel natives, and Ensign Down, and Drummer Stagpoole, responded to the call of the Officer commanding the detachment of the Regiment for volunteers to bring him in.

The Medal for Distinguished Conduct in the Field has already been conferred on Drummer Stagpoole, for the energy and devotion which he displayed on the 25th September, 1863, at the affair near Kaipakopako, in having, though wounded in the head, twice volunteered and brought in wounded men.

He died in Ware, Hertfordshire on 1 August 1911.

His Victoria Cross is displayed at the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment and Queen's Regiment RHQ, Howe Barracks, Canterbury, Kent