V.C. London Gazette 24 February, 1857: ‘Thomas Reeves, Seaman, James Gorman, Seaman and Mark Scholefield, Seaman. At the Battle of Inkermann, 5 November 1854, when the Right Lancaster Battery was attacked, these three seaman mounted the Banquette, and under a heavy fire made use of the disabled soldiers’ muskets, which were loaded for them by others under the parapet. They are the survivors of five who performed the above action. (Letter from Sir S. Lushington, 7th June, 1856)’
Note: The Victoria Crosses awarded to Reeves and Scholefield are both held in the Lord Ashcroft Collection at the Imperial War Museum in London.
James Gorman was born in London, the son of Patrick Gorman, a nurseryman and his wife Ann (née Furlong) who were married at St. Martin in the Fields, Westminster on 29 June 1829. Giving his date of birth as 21 August 1834, he was assigned on 2 March 1848 to the training ship H.M.S. Victory, Admiral Nelson’s former flagship, as a Boy Second Class, having been one of the first 200 boys to be accepted as apprentices into the Royal Navy (many years later on his marriage certificate Gorman would state his year of birth as 1835 and his father’s Christian name as James, discrepancies which are not accounted for).
In September 1848 he transferred with 69 other apprentices to the 10 gun brig sloop, H.M.S. Rolla, in which ship the boys were required to cruise in the Channel until declared fit to serve aboard regular naval vessels. Gorman impressed his instructors to the degree that he was retained beyond his allotted time to act as an instructor for the next intake of apprentices, following which he was briefly appointed to H.M.S. Dragon before joining H.M.S. Howe, remaining with her until 12 July 1850. After a short stay in floating barracks, Gorman, now standing 5 feet 2 inches, with blue eyes, light brown hair and a ruddy complexion, joined H.M.S. Albion as a Boy 1st Class on 13 July 1850. Promoted Ordinary Seaman 2nd Class on 13 May 1852, just two months later he was advanced again to Able Seaman and, remaining in Albion, he would serve in this rank during the Crimean War as a member of the Naval Brigade.
The Naval Brigade in the Crimea
Orders for the invasion of the Crimea were received by Lord Raglan on 16 July 1854 and by early November, the allied army, having landed unopposed at Kalamita Bay, 28 miles north of Sebastopol between 14 and 18 September, had already inflicted heavy losses on the Russian Army at the Battle of Alma on 20 September and engaged them once more with indecisive results on the 25 October at Balaklava while continuing to lay siege to the port of Sebastopol.
In the meantime, it had become evident from the lack of Russian naval ambition that the Royal Navy could play a larger role in the campaign and on 17 October a largely unsupported and decidedly unsuccessful naval bombardment of Sebastopol port’s coastal and harbour defences was conducted while in terms of land operations, a Naval Brigade, eventually numbering 2400 sailors, 2000 marines and nearly 160 guns, was formed for shore service.
‘The navy’s main work ashore consisted in supporting the allied artillery pounding the Russian defences or in counter-battery work. Placed under Captain Stephen Lushington, commander of Albion, seconded by Captain William Peel of the Diamond, the Naval Brigade was initially camped on Victoria Ridge, near the Woronzoff Road, just over 2 miles south of Sebastopol harbour. Its first job was simply to employ teams of ‘bluejackets’ to manhandle from the busy harbour of Balaklava the heavy siege guns and ammunition and the timber and materials necessary to construct gun emplacements. The distance was 6-8 miles, depending on the point in the front line and the men worked ceaselessly from 5.30am until after 6.30pm, often under fire. To increase the allies’ firepower ‘before Sebastopol’ heavy guns were removed from the major battleships: the powerful 8-inch guns of Albion and Retribution along with 32- and 68-pounders from Britannia, Agamemnon, Queen, Rodney, Diamond, Trafalgar, Bellerophon, Terrible, Vengeance and London; Beagle landed two of her Lancaster guns. Some ships like the Diamond which provided the first of the naval batteries under Captain Peel and immediately lost twenty 32-pounder guns, were just about stripped of their main armament. For each naval gun, the sailors brought ashore 150 rounds of shot and 30 of common shell and an appropriate supply of gunpowder. It was as Lyons recorded, a ‘Herculean’ task to get all this ordnance and ammunition ashore.’ (The Crimean War at Sea: The Naval Campaigns against Russia 1854 -56 by Peter Duckers refers).
The British siege positions before Sebastopol were divided into the ‘Right Attack’ and ‘Left Attack’, either side of the Victoria (or Worontzoff) ravine. The French siege positions lay between the coast near Sebastopol and then joined and secured the British left flank or ‘Left Attack’. Helping to reinforce the British right, the Naval Brigade added to the allied firepower by manning 17 guns in Chapman’s Battery and 7 guns in Gordon’s Battery. Six of the new 68-pounder Lancaster guns were set up in two other batteries on the Victoria Ridge and others were located with other more conventional guns in various positions. The right-hand British flank, however, was ill-defined and vulnerable and presented a tempting target for the Russians.
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