VICTORIA CROSS HOLDERS BURIED IN BELGIUM
Data per holder
Name Holder :
Thomas
ESMONDE
Rank :
Lieutenant Colonel
Cemetery :
Town cemetery, Brugge
GPS :
GPS :
Kleine kerkhofstraat 62, 8310 Assebroek
N : 51,1932592° E : 2,2361768°
Location Grave :
See map, not located in CWGC section.
Date Pictures :
April 10th, 2011
February 19, 2021
Comments :
Please note that the location is not in one of the sections reserved for the military people.
As per location map : best way is to enter the cemetery via the main entrance (above address).
T. Esmonde died during a local hunt in the region of Brugge. He was awarded the VC for actions during the Crimean war (1855), that explains why he is buried amongst the civilians and not in the CWGC section.
When I visited in 2011 the grave was in a terrible condition as you can see on the pictures, but in 2017 members of the Victoria Cross Trust restored it, so I went back in 2021 to take pictures.
It is thanks to a mail to the responsible of the graveyards of the town of Brugge that I was able to locate the grave.
Gazette :
[ London Gazette, 25 September 1857 ], Sebastopol, Crimea, 18 June 1855, Captain Thomas Esmonde, 18th Regiment.
For having, after being engaged in the attack on the Redan, repeatedly assisted, at great personal risk under a heavy fire of shell and grape, in rescuing wounded men from exposed situations; and also, while in command of a covering party, two days after, for having rushed with the most prompt and daring gallantry to a spot where a fire-ball from the enemy had just been lodged, which he effectually extinguished, before it had betrayed the position of the working party under his protection, – thus saving it from a murderous fire of shell and grape, which was immediately opened upon the spot where the fire-ball had fallen.
Thomas Esmonde was invested with his Victoria Cross by Queen Victoria at Portsmouth on the 2nd August 1858.
Cemetery :
Headstone :
Headstone :
After the restoration.
