Captain Sir William Peal

Captain Sir William Peal. , Unveiled by his Great, Great Nephew, The Rt. Hon. The Earl Peel GCVO DL , (Monday 19 March 2018), The mosaic celebrates the life and achievements of Captain Sir William Peel VC KCB RN, the third son of Sir Robert Peel who was Prime Minister and founder of the modern Police Force., In this mosaic we see Captain Peel in the Crimean War where he won the Victoria Cross. This was one of the very first to be awarded. The medal is now in the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich., His award was for three separate acts of gallantry: 1. While he was commanding a brigade at the Siege of Sebastopol a live Russian shell landed among the ammunition stores. Peel picked it up with the fuse fizzing and threw it over the parapet. This is depicted in the mosaic. 2. At the Battle of Inkerman in 1854 he helped officers of the Grenadier Guards in their retreat. 3. In 1855 he led the first scaling party to attack the fortress of the Redan at Sebastopol, where he was severely wounded., Above to his right we see his Victoria Cross and below is shown his home in Sandy, the Swiss Cottage lodge, now the Visitor Centre of the RSPB, hence the bird flying above., Peel later served in the Indian Mutiny and died of smallpox at Cawnpore on 27 April, 1858 at the age of 33. A statue of Captain Sir William Peel can be seen in St. Swithun's church.