Cecil D'Arcy

D'Arcy was born in Wanganui, New Zealand, where his father Major Oliver Barker D'Arcy (sometimes D'Arcey) of the 65th Regiment was in the British garrison. In 1860, Oliver D'Arcy transferred to the Cape Mounted Riflemen and settled with his family at King William's Town in the Cape Colony.

File:Redver buller sauvant un officier à Hlobane.jpg's VC action, painted by H. Montagu Love (1905)]]

During the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879, Cecil D'Arcy was an officer in the Frontier Light Horse, a mounted unit of 200 volunteers raised at King William's Town in 1877 by Lieutenant Frederick Carrington.

At the Battle of Hlobane on 28 March 1879, his unit acted as the rearguard and 20% of the 156 members were killed. D'Arcy was recommended for the VC by Evelyn Wood for going back to save the lives of wounded men in the descent of Devil's Pass; the award was not approved on the grounds that he was a volunteer and not a member of the imperial forces. Five other awards were approved,{{sfn|Morris|1998 |p=491}} including to Colonel Redvers Buller; he had rescued D'Arcy who was retiring on foot and carrying him on his horse, while hotly pursued by Zulus.{{London Gazette|issue=24734|page=3966|date=17 June 1879}}

At the Battle of Kambula on the following day, the Frontier Light Horse were part of the pursuit of the retreating Zulu forces. Captain D'Arcy wrote in a letter published in The Natal Mercury in April that they "followed them for eight miles, butchering the brutes all over the place. I told the men, 'No quarter, boys, and remember yesterday'. And they did knock them about, killing them all over the place".{{cite journal |title=QUESTION. HC Deb 26 June 1879 vol 247 cc693-4 |journal=Hansard |date=26 June 1879 |url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1879/jun/26/question-4 |access-date=27 March 2019}} The FLH troopers extracted their revenge for their comrades killed the day before at Hlobane.{{sfn|Knight|1995| p=138}}

He was awarded the VC for his actions on 3 July 1879 when a mounted reconnaissance was ambushed near Ulundi. In a dispatch dated 5 July in The London Gazette, Redvers Buller wrote that D'Arcy "reckons neither personal inconvenience nor danger in the execution of any order, determined and bold; he has frequently shown great personal gallantry, and has always given a fine example to his men."{{London Gazette|issue=24754|page=5110|date=21 August 1879}} The citation of the VC award reads;{{London Gazette| issue =24769|page =5830|date =10 October 1879}}

{{quote

| For his gallant conduct on the 3rd July, 1879, during the reconnaissance made before Ulundi by the Mounted Corps, in endeavouring to rescue Trooper Raubenheim, of the Frontier Light Horse, who fell from his horse as the troops were retiring. Captain D'Arcy, though the Zulus were close upon them, waited for the man to mount behind him; the horse kicked them both off, and though much hurt by the fall and quite alone, Captain D'Arcy coolly endeavoured to lift the trooper, who was stunned, on to the horse, and it was only when he found that he had not strength to do so that he mounted and rode off.

His escape was miraculous as the Zulus had actually closed upon him.}}

He was presented with his medal in December 1879 by Sir Garnet Wolseley in Pretoria.

After the Frontier Light Horse was disbanded, D'Arcy joined the Cape Mounted Riflemen as a captain. He served in the 1880 Basuto Gun War, but resigned his commission in April 1881.{{citation needed|date=March 2021}}

In ill health, he stayed with Rev. Charles Taberer in Keiskammahoek to recuperate. During the night of 6–7 August 1881 he left the house; his body was not found for several months.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article63403280 |title=A Colonial Hero |newspaper=Portland Guardian (Vic. : 1876–1953) |location=Vic. |date=24 January 1882 |access-date=3 October 2013 |page=2 Edition: MORNING |publisher=National Library of Australia}} He was interred on 3 January 1882 in the cemetery of King William's Town beside his parents.[http://www.vconline.org.uk/henry-c-d-darcy-vc/4586494887 vconline]

He is also considered South African, though he probably considered himself British or Anglo-Irish.{{citation needed|date=March 2019}}

In 2008, David Randall in The Independent newspaper in London reported claims that D'Arcy faked his death.{{cite news |title=Faking it: How to do a Reggie and get away with it |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/faking-it-how-to-do-a-reggie-and-get-away-with-it-872291.html |access-date=25 March 2019 |newspaper=The Independent|location=London |date=20 July 2008}}

{{quote

|No longer is anyone likely to imitate Captain Henry Cecil Dudgeon D'Arcy of the Frontier Light Horse, who, having been awarded the VC in the Zulu wars, turned to drink. Later, a body wearing his clothes was found in a cave and, this being the pathology of a century ago, presumed to be his. Only many decades later was it learnt that D'Arcy had found a dead man lying in the snow, changed clothes with him, and gone to Natal, and lived out the rest of his life under an assumed name. He was once recognised in 1925, but swore his discoverer to the secret, which the man kept until D'Arcy died.}}

• Edmund O'Toole
• Lord William Beresford; both won the VC on 3 July 1879 at Ulundi during the retirement of a reconnoitring party.

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{{refbegin}}

• {{cite book|title=In the Face of the Enemy: The complete history of the Victoria Cross and New Zealand|first1= Glyn |last1=Harper |first2= Colin |last2=Richardson |date=2006|publisher= HarperCollins|location= Auckland|isbn=1-86950-522-0|pages= 55–56}}
• {{Cite book|last=Morris|first=Donald R.|title=The Washing of the Spears|publisher=Da Capo Press|year=1998|isbn=0-306-80866-8|title-link=Washing of the Spears}}
• {{cite book|last=Knight|first=Ian |title=Brave Men's Blood: The Epic of the Zulu War, 1879|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EoaOAAAACAAJ|year=1995|publisher=Pen & Sword Military Classics|isbn=978-1-84415-212-4}}
• {{cite book|title=What Happened to a V.C.|first= Patricia |last=D'Arcy|publisher=Dundalgan Press |date=1975|isbn=0852210256}}

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• {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091026220057/http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Park/7572/nzvcross.txt |date=26 October 2009 |title=New Zealand Troops who have won the Victoria Cross }} (brief biography details)

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Category:1850 births

Category:1881 deaths

Category:Anglo-Zulu War recipients of the Victoria Cross

Category:Cape Colony army officers

Category:New Zealand recipients of the Victoria Cross

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Category:Military personnel from the Eastern Cape

Category:Military personnel from Whanganui

Category:South African recipients of the Victoria Cross

Category:People of the Basuto Gun War