14 Facts About Cecil D'Arcy

Henry Cecil Dudgeon D'Arcy VC was a New Zealand-born recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.

Cecil D'Arcy won the VC on 3 July 1879 at Ulundi in South Africa during the Anglo-Zulu War when he was 28 years old, and a captain in the Frontier Light Horse.

In 1860, Oliver Cecil D'Arcy transferred to the Cape Mounted Riflemen and settled with his family at King William's Town in the Cape Colony.

Cecil 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, including to Colonel Redvers Buller; he had rescued Cecil D'Arcy who was retiring on foot and carrying him on his horse, while hotly pursued by Zulus.

Cecil D'Arcy was awarded the VC for his actions on 3 July 1879 when a mounted reconnaissance was ambushed near Ulundi.

Cecil D'Arcy's escape was miraculous as the Zulus had actually closed upon him.

Cecil D'Arcy was presented with his medal in December 1879 by Sir Garnet Wolseley in Pretoria.

Cecil D'Arcy served in the 1880 Basuto Gun War, but resigned his commission in April 1881.

Cecil D'Arcy was interred on 3 January 1882 in the cemetery of King William's Town beside his parents.

Cecil D'Arcy is considered South African, though he probably considered himself British or Anglo-Irish.

In 2008, David Randall in The Independent newspaper in London reported claims that Cecil D'Arcy faked his death.

Only many decades later was it learnt that Cecil 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.

Cecil D'Arcy was once recognised in 1925, but swore his discoverer to the secret, which the man kept until D'Arcy died.