THE PRO PATRIA PROJECT

MANLEY William George Nicholas

Assistant Surgeon, Royal Artillery

CITATION

Victoria Cross

MANLEY, Assistant Surgeon William George NICHOLAS (late Surgeon-General, C.B.), M.R.C.S. Eng., 1852, R.A.., New Zealand, 29th April, 1864.

For his brave conduct during the assault on the Rebel Pah (Gate Pa), near Tauranga, New Zealand on April 29th in most nobly risking his own life

according to the testimony of Commodore Sir William WISEMAN, Bart CB, in his endeavour to save that of the late Commander HAY of the Royal

Navy and others. Having volunteered to accompany the storming party in the Pah, at attended on that officer when he was carried away mortally

wounded and then volunteered to return in order to see if he could find any more wounded. It is stated that he was one of the last officers to leave

the Pah.  (Gazette 23 September 1864).

Bronze medal of the Royal Humane Society for saving a life:

While in New Zealand in 1865, he happened to be present during the disembarking of some artillery in the Waitotara River. As he was quitting the

steamer a gunner fell overboard. The man was in imminent danger of drowning but Dr. MANLEY promptly sprang into the water and rescued him.

For this feat he was awarded the bronze medal of the Royal Humane Society.

CITATION (Iron Cross - 2nd Class):

For services with the British Ambulance Corps caring for the wounded of the 22nd Division in the actions of Chateau-neuf and Bretoncelle, on 18th

and 21st December 1870, and the battles of Orleans and Cravant, on 10th December 1870.

KNOWN AWARDS

The Victoria Cross

Companion of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath (CB)

Knight of Grace of the Venerable Order of Saint John

Crimea Medal

       Sebastopol

New Zealand War Medal (aka Maori War Medal)

Egyptian War Medal (1882)

Turkish Crimea Medal

Khedive Star (Egypt 1882)

Order of Medijich (Egypt 1882)

Prussian Iron Cross (2nd Class) (Prussia)

Bavarian Order of Merit (1870-71), (Bavaria)

Prussian War Medal (1870)

Royal Humane Society Medal (Bronze)

Cross of the Societe de Secours aux Blesses of France (siege of Paris 1871).

NOTES

Born 17 December 1831, Dublin, Ireland

Died 16 November 1901, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England

BIOGRAPHICAL

William George Nicholas Manley VC, CB, KStJ was born in Dublin, Ireland on the 17th of December 1831, and holds the distinction of being the only person to have been decorated with both the Victoria Cross and also the (Prussian) Iron Cross.

He also holds the very rare distinction of being decorated by both sides in an armed conflict, receiving the Iron Cross 2nd Class on the recommendation of Crown Prince Frederick William of Prussia, and the Cross of the Societe de Secours aux Blesses of France.

He enlisted into the Army Medical Department as an assistant-surgeon in 1854, and was posted to the Crimea in the following summer where he served with the Royal Artillery at the Siege of Sebastopol from the 11th of June 1854 until it fell the following year.

In 1874, he was made a Knight of Grace in the Venerable Order of Saint John and was appointed the first officer in charge of the newly formed Ambulance Department of the Order.

Medals are held at The Royal Artillery Museum in Woolwich.