Lieutenant Robert Montresor ROGERS VC

 Private 220 John Leishman McDOUGALL VC

 

Citation 13 August 1861

On 21 August 1860, the British army was assaulting the heavily defended  North Taku Fort and were being held up by the defenders.

The British Artillery managed to open a small aperture in the wall large enough for a single file of men to pass though.

Lt Rogers and Private McDougall of the 44th East Essex together with Lieutenant Edmund Henry Lennon of the 67th Regiment swum the ditch surrounding the fort and entered by one of the apertures during the assault, and were the first of the British established on the walls.

They passed through in the order listed above, each assisting the other to mount the embrasure by sticking their bayonets into the wall.

Lt Rogers  was severely injured by a musket ball on entering the fort but continued to fight until reinforcements arrived on the wall.

The Men

John Leishman McDougall was born in Scotlandin 1839 to Robert and Mary Murdoch McDougall.

He joined the 44th East Essex Regiment of Foot and served with them through the China Campaign receiving the China Medal in addition to the VC.

He is still shown as serving at Kowloon in 1961.

He then transferred with the Regiment to India where his VC was presented to Private McDougall by Brigadier Adams on 2 October 1862.

He left the Regiment in October 1867 at which point he recieved a pension of 7 shillings and moved to Edinburgh.

He died in Edinburgh on 10 March 1869 and was buried in Old Carlton Cemetery, Edinburgh.

The ribbon and bar from McDougal's VC is held at the Essex Regiment Museum but sadly the medal itself was stolen over 50 years ago from a house in Scotland and has never been recovered.