ar the V.C.
on their behalf are to be found in the records of the Indian Mutiny,
and it is an interesting fact that in each case the man chosen was an
Irishman serving in an English or Scottish regiment. In September,
1857, the Cross was awarded to Private John Divane, of the 60th King's
Royal Rifles, for successfully heading a charge against the trenches
at Delhi. Divane was elected by the privates of his regiment for the
distinction. In November of the same year Lance-Corporal J. Dunley,
93rd Highlanders, the first man of the regiment to enter the Secundra
Bagh with Captain Burroughs, whom he supported against heavy odds, was
similarly chosen by his comrades for the V.C., and likewise Lieutenant
A.K. French, 53rd Regiment, who showed distinguished gallantry on the
same occasion, was elected by his brother officers to wear the
decoration.

Keneally was born in Parnell Street, Wexford, in 1886. His father,
Colour-Sergeant John Stephen Keneally, served for twenty-four years in
the Royal Irish Regiment. In 1890 Keneally's parents removed to Wigan.
The father got work as a miner in the Wigan coalfield, and the son, at
the age of thirteen, started in the same life as a pit-boy. William
afterwards joined the Army, served for six years, and on returning to
civil life worked again in the pits. On the outbreak of war he
rejoined his old regiment, the Lancashire Fusiliers, and was then one
of five brothers serving with the Colours. The brave fellow did not
survive to enjoy the honour of having the V.C. pinned to his breast by
the King. He was wounded on July 29th, 1915, in the course of an
attack on a Turkish position, which was repulsed, and was never seen
afterwards. "It is a matter of sincere regret to me," says the King in
a kindly letter to the hero's father, "that the death of Private
Keneally deprived me of the pride of personally conferring on him the
Victoria Cross--the greatest of all military distinctions."

For quite a different achievement the Victoria Cross was awarded to
Sergeant John Hogan, 2nd Battalion Manchester Regiment, an Irish lad
who was brought up at Oldham, Lancashire. On October 29th, 1914, Hogan
and Second Lieutenant Leach (who also got the V.C.) recaptured
unassisted a trench that had been lost by the regiment. Two attempts
to retake the trench in force having been repulsed, Leach and Hogan
voluntarily set out one morning to try to recover it themselves. The
trench was about sixty yards' distance f