Surgeon Anthony Dickson Home, 90th Regiment of Foot

The son of George Home, Anthony Dickson was born in 1826 in Dunbar, Scotland. A simple life of a doctor was not Home’s calling and after taking degrees of MRCS England and MD at St. Andrew’s in 1847, he entered the Army Medical Department and was gazetted to the rank of Assistant Surgeon in the 3rd West India Regiment in 1848. Nine months later he transferred, with the same rank to the 72nd Regiment of Foot. Home had not wanted to go to Barbados – in fact, he pleaded with the Medical Department for posting on the West Coast of Africa. Told to “not be a fool”, Home was packed off to the West Indies and possibly the worst post the military had to offer. He would later look back on this period of his life as “one of pleasant experiences.”
In 1851, he proceeded to Nova Scotia and returned the same year to England to a posting in Guernsey. Now gazetted as Staff Assistant Surgeon on the 10th of December 1852 and Assistant-Surgeon, 8th Light Dragoons on the 15th of August 1854, he was promoted to the rank of Surgeon and appointed to the 13th Light Dragoons in 1855. and was sent for service in Crimea. He served with the regiment until February 1857, when he transferred, with the same rank, to the 90th Regiment of Foot. His destination was to have been China but his ship, along with his regiment were diverted for service in India and the mutiny.
In December 1859 following leave in England on sick certificate, Home found himself onboard ship again, this time bound for China, for duty with the Expeditionary Force under Lieutenant-General Hope Grant. Following that wearisome campaign, Home set his sights on England but his stay would be short – in December 1861 he was sent to Canada. In April 1862, he was back home and in January 1863, he returned to India to serve in Bengal but in October of the same year he found himself in New Zealand for the latter stages of the Maori War of 1863-64. He returned to Bengal in 1865, where he would finally stay put for three full years, receiving promotions, accolades and a CB; however, life would never be a dull moment for Surgeon Home. On the despatch of a force to Ashanti under Major General Sir Garnet Wolseley, Home finally stepped on the shore of West Africa, as Principal Medical Officer to the expedition with the local rank of Deputy Surgeon-General. His health however gave way under the rigours of the climate and the campaign and he was invalided back to England by the medical board.
The rank of Deputy Surgeon-General was confirmed on the 24th of December 1874 – the same year he was knighted – and with the local rank of Surgeon-General, he served in Cyprus as the principal medical officer in 1878. His rank was confirmed and he returned to India in 1880, retiring from service in 1886. He spent his retirement working on his memoir, “Service Memories” – a detailed account of his military career – which was published in 1912. He died in 1914 and was buried at Highgate Cemetery in London.

In the final post of this series, we shall return to Havelock’s campaign into Oudh, to explore the VCs won at Mangalwar, Bushiratganj, Cawnpore and Bithur and finish off with the final medals awarded for this, the first relief of Lucknow of which one would receive a certain amount of criticism.

^{Sources:
Bartlett, D. W. The Heroes of the Indian Rebellion. Columbus, OH: Follett, Foster and Co., 1859.
Best, Brian. The Victoria Crosses That Saved an Empire: The Story of the Mutiny VCs. Barnsley: Frontline Books, 2016.
Gubbins, Martin Richard. An Account of the Mutinies in Oudh, and of the Siege of the Lucknow Residency. London: Richard Bentley, 1858.
Home, Anthony Dickson. Service Memories. Edited by Charles H. Melville. London: Edward Arnold, 1912.
Parry, D. H. Britain’s Roll of Glory; or, The Victoria Cross: Its Heroes and Their Deeds. London: Cassell and Co., 1898.
Wylly, H. C. Neill’s “Blue Caps.” Vol. 2, 1826–1914. London: Gale & Polden, 1923}

_Links:
https://vcgca.org/
https://www.nam.ac.uk/
https://www.memorialstovalour.co.uk/
https://victoriacrossonline.co.uk/
https://www.thebluejackets.co.uk/
https://branches.britishlegion.org.uk/media/6542564/henry-ward-vc.pdf
https://www.bacsa.org.uk/lance-corporal-james-hollowell-vc/