William Hall was a black Canadian sailor who was serving on HMS SHannon in 1857 when the Indian Mutiny broke out. Shannon was called over to India from Hong Kong, and her guns brought overland to Lucknow, where Hall joined four gunnery crews hoping to breach the rebels’ defensives and relieve a four-month siege of the Residency there.

Under a hail of gunfire and grenades, three of the four British gun crews were killed or wounded, and only Hall and gunnery officer Thomas Young were left to operate the remaining gun. But they stayed at their posts until the rebels’ defences were breached, for which both received the Victoria Cross. Hall was the first black recipient ever.

116 words