An Irish cavalry officer's Victoria Cross, awarded after he led a charge considered a "mission impossible", was sold for £172,500 at auction in London yesterday.
It was awarded to Maj Gen Arthur Moore of Dublin, a career soldier who commanded the 3rd Bombay Light Cavalry during a campaign in Persia in February 1857.
He led a charge against 500 infantry drawn up in a square on the battlefield. Military theory generally considered it impossible for cavalry troops to break up a square of infantry who held their position.
But Moore's squadron achieved the feat against the fixed bayonets and steady fire of the enemy. A contempor-
ary account said his horse jumped over the first soldiers as though on a hunting field.
The animal fell dead on the bayonets, and Moore's sword was also broken in the fall. But he tried to cut his way out of the melee with the weapon until a mounted trooper following behind rescued him.
The squadron rode clear of the disorganised soldiers and then turned back and attacked again with their sabres. Only 20 of the 500 infantrymen escaped.
Maj Gen Moore, whose family came from Carlingford, Co Louth, went on to have a distinguished career in the British army in India. He was later awarded the Order of Commander of the Bath (CB). He retired in 1891 and died aged 83 of heart failure at his home in Waterloo Place, Dublin, in April 1913.
His VC and CB were among five decorations bought by an unnamed private collector against a pre-sale estimate of £80,000-£100,000 in an auction held by Dix, Noonan and Webb.