1st Battalion The 60th Rifles

Born:
28 May 1835, Grace-Dieu Manor, Coleorton, Leicestershire.

Died:
18 September 1857.

Buried:
Old Delhi Military Cemetery.

Service: 1855, 11th Rgt Bengal Native Infantry.
1857, 60th Rifles.

CITATION

Ensign E A Lisle Phillipps, of the 11th Regiment of Bengal Native Infantry, would have been recommended to Her Majesty for the decoration of the Victoria Cross had he survived, for many gallant deeds which he performed during the siege of Delhi, during which he was wounded three times. At the assault of that city he captured the Water Bastion with a small party of men and he was finally killed in the streets of Delhi on 18 September 1857.
Memorandum, London Gazette, 21st October, 1859.
This posthumous honour was finally awarded to him by King Edward VII, and is recorded in the London Gazette of 15th January, 1907, and the Victoria Cross was presented to the elder of his two surviving brothers exactly 50 years after his death.

Gazetted: 21 October 1859 - Memo only.
15 January 1907 - VC awarded.

Other Medals: Indian Mutiny, clasp Delhi.

Location of Medals: Not publicly held.

Personal:
Born in 1835, at Garendon Park, Leicester, being the second son of Ambrose Lisle March Phillipps de Lisle, JP, DL for Leicestershire, of Garendon Park and Grace-Dieu Manor, and of his wife, Laura Mary, daughter of the Honourable Thomas Clifford and his wife, Baronesss Philipina von Lüzow. Thomas Clifford was the fourth son of Hugh, fourth Lord Clifford of Chudleigh. The subject of this notice was educated at St Edmund's College, Old Hall Green, near Ware and at Oscott College, near Birmingham and having learned Hindustani in Paris, joined the Company's Army (11th Regt., Bengal Infantry) in India in 1855. He reached Meerut on 4 May 1857 and on the 10th of May, when the Mutiny broke out, his regiment joined it, and "Colonel Finnis was killed by his side; but he remained unhurt, though he had been called upon to read the address in Hindustani." He was given a commission in the Royal Army, in the 60th Rifles, as a reward for gallantry, the rigid rule of purchase of commissions notwithstanding. This was done on the application of Colonel Jones who made him his orderly officer. In the "Life and Letters of Ambrose Phillipps de Lisle" by E. S. Prucell and Edwin de Lisle, is quoted a letter from Dr. (afterwards Cardinal) Newman, written from the Oratory at Birmingham on 30 July 1857 in which he said: "We are praying here for your dear son. How anxious you must be." Everard was at that time fighting with the Queen's forces in the Indian Mutiny, and six weeks after this letter was written he was killed in the streets of Delhi, on the last day of the siege. The London Gazette of 21st October 1859, contained the following notice:
"Everard Aloysius Lisle Phillipps (deceased), 11th Regt., Bengal Infantry. Memorandum - Ensign Everard Aloysius Lisle Phillipps of the 11th Regt. Of Bengal Infantry, would have been recommended to Her Majesty for the decoration of the Victoria Cross had he survived, for many gallant deeds which he performed during the Siege of Delhi, during which he was wounded three times. At the assault of that city he captured the Water Bastion, with a small party of men; and was finally killed in the streets of Delhi on the 17th Sept."
This posthumous honour was finally awarded to him by King Edward VII., as is recorded in the London Gazette of 15 January 1907, and his Victoria Cross was given to the elder of his two surviving brothers, Mr Edwin de Lisle F.S.A. in 1907, exactly fifty years after his death. In the charming memoir of his brother, Lieut. Rudolf de Lisle, RN (written by the late Rev. Henry Nutcombe Oxenham M.A., who was killed at the Battle of Abu Klea, serving in the Naval Brigade, in the heroic attempt to relieve General Gordon and Khartoum, reference is made to Everard's many gallant deeds, for the two brothers were much alike in their martial characteristics, as well as for the domestic qualities which endeared them, not only to their own families and friends, but also all who came in contact with them. Lord Beresford said of Rudolph; "A finer officer never stepped on board one of Her Majesty's ships," and the same might have been said of Everard, mutatis mutandis. Everard's untimely but glorious death made a great sensation in Leicestershire, and a fine Gothic tower of rough hewn granite was built to perpetuate his memory on top of one of the rocks in High Cadman Wood in Charnwood Forest, overlooking Grace-Dieu and the villages of Whitwick and Coalville, and can be seen from miles around. Few soldiers in England have such a fine and enduring monument. There is also a handsome brass to his memory in the beautiful chapel at Oscott College. A very appreciative article was published in the French "Correspondent" soon after his death. He was known in Paris, together with his brother Ambrose, as friends of the celebrated Count de Montalembert, religious writer and politician, and they used to attend the brilliant parties given by the Emperor Napoleon III, and Empress Eugenie, when their Court at the Tuileries was the centre of European gallantry and fashion. But it was as a young man of energy and sterling character that he was esteemed the most. Mr Edwin de Lisle (who supplies much of the material for this short biography) says of his gallant brother that he was "a very keen sportsman and cricketer, a most affable and sympathetic friend, very energetic in all that he undertook, and a devout and sincere Roman Catholic Christian." Everard's picture, standing by his favourite charger, King David, which he left to his friend Hugh Gough (afterwards General Sir Hugh Gough, VC, GCB) was painted for the first Victoria Cross Exhibition by Des Anges, and now hangs in the dining room at Garendon over the Gothic chimney-piece.

Commemoration:
Brass plaque in Oscott College Chapel, Sutton Coldfield.
Granite Tower in Charnwood Forest.