George Channer


George Nicholas Channer was a recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.

Life

George Channer was born at Allahabad, India, on 7 January 1842, the eldest surviving son of eight children of George Girdwood Channer and Susan, eldest daughter of Nicholas Kendall JP, vicar of Talland and Lanlivery, Cornwall.
He was educated at Cheltenham College.
He served with the 89th and 95th regiments until 7 August 1866.
He was 32 years old, and a captain in the Bengal Staff Corps, Indian Army, and 1st Gurkha Rifles during the Perak War when, on 20 December 1875 in Perak, Malaya, Captain Channer was the first to jump into the enemy's stockade to which he had been despatched with a small party to obtain intelligence of its strength and position. The stockade was formidable and it would have been impossible to bring guns to bear on it because of the steepness of the hill and the density of the jungle. If Captain Channer and his party had not been able to take the stockade in this manner it would have been necessary to resort to the bayonet, with consequent great loss of life.
He later achieved the rank of General.
He died on 13 December 1905 at Westward Ho!, Devon, and was buried in East-the-Water Cemetery in Bideford, in a grave adjacent to that of Gerald Graham VC. His Victoria Cross medal group is in the Lord Ashcroft Gallery at the Imperial War Museum.

Family

He married in June 1872, Annie Isabella, daughter of John William Watson.