William Henry Harrison Seeley

William Henry Harrison Seeley
Birth: May. 1, 1840
Death: Oct. 1, 1914
Burial: Evergreen Cemetery Stoughton Norfolk County Massachusetts,

First American citizen to win the Victoria Cross, Great Britain’s highest award for valor, and still the only American to have won the award outside of World War I. Seeley was an Ordinary Seaman in the Royal Navy during the bombardment of the fishing port of Shimonoseki, Japan, 6 September 1864. Choshu, a large samurai domain in western Honshu that was, at the end of the Tokugawa period, a hotbed of anti-foreign xenophobia, had been attacking British, French, and American ships, and, in 1864, Western ships, in retaliation, bombarded Shimonoseki. In the action, Seeley, serving on the HMS Euryalus, distinguished himself by carrying out a daring reconnaissance to ascertain the enemy's position, and then, although wounded, continued to take part in the final assault on the battery. The Choshu samurai, making the best of a bad situation, signed a treaty and settled down to study Western strategy, tactics, and technology. These events were part of the inspiration for the Tom Cruise film "The Last Samurai."

He was presented his medal at Southsea on September 22, 1865 together with Thomas Pride and Duncan Gordon Boyes.