George Renny

Who was George Renny?

Major General George Alexander Renny VC 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.

In 1849 he had married Flora Hastings Macwhirter, the daughter of Dr John Macwhirter, late President of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

Renny was 32 years old, and a Lieutenant in the Bengal Horse Artillery, Bengal Army during the Indian Mutiny on 16 September 1857 at siege of Delhi, India when the following deed led to the award of the Victoria Cross:

The storming of Delhi took place between 14–16 September 1857 the aim of the British being to dislodge the mutineers and retake the city. When the Delhi Field Force renewed its advance on 16 September, its progress was steady and sustained. Siege guns had been brought into the city and began battering a breach in the repaired walls of the arsenal allowing the 61st Regiment and the Baluchi Battalion to storm the building.

Within the arsenal were no less than 171 guns and howitzers and a large quantity of ammunition. Realising the enormity of their loss, the mutineers mounted a serious counter-attack, covered by musketry fire from the roofs of nearby buildings. They set fire to the thatched roof of a shed containing explosives. With musket balls cracking around him and in imminent danger of being blown apart, Second Lieutenant Edward Thackery of the Bengal Engineers extinguished the blaze. Simultaneously, Lieutenant George Renny of the Bengal Horse Artillery climbed the arsenal's wall and flung several shells with lighted fuses into the midst of the attackers. The carnage caused by the explosion of these put an end to the attack. Both Thackery and Renny were awarded the Victoria Cross for their actions.