"Victoria Cross Winners of the Indian Mutiny 1857 - 1858" Portrait of Major Thomas Adair Butler VC, a veteran of the Indian Mutiny. Lieutenant Butler served with the 1st European Bengal Fusiliers (later The Royal Munster Fusiliers) during the Indian Mutiny. He was awarded the Victoria Cross, aged 22, for the following action: "On 9 March 1858 at Lucknow, India, in order to ascertain the enemy's position and to inform his superiors, Lieutenant Butler swam the River Goomtee, on the banks of which the city stands, mounted the parapet of a field work and remained there for a considerable time, exposed to the enemy's fire. He stayed there until the relieving force arrived."