Sir Fenton Aylmer , 13th Baronet Lieutenant General Sir Fenton John Aylmer , 13th Baronet of Donadea , VC , KCB ( 5 April 1862 – 3 September 1935 ) was an Anglo - Irish recipient of the Victoria Cross . He was in command of the first failed efforts to break the siege of Kut in 1916 . Early career . Born the son of Captain Fenton John Aylmer ( 24 December 1835 – 9 April 1862 ) and Isabella Eleanor Darling ( died 27 December 1908 ) . Aylmer attended the Royal Military Academy , Woolwich , as a Gentleman Cadet and was promoted Lieutenant on 27 July 1880 . He took part in the Burma expedition between 1886 and 1887 . The Victoria Cross . Fenton won the VC for the following deed : On 2 December 1891 during the assault on Nilt Fort , British India , Captain Aylmer , with the storming party , forced open the inner gate with gun - cotton which he had placed and ignited , and although severely wounded , fired 19 shots with his revolver , killing several of the enemy , and remained fighting until , fainting from loss of blood , he was carried out of action . Fenton was 29 years old , and a captain in the Corps of Royal Engineers , British Army and Bengal Sappers & Miners ( British Indian Army ) , during the Hunza - Naga Campaign , India when he won the Victoria Cross in 1891 . He was promoted Major on 18 October 1893 in recognition of his services during the Hunza - Nagar Expedition . He was part of the Chitral expedition in 1895 . In March 1912 , having been promoted to major - general , he became Adjutant - General , India . In 1913 he married Lady Risley , the widow of Sir Herbert Risley , head of the Indian Civil Service . Born Elsie Julie Oppermann , daughter of Friedrich Oppermann , she was considered a great beauty and had , for many years prior to her marriage to him had an affair with Aylmer — an affair that was well - known within Indian society and apparently tolerated by Sir Herbert . Lady Elsie Julie Aylmer died on 18 July 1934 . World War I . Having been promoted to lieutenant general , Aylmer was put in charge of the first effort to end the siege of Kut . General Aylmer was in command of the Tigris Corps , consisting of the 7th ( Meerut ) Division , the 12th Indian Division , and a number of other smaller military units . All told he had more than 20 , 000 men . They left Basra in late December 1915 and arrived at Sheikh Sa ' ad in 3 January 1916 . While the 12th Indian Division ( under command of General George Gorringe ) made a diversionary move near Nasiriyeh , the 7th ( under the command of General Younghusband ) staged a direct assault on the Ottoman positions on 6 January ( the Battle of Sheikh Sa ' ad ) . After two days of fighting , the Ottoman army withdrew . The British sustained approximately 4 , 000 casualties - much more than the medical units could cope with . The Ottoman troops , under the generalship of Baron von der Goltz only withdrew some six miles up river and occupied another defensive position near the edge of the Suwaikiya Marshes . A British assault on this position on 13 January was partially successful , the position was carried but again with significant losses ( some 1 , 600 casualties ) ( the Battle of Wadi ) . By now , a third division had been added to Aylmer ' s Tigris Corps , the 3rd ( Lahore ) Division . This new division , along with the weakened 7th Division , attacked Ottoman defensive works at Hanna on 21 January ( the Battle of Hanna ) . This assault was a complete failure . The Ottoman troops held their trench lines while some 2 , 700 British soldiers were killed or wounded . General Aylmer was reinforced with another division , the 13th ( Western ) Division . The next month was spent resting the troops and probing the Ottoman defensive positions . With time running out on General Townshend ' s garrison in Kut , Aylmer finally launched a two pronged attack on the Ottoman positions , one attack at the Sinn Abtar Redoubt , the other attack at the Dujaila Redoubt . The attacks were launched on 7 March 1916 . Both attacks failed due to lack of initiative and an inability to coordinate the timing of the assaults ( they ended up being sequential , not simultaneous ) . The British lost some 4 , 000 casualties . Fenton Aylmer was replaced by the former commander of the 12th Indian division , General George Gorringe . He did not command in battle again , retiring from the army in 1919 . However from 1922 till his death he was the Commandant of the Royal Engineers . Following his death in 1935 he was cremated at the Golders Green Crematorium where his ashes remain . His Victoria Cross is displayed at the Royal Engineers Museum in Chatham , Kent , England .