Edmund Costello Brigadier - General Edmund William Costello VC CMG CVO DSO ( 7 August 1873 – 7 June 1949 ) was a British Indian Army officer and 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 . Early life and service . Costello was born in Sheikhbudia on the North - West Frontier of India , the son of a colonel in the Indian Medical Service . He was educated in England at Beaumont College , Stonyhurst College and the Royal Military College , Sandhurst . In 1892 he was commissioned into the West Yorkshire Regiment , but transferred to the Indian Army in 1894 and was posted to the 22nd Punjab Infantry . Victoria Cross . He was 23 years old , and attached to the 24th Punjab Infantry during the Malakand Frontier War , when the following deed took place for which he was awarded the VC : On 26 July 1897 at Malakand on the Indian Frontier , Lieutenant Costello went out from the hospital enclosure and with the assistance of two sepoy s , brought in a wounded lance - havildar who was lying away , in the open , on the football ground . This ground was at the time over - run with swordsmen and swept by a heavy fire from both the enemy and our own men who were holding the sapper lines . In the subsequent fighting he was wounded twice and mentioned in dispatches twice . Later service . In November 1900 Costello was appointed adjutant of his regiment and in 1901 he was promoted Captain . He then worked as a recruiting officer for several years before taking part in the Mohmand operations of 1908 . He was promoted Major in 1910 . In 1913 he entered the Indian Staff College at Quetta and graduated just before the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 , when he rejoined his regiment as second - in - command . The regiment was soon sent to Mesopotamia as part of the 17th Indian Infantry Brigade of the 6th Indian Division and Costello remained there for the rest of the war . He was promoted Brevet Lieutenant - Colonel in June 1916 , was awarded the Distinguished Service Order ( DSO ) in 1917 and appointed Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George ( CMG ) in 1918 . In May 1918 he took command of the 12th Indian Infantry Brigade and he received a substantive promotion to Lieutenant - Colonel in September 1918 . He was mentioned five times in dispatches during the war and also received the French Croix de Guerre . In June 1919 he was promoted Brevet Colonel and was joint commander of the Indian contingent at the Peace March in London , for which he was appointed Commander of the Royal Victorian Order ( CVO ) in the 1920 New Year Honours . He was promoted substantive Colonel in March 1920 , although he had held the acting appointment of Brigadier - General since 1918 . From May to December 1920 he commanded the 8th Indian Infantry Brigade in the 3rd ( Lahore ) Division . In March 1921 he went to Palestine as temporary commander of the Palestine Defence Force and remained there to command a brigade in 1922 . He retired in October 1923 and became Director of Military Studies at the University of Cambridge . Legacy . His grave and headstone memorial is at St Mark ' s Church , Hadlow Down , Sussex , England . His Victoria Cross is displayed at the National Army Museum in Chelsea .