Duncan Gordon Boyes Duncan Gordon Boyes VC ( 5 November 1846 – 26 January 1869 ) was an English 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 . He won the award during the Shimonoseki Expedition , Japan in 1864 . Early life . Duncan Gordon Boyes was born at 3 Paragon Buildings , Cheltenham , Gloucestershire , the son of John Boyes and his wife Sabina on 5 November 1846 . His sister Louisa Mary was later to marry Thomas James Young , who won a Victoria Cross at Lucknow , India in 1857 . Duncan was educated at Cheltenham College ( hence their reason for having the Cross from 1978 until 1998 ) and joined the Royal Navy . He was assigned to HMS " Euryalus " on the East Indies station . Victoria Cross . He won his VC at the age of 17 , for his part in action at Shimonoseki , Japan on 6 September 1864 . Midshipman Boyes of HMS " Euryalus " . He carried the Queen ' s Colour into action with the leading company attacking the enemy ' s stockade . He kept the colours flying in spite of direct fire which killed one of his colour sergeants . Boyes and Colour Sergeant Thomas Pride who was badly wounded , were only prevented from going further forward by direct orders from their superior officer . The citation was published in the London Gazette of 21 April 1865 and read : Sir Ernest Satow mentioned Duncan Boyes in his memoirs entitled " A Diplomat in Japan " ( London , 1921 ) in the following terms : " Lieutenant Edwards and Crowdy of the Engineers were ahead with a middy [ midshipman ] named D . G . Boyes , who carried the colours most gallantly ; he afterwards received the V . C . for conduct very plucky in one so young . " ( " A Diplomat in Japan " , first edition , p . 112 ) . The toast of the Royal Navy , Duncan Boyes was invested with his Victoria Cross on 22 September 1865 by Admiral Sir Michael Seymour GCB ( Commander - in - Chief to Portsmouth ) on the Common at Southsea , along with William Seeley and Thomas Pride who also won their VCs at Shimonoseki . Hugh Talbot Burgoyne VC , John Edmund Commerell VC and others who had already won the medal also attended the ceremony . Later life . Duncan ' s short life was to take a turn for the worse from then on . On 9 February 1867 , he and another midshipman were court - martialled for disobedience of the Commander - in - Chief ' s Standing Order by breaking into the Naval Yard at Bermuda after 11pm , after they had been previously refused admittance by the Warder at the main gate for not having a pass . Both admitted their guilt and were sentenced to be dismissed from the service . There is some speculation that there was more to this to warrant such a harsh penalty . The disgrace of this was too much to bear for Boyes and he began to suffer tremendously from fits of depression and began drinking heavily . For the sake of his health he went to New Zealand to work with his brother on his sheep station , but the scandal appears to have followed him , for he was to suffer a complete nervous breakdown and he committed suicide by jumping from the window of a house on 26 January 1869 at Dunedin , aged 22 years and 2 months . On his death certificate , the cause was listed as delirium tremens . He was buried locally in the Dunedin Southern Cemetery with a stone at his head and feet , though on 4 May 1954 the Dunedin branch of the Royal New Zealand Returned Services ' Association ( RSA ) , in consequence of his VC , reburied him in the servicemen ' s section of Andersons Bay Cemetery in Anglican Southern Section , Block 6 , Plot 24 . The original grave exists still in the southern cemetery , though looking quite weathered and scruffy . The medal . The Boyes V . C . realised GBP 51 , 750 and was sold at Spink , the auctioneers in London , on 21 July 1998 ( lot 212 ) on behalf of Cheltenham College for the purpose of establishing a scholarship in Boyes ' name . Lord Michael Ashcroft bought the medal at the auction in 1998 for his collection . It is now in the Lord Ashcroft Gallery at the Imperial War Museum . ( See this list . ) A replica of the Boyes medal is on permanent display in Big Modern , the library of Cheltenham College . Recent developments . A series of posters of Duncan Boyes VC and other medal winners was put on view on the Victoria line in London on 11 November 2004 .