#OnThisDay 1867 Pte Thomas Murphy, from Dublin, and four of his compatriots from the 24th Regiment of Foot (Later the South Wales Borderers) sailed out in a storm several times to rescue men stranded on the Sentinel Islands, whose ship had struck a reef. The stranded men had also been attacked by local tribesmen who were rumoured to be cannibals. For this, Murphy & the four others were later awarded the Victoria Cross.
What’s unusual about this is that that these medals were awarded not in the face of the enemy or in wartime.
The Irish at War 