The first third Canadian Victoria Cross winner...

(Update: See Primus' comment)...was a black Nova Scotian serving with the Royal Navy on land:

It is probably not widely known that the first Canadian to win the coveted Victoria Cross - Britain's highest military award, given for valour in the face of the enemy - was the Nova Scotia son of former American slaves: William Neilson Edward Hall.

Hall won his decoration - the first ever given either to a Canadian, a black or a member of the Royal Navy - for bravery shown during the 1857 siege of Lucknow, in India.

Now, only a few months after the 150th anniversary of his award, Hall is being draped in several posthumous honours, modest compensation for the lack of recognition he was accorded during his life.

On Monday, Canada Post will release a new stamp that bears his image - a painting of Hall set against the water and HMS Shannon. A reception to celebrate the man and the stamp will be held Feb. 3, hosted by the Ontario Black History Society and Her Majesty's Canadian Ship York. And in various venues across the country, actor and playwright Anthony Sherwood is performing his 30-minute play, the William Hall Project, that will help kick off Black History Month...

Hall was initially attached to HMS Rodney as part of the Channel Fleet and later sailed to join British forces in the Crimean War of 1854, taking part in the siege of Sevastopol and the battle of Inkerman. Afterward, he was posted to the frigate HMS Shannon.

The story of Hall's heroics during the siege of Lucknow is extraordinary.

In 1857, Indians mutinied against the rule of Britain's East India Company. To help suppress the rebellion, HMS Shannon - Hall was its captain of the foretop - and HMS Pearl were dispatched to Calcutta. The brigade's guns were then towed by steamer to Allahabad, and carted overland to Lucknow. By November of that year, the naval brigade and the Seaforth and Sutherland Highlanders - 450 men, six 8-inch guns, two 24-pound howitzers and two field pieces - were parked on the outskirts of Lucknow.

British forces, and some 1,300 civilians, were trapped inside, in the fourth month of the siege by militants. British commander Sir Colin Campbell was eager to avoid a repeat of the massacre that had occurred earlier at Cawnpore. There, the colonial administration had surrendered in exchange for safe passage to Allahabad, but for reasons still in dispute, chaos ensued and dozens, including women and children, were hacked to death with cleavers and thrown down a well.

A major obstacle at Lucknow was the domed Shah Nujeef, a walled mosque close to the residency of British commissioner Sir Henry Lawrence. He'd decided to spare Muslim holy places, but the mosque was heavily fortified with rifles and cannons firing at the naval brigade. The latter was sustaining heavy losses when volunteers were solicited to move a naval gun next to the walls and blow it down.

William Hall was among those who volunteered. Each time it fired, however, it recoiled backward, forcing Hall and Lieutenant Thomas Young, who also was later decorated, to drag it again to the wall under direct fire. One by one, the British soldiers fell, until only Hall and a wounded Young remained. With musket balls raining down on them, and flying brick and stone shrapnel, Hall continued firing the remaining gun until the wall was breached and the 93rd Highlanders were able to pour through the hole. Sir Colin Campbell later called his action "almost unexampled in war."..

The stamp:

William Hall was given the Victoria Cross - Britain's highest honour - for his bravery in 1857 aboard the British Royal Navy's HMS Shannon. He was awarded the honour in 1859.
Photo Credit: Handout, www.canadapost.ca

The William Hall V.C. Memorial website is here, and the Canadian Force's Directorate of History and Heritage has a website on Canadian VC recipients here.

Update: