Victoria Cross awarded to Captain William Peel (1824-58). Captain Peel was awarded the Victoria Cross for three separate acts of gallantry during the Crimean War. He was present at the siege of Sebastopol commanding a Brigade when a live Russian shell landed among the Brigade's ammunition wagon. Peel picked up the shell with the fuse fizzing and threw it over the parapet - the shell burst as it left his hands. He was present at the battle of Inkerman, 5 November 1854 where he helped some officers of the Grenadier Guards retreat by warning them of a Russian advance and finally on 18 June 1855 he led the first scaling party to attack the fortress of the Redan at Sebastopol where he was severely wounded.

Peel was born on 2 November 1824, the third son of the Prime Minister, Sir Robert Peel. He entered the Navy in 1838 as a First Class Volunteer and died in 1858 from smallpox, having been wounded at the Second Relief of Lucknow during the Indian Mutiny. He had been awarded a CB in 1855 and was created a KCB in 1858.

The medal comprises a bronze Maltese Cross fitted with a loop, ring and a blue ribbon suspended from a bar of ornamental laurel leaves by a V. In the centre of the obverse face is a Royal Crown surmounted by a lion, crowned passant, guardant, both within a ribbon, together with the inscription, ‘FOR VALOUR’. The reverse is inscribed, ‘CAPTAIN WILLIAM PEEL’, along with the date, ‘18 OCT., 5 NOV 1854 18 JUNE 1855’.