Lieutenant-Colonel Lord William Leslie de la Poer Beresford (20 July 1847 – 30 December 1900) was an Anglo-Irish soldier and 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 Beresford was born on 20 July 1847. He was the third son of the Church of Ireland minister John Beresford, 4th Marquess of Waterford and his wife, the former Christiana Leslie. His eldest brother, John Beresford, became the 5th Marquess of Waterford and his second brother, Admiral Charles Beresford, became the 1st Baron Beresford. His younger brother, Lord Marcus Beresford, was a prominent equerry and racing manager. His maternal grandfather was Charles Powell Leslie II, an Irish member of the UK Parliament for Monaghan and New Ross, and his paternal grandfather was Henry Beresford, 2nd Marquess of Waterford. Beresford was sent to Eton College in 1858. When he was 16, he left Eton for Bonn, where he studied French and German at the home of a tutor. Career In 1867, at the age of 20, he joined the 9th Queen's Royal Lancers as a cornet. In 1875, the regiment was sent to India, where it was stationed at Sialkot. Later that year he was appointed aide-de-camp to Lord Northbrook, the retiring Viceroy, in Calcutta. He did some racing, and won the Corinthian Purse at a meet attended by the Prince of Wales. Zulu war Beresford became a captain in the 9th Lancers during the Zulu War of 1879. On 3 July 1879 at Ulundi, Zululand, South Africa, during the retirement of a reconnoitring party, Captain Lord William Beresford went to the assistance of Sergeant Fitzmaurice of the 24th Regiment, whose horse had fallen and rolled on him. The Zulus were coming in great numbers, but Lord William, with help from Sergeant Edmund O'Toole of the Frontier Light Horse., managed to mount the injured man behind him. He was, however, so dizzy that Sergeant O'Toole, who had been keeping back the advancing Zulus, gave up his carbine and, riding alongside, helped to hold him on until they reached safety. Initially the VC was only awarded to Beresford but he told the Queen that O'Toole also deserved the honour: Her Majesty pinning it on to the hero's breast, but not before he had explained to his Queen he could not in honour