Samuel Mitchell VC (8 September 1841 – 16 March 1894) was a Royal Navy sailor and a recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.
Early life
Samuel Mitchell was born in Aspley in Bedfordshire, England, on 8 September 1841. His father was a labourer who later became a minister in a Wesleyan church. Mitchell joined the Royal Navy in 1857, shortly before his 16th birthday.
Military career
Mitchell served aboard HMS Crocodile and later the shore station in Portsmouth, . In 1860 he was posted to , which was destined for service on the Australian Station.
Mitchell was presented with his VC by the Governor of New South Wales in a ceremony attended by over 9,000 people at The Domain in Sydney on 24 September 1864. It was the second presentation of the VC to take place in Australia, and the first in New South Wales. Promoted to boatswain's mate, he continued to serve in the Royal Navy before ending his career in the military in mid-1865.
The medal
Following his VC investiture, Mitchell's medal was placed in storage along with other possessions in his sea chest, which he had left with the proprietors of the boarding house that he stayed in while in Sydney. He intended to have his belongings forwarded to him once he had settled in New Zealand but lost contact with the boarding house proprietors. His medal remained missing until around 1912, when it was purchased at an auction in London. His family attempted to negotiate with the owner of the medal for the return of the medal but it took the intervention of the Duke of York, before they were successful and it was purchased in 1928. His medal is now displayed in the Hokitika Museum in Hokitika.