Topsham native became first American-born Victoria Cross recipient

William Henry Harrison Seeley, born in Topsham on May 1, 1840, became the first American-born recipient of the Victoria Cross, Britain’s highest award for gallantry. His story reaches far beyond Sagadahoc County, but it begins with a local one, the son of Dayton A. Seeley and Lucy J. Seeley, born into a Midcoast life that would soon give way to the sea.

One account says Seeley worked on the docks in the Midcoast as a boy before he went to sea. Another says he ran away at 14 after a family squabble and signed on the British merchant ship Salem in Boston. In a 1904 interview, Seeley said he deserted the Salem in Hong Kong on July 4 and later enlisted in the British Navy, a path that took a Topsham native from Maine’s waterfront to Britain’s imperial fleet.

Seeley joined the Royal Navy in 1862 and served first on HMS Imperieuse and later on HMS Euryalus. His defining service came during the Shimonoseki campaign in Japan, when multinational naval forces fought the Chōshū domain on Sept. 5 and 6, 1864. During that action, Seeley was wounded in the arm while reconnoitering enemy positions, but he returned with a full report and later helped in the assault on shore batteries.

The bravery that made his name was even more personal. Some accounts identify the wounded captain as John Hobhouse Inglis Alexander, and one source says Seeley carried him about a quarter mile to safety after he was badly hurt. The citation for Seeley’s Victoria Cross was gazetted on April 21, 1865, and he was invested with the medal on Sept. 22, 1865, by Admiral Sir Michael Seymour at Portsmouth.

The Victoria Cross was instituted by Queen Victoria in January 1856 and made retrospective to 1854. The National Army Museum and Royal Museums Greenwich describe it as Britain’s joint-highest or highest award for gallantry, reserved for extreme bravery in the presence of the enemy. The Doughboy Foundation says only five American-born men have received it, with Seeley first.

Seeley later returned to Massachusetts and died on Oct. 1, 1914, in Dedham. He was buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Stoughton, and a commemorative plaque was placed over his grave in 2009. For Topsham, his life ties a small Maine birthplace to one of the most exclusive military honors in the English-speaking world.