Captain H. T. Burgoyne, V.C.
(1833-1870)
23 May 1861

Volume 3, page 297, sitting number 3869.

Born in Dublin on 17 July 1833, Hugh Talbot Burgoyne was the son of John Fox Burgoyne. 

When he was a 21-year-old lieutenant serving in the Royal Navy, Hugh Burgoyne received the Victoria Cross for his actions during an engagement in the Crimean War. He later served on HMS Ganges under Captain John Fulford in the waters of Vancouver Island and British Columbia.

He had risen to the rank of captain when his ship capsized during a gale on 7 September 1870 and he drowned at sea. During the same night, his father brought the Empress Eugénie to safety across the English Channel aboard his yacht, the Gazelle, following the fall of the Second Empire.

Captain Hugh Talbot Burgoyne is buried in London’s Brompton Cemetery.

[From an album compiled by Charles Balfour, a British wine merchant importing sherry and port from Portugal. Born in Edinburgh on 22 August 1822, his father was James Balfour. In May 1852 he married Mary Ermelinda, daughter of Robert Woodhouse of Oporto in Portugal. The couple were married at the consulate then afterwards at the British chapel in Oporto. Charles Balfour died on 12 January 1876.]