A Royal Marine who was awarded the Victoria Cross will be remembered forever at an armed forces club which has honoured his name.

General Sir Lewis Stratford Tollemache Halliday, VC, KCB, DL, was one of only 10 Royal Marines to be awarded the gallantry medal, which he received 120 years ago this month.

Last weekend, in recognition of his career links to Deal, the Royal Marines Association Club (RMA) in Walmer officially re-named its main bar the Halliday Bar.

It was the culmination in a project lasting about two years which had been delayed by the pandemic and his descendants were present to see it happen.

Branch chairwoman Anita Lignum explained when the idea was mooted to give the bar a new title, Halliday's name was put forward by former Royal Marine Bugle Major at Deal John ‘JC’ Puddle.

Research of the decorated veteran's life followed. Then the committee commissioned both a plaque to go above the bar and a commemorative story board explaining how his actions led to the rare bravery decoration.

"The project began mid 2019 when the committee discussed the name for the bar, work began before and then during lockdown and the commemorative story board was put up for when we reopened.

"During the second lockdown work continued with further improvements to the bar area."

Club member Mark Simpson, and management secretary Bob Guest led on most of the work in refurbishing the Halliday Bar .

Ms Lignum added: "A great many volunteer hours went into this project."

The Victoria Cross (VC) is the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.

In June 1900 at Peking, China, an attack was made on the British Legation by the Boxers who set fire to the stables and occupied some of the other buildings.

Needing to drive the enemy out, a hole was knocked in the Legation wall and 20 men of the Royal Marines Light Infantry went in.

The then Captain Halliday, leading a party of six men, was involved in desperate fighting. His shoulder was blown out and his left lung punctured but despite his injuries, he killed four of the enemy.

Finally, unable to carry on any further, he ordered his men to go on without him, after which he returned to the legation alone, telling his men 'carry on and not mind him', so as not to diminish the number of men engaged in the sortie.

Halliday walked 100 yards unaided to the hospital although his shoulder was half blown out and his left lung punctured.

He was promoted to brevet major for his part in the legation's defence, and returned to the United Kingdom to receive the VC from King Edward VII during an investiture at Marlborough House on July 25 1901.

"A great many volunteer hours went into this project..."

The story board includes a picture of Halliday and the corpse's globe and laurel emblem. It and the plaque were produced by James Nash of Just Signs with the assistance of John Puddle and club committee member Lesley Simpson.

They were fitted in place during the first lockdown.

The subsequent naming ceremony, which was delayed because of changing Covid restrictions, was on Saturday, July 10.

Descendants of General Halliday were welcomed and a representative from the Corps Historical Society from Portsmouth, Tony Davies attended.

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