O'Moore Creagh


Sir Garrett O'Moore Creagh , known as Sir O'Moore Creagh, was a senior British Army officer and an Irish 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.

Background

Creagh was born in Cahirbane, County Clare, on 2 April 1848, the seventh son of Captain James Creagh, RN, and his wife, Grace O'Moore.
Creagh was married twice, firstly to Mary Longfield in 1874, who died in 1876, and then to Elizabeth Reade in 1891. He had three children, one of whom was Major General Sir Michael Creagh.
In 1866, after training at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, Creagh was commissioned into the 95th Regiment of Foot and in 1869 was posted to India, being transferred to the British Indian Army the next year.

Second Anglo-Afghan War

Creagh was 31 years old, and a captain in the Bombay Staff Corps during the Second Anglo-Afghan War, when the following deed on 22 April 1879 at Kam Dakka, on the Kabul River, Afghanistan, took place for which he was awarded the VC:

Later career

In 1878 he became captain of the Merwara battalion, commanding them from 1882 until 1886. He assumed command of the 29th Bombay Infantry in 1890, and was promoted to Assistant Quarter-master General in 1896. He commanded the Indian contingent during the Boxer Rebellion in China in 1900, and was in September 1901 appointed General Officer Commanding the British Force in China after the departure of General Alfred Gaselee. He stayed there for several years, was knighted as a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in 1904 and promoted to general on 11 December 1907. The same year he was appointed Military Secretary to the India Office.
Creagh succeeded Lord Kitchener as Commander-in-Chief, India, in 1909, retiring in 1914. During the First World War he served as the military advisor to the Central Association of Volunteer Training Corps. He died at 65 Albert Hall Mansions, London SW9, on 9 August 1923.
Creagh further followed Kitchener in becoming the District Grand Master of Freemasons in the Punjab.
His Victoria Cross is held by the National Army Museum in Chelsea, London, England.

Footnotes