Duncan Gordon Boyes VC was an English recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. The award was bestowed upon him for his actions during the Shimonoseki Expedition, Japan in 1864. He was later discharged from naval service as a result of ill-discipline and moved to New Zealand to work on his family's sheep station. Suffering from depression and alcoholism, he committed suicide at the age of 22 in Dunedin.
Duncan Boyes V.C. in civilian clothes
The Shimonoseki campaign was a series of military engagements in 1863 and 1864, fought to control the Shimonoseki Straits of Japan by joint naval forces from the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands, and the United States, against the Japanese feudal domain of Chōshū, which took place off and on the coast of Shimonoseki, Japan.
Capture of a Choshu battery at Shimonoseki by British sailors and marines; picture taken by Felice Beato
The Medusa forces its way through the Shimonoseki strait, by Jacob Eduard van Heemskerck van Beest
The USS Wyoming battling in the Shimonoseki Straits against the Choshu steam warships Daniel Webster, Lanrick and Lancefield
The French engagement at Shimonoseki, with the warships Tancrède and Sémiramis, under Rear Admiral Charles Jaurès. Le Monde illustré, October 10th, 1863.
