Found by Lieutenant William Gair in Sevastopol after a year-long siege, he is said to have led British forces to valuable caches of hidden supplies that helped ease starvation among the troops.

Lieutenant William Gair of the 6th Dragoon Guards, who was seconded to the Field Train Department as a deputy assistant commissary, led patrols to search the cellars of buildings for supplies.

[1][2] Gair noticed a cat, covered in dust and grime, that was sitting on top of a pile of rubbish between two injured people.

[1] After the war ended Gair brought Tom back with him to England to keep as a pet but the cat died on 31 December 1856.

[2] Tom has popularly been identified as the cat asleep on a table next to a wood stove in the oil painting A Welcome Arrival, 1855 by John Dalbiac Luard, an 1857 work depicting British officers opening packages sent from home.