Raby was 27 years old, and a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy serving with the Naval Brigade during the Crimean War when the following deed took place for which he was awarded the VC.

On 18 June 1855 in the Crimea, immediately after the assault on Sebastopol, a soldier of the 57th Regiment, who had been wounded in both legs, was observed sitting up and calling for help.

At once Lieutenant Raby and seamen Henry Curtis and John Taylor left the shelter of their battery works and ran forward a distance of 70 yards, across open ground, through heavy gunfire and succeeded in carrying the wounded man to safety.

Alecto in the 1860s he played a prominent part in the suppression of the slave trade on the West Coast of Africa and was present at the attack and destruction of Porto Novo in Dahomey.

In 1848 he was rated mate, and two years later received his commission as lieutenant, in this grade he served for some time in the ‘Wasp' on the West Coast of Africa, and on the outbreak of war with Russia in 1854 was sent to the Black Sea.

As second-in-command of a ladder party at the attack of the Redan, he performed the act of gallantry for which he received the Victoria Cross and which was thus described in the Gazette:-'On June 18th, 1855, immediately after the assault on Sevastopol, a soldier of the 57th regiment, who had been shot through both legs, was observed sitting up and calling for assistance.

Climbing over the breastwork of the advanced sap, Lieutenant Raby and two seamen proceeded upwards of 70 yards across the open space towards the salient angle of the Redan, and in spite of the heavy fire which was still continuing, succeeded in carrying the wounded soldier to a place of safety at the imminent risk of their own lives.

For his services in the trenches he was in September, 1855, promoted to commander and received the Crimean, Sardinian, and Turkish Medals, with Clasps for Sevastopol and Inkerman, the 5th class of the Medjidie, and the ribbon of the Legion of Honour.

Admiral Raby married in 1863, Judith, daughter of the late Colonel Watkin Forster of Holt Manor, Trowbridge.