William Henry Harrison Seeley, VC (May 1, 1840 – October 1, 1914)[1][a] was an American who fought with the British Royal Navy during the Taiping Rebellion, the Bombardment of Kagoshima and the Shimonoseki Campaign and was a recipient of the Victoria Cross for his actions during the Shimonoseki Campaign, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.

He was the first American recipient of the Victoria Cross, the 28th member of the Royal Navy to earn the award and was, at the time, the only foreigner to have received it.

A family squabble led to him running away at the age of 14, joining the complement of a British merchant ship – the Salem – which was docked in Boston, Massachusetts, at the time.

[4][5] When Seeley was asked how he came to join the Royal Navy during an interview with The Brunswick Record in 1904, he said;[4] "You see I was a lad aboard the merchantman Salem – a British ship, although she was built down in Maine.

After I'd worked off all my native enthusiasm and burnt up all my cash – which wasn't much – I found the only port open to me was to enlist in the British Navy.

"[4] Seeley, then approximately 22, joined the Royal Navy as an ordinary seaman on board the HMS Euryalus in 1862, which was then operating under the East Indies and China Station.

[7] Due to these incidents, the Emperor Kōmei issued the order to expel barbarians, an imperial edict which aimed to isolate Japan again.

[7] Many of the Chōshū, including their daimyo Mōri Takachika, supported this, declaring that after the deadline all foreign ships traversing the Straits of Shimonoseki were to be attacked.

[9][10][11] The US and French navies retaliated, with the frigate USS Wyoming sailing into the straits on July 16 under the sanction of Minister Robert H. Pruyn, sinking two ships and inflicted some 40 casualties, suffering severe damage in the process.

[9] On August 17, 1864, a squadron consisting of nine British (including the Euryalus), four Dutch[9][15] (including the Medusa, the 16-gun warship that was attacked)[15] and three French warships, crewed by 3,000 sailors and a further 2,000 mainly British soldiers, all under the command of Admiral Sir Augustus Leopold Kuper of the Royal Navy, steamed out of Yokohama to open the straits.

[9][16] The only US warship in the area at the time was the sail-powered sloop-of-war USS Jamestown, which could not overcome the strong currents of the straits and thus could not join the expedition.

Despite this injury, he would deliver a coherent report to his company commander, Second Lieutenant Frederick Edwards, and join his fellow soldiers in the assault on the stockade.

[4][20][21] Seeing the British advance the rebels fell back to the stockade, which was manned by 300 men, seven light guns and protected by an 8 ft (2.4 m) palisade.

One of the colour sergeants was mortally wounded, while the second, petty officer Thomas Pride, was hit in the left side of his chest by a musket ball.

The captain was a fine feller and never a thought I gave of the Cross in getting him away from the rebs bullets"The London Gazette would later report on dispatches received from Kuper, stating "Since the conclusion of these operations I have satisfied myself, by personal examination, of the entire Straits, that no batteries remain in existence on the territory of the Prince of Choshiu, and thus the passage of the Straits may be considered cleared of all obstructions.

[4][25][26] On the first occasion he had it stolen from him "in the Lord Howe Tavern, London, soon after I quit the British service in '66, and was finding that the cross weren't any help for getting a feller another berth.

Some 15 years after he found it, a friend of his showed him a copy of the Boston Evening News dated January 23 that had a page story about Seeley, titled "Only American Citizen to Win Victoria Cross".

[25][26] One of Seeley's messages was printed in the paper, which read;[25] "Dear Sir: I received your favor of the 6th and was surprised, for I supposed that I had lost the original cross in the docks in East Boston when I was going aboard a ship.