Price of heroism: The rise and fall of VC hero

When John Bythesea, then a young lieutenant, and a ship's stoker, William Johnstone, rowed ashore at the island of Vardo, off Finland, the Crimean War was in something of a stalemate.

Despite the Royal Navy's massive array of firepower gathered in the Baltic, the British commander, Sir Charles Napier, and his French counterpart were under pressure. They had appeared reluctant to deploy their vast fleets against Russia's coastal fortifications and had prompted anger among MPs for turning their guns on undefended Finnish villages instead.

It was the summer of 1854, a few months into the conflict, and Sir Charles was looking for a victory in what was threatening to be a forgotten theatre, overshadowed by the exploits on land. Sir Charles, a veteran of the Napoleonic Wars, turned his attentions to the Russian fortress at Bomarsund - an aggressive symbol of the Tsar's expansionist plans and an obvious target for Britain's naval might.

An earlier bombardment had failed to destroy the outpost, although the bravery of one ship's mate, throwing a live shell overboard, had earned the award of the first Victoria Cross. Few could guess that the second and third VC s were to be earned in the second wave of hostilities, not aboard the blockading ships with their awesome technologically advanced arsenal, but miles away on Vardo, by two men, a single pistol and a rope.

It was the second day of the bombardment when Bythesea, the son of a Somerset vicar, left his ship, the 46-gun screw frigate HMS Arrogant. The British command had learnt that secret messages were being sent from the Tsar via Vardo to Bomarsund on the neighbouring island, part of the Aland group off south-west Finland. The volunteers' mission was to intercept the mail.

After befriending a local farmer, the men spent three days in hiding before they spotted their first Russians - five of them coming ashore - and, sure enough, they were carrying postbags. Descriptions of the ensuing action are surprisingly short on hyperbole. According to one account: "Johnstone ambushed the men, at Bythesea's signal, attempting to throw a rope around the group whilst Bythesea provided cover with just one pistol." Two Russians dropped their bags and ran, while the remaining three surrendered. Bythesea ordered the men back to their boat and made them row him back to the Arrogant with the intercepted communications.

Bomarsund was taken four days later with the loss of 53 defenders and several British sailors, including Lieutenant the Honourable Cameron Wrottesley, whose grave is on the island of Fjalskar. The British destroyed the fort the following month, although the name travelled to the north-east pit village of Bedlington in England, where it was given to a new coal mine and the village that grew up around it.

The VC was presented in 1857 at a Hyde Park ceremony, by Queen Victoria. By then the conflict in the Crimea - which had created so many of the still-enduring myths of imperial Britain, not least through the war reporter William Howard Russell's groundbreaking dispatches - was over.

Yesterday, Bythesea's medal was sold at Spinks' packed London auction room to an agent, Michael Naxton, for £155,350. Intense bidding saw the hammer price soar to more than double expectations.

The sale included the medals of one of Britain's most distinguished flying aces, Air Chief Marshal Sir Basil Embry. Sir Basil, who died in 1977, escaped German capture after being shot down while aiding the British retreat to Dunkirk. Hr received the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) four times during his career with the RAF, among other honours.

Despite his youthful heroism, Bythesea's career was to end in failure. After the war he was promoted to captain of the paddle gun-vessel HMS Locust, rising to the rank of commander in 1856. He saw action in the second outbreak of the Opium Wars with China and later served on a commission examining the defence of Canada. After another commission, off west Africa, he was invalided out, serving in Washington before returning to sea as captain of the HMS Phoebe. But trouble and humiliation were to strike when he commissioned the battleship Lord Clyde, on what was to be hers and his final mission.

Lying at Syracuse, he received a wire from the British command at Malta ordering him to assist a stricken British steamer that had run aground at Pantellaria. But far from rescuing her, the Clyde was to suffer the same fate. As captain and crew battled to refloat her, jettisoning tons of coal, munitions and stores in the process, she was badly damaged in a swell and forced to seek help. A message was eventually forwarded aboard a passing steamer, which was received some days later by the Clyde's sister ship, the Lord Warden. Bythesea's rudderless command swayed violently when under tow, at times threatening to capsize her rescuer. She was eventually pulled ashore at Malta.

At his court martial in April 1872, Bythesea and his navigator were severely reprimanded and dismissed from their ship. Neither were ever employed at sea again. He died in 1906 at his home in London. His old shipmate William Johnstone died in 1857 and was buried at sea in St Vincent Passage, the West Indies.

The first Victoria Crosses

* Mate C D Lucas was the first serviceman to receive the VC. When a Russian shell landed on the deck of his ship, HMS Hecla, during the Crimean War in June 1854, the 20-year-old disobeyed the order to lie down and saved many lives by throwing the shell overboard before it exploded.

* Sergeant Luke O'Connor, 23rd Regiment (later the Royal Welch Fusiliers), received the first Army VC for his bravery during the Crimean War when, while fighting the Battle of Alma in September 1854, he led the charge of his regiment with the Queen's Colour, which he took from a dying comrade. Also recognised for his gallantry at the assault on the Redan on 8 September 1855, where he was shot through both thighs. He rose to the rank of field marshal and became the only British soldier to serve in every rank of the British Army.

* 2nd Lieutenant William Barnard Rhodes-Moorhouse, Special Reserve, 2 Squadron Royal Flying Corps, was awarded the airborne services' first VC for his part in the First World War. On a return journey from Courtrai, Belgium, in April 1915, where he bombed a rail line, he was mortally wounded but managed to fly 35 miles to report the success of his mission before dying.