The Combined Military Services Museum is proud to announce the acquisition of a rare replica Victoria Cross believed to have been made for Maldon-born VC recipient Frederick Corbett, also known by his birth name, David Embleton. The medal, secured thanks to a generous donation from museum founder Dr Richard Wooldridge, now sits alongside Corbett’s Snider Mk III cavalry carbine, purchased by the museum in 2017, bringing together two remarkable artefacts from a turbulent and extraordinary life.
David Embleton was born in Maldon on 17 September 1853, one of thirteen children. By the age of seventeen he had joined the 23rd Essex Rifle Volunteers, and in 1872 he enlisted in the Royal Regiment of Artillery. Although his conduct was described as “very good,” his health deteriorated rapidly. After only five years he was pensioned off with chronic bronchitis and a persistent cough, later labelled tuberculosis. Yet this diagnosis may have been mistaken, as Embleton soon re-enlisted under a false identity: Frederick Corbett of the 60th Rifles, later the King’s Royal Rifle Corps.
It was under this assumed name that Corbett earned the Victoria Cross. During the 1882 Egyptian campaign, at Kafr Dowar, he displayed exceptional bravery when Lieutenant Howard Vyse fell mortally wounded under heavy fire. Corbett remained beside him, attempting to stem the bleeding, and later helped carry him from the field, an action that earned him Britain’s highest award for gallantry.
Health problems again interrupted his service, and as a decorated soldier he was transferred to the newly formed Military Foot Police and promoted to corporal. But after leaving the Army in 1883, Corbett’s life began to unravel. Struggling financially, he sold his Victoria Cross for just 15 guineas. Within months he re-enlisted once more, this time accepted as a Driver in the Royal Horse Artillery. He returned to Egypt in 1884, and earned further campaign honours. Known to wear a replacement VC, he may have crafted the replica himself, drawing on his training as a tinsmith, or it may have been made by his ironmonger brother Joseph.
Corbett’s later years were marked by repeated disciplinary issues, imprisonment, and eventual medical discharge in 1891. Today his behaviour might be recognised as consistent with PTSD, but in the nineteenth century such conditions were poorly understood. Returning to Maldon under his birth name, he drifted into destitution, repeatedly appearing in court for minor offences. In 1904 he was jailed for breaking a window at the War Office in an apparent attempt to reclaim his lost VC. He died in Maldon Workhouse in 1912 and was buried in a pauper’s grave, receiving a military headstone only in 2004.
Corbett’s original Victoria Cross is now held by the Royal Green Jackets (Rifles) Museum, though questions remain about its authenticity. Another copy was once recorded in the Royal Artillery collection.
Bringing this piece home to Maldon allows the museum to honour a local man whose courage was undeniable, even as his life took a tragic and troubled path.
