1858: A merchant seaman, George Chicken, won the Victoria Cross whilst serving as a volunteer cavalryman during the Indian Mutiny at Suhejni. Similarly decorated were Chicken's commanding officer, Lieutenant Baker, of the Bengal Police, and Ensign Roddy.

1914: German forces at Duala in Cameroon surrendered.

1915: British and Indian troops under Major General Charles Townshend began a two day attack that successfully took the town of Kut-el-Amara on the Tigris in modern Iraq.

On the Western Front, heavy fighting was experienced around the German strongpoint known as the Hohenzollern Redoubt. When an enemy counter-attack threatened to overwhelm a section of the British positions, Corporal Pollock, Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders, climbed out of the trench and walked along the parapet, in full view of the enemy, throwing grenades down upon the attackers working their way along the trench. He miraculously survived enemy machine-gun fire for more than an hour before being hit and wounded. He received the Victoria Cross, as did Corporal Burt, Hertfordshire Regiment, who threw a heavy German mortar bomb clear from a crowded trench before it could explode.

1916: In an attack on a village at Thiepval, Second Lieutenant Adlam, Bedfordshire Regiment, braved enemy fire to gather scattered troops and organise a second assault. He was badly wounded in the process, but nevertheless went on to lead a successful attack. He received the Victoria Cross.

1918: Seven Victoria Crosses were won in a series of actions across France:

Lieutenant Colonel Viscount Gort, Grenadier Guards
Captain Frisby, Coldstream Guards
Lieutenant Gregg, Royal Canadian Regiment
Lieutenant Kerr, 1st Central Ontario Regiment
Lieutenant Lyall, 2nd Central Ontario Regiment
Lance-Sergeant Jackson, Coldstream Guards (posthumous)
Corporal Neely, King's Own (Royal Lancaster) Regiment

1940: Heavy air combat was experienced as the Germans launched three major raids in the south-east, with a fourth against the aircraft factory at Filton near Bristol . A Merchant Navy sailor, John Mitchell, received the Albert Medal for rescuing two sailors from the freezing waters of an Icelandic harbour.

1943: British and Australian commando forces led by Lieutenant Colonel Lyons, Gordon Highlanders, mounted Operation Jaywick, a canoe attack on Japanese shipping in Singapore harbour. Their limpet mines sank three ships and left several others damaged. The assault team escaped in their fishing boat, HMAS Krait, which has been preserved as part of the Australian War Memorial collection.