John Doogan was born in Aughrim, Co Galway in March 1853. He joined the King’s Dragoon Guards around 1873 and served with them in the Zulu War and in the First Boer War of 1881. He was 27 years old when he rescued Major Brownlow, for whom he was acting as servant, at the battle of Laing’s Nek on 28 Jan 1881. Brownlow had his horse shot dead and was in danger of being killed or captured by the Boers. Doogan had been wounded in the charge but rode up to his officer and urged him to take his horse. He received another wound as Major Brownlow was mounting up but they both reached safety.
On 14 Mar 1882 Private John Doogan was gazetted to receive the Victoria Cross and was presented with the medal at Cork in May 1882. He left the army in that year and held various jobs, as a Mail Driver in Welshpool, as a butler in East Shenfield, Berkshire, and a farmer in Stapeley Hill, Shropshire. During WW1 he joined the army and became a sergeant recruiter. He was married twice, firstly to Mary in 1882 with whom he had 10 children, but she died in 1924. He married again to Martha Maria Roberts who was 39 years younger than him. But the marriage was invalid and she was convicted (but not imprisoned) of bigamy after her first husband had been revealed to be alive after all. Doogan spent his last years in Folkestone, Kent and died there on 24 January 1940. Major-General Brownlow had died in 1926 and bequeathed Doogan an annuity of 20 pounds a year. John Doogan was buried in the Military cemetery at Shorncliffe. The photo shows him at some time in the 1880s with his VC and medal for the Zulu War of 1879.
