Major-General Euston Henry Sartorius (6 June 1844 – 19 February 1925) was a British Army officer and a recipient of the Victoria Cross (VC), the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. His brother Reginald was also awarded the VC.
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Life
Sartorius was educated at Victoria College, Jersey, then the Royal Naval School, New Cross. He then decided on an army career and attended the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, followed by the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. In 1862 he joined the 59th (2nd Nottinghamshire) Regiment of Foot as an ensign. In June 1869 at Broadstairs he rescued three girls from drowning, for which he received the Bronze Medal of the Royal Humane Society.
In the 1870s, he spent four years as military surveying instructor at Sandhurst, and then travelled for a year overland, via Persia, to India to rejoin his regiment. When the Second Anglo-Afghan War (1878–80) broke out, the 59th Foot formed part of the southern Afghanistan Field Force, serving in and around Kandahar. In October 1879 Sartorius was part of a British advance upon a large Ghilzais force assembling at Shahjui. Under fire from British artillery, the Ghilzais retreated, taking refuge in an old hill-top fort. Sartorius won his VC for leading a small force that captured this fort.