Brigadier-General Edmund William Costello, CMG, CVO, DSO was born on 7th. August 1873 in Sheikhbudin, near Dera Ghazi Khan, Punjab on the North-West Frontier of India and was a British Indian Army officer and a recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. The son of a colonel in the Indian Medical Service. He was educated in England at Beaumont College, Stonyhurst College and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. In 1892 he was commissioned into
the West Yorkshire Regiment but transferred to the Indian Army in 1894 and was posted to the 22nd Punjab Infantry.
He was 23 years old and attached to Punjab Infantry during the Malakand Frontier War, when the following deed took place for which he was awarded the VC.
Costello’s connections to Hadlow Down are by his marriage to Elsie Maud L Huggins the daughter of Charles Lang Huggins, of Hadlow Grange, at St Peter and St Edward′s church, Pimlico, on 16 October 1902
On 26 July 1897 at Malakand on the Indian Frontier, Lieutenant Costello went out from the hospital enclosure and with the assistance of two sepoys, brought in a wounded lance-havildar who was lying 60 yards (55 m) away, in the open, on the football ground. This ground was at the time over-run with swordsmen and swept by a heavy fire from both the enemy and our own men who were holding the sapper lines.
In the subsequent fighting he was wounded twice and mentioned in dispatches twice.
The siege and battles are described by Winston S. Churchill in The Story of the Malakand Field Force. An Episode of Frontier War.
In November 1900 Costello was appointed adjutant of his regiment, and on 19 November 1901 he was promoted Captain in the Indian Staff Corps. He then worked as a recruiting officer for several years before taking part in the Mohmand operations of 1908. He was promoted Major in 1910. In 1913 he entered the Indian Staff College at Quetta and graduated just before the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, when he re-joined his regiment as second-in-command.
The regiment was soon sent to Mesopotamia as part of the 17th (Ahmednagar) Brigade of the 6th (Poona) Division and Costello remained there for the rest of the war. He was promoted Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel in June 1916, was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) in 1917 and appointed Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) in 1918. In May 1918 he took command of the 12th Indian Brigade and he received a substantive promotion to Lieutenant-Colonel in September 1918. He was mentioned five times in dispatches during the war and received the French Croix de Guerre.
In June 1919 he was promoted Brevet Colonel and was joint commander of the Indian contingent at the Peace March in London, for which he was appointed Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (CVO) in the 1920 New Year Honours. He was promoted substantive Colonel in March 1920, although he had held the acting appointment of Brigadier-General since 1918. From May to December 1920 he commanded the 8th (Jullundur) Brigade in the 3rd (Lahore) Division. In March 1921 he went to Palestine as temporary commander of the Palestine Defence Force and remained there to command a brigade in 1922. He retired in October 1923 and became Director of Military Studies at the University of Cambridge.
He died at the Esperance Nursing Home, Eastbourne on the 7th. June 1949
His grave and headstone memorial is at St Mark The Evangelist’s Church, Hadlow Down, Sussex, England.
The grave and surrounding area 
of Edmond Costello’s burial plot in St Mark’s Churchyard, Hadlow Down, Sussex, had, over the years, become extremely overgrown and very neglected. This was rectified in 2020 by the efforts of local man Steve Davies by cutting back foliage, shrubs and brambles.
Refurbishment of Costello’s grave and headstone was then carried out by cleaning the stonework and by the placing of gravel inside the kerbed area of the grave to protect it from weeds and other predations.
His Victoria Cross issue No. 416 is displayed at the National Army
Museum in Chelsea.
His VC was presented on 2 December 1897 by Queen Victoria, Windsor Castle, Berkshire, England
His details were Gazetted on 9 December 1897
Probate shows him living at 2 Derraclare Court, Eastbourne, and Admin (with will) to Elsie Maud Costello, widow. Effects £850
Electoral Roll of 1924 shows Edmund (Col) & Elsie at 12 Cardinal Mansions, Carlisle Place, London SW1.
© Hadlow Down Village Trust 2023