Victoria Cross

2008/9 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Military History and War

Victoria Cross
Obverse of the medal and ribbon. Ribbon: 32 mm, crimson (blue ribbon for naval awards 1856–1918).
Awarded by some British Empire/ Commonwealth countries
Type	Military decoration
Eligibility	Some British Empire/Commonwealth and allied Military personnel. (Eligibility has varied over time.)
Awarded for	"... most conspicuous bravery, or some daring or pre-eminent act of valour or self-sacrifice, or extreme devotion to duty in the presence of the enemy."
Status	Currently awarded.
Description	Bronze Cross pattée with Crown and Lion Superimposed, and motto: 'For Valour'
Statistics
Established	29 January 1856
First awarded	1856
Last awarded	2006
Total awarded	1,356
Distinct recipients	1,353
Precedence
Same	George Cross
Next (lower)	Conspicuous Gallantry Cross

The Victoria Cross (VC) is the highest military decoration awarded for valour "in the face of the enemy" to members of the armed forces of some Commonwealth countries and previous British Empire territories. It takes precedence over all other orders, decorations and medals. It may be awarded to a person of any rank in any service and civilians under military command, and is presented to the recipient by the British monarch during an investiture held at Buckingham Palace. It is the joint highest award for bravery in the United Kingdom with the George Cross, which is the equivalent honour for valour not in the face of the enemy. However, the VC is higher in order of precedence and would be worn first by an individual who had been awarded both decorations (which has not so far occurred).

The VC was introduced on 29 January 1856 by Queen Victoria to reward acts of valour during the Crimean War. Since then the medal has been awarded 1,356 times to 1,353 individual recipients. Only 13 medals, nine to the British Army and four to the Australian Army have been awarded since the start of the Korean War. The traditional explanation of the source of the gunmetal from which the medals are struck is that it derives from Russian cannon captured at the siege of Sevastopol. Recent research has thrown doubt on this story, suggesting a variety of origins. Due to its rarity, the VC is highly prized and the medal can reach over £400,000 at auction. There are a number of public and private collections devoted to it, most notably that of Lord Ashcroft, which contains over one-tenth of the total VCs awarded.

Origin

In 1854, after 40 years of peace, Britain found itself fighting a major war against Russia. The Crimean War was one of the first wars with modern reporting, and the dispatches of William Howard Russell described many acts of bravery and valour by British servicemen that went unrewarded.

Before the Crimean War, there was no official standardised system for recognition of gallantry within the British armed forces. Officers were eligible for an award of one of the junior grades of the Order of the Bath and brevet promotions whilst a Mention in Despatches existed as an alternative award for acts of lesser gallantry. This structure was very limited; in actual practice awards of the Order of the Bath were confined to officers of field rank. Brevet promotions or Mentions in Despatches were largely confined to those who were under the immediate notice of the commanders in the field, generally members of the commander's own staff.

Other European countries had awards that did not discriminate against class or rank; France awarded the Légion d'honneur (Legion of Honour) and The Netherlands gave the Order of William. There was a growing feeling amongst the public and in the Royal Court that a new award was needed to recognise incidents of gallantry that were unconnected with a man's lengthy or meritorious service. Queen Victoria issued a Warrant under the Royal sign-manual on 29 January 1856 ( gazetted 5 February 1856) that officially constituted the VC. The order was backdated to 1854 to recognise acts of valour during the Crimean War.

Queen Victoria had instructed the War Office to strike a new medal that would not recognise birth or class. The medal was meant to be a simple decoration that would be highly prized and eagerly sought after by those in the military services. To maintain its simplicity, Queen Victoria, under the guidance of Prince Albert, vetoed the suggestion that the award be called The Military Order of Victoria and instead suggested the name Victoria Cross. The original warrant stated that the Victoria Cross would only be awarded to soldiers who have served in the presence of the enemy and had performed some signal act of valour or devotion. The first ceremony was held on 26 June 1857 where Queen Victoria invested 62 of the 111 Crimean recipients in a ceremony in Hyde Park.

It was originally intended that the VCs would be cast from the bronze cascabels of two cannons that were captured from the Russians at the siege of Sevastopol. The historian John Glanfield has since proven through the use of x-rays of older Victoria Crosses that the metal used for VCs is in fact from antique Chinese guns and not of Russian origin. One theory is that the guns were originally Chinese weapons but the Russians captured them and reused them at Sevastopol. It was also thought that some medals made during the First World War were composed of metal captured from different Chinese guns during the Boxer Rebellion but the original metal was used after the war. It is also believed that another source of metal was used between 1942 and 1945 to create five Second World War VCs when the Sevastopol metal went missing.

The barrels of the cannon in question are stationed outside the Officers' Mess at the Royal Artillery Barracks at Woolwich. The remaining portion of the only remaining cascabel, weighing 358 oz (10 kg), is stored in a vault maintained by 15 Regiment Royal Logistic Corps at Donnington, Telford. It can only be removed under armed guard. It is estimated that approximately 80 to 85 more VCs could be cast from this source. A single company of jewellers, Hancocks of London, has been responsible for the production of every VC awarded since its inception.

Appearance

The front and back of Richard Turner's VC.

The decoration is a cross pattée, 41 mm high, 36 mm wide, bearing a crown surmounted by a lion, and the inscription FOR VALOUR. This was originally to have been FOR BRAVERY, until it was changed on the recommendation of Queen Victoria, who thought some might erroneously consider that only the recipients of the VC were brave in battle. The decoration, suspension bar and link weigh about 0.87 troy ounces (27 g).

The cross is suspended by a ring from a seriffed "V" to a bar ornamented with laurel leaves, through which the ribbon passes. The reverse of the suspension bar is engraved with the recipient's name, rank, number and unit. On the reverse of the medal is a circular panel on which the date of the act for which it was awarded is engraved in the centre.

The ribbon is crimson, 38 mm (1.5 inches) wide. The original (1856) specification for the award stated that the ribbon should be red for army recipients and blue for naval ones. However the dark blue ribbon was abolished soon after the formation of the Royal Air Force on 1 April 1918. On 22 May 1920 King George V signed a warrant that stated all recipients would now receive a red ribbon and the living recipients of the naval version were required to exchange their ribbons for the new colour. Although the Army warrants state the colour as being red it is defined by most commentators as being crimson or "wine-red".

Awarding the medal

The Victoria Cross is awarded for

A recommendation for the VC is normally issued by an officer at regimental level and has to be supported by three witnesses, although this has been waived on occasion. The recommendation is then passed up the military hierarchy until it reaches the Secretary of State for War, now known as the Secretary of State for Defence. The recommendation is then laid before the monarch who approves the award with his or her signature. Victoria Cross awards are always promulgated in the London Gazette with the single exception of the award to the American Unknown Soldier in 1921. The Victoria Cross warrant makes no specific provision as to who should actually present the medals to the recipients. Queen Victoria indicated that she would like to present the medals in person and she presented 185 medals out of the 472 gazetted during her reign. Including the first 62 medals presented at a parade in Hyde Park on 26 June 1857 by Queen Victoria, nearly 900 awards have been personally presented to the recipient by the reigning British monarch. Nearly 300 awards have been presented by a member of the royal family or by a civil or military dignitary. About 150 awards were either forwarded to the recipient or next of kin by registered post or no details of the presentations are known.

Originally, the VC could not be awarded posthumously. Between the Indian Mutiny and 1897 and the beginning of the Second Boer War the names of six officers and men were published in the London Gazette with a memorandum stating they would have been awarded the Victoria Cross had they survived. A further three notices were published in the London Gazette in September 1900 and April 1901 for gallantry in the Second Boer War. In a partial reversal of policy, six posthumous Victoria Crosses, all for South Africa including the three officers and men mentioned in the notices in 1900 and 1901 were granted on 8 August 1902. Five years later in 1907, the posthumous policy was completely reversed and medals were sent to the next of kin of the six officers and men. The awards were mentioned in notices in the Gazette dating back to the Indian Mutiny. The Victoria Cross warrant was not amended to include posthumous awards until 1920 but one quarter of all awards for World War I were posthumous.

In the case of a gallant and daring act being performed by a squadron, ship's company or a detached body of men (such as marines) in which all men are deemed equally brave and deserving of the Victoria Cross then a ballot is drawn. The officers select one officer, the NCOs select one individual and the private soldiers or seamen select two individuals. In all 46 awards have been awarded by ballot with 29 of the awards during the Indian Mutiny. Four further awards were granted to Q Battery, Royal Horse Artillery at Korn Spruit on 31 March 1900 during the Second Boer War. The final ballot awards for the Army were the six awards to the Lancashire Fusiliers at W Beach during the landing at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915 although three of the awards were not gazetted until 1917. The final seven ballot awards were the only naval ballot awards with three awards to two Q-Ships in 1917 and four awards for the Zeebrugge Raid in 1918. The provision for awards by ballot is still included in the Victoria Cross warrant but there have been no further awards since 1918.

Between 1858 and 1881 the Victoria Cross could be awarded for actions taken "under circumstances of extreme danger" not in the face of the enemy. Six such awards were made during this period - five of them for a single incident (a shipwreck off the Andaman Islands in 1867). In 1881, the criteria were changed again and the VC was only awarded for acts of valour "in the face of the enemy". Due to this it has been suggested by many historians including Lord Ashcroft that the changing nature of warfare will result in fewer VCs being awarded. The prevalence of more remote fighting techniques has meant that the opportunity to carry out acts of bravery are diminishing. Since 1940, military personnel who have distinguished themselves for gallantry not in the face of the enemy have been awarded the George Cross, which ranks immediately after the VC in the Order of Wear.

Colonial awards

The Victoria Cross was extended to colonial troops in 1867. The extension was made following a recommendation for gallantry regarding colonial soldier Major Charles Heaphy for action in the New Zealand land wars in 1864. He was operating under British command and the VC was gazetted in 1867. Later that year, the Government of New Zealand assumed full responsibility for operations but no further recommendations for the Victoria Cross were raised for local troops who distinguished themselves in action. Following gallant actions by three New Zealand soldiers in November 1868 and January 1869 during the New Zealand land wars, an Order-in-Council on 10 March 1869 created a “Distinctive Decoration” for members of the local forces without seeking permission from the Secretary of State for the Colonies. Although the Governor General was chided for exceeding his authority, the Order in Council was ratified by the Queen. The title “Distinctive Decoration” was later replaced by the title New Zealand Cross.

The question of whether recommendations could be made for colonial troops not serving with British troops was not asked in New Zealand, but in 1881, the question was asked in South Africa. Surgeon John McCrea, an officer of the South African forces was recommended for gallantry during hostilities which had not been approved by British Government. He was awarded the Victoria Cross and the principle was established that gallant conduct could be rewarded independently of any political consideration of military operations. More recently, four Australian soldiers were awarded the Victoria Cross in Vietnam although Britain was not involved in the conflict.

Indian troops were not originally eligible for the Victoria Cross since they had been eligible for the Indian Order of Merit since 1837 which was the oldest British gallantry award for general issue. When the Victoria Cross was created, Indian troops were still controlled by the Honourable East India Company and did not come under Crown control until 1860. European officers and men serving with the Honourable East India Company were not eligible for the Indian Order of Merit and the Victoria Cross was extended to cover them in October 1857. It was only at the end of the 19th Century that calls for Indian troops to be awarded the Victoria Cross intensified. Indian troops became eligible for the award in 1911. The first awards to Indian troops appeared in the London Gazette on 7 December 1914 to Darwan Sing Negi and Khudadad Khan. Negi was presented with the Victoria Cross by King George V during a visit to troops in France. The presentation occurred on 5 December 1914 and he is one of a very few soldiers presented with his award before it appeared in the London Gazette.

Separate Commonwealth awards

Victoria Cross as it appears on Commonwealth War Graves Commission headstones.

In recent years, several Commonwealth countries have introduced their own honours systems, separate from the British Honours System. This began with the Partition of India in 1947, when the new countries of India and Pakistan introduced their own systems of awards. The VC was replaced by the Param Vir Chakra (PVC) and Nishan-e-Haider respectively, although the new countries continued to permit winners of British honours to wear their awards. Several Pakistani soldiers and officers were authorised to wear both the British medals and the ones earned in the later Indo-Pakistani wars. Three Commonwealth realms: Australia, Canada and New Zealand, have each introduced their own decorations for gallantry and bravery, replacing British decorations such as the Military Cross with their own. Most Commonwealth countries, however, still recognise some form of the VC as their highest decoration for valour.

Australia was the first Commonwealth realm to create its own VC, on 15 January 1991. Although it is a separate award, its appearance is identical to its British counterpart. Canada followed suit when in 1993 Queen Elizabeth signed Letters Patent creating the Canadian VC, which is also similar to the British version, except that the legend has been changed from FOR VALOUR to the Latin PRO VALORE This was to accommodate both French and English, the two official languages of Canada. While the New Zealand and Australian awards are still made from the gunmetal captured during the Crimean War, the Canadian VC is not, and it is currently made of metal from an unspecified source.

New Zealand was the third country to adapt the VC into its own honours system. While the New Zealand and Australian VCs are technically separate awards, the decoration is identical to the British design, including being cast from the same Crimean War gunmetal as the British VC. As of July 2007, only one of the separate VCs has been awarded, to a New Zealand serviceman, Bill Apiata, on 2 July 2007, for his actions in conflict in Afghanistan in 2004. A Canadian version has been cast that was originally to be awarded to the Unknown Soldier at the rededication of the Vimy Memorial on 7 April 2007. This date was chosen as it was the 90th anniversary of the battle of Vimy Ridge but pressure from Veterans organisations caused the plan to be dropped.

Authority and privileges

As the highest award for valour of the United Kingdom, the Victoria Cross is always the first award to be presented at an investiture, even before knighthoods, as was shown at the investiture of Johnson Beharry who received his medal before General Sir Mike Jackson. Due to its status the VC is always the first medal worn in a row of medals and it always appears first in post-nominal letters before any other awards or honours. Similar acts of extreme valour that do not take place in the face of the enemy are honoured with the George Cross which has equal precedence but is awarded second due to fact that the GC is newer.

There is a widespread erroneous myth that it is statutory for "all ranks to salute a bearer of the Victoria Cross." There is no official requirement that appears in the official Warrant of the VC, nor in Queen's Regulations and Orders but tradition dictates that this occurs and as such the Chiefs of Staff will salute a Private awarded a VC or GC.

Annuity

The original warrant stated that NCOs and private soldiers or seamen on the Victoria Cross Register were entitled to a £10 per annum annuity. In 1898, Queen Victoria raised the pension to £50 for those that could not earn a livelihood, be it from old age or infirmity. Today holders of the Victoria Cross or George Cross are entitled to an annuity, the amount of which is determined by the awarding government. Since 2002, the annuity paid by the British government is £1,495 per year. As of January 2005, under the Canadian Gallantry Awards Order, members of the Canadian Forces or people who joined the British forces before 31 March 1949 while domiciled in Canada or Newfoundland receive $3,000 per year. The Australian Government provides the two surviving Australian recipients a Victoria Cross Allowance under Subsection 103.4 of the Veterans' Entitlements Act 1986. In January 2006 the amount was $A3,230 per year which is indexed annually in line with Australian Consumer Price Index increases.

Forfeited VCs

The original Royal Warrant involved an expulsion clause that allowed for a recipient's name to be erased from the official register in certain wholly discreditable circumstances, and his pension cancelled. King George V though felt very strongly that the decoration should never be forfeited and in a letter to his Private Secretary, Lord Stamfordham, on 26 July 1920, his views are forcibly expressed:

The power to cancel and restore awards is still included in the Victoria Cross warrant but none has been forfeited since 1908.

Recipients

The largest number of VCs awarded in a single action was 11 at Rorke's Drift on 22 January 1879

A total of 1,356 Victoria Crosses have been awarded since 1856 to 1,353 people. Three people have been awarded the VC and Bar, that is a medal for two separate actions; Noel Chavasse and Arthur Martin-Leake, both members of The Royal Army Medical Corps, and New Zealander Charles Upham. Upham remains the only combat soldier to have received a VC and Bar. In 1921 the award was given to the American Unknown Soldier of the First World War. (The British Unknown Warrior was reciprocally awarded the US Medal of Honour.) One VC is in existence that is not counted in any official records. In 1856, Queen Victoria laid a Victoria Cross beneath the foundation stone of Netley Military hospital. When the hospital was demolished in 1966 the VC, known as "The Netley VC", was retrieved and is now on display in the Army Medical Services Museum, Ash, near Aldershot.

There are several statistics related to the largest number of VCs awarded in individual battles or wars. The largest number awarded for actions on a single day was 24 on 16 November 1857, at the relief of Lucknow and the amount awarded in a single action was 11 for the defence of Rorke's Drift on 22 January 1879. The record for the number of Victoria Crosses awarded in a single conflict was 634 during the First World War. There are only ten living holders of the VC — five British, two Australians, three Gurkhas — six of them for exploits during the Second World War; in addition one New Zealander holds the Victoria Cross for New Zealand. Eight of the then-twelve surviving holders of the Victoria Cross attended the 150th Anniversary service of remembrance at Westminster Abbey on 26 June 2006.

An Irishman, Surgeon General William Manley, remains the sole recipient of both the Victoria Cross and the Iron Cross. The Victoria Cross was awarded for his actions during the Waikato-Hauhau Maori War, New Zealand on 29 April 1864 whilst the Iron Cross was awarded for tending the wounded during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71. New Zealand Flying Officer Lloyd Trigg, has the distinction of being the only serviceman ever awarded a VC on evidence solely provided by the enemy, for an action in which there were no surviving Allied witnesses. The recommendation was made by the captain of the German U-boat U-468 sunk by Trigg's aircraft. Lieutenant-Commander Gerard Roope was also awarded a VC on recommendation of the enemy, the captain of the Admiral Hipper, but there were also numerous surviving Allied witnesses to corroborate his actions.

Victoria Cross after World War II

Since the end of the Second World War the original VC has been awarded 13 times: four in the Korean War, one in the Indonesia-Malaysia confrontation in 1965, four to Australians in the Vietnam War, two during the Falklands War in 1982, one in the Iraq War in 2004, and one in the War in Afghanistan in 2006. The Victoria Cross for New Zealand has been awarded once, which was earned in 2004 but awarded in 2007.

The two awards given in the 21st century to British personnel have been for actions in the Afghanistan conflict and the Iraq War. On 18 March 2005, Lance Corporal (then Private) Johnson Beharry of the 1st Battalion, Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment became the first recipient of the VC since Sergeant Ian McKay in 1982. The most recent award of the Victoria Cross to a British service person was the posthumous award on 14 December 2006 to Corporal Bryan Budd of 3 Para. It was awarded for two separate acts of "inspirational leadership and the greatest valour" which led to his death, during actions against the Taliban in Afghanistan in July and August 2006.

It was announced on 2 July 2007 that Corporal Bill Apiata of the Special Air Service of New Zealand (NZ SAS) was awarded the Victoria Cross for New Zealand for carrying a severely wounded comrade 70 metres over rocky ground while under heavy machine-gun fire during the Afghanistan conflict in 2004.

Value of the VC

Sales of the VC

Some recipients have felt the need to sell their medals, often to avoid rows between their children:

The inherent value of the VC can be seen by the increasing sums that the medals reach at auction. In 1955 the medal awarded to Edmund Barron Hartley was bought at Sotheby's for the then record price of £300. In October 1966 the Middlesex Regiment paid a new record figure of £900 for a medal awarded after the Battle of the Somme. In January 1969 the record reached £1700 for the medal of William Rennie In April 2004 the VC awarded in 1944 to Sergeant Norman Jackson, RAF, was sold at auction for £235,250.

On 24 July 2006, an auction at Bonhams in Sydney of the VC awarded to Captain Alfred Shout fetched a world record hammer price of AU$1 million. Captain Alfred Shout was awarded the VC posthumously in 1915 for hand-to-hand combat at the Lone Pine trenches in Gallipoli Turkey. The buyer, Kerry Stokes has since donated the medal set to the Australian War Memorial. It is on display with the eight other VCs awarded to Australians at Gallipoli.

Thefts of the VC

Several VCs have been stolen and being valuable have been placed on the Interpol watch-list for stolen items.

The VC awarded to Milton Gregg, which was donated to the Royal Canadian Regiment Museum in London, Ontario Canada in 1979, was stolen on Canada Day, ( 1 July 1980), when the museum was overcrowded and has been missing since. A VC awarded in 1917 to Canadian soldier Corporal Filip Konowal was stolen from the same museum in 1973 and was not recovered until 2004.

On December 2, 2007, 9 Victoria Crosses were among 100 medals stolen from locked, reinforced glass cabinets at the QEII Army Memorial Museum in Waiouru, New Zealand with a value of around NZD$20 million. Charles Upham's VC and bar was among these. A reward of NZ$300,000 was posted for information leading to the recovery of the medals and conviction of the thieves. Lord Ashcroft contributed significantly to this amount. On 16 February 2008 New Zealand Police announced all the medals had been recovered as a result of the reward. A high profile Auckland lawyer, Chris Comeskey, played a key part in the drawn out negotiations to safely return the medals. While there has been much public debate about the need to offer reward money in order to retrieve the medals, there is universal relief that they have been safely returned.

Collections

Public collections

Museums with holdings of ten or more VCs include:

^{(note 1 = Many VCs are on loan to the museums and are owned by individuals and not owned by the museums themselves.)
(note 2 = It is the largest publicly held collection in the world, including all nine VCs awarded to Australians at Gallipoli.)}

Private collections

British businessman and politician Lord Ashcroft has amassed a private collection of over 140 VCs. Lord Ashcroft purchased his first medal in 1986 and the collection now contains over a tenth of the medals ever awarded, the largest private or public collection of such medals ever accumulated. The medals are administered by The Ashcroft Collection Trust. Victoria Cross Heroes by Michael Ashcroft was published in November 2006 by Hardline Books, ISBN 978 0 7553 1632 8.

Other

Memorials

In 2004 a national Victoria Cross and George Cross memorial was installed in Westminster Abbey close to the tomb of The Unknown Warrior. Westminster Abbey is a living monument to British history in that it contains monuments and memorials to central figures in British History including Charles Darwin and James VI & I. As such it was a significant honour for the VC to be commemorated in Westminster Abbey.

Canon William Lummis MC

Canon William Lummis, MC, was a military historian who built up an archive on the service records and final resting places of Victoria Cross holders. This was then summarised into a pamphlet which was taken to be an authoritative source on these matters. However, Lummis was aware of short-comings in his work and encouraged David Harvey to continue it. The result was Harvey's seminal book Monuments to Courage. In 2007 the Royal Mail used material from Lummis' archives to produce a collection of stamps commemorating Victoria Cross winners.

Soldiers' club naming traditions

It is a tradition within the Australian Army for soldiers' recreational clubs on military bases to be named after a particular Victoria Cross winner, usually one with whom the unit is historically associated. Permission for such naming rights is usually obtained not only from the relevant command hierarchy within the military itself, but also from the family of the VC winner. Once dedicated, the club and its participants typically take great pride in the deeds of the VC winner with whom they are associated, and often family members will be invited to attend certain functions held by the club as a mark of thanks and respect.

Examples of such clubs can be found right across Australia, but more prominent ones include the Edmondson VC Club at ARTC Kapooka (named after John Hurst Edmondson), the Dunstan VC Club at Puckapunyal military base in Victoria, Australia (named after William Dunstan) and the Arthur C. Hall VC Club at Victoria Barracks in Sydney (named after Arthur Charles Hall).