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Victoria Cross

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Victoria Cross
File:VictoriaCrossObv.jpg
Obverse of the medal and ribbon. Ribbon: 32mm, crimson (blue ribbon for naval awards 1856–1918).
TypeMilitary decoration
EligibilitySome British Empire/Commonwealth and allied Military personnel. (Eligibility has varied over time.)
StatusCurrently awarded.
Established29 January 1856
Precedence
EquivalentGeorge Cross
Next (lower)Conspicuous Gallantry Cross (UK)
Star of Gallantry (Aus)
New Zealand Gallantry Star (NZ)

The Victoria Cross (VC) is the highest recognition for valour "in the face of the enemy" that can be awarded to members of the armed forces of some Commonwealth countries — and before them some British Empire personnel. It may be awarded to a person of any rank in any service, and civilians under military command. and it is presented to the recipient by the Monarch during an investiture held at Buckingham Palace. As it is the highest award for bravery in the United Kingdom it is always the first medal to be awarded and it takes precedence over other postnomials and medals.[2]

The Victoria Cross was introduced in 1856 by Queen Victoria to reward acts of bravery during the Crimean War. Since then the medal has been awarded 1,356 times to 1,353 individual recipients but only 13 medals have been awarded since the end of the Second World War. The medal itself is made from the Gun metal of a weapon supposedly captured at the siege of Sevastopol but several historians have since questioned the true origin of the gun metal.[3] Due to its rarity the VC is highly prized and can reach over GB£200,000 at auction and there are a number of public and private collections devoted to it, most notably that of Lord Ashcroft, containing over one tenth of the total VCs awarded.[4]

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 style reporting with the dispatches of William Howard Russell describing many acts of bravery and valour that went unrewarded.[5] This was primarily because at the time only officers were awarded for acts of bravery, usually with the junior grade of the Order of the Bath.[5] Yet there was no such equivalent medal for junior officers, Non Commissioned Officers (NCOs), or ordinary soldiers or sailors. There was a growing feeling that a new award was needed to recognise incidents of gallantry that were unconnected with a man's lengthy or meritorious service.[5] So the VC was created by Royal Warrant on 29 January, 1856,[5] backdated to 1854 to recognise acts of valour during the Crimean War. The Victoria Cross was created by Queen Victoria to be a new decoration which should be highly prized and eagerly sought after by those in the military services.[6] The 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.[6] The first ceremony was held on 26 June 1857[5] where Queen Victoria invested 62 of the 111 Crimean recipients in a ceremony in Hyde Park.[5]

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.[7] Yet it is has since been proven that the guns used were in fact antique Chinese guns.[8][9] The historian John Glanfield argues in his book that X-Rays[3] of VCs prove that the metal used for VCs is in fact of Chinese origin and not of Russian origin.[3] 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.[3]

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 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.[10]

Appearance

File:Victoria Cross Medal Ribbon & Bar.jpg
Victoria Cross medal, ribbon, and bar.

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.[8] 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.[6] 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.[6]

The ribbon is crimson, 1.5 inches (38 mm) 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 with the formation of the Royal Air Force on 1 April 1918. King Edward VII approved that from that date the recipients would receive a crimson ribbon, an amalgamation of the two colours, although the Army warrants still state the colour as being red. The living recipients of the naval version were required to exchange their ribbons for the new colour in 1918. [11][12]

Awarding the medal

The Victoria Cross is 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."[13]

Awards of the Victoria Cross have always been announced in the pages of the London Gazette. A recommendation for the VC is normally issued by an officer at regimental level and has to be supported by three witnesses.[14] The recommendation is then passed up the military hierarchy until it reaches the Secretary of State for War,[14] (now the Secretary of State for Defence) and then the monarch. Today, Royal assent is still required and the VCs are presented by the monarch.[14]

Originally, the VC could not be awarded posthumously, and could not be awarded to Indian or African troops (although it could be awarded to their European officers).[15] Colonial troops were not eligible for the VC during the New Zealand land wars, so the New Zealand Cross (1869) was created.[16] One colonial soldier, Major Charles Heaphy was awarded the VC for his actions in 1864, as he was under British command.[17] In 1905 it was made available to be awarded posthumously.[15] In the twentieth century it was made available to all troops in the service of the Crown (the first Indian soldier, Khudadad Khan, received it in 1914).[15]

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)[18]. In 1881 the criteria were changed and the VC was only awarded for acts of valour "in the face of the enemy".[18] 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.[15] The prevalence of more remote fighting techniques has meant that the opportunity to carry out acts of bravery are diminishing. The corresponding honour for acts of valour that do not qualify as "in the face of the enemy" is the George Cross, which ranks alongside the VC.

Separate Commonwealth awards

See also: Victoria Cross (Canada)
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. Australia, Canada and New Zealand.[19] have each introduced their own decorations for gallantry and bravery, replacing British decorations such as the Military Cross with their own awards. Most Commonwealth countries, however, still recognise some form of the VC as their highest decoration for valour.

Australia was the first Commonwealth nation 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,[20] except that the legend has been changed from FOR VALOUR to the Latin PRO VALORE.

New Zealand was the third country to create the VC as part of its own honours system. While the New Zealand VC is technically a separate award, the decoration is identical to the British design, including being cast from the same Crimean War gunmetal as the British VC.[19]. As of 2006, none of these VCs have been awarded, although a Canadian version has been cast.[21] This medal was originally to be awarded to the Unknown Soldier, at the rededication of the Vimy Memorial on April 7, 2007, the 90th anniversary of the battle of Vimy Ridge.[20] Pressure from Veterans organisations meant that the plan was dropped.[22] The individual awards created by the different countries are not created from the gun metal captured during the Crimean War.[21]

Authority and privileges

Order of precedence

As the highest award for bravery 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.[23] Due to its status the VC is always the first medal worn in a row of medals and it always appears first in a postnomial, before any other awards or honours.

Salute

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 & Orders [QROs.] Yet tradition dictates that this occurs and as such the Chiefs of Staff will salute a private soldier awarded a VC or GC.[2]

Annuity

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 at 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.[24] In January 2006 the amount was $A3,230 per year which is indexed annually in line with Australian Consumer Price Index increases.

Recipients

Main article: List of Victoria Cross recipients

A total of 1,356 Victoria Crosses have been awarded since 1856 to 1,352 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. 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 Honor.) 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.[25] When the hospital was demolished in 1966 the VC, known as "The Netley VC",[25] was retrieved and is now on display in the Army Medical Services Museum, Ash, near Aldershot.[25]

The largest number of VCs awarded in a single day was 24 on 16 November 1857, at the relief of Lucknow. The largest number awarded in a single action was 11 at Rorke's Drift on 22 January 1879. The largest number of Victoria Crosses awarded in a single conflict was 634 during the First World War.[15] Following the death of Captain Umrao Singh, the last surviving Indian holder of the VC, in November 2005 there were only twelve surviving holders of the VC – six British, two Australians, and four Gurkhas – eight of them for exploits during the Second World War.

An Irishman, Surgeon General William Manley, remains the sole recipient of both the Victoria Cross, for his actions during the Waikato-Hauhau Maori War, New Zealand on 29 April 1864, and the Iron Cross, for tending the wounded during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71. New Zealander, 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 VC has been awarded 13 times. Four were awarded during 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 Afghanistan War in 2006.

In March 2002, it was widely reported in the media that the VC was to be awarded to an unnamed Regimental Sergeant-Major in the SAS for his involvement in fighting in the Tora Bora cave complex in November 2001.[26] There was some debate over whether he should be named but a compromise was reached that his name, and some specific details of the action, would be withheld from the official announcement in the London Gazette.[18] However, this did not happen; the VC award was never confirmed,[18] and he and another member of the SAS, who had also been discussed as a possible VC recipient, were awarded Conspicuous Gallantry Crosses in October 2002 instead.[18]

The two awards given in the 21st century have been for actions in the Afghanistan conflict and the Iraq War. On 18 March 2005, 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 recipient was awarded the Victoria Cross posthumously 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.[27]

Forfeited VCs

See also Victoria Cross forfeitures

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 King feels so strongly that, no matter the crime committed by anyone on whom the VC has been conferred, the decoration should not be forfeited. Even were a VC to be sentenced to be hanged for murder, he should be allowed to wear his VC on the gallows".[14]

After his intervention the rules pertaining to forfeitures were changed in 1931[14] and the eight men who lost their VCs were restored to official lists.[28] The change reflected the increasing difficulty in attaining the award.

Value of the VC

Wikinews has related news:

Sales of the VC

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

"By selling the medal they're taking the problem away," says Didy. "Now that they sell for such a huge sum, it is very difficult for someone to leave their medal to a regiment. The most important thing is that it is on display somewhere to serve as a future inspiration." Didy Grahame, Secretary to the VC and GC Association [2]

Their inherent value has been highlighted by several recent sales; in April 2004 the VC awarded to Sergeant Norman Jackson, RAF, in 1944, was sold at auction for GB£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$A1 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 indicated that it will be displayed at the Australian War Memorial with the eight other VCs awarded to Australians at Gallipoli.[29]

Thefts of the VC

Given the rarity of the Victoria Cross and the fact they are rarely sold, these decorations are highly prized on the black market.[30] Several VCs have been stolen, and being valuable have been placed on the Interpol watch-list for stolen items.[30]

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,[31] and has been missing since. A VC awarded in 1917 to Corporal Filip Konowal,[32] a Canadian soldier, was stolen from the same museum in 1973 and was not recovered until 2004.[33]

Collections

File:Victoriacrosscanadapostagestampimage.jpg
The Imperial and Canadian Victoria Cross featured on Canadian postage stamps. The stamp on the right also contains a facsimile of words handwritten by Queen Elizabeth II which read: "Approved", followed by Her Majesty´s Royal Sign Manual "Elizabeth R"

In the UK

In 2004 a national Victoria Cross and George Cross memorial was installed in Westminster Abbey close to the tomb of The Unknown Warrior.[34]. 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 I. As such it was a significant honour for the VC to be commemorated in Westminster Abbey.

National Museums with significant (10 or more) VC holdings in the UK include:[35]

Museum Location Number of VCs
The Imperial War Museum Kennington, London 40
The National Army Museum Chelsea, London 39
The Royal Green Jackets Museum Winchester, Hampshire 34
The Royal Engineers Museum Gillingham, Kent 26
The Army Medical Services Museum Mytchett, Surrey 22
The Royal Regiment of Artillery Museum Woolwich, London 20
The Queen's Own Highlanders Museum Ardersier, Inverness-shire 16
The South Wales Borderers Museum Brecon, Wales 16
The Green Howards Regimental Museum Richmond, Yorkshire 15
The Royal Fusiliers Museum Tower of London 12
The National Maritime Museum Greenwich, London 11
The National War Museum of Scotland Edinburgh Castle 11
The RAF Museum Hendon, London 11
The Sherwood Foresters Museum Nottingham, Nottinghamshire 11
The Gurkha Museum Winchester, Hampshire 10
The Royal Marines Museum Portsmouth, Hampshire 10
The Royal Welch Fusiliers Museum Caernarfon Castle, Wales 10

(note=Many VCs are on loan to the museum and are owned by individuals and not owned by the museuems themselves.[35])

Outside the UK

Museum Location Number of VCs
Australian War Memorial Canberra, Australia 60 (note 1)
Canadian War Museum Ottawa, Ontario 33
QEII Army Memorial Museum Waiouru, New Zealand 11

(note 1=It is the largest publicly held collection in the world.[36] including all nine VCs awarded to Australians at Gallipoli.)

Private collections

Lord Ashcroft

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 collection of such medals ever accumulated. The medals are now looked after by The Ashcroft Collection and a book detailing the collection was published in November 2006.[4]

Richard T. Spooner

A bar owned by former US Marine Richard T. Spooner, The Globe and Laurel, in Quantico, Virginia is the is only known place where a VC and its closest U.S. equivalent, the Medal of Honor, are displayed together.

Canon William Lummis

See also Canon William Lummis

Canon William Murrell Lummis, MC, [1886-1985] was a military historian who built up an archive on the service records and final resting places of Victoria Cross holders.[37] 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. Lummis' interest in the winners of the Victoria Cross had started when he was a schoolboy in the 1890s.

Since his death in 1985 The Crimean War Research Society has awarded the Canon Lummis Trophy annually for original research into the Crimean War. Lummis was the Society's first honorary president. His collected documentation and artifacts into the VC and the Light Brigade were deposited on his death in the archives of the Imperial War Museum and the National Army Museum in London.[38] In 2007 the Royal Mail used material from Lummis' archives to produce a collection of stamps commemorating Victoria Cross winners.[39] For many years Canon Lummis was the Chaplain to the Victoria Cross and George Cross Association, made up of holders of those awards.

Similar decorations

Within the Commonwealth

Outside the Commonwealth

The following countries have high military awards similar to the Medal of Honor:

The following obsolete military decorations were the highest in their country at the time:

See also

Notes

  1. ^ "Military Honours and Awards". Defence Internet. UK Ministry of Defence. Retrieved 2007-01-30.
  2. ^ a b c d "The world's most exclusive club". Ministry of Defence. 2007-04-30. Retrieved 2007-06-16.
  3. ^ a b c d "Author explodes myth of the gunmetal VC". The Telegraph. 2005-12-28. Retrieved 2007-06-16.
  4. ^ a b "Ashcroft Collection website". Retrieved 2007-06-16.
  5. ^ a b c d e f Ashcroft, Michael
  6. ^ a b c d "The Victoria Cross". Vietnam Veterans Of Australia. Retrieved 2007-06-15.
  7. ^ Beharry, Johnson p.359
  8. ^ a b "150 years of the Victoria Cross". Royal Naval Museum. Retrieved 2007-06-18.
  9. ^ "Hancocks of London History of VC". Hancocks of London. Retrieved 2007-06-24.
  10. ^ "Hancocks Jewellers". Retrieved 2007-06-16.
  11. ^ "The Victoria Cross". Imperial War Museum Exhibits and Firearms Collections. Retrieved 2006-09-30.
  12. ^ "The Victoria Cross mentioned in newsletter" (PDF). Army Museum of Western Australia. 2006-09-01. Retrieved 2007-06-21.
  13. ^ "Military Honours and Awards". Defence Internet. UK Ministry of Defence. Retrieved 2007-01-30.
  14. ^ a b c d e "Posthumous VCs". National Army Museum. Retrieved 2007-06-16.
  15. ^ a b c d e "Victoria Cross TV programme notes". fiveTV. Retrieved 2007-06-17.
  16. ^ "New Zealand Cross". New Zealand Encyclopedia. 1966. Retrieved 2007-06-17.
  17. ^ "Charles heaphy biography". New Zealand Encyclopedia. 1966. Retrieved 2007-06-17.
  18. ^ a b c d e "VC background". British War Graves Memorial. Retrieved 2007-06-16.
  19. ^ a b "New Zealand Honours". Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. Retrieved 2007-01-30.
  20. ^ a b "'Top honour' now cast in Canada". Retrieved 2007-06-16.
  21. ^ a b "Top military honour now cast in Canada". CTV news. 2007-03-03. Retrieved 2007-06-24.
  22. ^ Teotonio, Isabel "Vets irate at Victoria Cross proposal". Toronto Star. 2007-03-07. Retrieved 2007-06-24. {{cite news}}: Check |url= value (help)
  23. ^ Beharry, Johnson p.359
  24. ^ "Veteran's Entitlement Act 1986". Australasian Legal Information Institue. Retrieved 2007-06-16.
  25. ^ a b c "Netley Hospital information". QARANC - Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps. Retrieved 2007-06-16.
  26. ^ "Net close in on Osama". BBC. 2001-12-16. Retrieved 2007-06-16.
  27. ^ "Operational Honours: VC and GC for acts of exceptional valour". MOD press release. 2006-12-24. Retrieved 2007-06-16.
  28. ^ "British Military & Criminal History in the period 1900 to 1999". Stephen Stratford. Retrieved 2007-06-16.
  29. ^ "Gallipoli VC medal sets auction record". The Age. 2006-07-24. Retrieved 2007-01-30.
  30. ^ a b "List of stolen VCs". Retrieved 2007-06-16.
  31. ^ ""Victoria Cross: Theft of the VC". Retrieved 2007-06-16.
  32. ^ "Information on Konowal". Lubomyr Y. Luciuk and Ron Sorobey. Retrieved 2007-06-16.
  33. ^ "Stolen VC back on display". CBC Canada. Retrieved 2007-06-16.
  34. ^ "News of Memorial". MoD. Retrieved 2007-06-16.
  35. ^ a b "List of Museums". Victoria cross.org. Retrieved 2007-06-16.
  36. ^ Australian War Memorial "List of Australian Victoria Cross". Retrieved 2007-06-17. {{cite web}}: Check |url= value (help); Text "publisher Australian War memorial" ignored (help)
  37. ^ "Lummis cited as 'leading VC researcher'". Michael Daniels pHd. 2007-06-15. Retrieved 2007-06-15.
  38. ^ "Entry on Canon Lummis in the National Archive". The National Archives. 2007-06-15. Retrieved 2007-06-15.
  39. ^ "The Post Office issues VC stamps in 2007 illustrated with artifacts from the collection of Canon Lummis in the National Army Museum". Royal Mail. 2007-06-15. Retrieved 2007-06-15.
  40. ^ http://www.naval-history.net/WW2MedalsJap-GoldenKite.htm

References

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