# Victoria Cross winners in Peacetime



## bcbarman (21 Feb 2013)

I am giving the toast to the Rifles (formerly the Royal Green Jackets) at my upcoming mess dinner.  

Through my research, I found one of their VC winners was awarded his decoration for putting out a fire on a munitions truck in Quebec.

I was wondering if anyone has come across another peacetime VC winner


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## mikeninercharlie (21 Feb 2013)

Campbell Mellis Douglas VC, who later served as the CO of 1 Field Hospital during the NW Rebellion...

http://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/collections/cmdp/mainmenu/group01/cnd-vc/dr-douglas


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## Blackadder1916 (21 Feb 2013)

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 off the Andaman Islands in 1867. I'll assume that the other award was to Private O'Hea who put out the fire in the railcar.  In 1881, the criteria were changed again and the VC was only awarded for acts of valour "in the face of the enemy".

The VCs awarded to the group were gazetted on 17 December 1867:

http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/23333/pages/6878


> THE Queen has been graciously pleased to signify Her intention to confer the decoration of the Victoria Cross on the undermentioned Officer and Private Soldiers of Her Majesty's Army, whose claims to the same have been submitted for Her Majesty's approval, for their gallant conduct at the Little Andaman Island, as recorded against their names, viz. :—
> 
> 2nd Battalion, 24th Regiment: Assistant-Surgeon Campbell Millis Douglas, M.D, Private Thomas Murphy, Private James Cooper, Private David Bell, Private William Griffiths.
> 
> ...


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## 57Chevy (21 Feb 2013)

Blackadder1916 said:
			
		

> I'll assume that the other award was to Private O'Hea who put out the fire in the railcar.



The only person to receive the Victoria Cross on Canadian soil, and an excellent story surrounding the ordeal
that is shared with provisions of The Copyright Act.

 Timothy O'Hea, Victoria Cross 1866 
by Susanna McLeod   

Part of the 1st Battalion of the Rifle Brigade of the British Army, Private Timothy O'Hea was one of a four-member squad that found themselves guarding a boxcar load of ammunition bound for Montreal from Quebec City. The train also contained several locked carriages with 800 German immigrants inside.

Born in Ireland's Bantry of County Cork in 1846, the young O'Hea had joined the British army and came to Canada to fight against the Fenian rebellion. On the late afternoon of June 19, 1866, with the train stopped at Danville, Quebec, noted Mysteries of Canada, a fire was discovered smouldering in the boxcar carrying gunpowder.

Railway Men Fled

Sounding the alarm, O'Hea was no doubt dismayed to find that his fellow soldiers and railway men had fled the potentially explosive train. Climbing boldly into the ammunition boxcar, he "ripped burning covers off ammunition cases and tossed them outside, then for almost an hour, making 19 trips to a creek for buckets of water," O’Hea managed to put out the fire - by himself. He not only saved the British ammunition, but by putting out the fire, he rescued the hundreds of immigrants locked in their cars from an explosion of 2,000 pounds of gunpowder and weaponry. The immigrants were cheering his actions and were seemingly “unaware of their peril,” said Mysteries of Canada. With the ammunition moved to another car, the train went safely on to its destination.

For his selfless effort to protect complete strangers during peacetime, Private Timothy O’Hea was bestowed the Victoria Cross, the highest award given for valour. The 20-year-old was decorated on New Year’s Day, 1867. Since the Victoria Cross is usually a wartime honour, the wording of the award given to O’Hea required somewhat of a change from the usual “acts of valour in the face of the enemy”. In his case, an exception was made to reflect his great bravery, and the inscription changed to “conspicuous courage under circumstances of great danger”.

O’Hea’s life after his military duty is not well documented. According to findagrave, it seems that he was struck with tuberculosis and hospitalized in London, England, then he returned home to Ireland. Though there is a gravesite in Queensland, Australia with the O’Hea name on it, there is suggestion that Timothy’s brother had borrowed his identity, and then died in Australia in 1874.

Victoria Cross Found

The Victoria Cross of Private Timothy O’Hea was missing for decades, finally located in 1950, “lying in a drawer in the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Apparently,” said Mysteries of Canada, “O’Hea had left it with a friend who had ‘presented it to the gallery’.”

Private Timothy O’Hea was the only person to receive the Victoria Cross for tremendous valour on Canadian soil. His medal is held by the Royal Green Jackets Museum in Winchester, England.


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## bcbarman (22 Feb 2013)

Thank you all, should make for an interesting speech.

Cheers


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## sonofagun (10 Apr 2014)

Am I the only person who knows about Capt. G. Meynell, MC & VC, of Queen Victoria's Corps of Guides, North West Frontier Force awarded 1935 ? 
The reason I know of his story is that my father told it to me once or twice during his life, at first as a bedtime story when I was very young. My father was in the field during the campaign, Mohmand province. I have found that this heroic action was also not included in a recent publication of VCs.
The VC award to Capt. Meynell was the only peacetime occurrence of that honour up to 1950.


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## Danjanou (10 Apr 2014)

sonofagun said:
			
		

> Am I the only person who knows about Capt. G. Meynell, MC & VC, of Queen Victoria's Corps of Guides, North West Frontier Force awarded 1935 ?
> The reason I know of his story is that my father told it to me once or twice during his life, at first as a bedtime story when I was very young. My father was in the field during the campaign, Mohmand province. I have found that this heroic action was also not included in a recent publication of VCs.
> The VC award to Capt. Meynell was the only peacetime occurrence of that honour up to 1950.



Pretty daring feat of arms but technicaly not "peacetime" 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godfrey_Meynell


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## daftandbarmy (10 Apr 2014)

As I recall, the only year the British Army was technically 'at peace' in the last couple of centuries was 1968?


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