R
rceme_rat
Guest
(from March 3 Ottawa Sun)
VC
The world‘s most famous medal for bravery is awarded to a select few; only a handful of its recipients are still alive
By PAT MacADAM -- For the Ottawa Sun
Queen Victoria and her consort, Prince Albert, watched over every minute detail of minting the Victoria Cross in 1865-66.
From the outset, the Queen‘s instructions were that the medal was to be modelled after the British Army Gold Cross of the Peninsular Wars of 1806-1814 -- but "a little smaller."
When her civil servants proposed the medal be named the Military Order of Victoria she pencilled the suggestion out and wrote in "Victoria Cross."
‘FOR VALOUR‘
When her advisers recommended the small Maltese cross be inscribed -- "For The Brave", Prince Albert pencilled in "For Valour."
Furthermore, she decreed the gallantry award would be retroactive. Heroes of the 1864-65 Crimean War would be grandfathered.
The original award carried an annual stipend of #10, later increased to #50, then to #150 and, finally, to #1,300 annually in the 1990s.
Victoria kept the pressure on her bureaucrats to strike the medal and arrange the first awards ceremony. Hancocks was chosen to craft the medals and was hard pressed to hand chase, personalize and deliver the 62 Crosses required on time. The Bruton Street jeweller has handcrafted every one of the 1,354 VCs awarded.
All of the medals were cut from the breechblocks of two 18-pounder Chinese cannons captured from the Russians at Sebastopol during the Crimean War. Because the metal was so brittle the medals could not be stamped. Each had to be hand cut and hand finished. No two medals are exactly identical. The British Defence Department has enough metal left for only 80 more Victoria Crosses.
Once the medals were ready and a date was set -- 10 a.m., June 26, 1857 -- for the first investiture, Queen Victoria‘s interest appears to have waned. She appeared on a makeshift parade ground at Hyde Park riding sidesaddle on a horse.
The Queen did not dismount. The 62 recipients stood at ease some distance away. She did not waste time on small talk. She pinned all 62 medals in 10 minutes -- one every 10 seconds. The Royal Navy and the Royal Marines were first to receive their medals in order of rank. The Army came last in order of regimental precedence.
The first man to be gazetted for the Victoria Cross was Royal Navy Mate Charles Davis Lucas. A live shell, with its fuse still hissing, landed on the deck of his ship. All hands were ordered to hit the deck. Lucas picked the shell up and threw it overboard. It exploded before it hit the water.
But Commander Henry Raby outranked Lucas and had the honour of receiving the first Victoria Cross. Lucas was lucky! Queen Victoria pinned the first VC through Commander Raby‘s tunic and then through his breast. History records he did not flinch. She did not repeat the mistake with any of the next 61.
There were Canadian connections among the first 62 awards. Alexander Roberts Dunn, a 21-year-old lieutenant from York, Upper Canada, was the first Canadian to win a VC. He was serving with Prince Albert‘s Own Hussars during the Charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava and distinguished himself in hand-to-hand combat. He was killed in a hunting accident in Abyssinia in 1868 and lay in a neglected grave in Senafe, Eritrea, until Canadian troops from CFB Gagetown, serving with a United Nations‘ peacekeeping mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea, discovered his gravesite and restored it.
HEROISM UNDER FIRE
Able Seaman William Hall, 30, a Nova Scotia Negro, was the first coloured recipient of a VC. He was decorated for heroism under fire at Lucknow during the Indian Mutiny on Nov. 16, 1857. His was one of 24 Victoria Crosses won on the same day.
Campbell Mellis Douglas, a 26-year old assistant surgeon from Quebec City serving with the South Wales Borderers, was decorated for risking his life saving soldiers from his regiment who were marooned on Little Andaman Island in the Bay of Bengal in East India in 1867.
An Irish born private, Timothy O‘Hea, serving with the British Army Rifle Brigade, won the first Victoria Cross on Canadian soil on June 9, 1866. He exhibited extreme courage extinguishing a fire in a railway car carrying a ton of ammunition in Danville, Quebec.
At Gallipoli in 1915, six soldiers of the Lancashire Fusiliers won Victoria Crosses before breakfast. Eleven VCs were awarded at the Battle of Rorke‘s Drift in South Africa.
The Victoria Cross is in danger of becoming extinct. Only 11 have been awarded since the end of World War II. The last VCs were awarded posthumously to two British soldiers -- Sergeant Ian McKay and Colonel "H" Jones -- in the Falkland Islands. Two members of Britain‘s elite SAS may be denied the VC for bravery in Afghanistan because of the strict rules governing the award. In one case, a superior officer did not witness the action.
The VC has been awarded to 90 Canadians and three Americans serving with Canadian units. Three recipients -- Fred Hall, Leo Clarke and Robert Shankland -- all lived on Pine St. in Winnipeg. The City of Winnipeg renamed the street Valour Rd.
Four sets of brothers and three father-son combinations have won Victoria Crosses. Three men have Bars to their Crosses -- two medical officers and an infantry officer. They won the VC twice. New Zealand sheep rancher Charles Upham was the only combat soldier with a Bar to his Cross. He won his first VC in Crete and a second in the Western Desert in WW II. He died in 1994.
During the Second World War 180 Victoria Crosses were awarded. There were 32 awarded in the air but only one went to a fighter pilot. RAF pilot Eric Nicolson flew a Hurricane during the Battle of Britain and was decorated for heroism in August 1940. He was killed in action over the Bay of Bengal May 2, 1945.
There are 500 VCs in public or regimental museums, 300 held privately and 500 unaccounted for. A private British collector has spent an estimated #10 Million assembling a collection of 100 VCs. The Canadian War Museum owns two dozen and one, a WW I award to Ottawa soldier Filip Konowal, has gone missing.
A VC awarded to a New Zealand Liberator bomber pilot in WW II was recently sold at auction for #120,000. A First World War Cross brought #92,000 and a Boer War VC won at Rorke‘s Drift during the Zulu War realized #80,000.
Canada does not stand alone in treating war heroes shabbily or neglecting their last resting places. British military historians estimate that at least 180 VC winners are in unknown paupers‘ graves. Two years ago, the burial place of a hero of Inkerman in the Crimean War was found in a mass grave in Portsmouth. The gravesite is now a car park.
RESTORED GRAVESITES
In the last 10 years alone, military historians, researchers and veterans‘ groups have found and restored the gravesites of 10 VC winners originally committed to paupers‘ graves.
The 16th Battalion, Manitoba Regiment, (Canadian Scottish) was awarded 12 Victoria Crosses in the First World War -- double any other unit.
Canadian Private William Johnstone, serving with the Canadian Scottish, was killed at Vimy Ridge on April 9, 1917. He was awarded a posthumous VC. He has no known grave. His name is inscribed on the Vimy Memorial.
Canadian Scottish Col. Cyrus Wesley Peck was awarded a VC for courage at Villers-les-Cagnicourt, France, on Sept. 2, 1918. Colonel Peck is the only man in the world to win a VC while serving as an elected legislator. He was elected to the Canadian House of Commons in 1917.
Around the world there are only 17 living recipients -- seven in England, four Gurkhas in Nepal, two Australians, two Indians, one South African and one Canadian -- "Smokey" Smith. Their average age is 84.
Next week: "Smokey" Smith VC
VC
The world‘s most famous medal for bravery is awarded to a select few; only a handful of its recipients are still alive
By PAT MacADAM -- For the Ottawa Sun
Queen Victoria and her consort, Prince Albert, watched over every minute detail of minting the Victoria Cross in 1865-66.
From the outset, the Queen‘s instructions were that the medal was to be modelled after the British Army Gold Cross of the Peninsular Wars of 1806-1814 -- but "a little smaller."
When her civil servants proposed the medal be named the Military Order of Victoria she pencilled the suggestion out and wrote in "Victoria Cross."
‘FOR VALOUR‘
When her advisers recommended the small Maltese cross be inscribed -- "For The Brave", Prince Albert pencilled in "For Valour."
Furthermore, she decreed the gallantry award would be retroactive. Heroes of the 1864-65 Crimean War would be grandfathered.
The original award carried an annual stipend of #10, later increased to #50, then to #150 and, finally, to #1,300 annually in the 1990s.
Victoria kept the pressure on her bureaucrats to strike the medal and arrange the first awards ceremony. Hancocks was chosen to craft the medals and was hard pressed to hand chase, personalize and deliver the 62 Crosses required on time. The Bruton Street jeweller has handcrafted every one of the 1,354 VCs awarded.
All of the medals were cut from the breechblocks of two 18-pounder Chinese cannons captured from the Russians at Sebastopol during the Crimean War. Because the metal was so brittle the medals could not be stamped. Each had to be hand cut and hand finished. No two medals are exactly identical. The British Defence Department has enough metal left for only 80 more Victoria Crosses.
Once the medals were ready and a date was set -- 10 a.m., June 26, 1857 -- for the first investiture, Queen Victoria‘s interest appears to have waned. She appeared on a makeshift parade ground at Hyde Park riding sidesaddle on a horse.
The Queen did not dismount. The 62 recipients stood at ease some distance away. She did not waste time on small talk. She pinned all 62 medals in 10 minutes -- one every 10 seconds. The Royal Navy and the Royal Marines were first to receive their medals in order of rank. The Army came last in order of regimental precedence.
The first man to be gazetted for the Victoria Cross was Royal Navy Mate Charles Davis Lucas. A live shell, with its fuse still hissing, landed on the deck of his ship. All hands were ordered to hit the deck. Lucas picked the shell up and threw it overboard. It exploded before it hit the water.
But Commander Henry Raby outranked Lucas and had the honour of receiving the first Victoria Cross. Lucas was lucky! Queen Victoria pinned the first VC through Commander Raby‘s tunic and then through his breast. History records he did not flinch. She did not repeat the mistake with any of the next 61.
There were Canadian connections among the first 62 awards. Alexander Roberts Dunn, a 21-year-old lieutenant from York, Upper Canada, was the first Canadian to win a VC. He was serving with Prince Albert‘s Own Hussars during the Charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava and distinguished himself in hand-to-hand combat. He was killed in a hunting accident in Abyssinia in 1868 and lay in a neglected grave in Senafe, Eritrea, until Canadian troops from CFB Gagetown, serving with a United Nations‘ peacekeeping mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea, discovered his gravesite and restored it.
HEROISM UNDER FIRE
Able Seaman William Hall, 30, a Nova Scotia Negro, was the first coloured recipient of a VC. He was decorated for heroism under fire at Lucknow during the Indian Mutiny on Nov. 16, 1857. His was one of 24 Victoria Crosses won on the same day.
Campbell Mellis Douglas, a 26-year old assistant surgeon from Quebec City serving with the South Wales Borderers, was decorated for risking his life saving soldiers from his regiment who were marooned on Little Andaman Island in the Bay of Bengal in East India in 1867.
An Irish born private, Timothy O‘Hea, serving with the British Army Rifle Brigade, won the first Victoria Cross on Canadian soil on June 9, 1866. He exhibited extreme courage extinguishing a fire in a railway car carrying a ton of ammunition in Danville, Quebec.
At Gallipoli in 1915, six soldiers of the Lancashire Fusiliers won Victoria Crosses before breakfast. Eleven VCs were awarded at the Battle of Rorke‘s Drift in South Africa.
The Victoria Cross is in danger of becoming extinct. Only 11 have been awarded since the end of World War II. The last VCs were awarded posthumously to two British soldiers -- Sergeant Ian McKay and Colonel "H" Jones -- in the Falkland Islands. Two members of Britain‘s elite SAS may be denied the VC for bravery in Afghanistan because of the strict rules governing the award. In one case, a superior officer did not witness the action.
The VC has been awarded to 90 Canadians and three Americans serving with Canadian units. Three recipients -- Fred Hall, Leo Clarke and Robert Shankland -- all lived on Pine St. in Winnipeg. The City of Winnipeg renamed the street Valour Rd.
Four sets of brothers and three father-son combinations have won Victoria Crosses. Three men have Bars to their Crosses -- two medical officers and an infantry officer. They won the VC twice. New Zealand sheep rancher Charles Upham was the only combat soldier with a Bar to his Cross. He won his first VC in Crete and a second in the Western Desert in WW II. He died in 1994.
During the Second World War 180 Victoria Crosses were awarded. There were 32 awarded in the air but only one went to a fighter pilot. RAF pilot Eric Nicolson flew a Hurricane during the Battle of Britain and was decorated for heroism in August 1940. He was killed in action over the Bay of Bengal May 2, 1945.
There are 500 VCs in public or regimental museums, 300 held privately and 500 unaccounted for. A private British collector has spent an estimated #10 Million assembling a collection of 100 VCs. The Canadian War Museum owns two dozen and one, a WW I award to Ottawa soldier Filip Konowal, has gone missing.
A VC awarded to a New Zealand Liberator bomber pilot in WW II was recently sold at auction for #120,000. A First World War Cross brought #92,000 and a Boer War VC won at Rorke‘s Drift during the Zulu War realized #80,000.
Canada does not stand alone in treating war heroes shabbily or neglecting their last resting places. British military historians estimate that at least 180 VC winners are in unknown paupers‘ graves. Two years ago, the burial place of a hero of Inkerman in the Crimean War was found in a mass grave in Portsmouth. The gravesite is now a car park.
RESTORED GRAVESITES
In the last 10 years alone, military historians, researchers and veterans‘ groups have found and restored the gravesites of 10 VC winners originally committed to paupers‘ graves.
The 16th Battalion, Manitoba Regiment, (Canadian Scottish) was awarded 12 Victoria Crosses in the First World War -- double any other unit.
Canadian Private William Johnstone, serving with the Canadian Scottish, was killed at Vimy Ridge on April 9, 1917. He was awarded a posthumous VC. He has no known grave. His name is inscribed on the Vimy Memorial.
Canadian Scottish Col. Cyrus Wesley Peck was awarded a VC for courage at Villers-les-Cagnicourt, France, on Sept. 2, 1918. Colonel Peck is the only man in the world to win a VC while serving as an elected legislator. He was elected to the Canadian House of Commons in 1917.
Around the world there are only 17 living recipients -- seven in England, four Gurkhas in Nepal, two Australians, two Indians, one South African and one Canadian -- "Smokey" Smith. Their average age is 84.
Next week: "Smokey" Smith VC
