The Victoria Cross

Facts and figures

The Victoria Cross (VC) is Britain’s highest award for gallantry. Since 1940, it has shared this distinction with the George Cross (GC), instituted for acts of conspicuous bravery not performed in the presence of the enemy.

There is no barrier of colour, creed, sex or rank. Indeed, VC recipients have come from all social backgrounds and from across the British Empire and Commonwealth.

In total, 1,358 VCs have been awarded since the decoration's inception in 1856. Of these, 626 were for service in the First World War (1914-18) and 181 for service in the Second World War (1939-45). These figure include three additional bars awarded to soldiers who had already received the VC, as well as the VC awarded to the Unknown Soldier buried at Arlington National Cemetery in the United States.

The most recent VC recipient is Lance Corporal Joshua Leakey of 1st Battalion, The Parachute Regiment. His award was publicly announced in February 2015, following an action in Afghanistan on 22 August 2013.

Foundation

The VC was instituted by Royal Warrant on 29 January 1856 to acknowledge the bravery displayed by many soldiers and sailors during the Crimean War (1854-56). Unlike its predecessors, the new award was open to all ranks and would only be granted for acts of supreme gallantry in the face of the enemy.

The first 85 awards - announced in 'The London Gazette' of 24 February 1857 - were made retrospectively, dating back to the start of the Crimean campaign in the autumn of 1854.

Design

The prototype Victoria Cross was made by Hancocks & Co, a London jeweller that still makes VCs for presentation today.

According to legend, the prototype - along with the first 111 crosses awarded - were cast from the bronze of guns captured from the Russians during the Crimean War. There is, however, an alternative theory that they were made from a Chinese cannon, captured during the First China War (1839-42) and then stored at the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich.

The decoration takes the form of a cross pattée, 1.375 inches (35mm) wide, bearing a crown surmounted by a lion and the inscription ‘For Valour’. The original plan was for the inscription to read ‘For Bravery’, but Queen Victoria worried this might imply that only recipients of the VC were considered to have served bravely.

The VC ribbon was originally dark blue for the Royal Navy and crimson for the Army. Shortly before the Royal Air Force was formed in 1918, King George V approved the recommendation that the crimson ribbon should be used by all three services. 

When the ribbon is worn alone, a miniature of the cross is pinned on it.

First investiture

The first 62 crosses were presented to veterans of the Crimean War by Queen Victoria in June 1857. The event, which took place in London's Hyde Park, was attended by large crowds who greeted the VC heroes with rapturous applause.

The Queen elected to stay on horseback throughout the ceremony, and apparently stabbed one of the recipients, Commander Henry Raby of the Royal Navy, through the chest as she pinned the cross to his uniform. Commander Raby is said to have stood unflinching as the pin was fastened through his skin!

Recommendation

The VCs awarded to Crimean veterans were recommended retrospectively. There was much lobbying by individuals and regiments to receive the new decoration. Most of this was unsuccessful.

A recommendation for the VC was normally issued by an officer at regiment or ship level, and had to be supported by three witnesses. From there, it was passed up the military hierarchy until it reached first the Secretary of State for War, and then the monarch. 

The document displayed below was written by Lieutenant John Brophey, who received the Distinguished Conduct Medal for his actions as a colour-sergeant at the Battle of Inkerman (1854). He later petitioned the Commander-in-Chief, the Duke of Cambridge, for the retrospective award of the VC, but his hopes were thwarted.

Rule 13

The original Royal Warrant allowed the VC to be awarded by ballot when a large body of men - such as a battalion or ship’s crew - performed an act of gallantry collectively. This was particularly useful when it was difficult to distinguish individual deeds. 

In such cases, representatives were chosen from among them to receive the award. Normally, the officers involved selected one of their number, while one petty officer or non-commissioned officer and two seamen or private soldiers were chosen by their peers.

On 31 March 1900, British troops marching to Bloemfontein were ambushed by Boer commandos. Under heavy fire, 'Q' Battery, Royal Horse Artillery, managed to save all but one of their guns. Every man in the battery showed considerable bravery.

Under Rule 13 of the Royal Warrant, four officers and men were nominated by their fellows for the award. One of those chosen was Gunner Isaac Lodge, along with his commanding officer, Major Edmund Phipps-Hornby, Sergeant Charles Parker and Driver Horace Glasock.

Civilians

There have been 14 further Royal Warrants that have changed the terms and conditions originally laid out in 1856.

To recognise the bravery of civilian volunteers during the Indian Rebellion (1857-59), an 1858 warrant extended the eligibility of the VC to ‘non-military persons’ serving with the forces.

To date, seven civilians have been awarded the VC:

• Thomas Kavanagh of the Bengal Civil Service (1857)
• William Fraser McDonell of the Bengal Civil Service (1857)
• Ross Lowis Mangles of the Bengal Civil Service (1857)
• George Bell Chicken, a civilian volunteer with the Indian Naval Brigade (1858)
• Reverend James Adams of the Bengal Ecclesiastical Department (1879)
• Captain Frederick Parslow of the Mercantile Marine (1915)
• Captain Archibald Smith of the Mercantile Marine (1917)

Captains Parslow and Smith were not operating under military command, but they were posthumously commissioned into the Royal Naval Reserve to make them eligible for the VC.

In 1867, in recognition of the services performed by local auxiliary units during the Maori uprisings in New Zealand (1863-66), eligibility for the VC was extended to local forces serving with Imperial troops. This eligibility was further extended to all colonial and auxiliary troops in 1881.

Posthumous awards

The original Royal Warrant made no mention of posthumous awards. It had been decided from the outset that the VC would not be awarded for an act in which the individual was killed, or where he died shortly after. In these circumstances, an announcement was made in 'The London Gazette' that the person would have been recommended for the VC had they survived.

There were six instances of this between 1859 and 1897, including Lieutenants Nevill Coghill and Teignmouth Melvill. Both men were killed trying to save the Queen's Colour of their battalion after the defeat at Isandlwana (22 January 1879) during the Zulu War.

Further changes

In 1900, during the Boer War (1899-1902), a posthumous VC was awarded to Lieutenant Frederick Roberts of the King’s Royal Rifle Corps.

The son of Field Marshal Lord Roberts, Frederick was mortally wounded attempting to save the guns of the 14th and 66th Batteries, Royal Field Artillery, at Colenso on 15 December 1899. He died 24 hours after being recommended for the award.

For the first time, the words ‘since deceased’ were included after the recipient's name. This established the precedent by which a VC recommendation could still proceed even if the soldier died before the award was announced in 'The London Gazette'.

Several more posthumous VCs were awarded during the remainder of the Boer War. In 1907, it was announced that the six posthumous cases from the previous century would also receive the VC retrospectively.

Posthumous VCs continued to be awarded during the First World War (1914-18), but it was not until 1920 that specific provision for such cases was formally established by Royal Warrant.

Indian troops

The Royal Warrant of 21 October 1911, published in 'The London Gazette' the following month, extended VC eligibility to Indian soldiers. Before this, only Europeans serving in the Indian Army (and its East India Company predecessors) were eligible. Since then, 29 soldiers from the Indian subcontinent have been awarded the VC.

The first Indian recipient was Sepoy Khudadad Khan of the 129th Duke of Connaught's Own Baluchis. On 31 October 1914 at Hollebeke in Belgium, he continued to man his machine gun despite being wounded, after the rest of his detachment had been killed around him.

Forfeiture

Under the terms of the original Royal Warrant, there was a clause that allowed for a recipient's name to be erased from the official list of holders in certain circumstances. Between 1856 and 1908, eight cases of forfeiture took place, for a variety of criminal offences including theft and bigamy.

Private Frederick Corbett forfeited his VC after being found guilty at a court martial of absence without leave, embezzlement, and theft from an officer. Private George Ravenhill's VC was forfeited after he was imprisoned for theft, having proved unable to pay a ten shilling fine.

However, King George V felt strongly that the decoration should never be forfeited. In a letter written by his Private Secretary, Lord Stamfordham, on 26 July 1920, it was stated: ‘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 scaffold.’

The various VC warrants also gave the sovereign the power to cancel any forfeiture and restore both the award and pension. The eight instances of forfeiture, therefore, continue to be included on the official War Office list of VC holders. 

Multiple awards

The Royal Warrant also allowed VC recipients to receive additional awards if they performed subsequent acts of outstanding gallantry. Three men have been awarded the VC twice, each receiving an extra bar to their original cross.

Major Arthur Martin-Leake was awarded the VC for his actions on 8 February 1902 while serving as a surgeon with the South African Constabulary at Vlakfontein during the Boer War (1899–1902). He received a bar to his cross for bravery between 29 October and 8 November 1914 near Zonnebeke on the Western Front.

Captain Noel Chavasse of the Royal Army Medical Corps was awarded the VC for his actions on 9 August 1916 at Guillemont on the Somme, and a posthumous bar for gallantry between 31 July and 2 August 1917 at Wieltje in Flanders.

Finally, Captain Charles Upham of the 20th Canterbury and Otago Battalion, New Zealand Expeditionary Force, was awarded the VC for his actions on the island of Crete between 22 and 30 May 1941. He received a bar for further bravery in Egypt on 14-15 July 1942.