THE LITTLE SHOP

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 9, Issue 39, 30 January 1946, Page 6

THE LITTLE SHOP

THAT MAKES THE V.C. Every Victoria Gross—the highest award within the British Commonwealth for valour in wars—that’s ever been awarded comes from a modest little jeweller’s shop in the West End of London. You’d hardly notice it in your ordinary goings and comings unless you called, at the booksellers next door or -walked out of tlie old pub just over the. road. But Cyril Watling gave an intimate description of it in a current BBC overseas talk.

To that little shop the postman every now and again takes a letter marked 0.H.M.5., a letter such as any of us might send to our tailor to say we wanted another suit. And that has been happening ever since the Crimean War and right up to the end of this war. For the making of V.CL? has iftjen in the hands of the same family—first the founder of this jeweller’s shop then liis son, and now his grandson. At first sight the Victoria Cross looks as though it would be quite easy to make. Any good metal worker could, one might think, tackle the job. Just tlie bronze mc.dal, the. same colour as an ordin->

ary penny, and the red riband. But] a closer look shows it’s not 'so simple. Perfect craftsmanship is necessary to achieve such a delicate design. The medal itself is in the shape of a Maltese Cross and embossed in the centre is the Royal Crown. On the Crown stands a lion. And in Watling’s words, “every detail, even down to the lion’s nostrils, is absolutely flawless, every line and every curve is perfection itself. Under tlie crown arc the two words “For Valour,” -words that seem to glisten out at you and give you the feeling that you’re in the presence of something mystical.” And then there’s the red riband.

And all this is built by this jeweller family into an insignia only just over three inches long and an inch and a half wide. The V.C., the most cherished decoration there is is yet the most democratic, for anybody in the Navy Army or Air Force —a ship’s boy a general, a night pilot—in any British or Empire serving unit, can win it, and tlie award is made whether the winner survives or not. The only condition attaching to the award is that the act of bravery must be carried out in the actual presence of the enemy.