EMPIRE’S GREATEST PRIZE

Hokitika Guardian, 14 November 1929, Page 2

EMPIRE’S GREATEST PRIZE

STORY OF THE VICTORIA CROSS

1157 AWARDED; 7 FORFEITED

“Noble fellows! 1 feel as if they were my own children. My heart bleeds for them'as for my nearest and dearest,” wrote Queen Victoria to her uncle;; the King of the Belgians, after decorating. Crimean veterans with tlie medal and bars., for - Alma, Inkerman and Balaclava in May 1855. ‘‘One must revere and love 1 ' such soldiers as these.’-’

‘From then the Queen began to plan for a decoration to reward those whose bravery reached the zenith of gallantry. ■ She it was who laid down the statutes- governing the award, and her - husband the Prince Consort, designed the cross. “Lord. Panmure, the Secretary for War!’ suggested that the legend should be .“For the Brave.”

“No,” said Victoria, “that would lead to the inference that only those were deemed brave who had the V.C.” So the motto remained, “For Valour.”

' The rules of the award were set out in. a .warrant under the. Royal Sign Manual. dated January 29th., 1850. They provided‘that “neither rank, nor long service, nor wounds, : nor any other circumstance or condition save that of conspicuous bravery in the presence of the enemy should tie held as establishing n. sufficient claim to the honour.” A .register of those upon whom the decoration had been conferred was to be kept in the office of the- Secretary of War.

WON AND LOST. Another provision, made to keep the order pure, was that should any recipient be convicted of treason, cowardice, felony, or any other infamous crime, or if he should be accused of any such offence, and does not, after a reasonable time, surrender himself for trial, his name should be crossed off the register. The sole right of deciding the question of expulsion rests with the Sovereign. It is both surprising and regrettable that seven winners oi the Gross, including one of the original recipients should . have. performed some a'ction disgraceful enough to cause them toj forfeit, the most precious ■ prize that the Empire can bestow. x The last case of this nature occurred in 1908.

Until 1902 no..crosses were given iff the person died in the performance of tlie act for which he would have been granted the decoration had he survived, though' his name and the action were recorded in the pages of the London Gazette. To King Edward this seemed unfair, and in 1908 lie caused the statues to be amended, providing the posthumous awards, and making this provisin retrospective. Originally the naval men wore the cross hanging from a dark blue riband, while the army decoration were suspended from crimson ribbons, but how all V.C.’s nave crimson ribbons. An Army Order of August, 1916 stipulates that a small replica of the decoration should be affixed to the centre of the riband wlien the. cross itself was not worn, a bar being symbolised. >yj*th a second badge. , ;

MAKING CROSSES. • Tlie early crosses were made from the metal of the Bronze guns which were taken from the Russians during the Crimean conflict. The particular gun used for this purpose was captured at Seoastopol by Farrier-Major James Atkinson, R.A., but those given for great deeds in the last war were from guns taken from the Chinese, Messrs W. Hancocks, of Sackville Street London, have made every V.C. At first they tried to strike the medals, but the hard gun-metal broke the dies, and so tlie decorations had to be cast.

On leaving the mould, a cross has a golden hue. A skilled craftsman now takes it and spends many hours in chasing its face When the detail is properly set ih relief, a coat of dark lacquer is applied, and a hero’s badge has been brought into existance.

Mr Charles David Lucus, the mate of H.M.S. Hecla, won the first Cross. During the Crimea—on June 21st. 1854 —Hecla, Odin and Valorous shelled the mai nfort of Boomarsusa. During the engagement, a live Russian shell dropped Upon the Heela’s deck, and Lucus dashed over to it, picked it up, and flung it overboard, thereby saving many lives. In addition to the Victoria Cross, he received promotion to a lieutenancy, and eventually reached the rank of Rear-Admiral,

WON TWICE. Only two bars to the Victoria Cross have ever been issued, both of them being gained by surgeons serving with the Royal Army Medical Corps—Captain Arthur Martin-Leake and Captain Noel Godfrey Crevasse. Martin-Leake won his cross in the South African War. On February 8, 1902, he was attending to the wounded during an engagement at Vlakontein. At one time a party of Boers were firing at

him from 100 yards distant, After that he went to a wounded officer,, and whilst attending him, was shot three time. Nevertheless, he continued his work until lie rolled over from sheer exhaustion. His clasp was awarded for his conspicous bravery and devotion to duty, especially during the period from October 29 to November 8, 1914, near Zonnebeke, when he rescued a large number of wounded whilst exposed to the enemy’s trenches. He was constantly fired upon while doing this work,

Throughout an attack, Captain Crevasse treated wounded in tlie open all day. Often he whs under heavy fire, and frequently he was in full view of the Germans. That night he searched for wounded in front of the German lines for four hours, and on the following day he took a stretcher-bearer co the advanced trenches, and under heavy fire, carried an urgent case 500 yards to safety being wounded in the side durng the journey. Tlie same night he took up a party of twenty volunteers, rescued three wounded men from a shell-hole, twenty-five yards from the enemy trenches, and buried the bodies of two officers. Besides the ordinary cases which passed through his hands, lie saved the lives of twenty badly wounded men. For this he received the Victoria Cross.

His bar came eleven months later, in September, 1817, Though he had been severely wounded whilst carrying a wounded soldier to the dressing station, Crevasse refused to leave his post. For two days he continued to do his work, and in addition, to go repeatedly to search for wounded under heavy fire. Though practically without food, and worn with fatigue, besides being faint from his wound, he carried a number of men back over the shell-po'ked ground, in miserable weather. Subsequently he died of his wounds.

THE NUMBER AWARDED. During the three-quarters of a century which the Cro s has been in existence 1157 awards have been made. When one considers that 579 of these were gained during the Great War, the number does not .seem, excessive, as the wars in Crimea, India, New Zealand, and South Africa each took their share of the awards.

Sixteen New Zealanders won the coveted Cross during the Great War. but one-third of them paid for it with their lives.