Some Facts about the Victoria Cross

1. Two VC`s have been awarded to Medical Officers attached to the anticedent regiments of The Royal Green Jackets
2. The ranks and decorations shown were those held at the time of the act of gallantry for which the Victoria Cross was subsequently awarded.
3. Privates in the KRRC and Rifle Brigade were known as Riflemen, although the rank was not formally approved until 1923.
4. An expulsion clause allowed for a recipient's name to be erased from the official Register in certain wholly discreditable circumstances, and his pension cancelled.
5. Although there are eight recorded cases of forfeiture, in accordance with the terms of the original Warrant, all eight men are still included in the main total and no mention of the forfeiture is made except as a note at the bottom of the War Office List, which covers the period 1856 to August 1914. King George V felt very strongly that the decoration should never be forfeited. In a letter written by his Private Secretary, Lord Stamfordham, on 26th July 1920, his views are forcibly expressed: "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".
6. Although no women have yet won the VC, a gold representation of the decoration was presented to Mrs Webber Harris (wife of the commanding officer 104th Bengal Fusiliers) by the officers of the Regiment for her "indomitable pluck" in nursing the men of the Regiment during a cholera outbreak in September 1859. The outbreak was so bad that 27 men died in one night.
7. The only ungazetted award is the VC presented to the World War I American Unknown Soldier, buried at Arlington National Cemetery (the Congressional Medal of Honour was conferred on the British Unknown Warrior in Westminster Abbey).
8. Three men have won the VC twice (these receive an extra bar to their original cross) - Arthur MARTIN-LEAKE, Noel CHAVASSE and Charles UPHAM.
9. The youngest winners were 15 years old (Andrew FITZGIBBON and Thomas FLINN). The oldest was 61 (William RAYNOR).
10. Five civilians have also been awarded the VC (while under military command) - James ADAMS, George CHICKEN, Thomas KAVANAGH, William McDONELL, and Ross MANGLES.
11. There have been three cases where both Father and Son have received the Victoria Cross.
12. There are four known cases of awards to Brothers.
13. One family have won 3 Victoria Crosses.

Back