Table Of ContentGeneralEditor:WilliamPhilpott,ProfessorofDiplomaticHistory,King’sCollegeLondon
Publishedtitlesinclude:
MartinAlexanderandWilliamPhilpott(editors)
ANGLO–FRENCHDEFENCERELATIONSBETWEENTHEWARS
ChristopherM.Bell
THEROYALNAVY,SEAPOWERANDSTRATEGYBETWEENTHEWARS
PeterBell
CHAMBERLAIN,GERMANYANDJAPAN,1933–34
AntonyBest
BRITISHINTELLIGENCEANDTHEJAPANESECHALLENGEINASIA,1914–41
AntoineCapet(editor)
BRITAIN,FRANCEANDTHEENTENTECORDIALESINCE1904
PhilippeChassaigneandMichaelDockrill(editors)
ANGLO-FRENCHRELATIONS,1898–1998
FromFashodatoJospin
MichaelDockrill
BRITISHESTABLISHMENTPERSPECTIVESONFRANCE,1936–40
MichaelDockrillandJohnFisher
THEPARISPEACECONFERENCE,1919
PeacewithoutVictory?
JohnP.S.Gearson
HAROLDMACMILLANANDTHEBERLINWALLCRISIS,1958–62
JohnGooch
ARMY,STATEANDSOCIETYINITALY,1870–1915
RaffiGregorian
THEBRITISHARMY,THEGURKHASANDCOLDWARSTRATEGYINTHEFAR
EAST,1947–1954
StephenHartley
THEIRISHQUESTIONASAPROBLEMINBRITISHFOREIGNPOLICY,1914–18
AshleyJackson
WARANDEMPIREINMAURITIUSANDTHEINDIANOCEAN
JamesLevy
THEROYALNAVY’SHOMEFLEETINWORLDWARII
StewartLone
JAPAN’SFIRSTMODERNWAR
ArmyandSocietyintheConflictwithChina,1894–95
ThomasR.Mockaitis
BRITISHCOUNTERINSURGENCY,1919–60
THEBRITISHEMPIREANDITSITALIANPRISONERSOFWAR,1940–47
T.R.Moreman
THEARMYININDIAANDTHEDEVELOPMENTOFFRONTIERWARFARE,
1849–1947
KendrickOliver
KENNEDY,MACMILLANANDTHENUCLEARTEST-BANDEBATE,1961–63
PaulOrders
BRITAIN,AUSTRALIA,NEWZEALANDANDTHECHALLENGEOFTHEUNITED
STATES,1934–46
AStudyinInternationalHistory
ElspethY.O’Riordan
BRITAINANDTHERUHRCRISIS
G.D.Sheffield
LEADERSHIPINTHETRENCHES
Officer–ManRelations,MoraleandDisciplineintheBritishArmyintheEraoftheFirst
WorldWar
AdrianSmith
MICKMANNOCK,FIGHTERPILOT
Myth,LifeandPolitics
MelvinCharlesSmith
AWARDEDFORVALOUR
AHistoryoftheVictoriaCrossandtheEvolutionofBritishHeroism
MartinThomas
THEFRENCHNORTHAFRICANCRISIS
ColonialBreakdownandAnglo-FrenchRelations,1945–62
SimonTrew
BRITAIN,MIHAILOVICANDTHECHETNIKS,1941–42
StevenWeiss
ALLIESINCONFLICT
Anglo-AmericanStrategicNegotiations,1938–44
StudiesinMilitaryandStrategicHistory
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VVV
WARDED FOR ALOUR
A History of the Victoria Cross and the
Evolution of British Heroism
Melvin Charles Smith
University of the Cumberlands
©MelvinCharlesSmith2008
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2008 978-0-230-54705-6
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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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List of Tables vi
Acknowledgements vii
Introduction: The Forgotten Hero 1
1 ‘I’ve broken my arm, Dick, but never mind me now’: The
Hero in Victorian Popular Mythology 5
2 The Institutionalization of Heroism in Britain 26
3 Teething Problems, 1856–1867 43
4 Big Implications from Small Wars: The Imperial Vision of
Heroism, 1860–1911 74
5 Fifty Years On: A Half-Century of Heroism 94
6 1914: The Last Stand of the Thin Red Line 110
7 The Middle Parts of Fortune: Heroism in Evolution,
1915–1916 132
8 ‘Courage isn’t what it used to be’: Heroism Emerges from
the Great War, 1917–1918 152
9 The Hero Comes Home from the War: The
Institutionalization of Modern Heroism 165
10 Conclusion: The New Hero in Action, 1940–2006 185
Appendix: The Victoria Cross Warrants 207
Notes 230
Bibliography 263
Index 276
v
5.1 Acts winning the Victoria Cross, nineteenth century:
winners per decade 96
5.2 Enlisted versus officer in life-saving VCs, nineteenth century 100
5.3 The cost of courage: casualties among nineteenth-century
VC winners per decade 103
7.1 Acts winning the Victoria Cross, 1915: winners by quarter 138
7.2 The cost of courage, 1915: casualties per quarter 140
7.3 Acts winning the Victoria Cross, 1916: Winners by quarter 144
7.4 Breakdown of Crosses won, 1915 and 1916 by quarter 145
7.5 The cost of courage, 1916: casualties per quarter 145
8.1 Acts winning the Victoria Cross, 1917: winners by quarter 157
8.2 The cost of courage, 1917: casualties per quarter 161
8.3 Acts winning the Victoria Cross, 1918: winners by quarter 161
8.4 The cost of courage, 1918: casualties per quarter 163
10.1 The cost of courage, the Second World War: casualties per
year 187
10.2 Acts winning the Victoria Cross, the Second World War:
winners per year 189
vi
I would like to extend my firm thanks to all of the people who assisted in
the research and writing of this work. First and foremost, my gratitude to
my parents for the support both moral and financial over the years of my
education and beyond. Many thanks are due to Major Tony Astle (retired)
of the 22nd Regiment Museum and Archive in Chester, Lieutenant-Colonel
Angus Fairie at Cameron Barracks in Inverness, and to the staff at the Argyll
and Sutherland Highlanders Museum in Stirling and the staff at the Gordon
HighlandersMuseuminAberdeen.TothePublicRecordOfficedeskworkers
at Kew, thank you for your patience and diligence. I would also like to
thank Dr Margaret Sankey of Minnesota State University Moorhead for her
assistance and critique. Lastly, my thanks to Dr Dan Szechi and his wife Jan
Szechi, for direction, encouragement, bare threats, and venison curry.
vii
Just under two years after the end of the First World War former Colour
Sergeant Harry Hampton wrote to the private secretary of King George
V, requesting an increase in the pension attached to the Victoria Cross,
whichatthetimestoodat£10sterlingperannum.Hampton,whohadwon
his VC during the Boer War, alleged that the winners of gallantry awards
from Canada and Australia enjoyed a variety of benefits that the British
government failed to provide for its heroes. He closed with the observation
that ‘honour is all very well, but a little help is worth a lot of sympathy.’1
Hampton’s dilemma is representative of a larger aspect of the concept
of heroism, that of benign neglect. Of all the features of military history,
heroism is the most elusive and difficult to quantify. It has thus been
largely ignored by military historians; too often they focus on those who
fail under pressure and neglect those who rise above it. This work explores
onemanifestationoftheheroicidealintheWesternworld,focusingonthe
evolution of the Victoria Cross from its foundation in 1856 to the current
incarnation of the Cross, most recently awarded during operations in Iraq
and Afghanistan. The study follows both the institutional history of the
award and its popular history within and beyond the ranks of the armed
forces.
Heroism, though wonderful for the headlines of the moment, has
remained a phenomenon relatively untouched by modern military history.
The hero makes an occasional appearance to add colour to an account of
a battle scene. He is mentioned in passing, almost as an afterthought, in
summing up the accomplishments of a campaign. Other than that he is
startlingly absent, even from works dealing with the subject of military
motivation or even courage itself. In Soldiers: A History of Men in Battle John
KeeganandRichardHolmesnotedthebenefitofheroicactionbrieflyinthe
second chapter, but limited their treatment to heroism as a factor in unit
morale.2 NordidheroismfigureinanyimportantsenseinKeegan’sseminal
1
AWARDEDFORVALOUR
work, The Face of Battle.3 Neither Hew Strachan’s European Armies and the Conduct
of War nor Patrick Reagan’s Organizing Societies for War address the question of
the merits of heroism in any fashion.4
The works dealing specifically with the concept of courage do scarcely
betterwhenitcomestodealingwiththehero.LordMoran’slandmarkstudy
of courage in combat dealt primarily with the factors that tear down the
bravery of an individual rather than the exhibition of that courage in heroic
acts.5 LikewisewereaseriesoflecturesdeliveredatFortLeavenworthduring
the First World War exploring the psychology of war.6 The word ‘heroism’
was used only three times in the entire series, with far more attention paid
to negative factors in troop morale and performance. Heroism has not been
entirely ignored, however; Plinio Prioreschi devoted a substantial portion
of a chapter in Man and War to a precise definition of heroism, and to
differentiating between bravery and heroism on the battlefield.7
Even in the case of the Victoria Cross most of the specific works on the
medal amount to little more than bullets of information, with each winner
treated in a vacuum, entirely divorced from any circumstance beyond the
rush of battle. The literary treatment of the Cross falls into four broad
categories: reference works; works of jingoistic patriotism; studies limited
to a specific region, war or service branch; and full-length Cross-winner
biographies.
Works in the first of these categories amount to nothing more than
encyclopaedias.Theremightbeafewpagesofintroductiongivingathumb-
nail sketch of the origins of the Cross, but little more than anecdotal
information.8 Thebulkofeachisdevotedtoindividualentriesconsistingof
basicbiographicalinformationofthewinners–dateandplaceofbirth,unit
affiliation, place of death – and an account of the deed that won the award.
Eachispresentedasastand-alonearticlewithaminimumofcross-reference
in the case of multiple awards for the same action or family connections
between Cross winners. The information presented can be quite useful for
the compilation of statistics, but is entirely lacking in analysis.
This first category also has certain elements in common with the second.
Abouttheturnofthetwentiethcenturyseveraljingoistic,patriotictreatments
oftheVCcameonthemarket.9 Thistrendcontinuedintotheinterwaryears
with the publication of the first volume of The Victoria Cross, 1856–1920, still
widely accepted as the best early work on the Cross.10 The thrust of this
book and the genre are summed up in its introduction: ‘Embracing the
finest episodes in British Naval and Military History and the gallant exploits
of the Royal Air Force – deeds which will forever live in the memory
of man – it should prove a powerful incentive to uphold the honour of
