The Only Peace-Time V.C.

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31047, 30 April 1966, Page 5

The Only Peace-Time V.C.

(From a Correspondent of the “Sun-Herald,” Sydney)

TIMOTHY O’HEA won the only Victoria Cross awarded during peace time when he saved 800 German migrants from a fiery death. He was a young member of the Rifle Brigade when single-handed he extinguished a fire threatening to blow up a train in Canada in 1866. O’Hea lated perished in the Queensland outback on an expedition to find the remains of explorer Ludwig Leichhardt. On June 9, 1866, a passenger train pulled out of Quebec for Winnipeg with 800 German migrants on board. For safety reasons the migrants, men, women and children, were locked in their carriages.

Attached to the train were four trucks carrying 95 barrels of gunpowder, with four members of the Rifle Brigade, including O’Hea, guarding the explosive load. Between Quebec and Montreal the train pulled into a siding to allow another to pass. Gave Alarm O’Hea then saw smoke rising from one of the trucks and gave the alarm. The migrants, unaware that the trucks contained gunpowder watched the fire with interest, rather than panic. As the fire caught a hold the three guards and a company of soldiers at the siding drew back. But O’Hea ran to pick up a ladder and propped it against the side of the burning truck. With others passing buckets of water to him, 19 times he climbed the ladder to pour water on the flames before putting them out. Later that year the Victoria Cross (No. 324), was awarded to O’Hea—lo years after the inception of the medal. The decoration was not given for “conspicuous bravery in the presence of the enemy,” but for “conspicuous courage under circumstances of great danger.” Acts of bravery of a high order by civilians are now rewarded by the George Cross. Came To N.Z. After his discharge from the Rifle Brigade, O’Hea emigrated to New Zealand where he spent several years in the Police Force. He came to Australia in 1874 and met two adventurers, Andrew Hume and Lewis Thompson, in Sydney. Soon afterwards the three men decided to search for the remains of the Leichhardt exploration party, whose deaths in 1848 still retained high public interest. Andrew Hume, the son of an immigrant Hunter Valley shepherd had spent 20 years wandering the Outback, living at times among the Aborigines. He had earned the title

the “Black Prince” through his influence with the natives and his knowledge of the bush, and had served a 10year sentence for bushranging.

In 1852, four years after Leichhardt's disappearance, he had made a search for gold and relics of the lost party.

Lewis Thompson, the other member of the search party, was a Crimean War veteran who had become a piano tuner. Died Of Thirst In June, 1874, the three died of thirst and starvation 40 miles from the South Australian town of Innamincka at a place known as Policeman’s Water-Hole. As if O’Hea had a foreboding of the tragedy he had left his Victoria Cross with a friend in Sydney, a Major Henry Crummer. Major Crummer’s family later donated the medal to the National Art Gallery of N.S.W. About the turn of the century , the validity of the medal was questioned when

the American Numismatic Society claimed that O'Hea's V.C. was in their possession. However, the decoration in the National Gallery was proved genuine when, in 1907, the director had the medal examined by the makers in England. American Claim Historians believe the one in the Numismatic Society in New York was a copy of the original struck because the award was won in North America. For more than 40 years, the Canadian High Commissioner made sporadic requests to have the decoration housed in Canada, as it had been won on Canadian soil. During the early 19505, the Rifle Brigade Museum made inquiries about the Victoria Cross and the National Gallery agreed to donate the decoration and an accompanying document to the museum.

The Canadian High Commission then withdrew its request and the tattered Victoria Cross was flown to its English resting place in 1952.