BADGES OF GLORY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16210, 22 April 1916, Page 5 (Supplement)

BADGES OF GLORY.

|JHfß?. : ': ' ■—* —— THE BRITISH SOULIER'S MEDALS. f- Much water has run under London Bridge since that June day in 1857. when the young Queen Victoria, wearing a scarlet tunic, a plume vi red and white feathers floating over her little round hat with its sold band, rode into Hyde Park to decorate with trie new medals "for valour" sixty-two officers and mon-the heroes of the Crimea. One episode of that day will never fade from the memory. "Among the last, one veteran tottered up before her A soldier on either side of the cripple passed .1 hand under the stump of each arm; one leg was quite stiff, and a bandage peeped from beneath his forage cap. As her eyes fell on the mutilated hero! the Queen started, gazed steadilv at him for a moment, and then flinging down the medal which had just been handed to her, she turned her back upon the trooper, and, covering her face with both hands, burst into a torrent of tears."

Nearly sixty years have passed since that day of glory and pathos, but the cross which Queen Victoria, when sho had overcome her emotion, pinned on that brave breast, is universally recognised to-day a.s the world's supreme reward for valour It is but a tiny Malteso cross in bruize; the cost of making it is onto a few shillings, and its intrinsic worth is no more than twopence; but its value is, beyond all price. . A_ll the riches of ] a Rockefeller could not win it; and vet it is within the reach of tho humblest Tommy who ever wore the King's uniform. Only Valour Counts. It is tho last reward of the dead, as well as the supreme prize of tho living. It has been won by a father and his son alike; in moro cases than one, two brothers havo li\cd to wear it; it has fallen to black men' as well as white, and in cue case to a lion hearted "padre"; but to nono who have not snatched it from tho very jaws of death, whether the sailor who suspends it proudly from a blue ribbon or the soldier who wears it attached to a ribbon of red. But although the intrinsic value of the Victoria Cross, with its legend " For Valour" beneath the royal crest, is so insignificant, it entitles its holder to a special pension of £10 a year, with an additional £5 yearly for every later deed of similar bravery to that which won it; and he cannot bo deprived of it except by the King himself, if its holder is convicted of "treason, felony, cowardice, or any infamous crime." So highly valued is this decoration that it is awarded precedence over every other order, decoration, or medal, whatever their nature—oven such exalted orders m the Garter, Thistle, St. Pattick, and Bath must yield placo to it on the breast of the mar. who is entitled to wear it. Thus the Victoria Cross is always worn on the left breast, at the point farthest sway from the left shoulder, all inferior decorations, even the Garter badge itself, following in the direction of the shoulder, in order of precedence, down to the Distinguished Conduct Medal, which is only worn by warrant officers, and non-.com-missioners officers and men, or by commissioned officers promoted from the ranks after winning it. When and Where Medals Are Worn. After the D.C.M. come the campaign medals in. the order in which they have been earned. However great, too, the number of medals a man may be entitled to wear, they must all bo arrayed in one line only, however much they overlap. When," however, onto the ribbons are worn {and when in khaki a soldier may not wear his medals), they may be arranged •ip two, or even three rows if necessarv; but always, like the medals, in a horizontal line,"at a point half-way between the first and second buttons of the tunic, and commencing two inches to the right of them. The ribbons, too, must not be more than half an inch deep, or one inch in width. Every medal his its ribbon of a distinctive colour. Thus, as we have seen, the Victoria Cross ribben is blue for a naval wearer and red for the soldier; tho D.S.O. medal is suspended by a red ribbon with blue edge; the ribbon of the D.C.M. is of red, white, and blue, and so on. , . , . So highly do the army authorities value the soldiers' medals and decorations and so jealously do they guard them that before a regiment departs on active service all medals are collected rind placed in safe cuslodv during its absence. If a medal is Inst, its owner must provide the most satisfactory explanation of all * the circumstances before he can recede a a dnplicate, of which be is usually made , to pav the cost. And he may at any c time, 'for sufficient cause, be deprived of all hi* medals bv a court martial ; though « he mav win them back again by a long period 'of irreproachable conduct. r Tales of the Cross.

In spite however, of the most stringent precautions for their safe custody, many of these dearlv-won badges disappear mysteriously. Of the Victoria Cross itself some strange stories are told, such as the following:-Some years apo, one cross made its appearance at Sotheby's auction rooms, when it found i purchaser for £100. It had been won by a Colonel Altken in the Indian Mutiny; but in some unaccountable ray vanished just before it ehonld ive been presented to the gallant colonel, who, in its absence, was actually invested with a paper substitute. Nor was anything more heard or seen of the original" until it came under the auctioneer's hammer in London, forty years later. In another case a holiday-maker, while digging up the sand on the beach at Carteret, brought to light a dingy-looking piece of metal which proved to be a Victoria Cross won in the Crimea. Inquiry revealed the fact that its owner had long been dead ; and, as nono of his relatives could he traced, the cross, thus strangely found, was sold bv auction for £40. Until Queen Victoria came to her throne the medals which a soldier could win and wear could almost bo counted on the fingers of one hand; but the soldier of to-day may cover his breast with them, so many are they. And it is not only by fighting that lie can qualify for them. It is said, indeed, that the hardest of them all to win is the Good Conduct Medal; for it means that it* wearer has served his sovereign for at least eighteen years, and that during this long period his character has been beyond reproach. Tommy speaks of it rather contemptuously as the " Rooty" medal, in reference, to the enormous quantity of " rooty " (the soldiers' bread) its owner must have eaten; but it is none the less an honour to be proud of, lib the kindred medals lor meritorious and long service.