V.C. AND ITS HISTORY

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17146, 31 December 1929, Page 2

V.C. AND ITS HISTORY

MOST CO.VETED DECORATION ; LONDON, Nov. .14. j One speaks of the Most Noble -Order* of the Garter, but if a man is a K.(L and a V.C. it is the letters V.C. that, come .first after his name, and though, a man's breast be loaded with decorations, and famous orders of chivalry, if ho is a V.C. ho wears his bronze, cross on the right of them all. There have been three civilian V.C.'s; these were awarded to Indian. Civil Servants in the Mutiny. 'Two pairs of brothers gained it, and two fathers and sons, 'including Lord' Roberts, and his son who was killed at. Colenao, The first of four clergymen to win the Gross was the Rev. James W. Adams, Chaplain of the Kabul Field Force in 1899. There are two survivors who won it as clergymen, the. Rev. ;W. R. F. Addison and the Rev.' J 3. N. Mellish. Irish and Scottish. names -have always been .very pro-. mineiit. The greatest .number who received the Gro,ss at one time on parade was. the great .military ceremonial .held in, Hyde Park on June 20, 1857, whenthe Order was inaugurated. Queen; Victoria decorated 02 officers, .warrant jfflcerfj n.c.o's and men of the Navy, Royal Marines, and Army. Every recommendation for a V.C'.; passes through several scrupulous o,x-. animations, and .it has often happened that a recommendation which has been •passed by an Army Commander has been turned down at the War Office. The consent of the iSovereign is finally sought before .an award is made. A ballot determined the order in which the 320 V.C.'s who dined with' the Prince of Wales .should sit at table, and such use of lots is hi keeping with the history of the Victoria Cross. On occasions where a small group of nen have done some heroic deed and. \>nc or two Crosses liave been allotted to it, ,the survivors have drawn lots, [n many campaigns, from the Indian. Mutiny onwards, a Cross .has been pfforeu to a battalion or to a company, and has .been awarded by the vote of officers and men. i m .i "'" ,m