THE VICTORIA CROSS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11478, 28 August 1915, Page 8

THE VICTORIA CROSS.

MADE FROM CAPTURED CANXON CARIES A!) annuity. This coveted decoration was first suggested by the Prince Gonsprt, and Queen Victoria being desirous of taking into her royal consideration a of adequateiy rewarding the individual gallant services, either of offioers of the lower grades in the naval and military service, or of warrant and petty officers, is-amen and marines, ord'uined by Koyai Warrant on Jutie '2'J, itioG, that " til© cross shall only be awarded to those officers or men who ha.vo served as in the presence of tho enemy, o:icJ shall have performed some signal act of valour 'or devotion to their country." With the cross an annuity of £lO is awarded to warrant oiiipers', feo.men and marines, no n-com-missioned officers and privates, and for each additional bar £5 per annum is added to the annuity. in July, lftiitf, owing to the unfortunate condition to which a recipient 1);k3 been reduced, and so induced to sell his cross, it was decided that the Homo Secretary might, in his discretion, increase the annuity to £SO. On April 23, 18S1, tho warrant was revised io enable officers of any grade to receive the medal, and on August 8, 1902, King Edward sanctioned the posthumous award of the cross, and of its issue to relatives of deceased men who hud earned it; prior to this the bravo fellows' names had been gazetted only. The new regulation was retrospective, po that tho surviving representative® of men who had earned the cross aa long ago as the Indian Mutiny received Hid bronze token of their relatives' valour. The cross carries with in the right to append V.C. ■after the recipient's name. The cross is made from captured cannon, and is not, as generally and wrongly described, a Maltese cross, but a cross pate. It bears in the centre of the obverse the royal crest of a lion passant gardant upon the British Grown, with a ribbon inscribed " For Valour" in a semi-circle beneath it, the ends tucked under the raised edge. The cross has a pierced semi-circle lug, thronch which a 8i in pie link is run to •atta'ch tbcroal to ,tjlw kurcatud suspender by aV. Thf obverse has raised edges lilco the front, but the centre is circular. The name, rank, regiment, or ship to which the recipient was attached, is engraved upon the back of the suspender, and the record of the act which gained the decoration inside the circle on the tack of the cross. The cross is suspended by a dark-eved ribbon, Uin wide, by nvlitary recipients, and bv a dark-Vue ribbon by naval recipients. . . Tbe oidv Victoria Cross awarded for rallaut s-rvices not in "the presence of the enemy" was given to "Private Timothy O'llea for extinguishing a fire m an ammunition van during the Fenian mid in Canada, 1866. It sold in August, 1900, for £PO.—From " Wt .Medals a*-d Their History," by W. Augustus Stewart.