Victoria's Cross (43 page)

Air Force (USAF)
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use of drone technology
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Arlington Cemetery Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
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Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
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Civil War (1861–5)
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Office of Strategic Services (OSS)
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service of women in military of
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Upham, Captain Charles

awarded bar for VC
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awarded second VC (1942)
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Urmson, J. O.
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Vause, Stephen
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VC Association

personnel of
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VC Register
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names removed from
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Vichy France (1940–4)
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Victoria, Queen
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accession of (1837)
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death of (1901)
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family of
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Victoria Cross (VC)
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bars
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citations for
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criticisms of
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duplicate
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eligibility standards
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control over
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extensions (1858)
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inconsistencies in
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establishment of/warrant issued (1856)
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development of
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revised warrant (1920)
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revised warrant (1961)
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first investiture (1857)
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for Australia
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holders of
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issues regarding awarding of to women
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monetary value of
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pensions associated with
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posthumous awarding of
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pre-gazetting
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quota systems for
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retrospective
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social view of
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terms for awarding of
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Vietnam War (1955–75)

belligerents of
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DCMs awarded for actions during
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VCs awarded for actions during
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Wake, Nancy

death of (2011)
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service in SOE
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Walsh, Private Andrew
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application for awarding of VC
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Walters, Sergeant George awarded VC
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War of the Austrian Succession (1740–8)

Battle of Dettingen (1743)
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Warburton-Lee, Captain Bernard

awarded VC
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death of
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Ward, Dame Irene
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lobbying activity of
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objection to awarding of GC to Odette Samson
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Warren, Lieutenant General Sir Charles
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Wellington, Duke of (Arthur Wellesley)
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Wheatley, Warrant Officer Kevin

posthumous awarding of VC
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Whitmore, Lieutenant General Sir Edmund Augustus
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Military Secretary
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Wilkinson, John
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Wilson, Major General Archdale
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Wilson, Woodrow
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Windsor Castle

Royal Archives
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Witherington, Pearl
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Wolseley, General Sir Garnet
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Wood, Lieutenant Henry Evelyn
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awarded VC
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women
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awarding of Croix de Guerre to
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awarding of DFC to
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awarding of DSC to
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awarding of GCM
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awarding of GM to
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awarding of MC to
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awarding of MM to
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issues regarding awarding of VC to
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military service of
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service in SOE
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Wotherspoon, Lieutenant Colonel G. D.
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‘X', Lieutenant Colonel
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Yeo-Thomas, Wing Commander Forest
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citation for GC (1946)
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Yugoslavia

NATO bombing of (1999)
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Zululand
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Zulus
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About the Author

Gary Mead was a journalist for the
Financial Times
for ten years and has worked for the BBC and Granada TV. He is the author of
The Doughboys: America and the First World War
(2000) and
The Good Soldier
(2007).

1. Hyde Park, London, 26 June, 1856: Victoria unveils her Cross for the first time.

2. The VC's other creator: Francis Albert Augustus Charles Emmanuel, Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and husband to Victoria.

3. Winter in the Crimea, 1855: men of the 77th Regiment.

4. The Indian Mutiny, 1857: Thomas Henry Kavanagh (
third from left
), a civilian in the Bengal civil service, volunteered to lead a relief party during the siege of Lucknow to the beleaguered Garrison in the Residency. Here he is depicted preparing his disguise.

5. No VC for women: Ethel Grimwood, heroine of the Manipur massacre in 1891, wearing the Royal Red Cross.

6. A miserable Winston Churchill (
right
) among a group of Boer prisoners in 1899.

7. Lord Kitchener, depicted on a poster in 1915. Kitchener took the lead in creating the Military Cross, whose appearance was the result of haphazard selection and whose purpose was questionable – unlike the carefully designed VC, whose intent was consciously framed by Victoria and Albert.

8. 1916: a depiction of a national hero, Earl Roberts VC, who died in 1914. Trotting out earlier national heroes at times of grave crisis is one of the uses to which the VC is put – even if, like Roberts, the hero helped push through some very dubious VCs.

9. John ‘Jack' Travers Cornwell (1900–1916). A hero or merely a shell-shocked child?

10. William Avery ‘Billy' Bishop, the Canadian fighter pilot who authenticated many of his own victories. Fearless and undoubtedly an excellent pilot, Bishop's VC was as much for propaganda purposes as his own courage.

11. Women Politicians at the House of Commons: (
from left to right
) Miss P. Hornsburgh, Mavis Tate, the Duchess of Atholl, Thelma Cazalet and Irene Ward, London, 5 December, 1935. After 1945, Ward fought a long but unsuccessful campaign to award Violette Szabo a posthumous VC.

12. Anglo-French wartime secret agent Violette Szabo (1921–45) with her husband Etienne Szabo, who was killed early in the war. Szabo was a successful and courageous agent who was tortured and probably raped before being executed at Ravensbrück concentration camp in February 1945. A clear and obvious candidate for the VC by any standard, efforts to secure her a posthumous VC were thwarted.