Given at Our Court at Buckingham Palace, this twenty-ninth day of January, in the nineteenth year of Our Reign, and in the Year of Our Lord, 1856.
By Her Majesty’s command,
(Signed) Panmure.
To Our Principal Secretary of State for War.
On August 10, 1858, the London Gazette announced that by a Warrant under her Royal Sign Manual, her Majesty was pleased to direct that the Victoria Cross should be conferred, “subject to the rules and ordinances already made, on Officers and Men of Her Majesty’s Naval and Military Services, who may perform acts of conspicuous courage and bravery under circumstances of extreme danger, such as the occurrence of a fire on board ship, or of the foundering of a vessel at sea, or under any other circumstances in which, through the courage and devotion displayed, life or public property may be saved.”
As noted in chapter 15, it was under this clause that Private O’Hea, Dr. Douglas, and several others were gazetted.
Provision for the award of the V.C. to Messrs. Kavanagh, Mangles, and McDonell, who were civilians, was made by a supplemental Warrant, which was announced in the Gazette on 8th July, 1859, in the following terms:—
The Queen having been graciously pleased by a Warrant under her Royal Sign Manual, bearing date 13th December 1858, to declare that Non-Military Persons who, as Volunteers, have borne arms against the Mutineers, both at Lucknow and elsewhere, during the late operations in India, shall be considered as eligible to receive the decoration of the Victoria Cross, subject to the rules and ordinances, etc. etc. … provided that it be established in any case that the person was serving under the orders of a General or other Officer in Command of Troops in the Field; her Majesty has accordingly been pleased to signify her intention to confer this high distinction on the undermentioned gentlemen, etc. etc.
The Warrant given below, which was issued in 1881, speaks for itself. It merely restates in plain, unmistakable language the purport of the original Warrant of 1856.
Royal Warrant.—Qualification required for the Decoration of the Victoria Cross.