Such a man is the bravest of the brave; for he must conquer himself as well as the enemy.
THE VICTORIA CROSS
That man is proud indeed, with the proper kind of pride, who has the right to use the letters V.C. after his name and to wear the medal known as the Victoria Cross. For this is the highest honour that can be won by any man in the British fighting services.
The Victoria Cross is made of bronze, and the picture shows you the exact shape of the medal. It is that of a “Maltese” cross, so called because it was the badge of the company of Christian warriors known as the Knights of Malta.
Hundreds of years ago, in the time of the Crusades, these knights fought against the Turks who held the Holy Places in Palestine and tried to drive them out. You see, then, that the chief medal of our Army and Navy reminds us that we belong to a Christian country, and one which ought always to fight on the side of justice and right.
It was the good Queen Victoria who gave orders for the first Victoria Crosses to be made, as the name of the medal will always remind us. She saw that there was no decoration that could be given to her soldiers and sailors who had done very brave deeds. There were many of these brave men who had fought for her and for their country in the Crimean War which was fought about sixty years before the Great War broke out.
The Queen, therefore, gave careful instructions for the designing and awarding of the new medal. It was to be made from the metal of cannon captured in the Crimean War. In the centre of the bronze cross was to be the figure of a lion standing on guard above the royal crown; and under the crown there was to be a scroll bearing the simple inscription, “For Valour.”