War Medals and Their History

by William Augustus Steward

These medals (see facing page [140]) realise from £4 to £7 7s. in the sale-room, generally with a war medal representing the campaign in which it was gained. Groups are relatively higher.

Conspicuous Gallantry Medal.—This medal was instituted on August 13th, 1855, as a reward to petty officers, sailors, non-commissioned officers, and privates in the marines who had distinguished themselves in the Crimean War. With it gratuities were given ranging from £5 to £15. In 1874, after the Ashantee War, it was again decided to issue the medal, and to grant annuities to chief and first-class petty officers, and sergeants of marines, whenever the annual grant authorised by the Treasury had not been exceeded. This medal has the same obverse as the Meritorious Service Medal, and the reverse is practically the same, except for the inscription, which is FOR CONSPICUOUS GALLANTRY. The first medals issued were struck from the same die as the Meritorious Service Medal, the second and third lines being erased, and the words CONSPICUOUS GALLANTRY engraved in Roman capitals. The suspender in the first issue was the same as that used with the sister medal for the army, but in the second issue, which commenced in 1874, a straight bar was used for suspension from a blue ribbon with a broad white stripe down the centre. The names on these medals are engraved in capital Roman letters like the naming on the Distinguished Conduct Medal.

The medal issued during the reign of King Edward VII bore upon the obverse the same bust of His Majesty in Admiral's uniform as is used on the Naval Long Service and Good Conduct medals granted by him. These medals realise from £3 10s. to £5, but a medal of the first issue, together with the Baltic medal awarded to George Belding of H.M.S. "Firefly," realised £59.

The Victoria Cross.—This coveted decoration was first suggested by the Prince Consort, and Queen Victoria being desirous of taking into her royal consideration a means of adequately rewarding the individual gallant services, either of officers of the lower grades in the naval and military service, or of warrant and petty officers, seamen, and marines, ordained by Royal Warrant on June 29th, 1856, that "the cross shall only be awarded to those officers or men who have served us in the presence of the enemy, and shall have performed some signal act of valour or devotion to their country." With the cross an annuity of £10 is awarded to warrant officers, seamen and marines, non-commissioned officers, and privates, and for each additional bar £5 per annum is added to the annuity. In July 1898, owing to the unfortunate condition to which a recipient had been reduced, and so induced to sell his cross, it was decided that the Home Secretary might, in his discretion, increase the annuity to £50. On April 23rd, 1881, the warrant was revised to enable officers of any grade to receive the medal, and on August 8th, 1902, King Edward sanctioned the posthumous award of the cross, and of its issue to relatives of deceased men who had earned it; prior to this the brave fellows' names had been gazetted only. The new regulation was retrospective, so that the surviving representatives of men who had earned the cross as long ago as the Indian Mutiny received the bronze token of their relative's valour.

The cross (facing page [136]) carries with it the right to append V.C. after the recipient's name.

The cross is made from captured cannon, and is not, as is generally and wrongly described, a Maltese cross, but a cross patée. It bears in the centre of the obverse the royal crest of a lion passant gardant upon the British crown, with a ribbon inscribed FOR VALOUR in a semicircle beneath it, the ends tucked under the raised edge. The cross has a pierced semicircular lug, through which a simple link is run to attach the cross to the laureated suspender by a V. The obverse has raised edges like 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 back of the cross. The cross is suspended by a dark-red ribbon, 1½ in. wide, by military recipients, and by a dark-blue ribbon by naval recipients. The cross, owing to the fact that it is cast and chased, has often been copied, and I have had in my possession one which, but for its size, would have deceived experts, but it had the faults of all cast copies, having shrunk in the casting, and this is the one way of telling a fraud, although it generally needs the genuine article for comparison. The V.C. has realised in the sale-room from £43 for a lieutenant's won in the Mutiny to £175 for a private's won before Sebastopol.

The only Victoria Cross awarded for gallant services not in "the presence of the enemy" was given to Private Timothy O'Hea for extinguishing a fire in an ammunition van during the Fenian Raid in Canada, 1866. It sold in August 1900 for £50.

The Albert Medal.—The Albert Medal, commonly called "The Civilian's Victoria Cross," was originally instituted by Queen Victoria under a Royal Warrant dated March 7th, 1866, as a reward for heroic actions performed in saving life at sea. On April 12th, 1867, the Warrant was revoked by a second which instituted two new decorations respectively styled The Albert Medal of the First Class and The Albert Medal of the Second Class, the original Warrant instituting one class only. Ten years later, on April 30th, 1877, Her Majesty Queen Victoria signed another Warrant which extended the decorations to cases of gallantry in saving life on land.

BRONZE MEDAL GIVEN BY LEOPOLD, GRAND DUKE OF BADEN, "TO THE BRAVE ARMY OF LIBERATION," 1849.