The Victoria Cross: Britain’s Highest Military Honour

Origins of the Victoria Cross

The Victoria Cross (VC) was instituted by Royal Warrant on 29 January 1856, during the Crimean War. Queen Victoria herself took a personal interest in its creation, wanting a decoration that could be awarded regardless of rank — a radical departure from the existing system where recognition was largely reserved for officers.

The warrant specified that the VC should be awarded “for most conspicuous bravery, or some daring or pre-eminent act of valour or self-sacrifice, or extreme devotion to duty in the presence of the enemy.”

The first investiture took place on 26 June 1857 in Hyde Park, London, when Queen Victoria personally pinned the decoration on 62 recipients. The ceremony was attended by an estimated crowd of 100,000 spectators — the public interest reflecting the enormous prestige already attached to the fledgling award. Among the first recipients was Commander Henry Raby RN, who had rescued a wounded soldier under heavy fire during the Battle of Inkerman in 1854.

The Medal Itself

The VC is deliberately plain. Cast from bronze, it takes the form of a cross pattée, 41mm across, bearing the Royal Crown surmounted by a lion, with a scroll reading “FOR VALOUR.” The reverse is engraved with the recipient’s name, rank, unit, and the date of the act.

A popular myth holds that VCs are cast from the bronze of Russian cannon captured at the Siege of Sevastopol. Research by historian John Glanfield in his 2005 book Bravest of the Brave confirmed that the metal does indeed come from Chinese cannon cascabels held at the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich — though the exact provenance of the original guns remains debated. The remaining supply of bronze is held by 15 Regiment Royal Logistic Corps at Donnington, and is estimated to be sufficient for approximately 80 more crosses.

The VC is worn before all other medals and decorations. It takes precedence over every other British award. The crimson ribbon (dark blue for the Royal Navy until 1918) is 38mm wide. Since 1902, the decoration has been awarded posthumously — previously, the warrant did not permit this, and some acts of supreme bravery went formally unrecognised.

The Award Process

The VC is not simply nominated. The process requires eyewitness testimony, typically from at least three witnesses, and the recommendation must pass through the chain of command before reaching the Sovereign. In practice, many deserving acts go unrecognised because witnesses were killed or because the chaos of battle made corroboration impossible.

During World War I, the process became more formalised. Commanding officers submitted recommendations through brigade, division, corps, and army level, with each stage acting as a filter. The ratio of VCs to total casualties gives a sense of the selectiveness: roughly one VC was awarded for every 4,000 casualties in the Great War.

In some cases, the VC has been awarded by ballot. When a unit performed an act of extraordinary collective bravery but no individual could be singled out, officers and men voted separately to select one representative from each group. The most famous example is the VCs awarded to the Lancashire Fusiliers for “the six before breakfast” at Gallipoli’s W Beach on 25 April 1915.

Key Statistics

* The Australian VC for Australia, instituted 1991, technically a separate decoration.

Notable Recipients

Private Henry Hook VC — Rorke’s Drift (1879)

One of 11 VCs awarded for the defence of Rorke’s Drift on 22–23 January 1879, during the Zulu War. Hook, a cook by training, fought hand-to-hand through the burning hospital building, evacuating patients through holes knocked in walls while Zulus attacked through the doors. The action was later immortalised in the 1964 film Zulu, though the film’s depiction of Hook as a malingerer was entirely fictional — he was in reality regarded as a model soldier.

Captain Noel Chavasse VC and Bar — World War I

Chavasse remains one of only three men to be awarded the VC twice. As a medical officer with the Liverpool Scottish (10th Battalion, King’s Liverpool Regiment), he rescued wounded men under intense fire at Guillemont on the Somme (August 1916) and was awarded a Bar for similar bravery at Wieltje during Third Ypres (August 1917). He died of wounds two days after the second action, aged 32. His grave is in Brandhoek New Military Cemetery, and his double VC group is held by the Imperial War Museum.

Wing Commander Guy Gibson VC — The Dambusters (1943)

Gibson led 617 Squadron on Operation Chastise, the famous “Dambusters” raid of 16–17 May 1943. Flying at just 60 feet above the water to deliver Barnes Wallis’s bouncing bombs, Gibson made multiple runs over the Möhne Dam to draw enemy fire away from other aircraft. Two dams were breached, causing catastrophic flooding in the Ruhr valley. Gibson received his VC from the King at Buckingham Palace on 22 June 1943 — just five weeks after the raid. He was killed on a subsequent operation over the Netherlands in September 1944, aged 26.

Corporal Bryan Budd VC — Afghanistan (2006)

Serving with 3rd Battalion, The Parachute Regiment in Helmand Province, Budd single-handedly charged an enemy position to save his section during fighting around Sangin. He was killed in the assault. His posthumous VC was one of the first awarded for service in Afghanistan and the first to a member of the Parachute Regiment since Arnhem in 1944.

Lance Corporal Johnson Beharry VC — Iraq (2004)

Johnson Beharry of the 1st Battalion, Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment was awarded the VC for two acts of outstanding gallantry in Al-Amarah, Iraq. On both occasions he drove his Warrior armoured vehicle through ambushes to save his comrades, suffering serious head injuries in the second action. He is one of the few living VC holders and the first living recipient since 1965.

Collecting the Victoria Cross

Genuine VCs extremely rarely appear on the open market. When they do, they command extraordinary prices — typically £200,000 to £500,000 or more, depending on the recipient and the action. The record price at auction exceeded £1.5 million (for a VC group sold by Noonans in London). Institutional buyers — the Lord Ashcroft Gallery at the Imperial War Museum, the Australian War Memorial, and various regimental museums — compete with private collectors, driving prices ever higher.

For most collectors, VC-related items are the realistic alternative: original citations published in the London Gazette, photographs, letters, service records, and related campaign medals from VC groups where the VC itself has been retained by the family or held by a museum. Associated items — the campaign medals of VC recipients — carry a significant premium over equivalent medals to non-VC men.

The Victoria Cross Today

The VC remains Britain’s premier military decoration. Living recipients receive a tax-free annuity (currently £10,000 per year). The Victoria Cross and George Cross Association maintains contact between holders and arranges biennial reunions hosted at the Imperial War Museum or Buckingham Palace.

The Lord Ashcroft Gallery, which opened in 2010 in the Imperial War Museum, holds the world’s largest collection of VCs — over 200. Lord Ashcroft’s accompanying book, Victoria Cross Heroes, provides detailed biographies of many recipients. The gallery is free to visit and is the single best place to see VCs and learn their stories.

Forfeiture and Restoration

The original Royal Warrant allowed for the VC to be forfeited if the holder was convicted of a serious criminal offence, treason, or cowardice. Eight VCs were forfeited between 1861 and 1908. King George V effectively ended this practice in 1920, reportedly stating: “Even were a VC to be sentenced to be hanged for murder, he should be allowed to wear his VC on the scaffold.” In 1920, all forfeited VCs were officially restored — the names remain on the register. No VC has been forfeited since.

The VC in Popular Culture

The Victoria Cross has featured prominently in film and literature. Zulu (1964), depicting the defence of Rorke’s Drift, remains one of the most popular military films ever made. The Dam Busters (1955) tells the story of Gibson’s VC action. More recently, Peter Jackson’s They Shall Not Grow Old (2018) brought WWI footage to life, reminding audiences of the conditions in which many VCs were won.

In fiction, George MacDonald Fraser’s Flashman novels feature a protagonist who repeatedly, and accidentally, wins the VC — a comic device that underscores the decoration’s supreme status. Bernard Cornwell’s Sharpe series, though set before the VC’s creation, captures the spirit of individual gallantry that the decoration was designed to recognise.

The Lord Ashcroft collection at the Imperial War Museum, opened in 2010, displays over 200 VCs and equivalent GCs, making it the world’s largest publicly accessible display. Each VC is accompanied by a detailed account of the action — many of them almost unbelievable in their descriptions of courage under fire.

Sources

• Glanfield, John. Bravest of the Brave: The Story of the Victoria Cross. Sutton Publishing, 2005.
• Ashcroft, Michael. Victoria Cross Heroes. Headline Review, 2006.
• The National Archives. “Victoria Cross Registers” (WO 98). nationalarchives.gov.uk
• The London Gazette. Official VC citations, 1856–present. thegazette.co.uk
• Imperial War Museum. “Lord Ashcroft Gallery: Extraordinary Heroes.” iwm.org.uk