Canada’s Own Victoria Cross
| 5/18/2008 | Posted by Patti under Canadian News |
Little more than 150 years after being commissioned by Queen Victoria, the Commonwealth’s highest award for valour has been remade in a Canadian version. The Victoria Cross is for the most conspicuous acts of valour by those in Her Majesty’s service of all ranks.
Queen Victoria is reported to have insisted on the term ‘valour’ rather than bravery when setting the criteria as she believed that all men who went into combat were brave. She was as right then as her sentiments are today, only it is men and women who go into combat today.
Commissioned in 1856, the first Canadian born recipient, Lieutenant Alexander Roberts Dunn, received the Victoria Cross (VC) for his actions which took place two years before during the Crimean War. Dunn was part of the ill fated Charge of the Light Brigade immortalized in Alfred Lord Tennyson’s poem. The original VC was cast using metal from a Crimean War cannon.
Canada received permission to recast the medal as a Canadian honour in 1993. As the Canadian honour system evolved the original VC had been classified as a foreign honour and had it been earned (the last one earned was in World War 2), the person wouldn’t have been able to wear it on their uniform. It has taken 15 years for the design of the new medal to be settled on.
On first glance, the Canadian VC looks like the original VC. Upon a closer look, one finds the first of the subtle differences, the “For Valour” has been replaced with “Pro Valour” and in the same circle, two Fleur de Lis have been added. The main difference is what you don’t actually notice, the metal the medal is made of.
The original medal was cast from the metal of a cannon captured in the Crimean War. The Canadian medal has some of that metal, along with metal from the Confederation Medal of 1867 and metals from every province and territory in the country. Blended together into a unique alloy that will be used exclusively for the VC.
I’m glad to see the new medal retains most of the look and feel of the original. It creates an unbroken line between the 80+ Canadians who have already earned this highest of honours and those yet to come. As much as I’d like to think if no Canadian earns the VC it would mean peace in our time, the reality is that young Canadians are fighting and dying as I write this. I’d like to know that their gallantry will be recognized like those who fought before them.
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