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The Victoria Cross

Bravery award celebrates 150 years

Britain’s highest award for bravery, The Victoria Cross, celebrated its 150th anniversary with a special two day exhibition at the Royal Artillery Museum.

The Victoria Cross

To date, 1,355 VCs have been awarded.
The two guns on permanent public display at the Royal Artillery Museum, Woolwich have supplied the bronze gunmetal from which over 800 of the Victoria Cross medals have been made.
Only 12 medals have been awarded since the end of World War II.
The VC, inscribed "For valour", is given for an act in the presence of the enemy.

The Royal Artillery Museum celebrated 150 years of the Victoria Cross with a special two day exhibition held on 24 and 25 June 2006.

The stable jacket of Hills-Johnes VC.

The exhibition, co-sponsored by Bonhams, displayed 31 of the 62 Victoria Crosses awarded to the Royal Artillery. This is the only time that so many of the Gunners’ medals have been brought together under one roof. Among the exhibits was the stable jacket of Sir Hills-Johnes VC. He was a member of the Bengal Horse Artillery and was awarded a VC for the seige of Delhi, Indian Mutiny, 9 July 1857.

Lord Ashcroft, who has one of the largest private collections of Victoria Crosses, opened the special exhibition at the Firepower museum in Woolwich, south east London.

"This is a unique occasion. Never before have so many of the Royal Regiment of Artillery’s Victoria Crosses been gathered together in one place."
Mark Smith, Curator

The VC is the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.

To date, 1,355 VCs have been awarded, of which 62 were to members of the Royal Regiment of Artillery. It is rumoured that Queen Victoria awarded the VCs to the 62 recipients while on horseback, and leaning forward in the saddle, managed to stab one commander in the chest, fixing the pin to his flesh. True to the spirit of valour, Commander Raby, accepted his award giving no sign of his distress.

One of the youngest soldiers to receive this medal was Private Johnson Gideon Beharry, 25, from London. He saved 30 members of his unit in Iraq while under enemy fire and was awarded the first Victoria Cross for more than 20 years in March 2005.

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Victoria Cross Gallery >

Royal Artillery Museum

Firepower
The Royal Artillery Museum
Royal Arsenal
Woolwich
London
SE18 6ST

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last updated: 11/12/2007 at 16:05
created: 22/06/2006

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