A political medal

The Victoria Cross medal was instigated on 29 January 1856, in a climate of public distrust and suspicion. In the years prior to the medal’s announcement, the British army had been embroiled in a bloody and prolonged conflict in the Crimea. Though victorious, inept administration, indecisive general ship and damming media coverage, had dealt a severe blow to the public’s perception of the British army.

As a direct result, wide scale public and governmental examination of the army was undertaken. It was in the wake of this public relations disaster that the Victoria Cross was born. It is my view that the medal was created to meet both a military and a public need. Contemporary changes in the structure of the army, together with additions to the gallantry award system, meant that a need had been created for a universal gallantry award. In addition, there existed an increasing demand from the British public for an award system that allowed acts of bravery to be recognised in a official manner.

It is for these reasons that I believe that the Victoria Cross was, and still is, a political medal. By this I mean that factors beyond the fulfilment of military guidelines are significant in deciding ,when and to whom, the medal is awarded.

To examine this more closely lets us look at a some facts about the medal in the years prior to the First World War.

Between the medal’s instigation in 1856 and the start of the First World War in 1914, 522 VCs were awarded.

111 VCs were presented for actions during the Crimean War (1854 – 1856) and 182 for gallantry during the Indian Mutiny (1857-1859). These two campaigns represent 56% of the medals presented during this period.

This means that during a time when VCs were award for a total of forty eight conflicts, over half the medals issued were for just two wars.

This is even more surprising when you consider the Boer Wars (1899-1902) and the Zulu War (1879). These disputes have the similarity that they were highly ‘visible’ conflicts, in which the national newspapers levelled a large amount of very public criticism. Yet, the Boer Wars saw 78 VCs presented and the Zulu War a mere 23. This means that more medals were issued during the Crimean war, than both of these campaigns combined.

If we look at the Zulu War even more closely we see that of the 23 medals issued, 14 arise from the disastrous battle of Isandlwana (January 22, 1879) and subsequent defence at the defence of Rorke’s Drift (January 22 – January 23, 1879).

So what does this mean?

If during this period, VCs were being issued whenever an act of gallantry fulfilled the strict military guidelines, we would expect to see a correlation between conflicts, numbers of soldiers in active combat and the number of VCs issues.

However, this is not the case.

Therefore, I believe that factors, other that gallantry, influenced when and to whom the VC was awarded.