Awarded for Valour: A History of the Victoria Cross and the Evolution of British Heroism PDF
Preview Awarded for Valour: A History of the Victoria Cross and the Evolution of British Heroism
GeneralEditor:WilliamPhilpott,ProfessorofDiplomaticHistory,King’sCollegeLondon Publishedtitlesinclude: MartinAlexanderandWilliamPhilpott(editors) ANGLO–FRENCHDEFENCERELATIONSBETWEENTHEWARS ChristopherM.Bell THEROYALNAVY,SEAPOWERANDSTRATEGYBETWEENTHEWARS PeterBell CHAMBERLAIN,GERMANYANDJAPAN,1933–34 AntonyBest BRITISHINTELLIGENCEANDTHEJAPANESECHALLENGEINASIA,1914–41 AntoineCapet(editor) BRITAIN,FRANCEANDTHEENTENTECORDIALESINCE1904 PhilippeChassaigneandMichaelDockrill(editors) ANGLO-FRENCHRELATIONS,1898–1998 FromFashodatoJospin MichaelDockrill BRITISHESTABLISHMENTPERSPECTIVESONFRANCE,1936–40 MichaelDockrillandJohnFisher THEPARISPEACECONFERENCE,1919 PeacewithoutVictory? JohnP.S.Gearson HAROLDMACMILLANANDTHEBERLINWALLCRISIS,1958–62 JohnGooch ARMY,STATEANDSOCIETYINITALY,1870–1915 RaffiGregorian THEBRITISHARMY,THEGURKHASANDCOLDWARSTRATEGYINTHEFAR EAST,1947–1954 StephenHartley THEIRISHQUESTIONASAPROBLEMINBRITISHFOREIGNPOLICY,1914–18 AshleyJackson WARANDEMPIREINMAURITIUSANDTHEINDIANOCEAN JamesLevy THEROYALNAVY’SHOMEFLEETINWORLDWARII StewartLone JAPAN’SFIRSTMODERNWAR ArmyandSocietyintheConflictwithChina,1894–95 ThomasR.Mockaitis BRITISHCOUNTERINSURGENCY,1919–60 THEBRITISHEMPIREANDITSITALIANPRISONERSOFWAR,1940–47 T.R.Moreman THEARMYININDIAANDTHEDEVELOPMENTOFFRONTIERWARFARE, 1849–1947 KendrickOliver KENNEDY,MACMILLANANDTHENUCLEARTEST-BANDEBATE,1961–63 PaulOrders BRITAIN,AUSTRALIA,NEWZEALANDANDTHECHALLENGEOFTHEUNITED STATES,1934–46 AStudyinInternationalHistory ElspethY.O’Riordan BRITAINANDTHERUHRCRISIS G.D.Sheffield LEADERSHIPINTHETRENCHES Officer–ManRelations,MoraleandDisciplineintheBritishArmyintheEraoftheFirst WorldWar AdrianSmith MICKMANNOCK,FIGHTERPILOT Myth,LifeandPolitics MelvinCharlesSmith AWARDEDFORVALOUR AHistoryoftheVictoriaCrossandtheEvolutionofBritishHeroism MartinThomas THEFRENCHNORTHAFRICANCRISIS ColonialBreakdownandAnglo-FrenchRelations,1945–62 SimonTrew BRITAIN,MIHAILOVICANDTHECHETNIKS,1941–42 StevenWeiss ALLIESINCONFLICT Anglo-AmericanStrategicNegotiations,1938–44 StudiesinMilitaryandStrategicHistory SeriesStandingOrderISBN978 0–333–71046–3Hardback978 0–333–80349–3Paperback (outsideNorthAmericaonly) Youcanreceivefuturetitlesinthisseriesastheyarepublishedbyplacingastandingorder.Please contactyourbookselleror,incaseofdifficulty,writetousattheaddressbelowwithyourname andaddress,thetitleoftheseriesandtheISBNquotedabove. CustomerServicesDepartment,MacmillanDistributionLtd,Houndmills,Basingstoke,Hampshire RG216XS,England VVV WARDED FOR ALOUR A History of the Victoria Cross and the Evolution of British Heroism Melvin Charles Smith University of the Cumberlands ©MelvinCharlesSmith2008 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2008 978-0-230-54705-6 Allrightsreserved.Noreproduction,copyortransmissionofthis publicationmaybemadewithoutwrittenpermission. Noparagraphofthispublicationmaybereproduced,copiedortransmitted savewithwrittenpermissionorinaccordancewiththeprovisionsofthe Copyright,DesignsandPatentsAct1988,orunderthetermsofanylicence permittinglimitedcopyingissuedbytheCopyrightLicensingAgency, 90TottenhamCourtRoad,LondonW1T4LP. Anypersonwhodoesanyunauthorisedactinrelationtothispublication maybeliabletocriminalprosecutionandcivilclaimsfordamages. Theauthorhasassertedhisrighttobeidentified astheauthorofthisworkinaccordancewiththeCopyright, DesignsandPatentsAct1988. Firstpublished2008by PALGRAVEMACMILLAN Houndmills,Basingstoke,HampshireRG216XSand 175FifthAvenue,NewYork,N.Y.10010 Companiesandrepresentativesthroughouttheworld PALGRAVEMACMILLANistheglobalacademicimprintofthePalgrave MacmillandivisionofSt.Martin’sPress,LLCandofPalgraveMacmillanLtd. Macmillan(cid:2)isaregisteredtrademarkintheUnitedStates,UnitedKingdom andothercountries.PalgraveisaregisteredtrademarkintheEuropean Unionandothercountries. ISBN 978-1-349-36136-6 ISBN 978-0-230-58335-1 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9780230583351 Thisbookisprintedonpapersuitableforrecyclingandmadefromfully managedandsustainedforestsources.Logging,pulpingandmanufacturing processesareexpectedtoconformtotheenvironmentalregulationsofthe countryoforigin. AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary. AcatalogrecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheLibraryofCongress. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 List of Tables vi Acknowledgements vii Introduction: The Forgotten Hero 1 1 ‘I’ve broken my arm, Dick, but never mind me now’: The Hero in Victorian Popular Mythology 5 2 The Institutionalization of Heroism in Britain 26 3 Teething Problems, 1856–1867 43 4 Big Implications from Small Wars: The Imperial Vision of Heroism, 1860–1911 74 5 Fifty Years On: A Half-Century of Heroism 94 6 1914: The Last Stand of the Thin Red Line 110 7 The Middle Parts of Fortune: Heroism in Evolution, 1915–1916 132 8 ‘Courage isn’t what it used to be’: Heroism Emerges from the Great War, 1917–1918 152 9 The Hero Comes Home from the War: The Institutionalization of Modern Heroism 165 10 Conclusion: The New Hero in Action, 1940–2006 185 Appendix: The Victoria Cross Warrants 207 Notes 230 Bibliography 263 Index 276 v 5.1 Acts winning the Victoria Cross, nineteenth century: winners per decade 96 5.2 Enlisted versus officer in life-saving VCs, nineteenth century 100 5.3 The cost of courage: casualties among nineteenth-century VC winners per decade 103 7.1 Acts winning the Victoria Cross, 1915: winners by quarter 138 7.2 The cost of courage, 1915: casualties per quarter 140 7.3 Acts winning the Victoria Cross, 1916: Winners by quarter 144 7.4 Breakdown of Crosses won, 1915 and 1916 by quarter 145 7.5 The cost of courage, 1916: casualties per quarter 145 8.1 Acts winning the Victoria Cross, 1917: winners by quarter 157 8.2 The cost of courage, 1917: casualties per quarter 161 8.3 Acts winning the Victoria Cross, 1918: winners by quarter 161 8.4 The cost of courage, 1918: casualties per quarter 163 10.1 The cost of courage, the Second World War: casualties per year 187 10.2 Acts winning the Victoria Cross, the Second World War: winners per year 189 vi I would like to extend my firm thanks to all of the people who assisted in the research and writing of this work. First and foremost, my gratitude to my parents for the support both moral and financial over the years of my education and beyond. Many thanks are due to Major Tony Astle (retired) of the 22nd Regiment Museum and Archive in Chester, Lieutenant-Colonel Angus Fairie at Cameron Barracks in Inverness, and to the staff at the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders Museum in Stirling and the staff at the Gordon HighlandersMuseuminAberdeen.TothePublicRecordOfficedeskworkers at Kew, thank you for your patience and diligence. I would also like to thank Dr Margaret Sankey of Minnesota State University Moorhead for her assistance and critique. Lastly, my thanks to Dr Dan Szechi and his wife Jan Szechi, for direction, encouragement, bare threats, and venison curry. vii Just under two years after the end of the First World War former Colour Sergeant Harry Hampton wrote to the private secretary of King George V, requesting an increase in the pension attached to the Victoria Cross, whichatthetimestoodat£10sterlingperannum.Hampton,whohadwon his VC during the Boer War, alleged that the winners of gallantry awards from Canada and Australia enjoyed a variety of benefits that the British government failed to provide for its heroes. He closed with the observation that ‘honour is all very well, but a little help is worth a lot of sympathy.’1 Hampton’s dilemma is representative of a larger aspect of the concept of heroism, that of benign neglect. Of all the features of military history, heroism is the most elusive and difficult to quantify. It has thus been largely ignored by military historians; too often they focus on those who fail under pressure and neglect those who rise above it. This work explores onemanifestationoftheheroicidealintheWesternworld,focusingonthe evolution of the Victoria Cross from its foundation in 1856 to the current incarnation of the Cross, most recently awarded during operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The study follows both the institutional history of the award and its popular history within and beyond the ranks of the armed forces. Heroism, though wonderful for the headlines of the moment, has remained a phenomenon relatively untouched by modern military history. The hero makes an occasional appearance to add colour to an account of a battle scene. He is mentioned in passing, almost as an afterthought, in summing up the accomplishments of a campaign. Other than that he is startlingly absent, even from works dealing with the subject of military motivation or even courage itself. In Soldiers: A History of Men in Battle John KeeganandRichardHolmesnotedthebenefitofheroicactionbrieflyinthe second chapter, but limited their treatment to heroism as a factor in unit morale.2 NordidheroismfigureinanyimportantsenseinKeegan’sseminal 1 AWARDEDFORVALOUR work, The Face of Battle.3 Neither Hew Strachan’s European Armies and the Conduct of War nor Patrick Reagan’s Organizing Societies for War address the question of the merits of heroism in any fashion.4 The works dealing specifically with the concept of courage do scarcely betterwhenitcomestodealingwiththehero.LordMoran’slandmarkstudy of courage in combat dealt primarily with the factors that tear down the bravery of an individual rather than the exhibition of that courage in heroic acts.5 LikewisewereaseriesoflecturesdeliveredatFortLeavenworthduring the First World War exploring the psychology of war.6 The word ‘heroism’ was used only three times in the entire series, with far more attention paid to negative factors in troop morale and performance. Heroism has not been entirely ignored, however; Plinio Prioreschi devoted a substantial portion of a chapter in Man and War to a precise definition of heroism, and to differentiating between bravery and heroism on the battlefield.7 Even in the case of the Victoria Cross most of the specific works on the medal amount to little more than bullets of information, with each winner treated in a vacuum, entirely divorced from any circumstance beyond the rush of battle. The literary treatment of the Cross falls into four broad categories: reference works; works of jingoistic patriotism; studies limited to a specific region, war or service branch; and full-length Cross-winner biographies. Works in the first of these categories amount to nothing more than encyclopaedias.Theremightbeafewpagesofintroductiongivingathumb- nail sketch of the origins of the Cross, but little more than anecdotal information.8 Thebulkofeachisdevotedtoindividualentriesconsistingof basicbiographicalinformationofthewinners–dateandplaceofbirth,unit affiliation, place of death – and an account of the deed that won the award. Eachispresentedasastand-alonearticlewithaminimumofcross-reference in the case of multiple awards for the same action or family connections between Cross winners. The information presented can be quite useful for the compilation of statistics, but is entirely lacking in analysis. This first category also has certain elements in common with the second. Abouttheturnofthetwentiethcenturyseveraljingoistic,patriotictreatments oftheVCcameonthemarket.9 Thistrendcontinuedintotheinterwaryears with the publication of the first volume of The Victoria Cross, 1856–1920, still widely accepted as the best early work on the Cross.10 The thrust of this book and the genre are summed up in its introduction: ‘Embracing the finest episodes in British Naval and Military History and the gallant exploits of the Royal Air Force – deeds which will forever live in the memory of man – it should prove a powerful incentive to uphold the honour of
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