Date Published:
March 2005

L’Encyclopédie de l’histoire du Québec / The Quebec History Encyclopedia

Victoria Cross

Victoria Cross, a highly prized decoration, instituted at the close of the Crimean campaign of 1856, for officers and men of the naval and military forces of the British Empire who have performed, in the face of the enemy, a signal act of valour. It was designed to take the place in the British forces which the cross of the Legion of Honour took in the French forces, during the Crimean War. It is in the form of a bronze Maltese cross, with the royal crown in the centre, surmounted by the lion, and bearing below, on a scroll, the words "For Valour". The ribbon was formerly blue for the navy and red for the army; but is now crimson for all services. The first Canadian to win the Victoria Cross was Lieut. Alexander Roberts Dunn, who distinguished himself in the charge of the bight Brigade at Balaclava in 1856. During the South African War the Victoria Cross was awarded to three Canadians, Lieut. (later Lieut.-Gen. Sir) R. E. W. Turner, Major E. J. Holland, and Sergt. A. H. L. Richardson. During World War I the Victoria Cross was awarded to upwards of 30 Canadians, and in World War II upwards of 17 Canadians. See Capt. Theodore Goodridge Roberts and others, Thirty Canadian V.C.'s ( London 1919).

Source  : W. Stewart WALLACE, ed., The Encyclopedia of Canada, Vol. VI, Toronto, University Associates of Canada, 1948, 398p., p. 239.