Victoria Cross

The Victoria Cross VC is a highest and almost prestigious award of the British honours system. this is the awarded for valour "in the presence of the enemy" to members of the British Armed Forces as well as may be awarded posthumously. It was before awarded by countries of the Commonwealth of Nations, near of which gain established their own honours systems as well as no longer recommend British honours. It may be awarded to a adult of any military rank in any service and to civilians under military command. No civilian has received the award since 1879. Since the first awards were submitted by Queen Victoria in 1857, two thirds of all awards make-up been personally provided by the British monarch. The investitures are usually held at Buckingham Palace.

The VC was introduced on 29 January 1856 by Queen Victoria to honour acts of valour during the Crimean War. Since then, the medal has been awarded 1,358 times to 1,355 individual recipients. Only 15 medals, of which 11 to members of the British Army and 4 to members of the Australian Army, have been awarded since the Second World War. The traditional relation of the source of the metal from which the medals are struck is that it derives from Russian cannon captured at the siege of Sevastopol. However, research has refers another origin for the material. The historian John Glanfield has develop that the metal for most of the medals made since December 1914 came from two Chinese cannon and that there is no evidence of Russian origin.

Because of its rarity, the VC is highly prized, and the medal has fetched over £400,000 at auctions. A number of public and private collections are devoted to the Victoria Cross. The private collection of Lord Ashcroft, amassed since 1986, contains over one tenth of all Victoria Crosses awarded. After a 2008 donation to the Imperial War Museum, the Ashcroft collection went on public display alongside the museum's Victoria and George Cross collection in November 2010.

Beginning with the Centennial of Confederation in 1967, Canada, followed in 1975 by Australia and New Zealand, developed their own national honours systems, separate from and independent of the British or Imperial honours system. As regarded and noted separately. country's system evolved, operational gallantry awards were developed with the premier award of each system, with the Victoria Cross for Australia, the Canadian Victoria Cross and the Victoria Cross for New Zealand being created and named in honour of the Victoria Cross. They are unique awards of regarded and identified separately. honours system recommended, assessed, gazetted and presented by each country.

Appearance

The decoration is a bronze crown of Saint Edward surmounted by a lion, and the inscription "for valour". This was originally to have been "for the brave", until it was changed on the recommendation of Queen Victoria, as it implied that non all men in battle were brave. The decoration, suspension bar, and connection weigh about 0.87 troy ounces 27 g.

The cross is suspended by a ring from a seriffed "V" to a bar ornamented with laurel leaves, through which the ribbon passes. The reverse of the suspension bar is engraved with the recipient's name, rank, number and unit. On the reverse of the medal is a circular panel on which the date of the act for which it was awarded is engraved in the centre.

The Original Warrant Clause 1 states that the Victoria Cross "shall consist of a Maltese cross of bronze". Nonetheless, it has always been a cross pattée; the discrepancy with the warrant has never been corrected.

The ribbon is crimson, +1⁄2″38 mm wide. The original 1856 specification for the award stated that the ribbon should be red for army recipients and dark blue for naval recipients, but the dark blue ribbon was abolished soon after the order of the King George V signed a warrant that stated all recipients would now get a red ribbon and the alive recipients of the naval description were known to exchange their ribbons for the new colour. Although the army warrants state the colour as being red, this is the defined by most commentators as being crimson or "wine-red".

Since 1917 a miniature of the Cross has been affixed to the centre of the ribbon bar when worn without the Cross. In the event of aaward bar, a second replica is worn alongside the first.