THE IMPERIAL VISION OF HEROISM 91
letters from grieving and in some cases irate family members demanding
similar treatment for their fallen sons.^72 Most were easily dismissed, but
the six who had been gazetted as ‘would haveif survived’ proved to
be more difficult, particularly when their proponents were members of the
aristocracy. The first blast came from Sir John Joscelyn Coghill, father of
one of the fugitive heroes of Isandhlwana. He wrote a threatening letter
to the Secretary of State for War on 3 August 1902. When he got no
satisfaction, he called on the young officer’s uncle, Lord Rathmore, to put
further pressure on the administration. Lord Rathmore contacted Secretary
of State for War St John Broderick on the subject in mid-September of
- He suggested that the government could hardly withhold the Cross
from those who would have earned it had they not died, and now that the
interpretation of the warrant had been altered, there was no bar to granting
it posthumously. It is apparent from the letter that he intended to get a
VC for his dead nephew, no matter what the cost. If he had to force the
government to grant the award to five other corpses, so be it. It was not,
however, as if he were going to bat for the other five specifically.^73
Broderick forwarded the letter to Lord Roberts along with a request for
information on any other ‘would haves.’ The C-in-C replied that only six
such pre-Boer War cases existed, and voiced his approval of backdating the
VCs of the ‘would haves,’ on the condition that only those already gazetted
as such would be considered. It is apparent in the letter that he could not
in good conscience refuse the award granted to his dead son to those who
had earned it in the past.^74
Others in the administration did not share his optimism, among them
his Military Secretary, Ian Hamilton. Hamilton did not see a problem with
granting the VC to men who, like Freddie Roberts, had died of wounds
after the fact of their heroism. Where he saw potential problems was with
the inclusion of the men killed outright, both the three men of the Boer
conflict and the six who had been gazetted as ‘would have’ in earlier
conflicts:
If we confine this to the above nine all will be well but I must say I have
had misgivings about this business –
Until now it has been the laudable object of a commander to write to
the relatives of officers and men who have fallen in terms of unmeasured
praise. This could do no harm; could serve as a basis to no claims and was
a certain consolation – Now either all this must stop and a dead man must
be measured by the same standard as a living one; or else applications for
posthumous decorations will be the rule and not the exception –