THE IMPERIAL VISION OF HEROISM 93
under any circumstances.^80 On Tuesday, 15 January 1907, the six were
gazetted. What the reasoning of the War Office, the bombast of Sir J. Coghill,
and the influence of Lord Rathmore could not accomplish, a widow’s plea
made reality.
One final change in the institutional case-law of the Victoria Cross took
place just before the First World War. Shortly after his accession to the throne
George V added his own mark to the regulations governing the Cross:
We do by these Presents, for Us, Our Heirs and Successors, ordain
and appoint that it shall be competent for the native officers, non-
commissioned officers and men of Our Indian Army to obtain the said
decoration in the manner set forth in the rules and ordinances referred
to, or in accordance with any further rules and ordinances which may
hereafter be made and promulgated by Us, Our Heirs and Successors, for
the government of the said decoration.^81
The motivation behind this policy change is unclear, as no official document-
ation has so far been released to the Public Record Office files on the Victoria
Cross. In November 1911, however, the King and Queen made a state visit
to India. ‘The King had come in person to announce his coronation, and,
as is the secular custom of the East on such occasions, to commemorate it
by certain marks of especial favour.’^82 These marks of ‘especial favour’ were
the cause of special debate shortly before the King’s departure. The viceroy
had initially suggested a gift of a crore of rupees (equivalent to £666,666)
to the Government of India as an appropriate gesture of imperial largesse, a
proposal firmly rejected by the cabinet. As an alternative the abstract boons
of reversing the unpopular partition of Bengal and transferring the seat of
government from Calcutta to Delhi were accepted.^83 Although the warrant
extension was not mentioned in the discussions, it was signed into effect on
21 October 1911, just 21 days before the royal party set sail for the subcon-
tinent. It is likely that the gesture was part and parcel of the King-Emperor’s
largesse towards his imperial domain.
lily
(lily)
#1