FIFTY YEARS ON: A HALF-CENTURY OF HEROISM 95
Purely symbolic acts comprised a small percentage of the deeds earning a
Victoria Cross, things like saving the colors or retrieving the body of a dead
officer. A final category consists of acts that defy categorization, and have
been labeled simply as ‘Special.’
A certain amount of subjectivity is unavoidable in the categorization of
the actions that won the decoration. In many cases multiple acts of valour
were cited, some of which fit into more than one of the categories listed
above. For example:
On 5 November 1854 at the Battle of Inkerman, Crimea, Private [Anthony]
Palmer with two other men were the first to volunteer to go with a
brevet major to dislodge a party of Russians from the Sandbag Battery.
The attack succeeded. During this action Private Palmer shot down an
assailant who was in the act of bayoneting the brevet major, and so saved
his life. He was also one of a small band which, by a desperate charge
against overwhelming numbers, saved the Colours of the battalion from
capture.^1
Here we see a soldier who could fit into three categories, War-Winning,
Offensive, Life-Saving, Officer, and Symbolic. In this case Private Palmer has
been listed as War-Winning, Offensive, on the basis that the assault was
the most important aspect of his actions according to the recommending
officer, and the other actions were predicated by offensive action on the
soldier’s part.
The particulars of each citation have been evaluated in Table 5.1 and each
has been assigned to a single category with no overlap. With only slightly
over 500 units in the survey, all percentages have been rounded to the
nearest whole number.
Given the differences in circumstances, theatres of operation, and attitudes
of commanders, shifts of less than 10 percent do not constitute a trend or
aberration.^2
The vast majority of the Victoria Crosses won in the nineteenth century
were won on land. The Royal Navy accounted for only 44 of the 521
awards, or 8.4 percent of the pre-First World War total. Of those 44, 38
were won by Navy personnel operating on shore; only six (1 percent) were
won at sea.^3
With the exception of the 1880s, offensive war-winning acts remained
fairly steady at about 15 to 19 percent of the awards granted. This category
includes such acts as capturing a strongpoint or enemy troops, charging an
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