FIFTY YEARS ON: A HALF-CENTURY OF HEROISM 97
recognized at all. True, there is a massive jump in defensive VCs during the
1870s, but this is due to two entirely defensive engagements, Isandhlwana
and Rorke’s Drift. When the ten defensive awards won in these engagements
are subtracted from the total and the percentages refigured, defensive VCs
drop back down from 30 percent to a more expected 11 percent. This slight
rise can be explained as an effect of the precedent established by the number
granted for the above mentioned battles.
Two decades did not produce any defensive Crosses at all, but for two very
different reasons. The campaigns of the 1860s were by nature aggressive,
taking the war to an enemy who was wedded to a defensive strategy. The
majority of the Crosses granted during this decade came from the protracted
war against the Maoris, which involved ferreting the rebels out of their
fortifiedpahs, or from the China War, which was largely decided by the
taking of key Imperial fortresses. The storming of Magdala and the naval
action ashore at Shimonosekei were likewise offensive operations. Moreover,
the commanders of the 1860s were both aggressive and competent, which
kept troops out of desperate defensive situations.
The lack of defensive VCs in the 1880s can be attributed to the Duke of
Cambridge’s pique at the number of Crosses dropped on the defenders
of Rorke’s Drift. Fully 35 percent of the Zulu War awards were for the defense of
the mission station, or 15 percent of the total awards of the decade. The duke’s
memo noting that the award was being given too freely carried a lot of weight,
and even though British troops fought defensive engagements at Maiwand and
Kandahar in Afghanistan and at Laing’s Nek and Majuba Hill in South Africa,
the laurels went to the relief forces, not the defenders.
This trend continued in the 1890s; despite a war which saw British
troops in hard fought defensive situations time and again against the Boers,
only 8 percent of the awards went to defensive actions. Buller and Roberts
were more likely to forward a recommendation for defensive valour than
Kitchener; only one of the six Boer War defensive VCs originated during
his tenure in command.
One of the most dramatic changes in distribution of the Cross came in
symbolic war-winning. Capturing enemy guns or saving friendly artillery
from capture, charging a superior foe; for enlisted men, staying at one’s post,
and for officers showing ‘good form’ in the face of overwhelming odds, all
carry with them something beyond the concrete value of the moment:
On 9 July 1857, at the siege of Delhi, India, Second Lieutenant [James]
Hills most gallantly defended the position assigned to him when attacked by
enemy cavalry. Single-handed he charged the head of the enemy’s column
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