106 AWARDED FOR VALOUR
Russian positions near Inkerman. The intelligence he brought back allowed
a successful surprise attack. However, he had since ‘rendered himself
unworthy of the honour by commission of theft.’ The War Office recom-
mended withholding the award ‘until he shall have regained his character’
through a course of good conduct.^29
The Duke of Cambridge notified Panmure that in his – and the Queen’s –
opinion, the reward should be revoked entirely. The problem with that
position was the nature of the legal proceedings in Stanlake’s case. His
commanding officer had not convened a general court martial, but rather
dealt with the issue with company punishment. Thus, although Stanlake
was an admitted thief, he had never been convicted of the offense and by
the letter of the warrant was still eligible for the Cross. Her Majesty played
by the rules and approved the grant of the award, but refused to present it
to Stanlake in person as she had done all other winners then in the United
Kingdom. The medal was forwarded to his commanding officer with stern
instructions from Cambridge to explain why he was getting it from a colonel
and not the Queen.^30
Of the eight cases in which the Cross was revoked, seven were enlisted
men. Private Valentine Bambrick won his Cross in the Mutiny for defending
himself from the attack of three Ghazees, but lost it when he was convicted
of assault and the theft of the medals of another soldier. It didn’t help matters
that the offense took place in an Aldershot brothel. After a controversial
trial he was sentenced to three years penal servitude in December 1863. He
hanged himself in his cell at Pentonville Model Prison on 1 April 1864.^31
Gunner James Colliss won his Cross at Maiwand in 1880 for drawing fire
away from the wounded. He was convicted of bigamy in 1895 and stripped
of the award.^32 Private Frederick Corbett tended a wounded officer under
fire at Kafr Dowar, Egypt in 1882 to win his VC, which he sold immediately
after his discharge at some point between 1882 and 1884. In 1884 he
re-enlisted, joining the Royal Artillery. On 30 July 1884 he was convicted
by a District Court Martial of being absent without leave, of theft, and of
embezzling money from an officer.^33
Private Thomas Lane was convicted of desertion, horse theft, and theft of
government property and stripped of his medal on 7 April 1881. He had
won a ‘first in’ Victoria Cross at the storming of the North Taku Fort on
8 August 1860 and had been the subject of a heated exchange between Sir
Hope Grant and the home government, as he was one of the men to whom
Grant had promised the VC on the spot.^34 Sergeant James McGuire won a
VC at Kabul Gate in 1857 for quick thinking in an emergency. An artillery
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