FIFTY YEARS ON: A HALF-CENTURY OF HEROISM 107
round detonated three ammunition boxes and set two more on fire. McGuire
and Drummer Miles Ryan quickly tossed the burning boxes over the parapet
before they too exploded, thus preventing further casualties among the
packed troops at the gate. He was convicted of the theft of a cow back in
Ireland, part of a family dispute that resulted in another controversial trial
in December 1862.^35 Farrier Michael Murphy, along with Private Samuel
Morely, protected a dismounted cavalry officer during the mopping up
operations of the Indian Mutiny at Azumgurh, India, in 1858 to win Victoria
Crosses. Murphy was also indirectly involved in one of the early test cases of
establishing VC procedure and parameters, as Morely petitioned for his own
VC shortly after the gazetting of Murphy’s award. Murphy was stripped of
his award in March 1872 on his conviction of the theft of ten bushels of
oats.^36 The final enlisted man degraded from the Cross was Private George
Ravenhill, who won his in yet another controversial engagement. He was
one of the men recommended for the award by Redvers Buller in connection
with the attempts to save Long’s abandoned guns on 15 December 1899.
The War Office revoked his VC upon his conviction of the theft of iron on
24 August 1908.^37
Although there are some coincidences – three of the men stripped of the
award were Irish, and three were involved in controversial or ‘test-case’
applications of the VC regulations – there is no evidence of any conspiracy
at the War Office or the Palace to single these men out. All had been
legally convicted of crimes prohibited in the warrant, and as the case of
William Stanlake proves, the government played by the rules even if they
didn’t like it.
Only one officer recipient of the Victoria Cross has ever been stripped
of the award. Midshipman Edward St John Daniel presents a fascinating
and in some ways mysterious case. Daniel won his VC in the Crimea as
aide-de-camp of Captain William Peel:
Midshipman Daniel was one of the volunteers from HMSDiamond, who,
under the command of the captain [Peel] brought in powder to the battery
from a waggon under very heavy fire, a shot having disabled the horses.
On 5 November at the Battle of Inkermann he, as ADC to the captain,
remained by his side throughout a long and dangerous day. On18 June
1855 he was again with his captain in the first scaling party at the assault
on the Redan binding up his superior officer’s severely wounded arm and
taking him back to a place of safety.^38
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