172 AWARDED FOR VALOUR
Mary’s Army Auxiliary Corps, and all these auxiliary departments which,
behind the lines from time to time, or it might be in the circumstances
of air raids, might possibly win the V.C., although, up to date, there has
never been a case approaching it. Still it might happen.^24
Ponsonby ignored the rambling collection of non-sequiturs and dragged
the debate back to the point. He had asked for the Army’s opinion on how
to rewrite the regulations: were the services to be combined or separated in
the warrant? Both Admiral Everett and Colonel Gordon thought it advisable
to combine them if possible; Colonel More of the RAF agreed and stated
it would be a simple matter to add ‘Air Force with the General Officer
Commanding it’ to the existing litany of qualifying formations and solve
the debate. Lambert made it clear that the Colonial Office had no views on
this point.^25
With that point partially resolved Everett finally seemed to realize that
Graham’s rambling discourse had raised the possibility of including women
in the warrant, and took exception to it. This exception had far-reaching
implications:
If we are here to discuss the wording of the Royal Warrant, we think
that the words ‘some signal act of valour or devotion to their country’ as
a matter of fact should be very severely interpreted. It is only artificially
that the V.C. has reached the very high standard it has reached at present
and if you are going to bring women in that particular definition would
cover all sorts of petty things.^26
With that statement he opened the door to a tightening of the limits of
heroism with the express purpose of raising the criteria to the point where a
woman could never qualify. It was agreed that the requirements for winning
a Cross needed to be clarified and strengthened for the twentieth century
and the chair, sensing the question of including women might derail the
discussion, tried to table the matter. Ponsonby once again felt control of the
meeting slipping away as the members then started batting about possible
phrases and qualifications, including a suggestion from Graham that starkly
reflected the coldness of the new industrial heroism:
That [tightening the regulations] would cover those cases where a man
gets an arm or leg blown off in picking up a bomb, or loses his life by
throwing himself upon a bomb. That is pure self sacrifice, and not really
valour, I mean.^27
lily
(lily)
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