34 AWARDED FOR VALOUR
Civil/Military Army Board similar to the Admiralty. Victoria tried to barter
her support for the measure in return for a clear description of the C-in-C’s
duty and a greater amount of autonomy for that office. It was clear that she
was worried about the loss of Crown influence over the Army.^56 During
the formation of the Palmerston ministry she objected to the proposed
appointment of Frederick Peel as Under-Secretary of State for War on the
grounds that his youth and inexperience ‘may cause serious embarrass-
ment and further exposure to successful attacks the already much-threatened
maintenance of proper authority of the crown over the Army.’^57
The formation of the new government did not allay her fears. Palmerston
and Panmure had to appease the anger of the voting public and carry out a
reform program. As Panmure observed concerning the appointment of the
McNeill and Tulloch commission to inquire as to the state of the Army in
the field, ‘High personages are fearful least this opportunity be seized to get
the administration of the Army placed, as the Admiralty, under the control
of Parliament.’^58
And while Victoria and Albert’s worst fears did not materialize in the
1850s, enough changes were made to the administrative structure of the
Army as to seriously limit the Crown’s prerogative. During the further
reorganization of the Army’s administration the Crown lost one of the last
remaining elements of royal control over the Army, when in July 1855
Panmure adopted a position that subordinated the office of the Commander-
in-Chief to ministerial control. He pointed out that royal warrants and writs
had to be countersigned by a principal secretary of state to be implemented,
and that the C-in-C did not have this authority. He was therefore under the
authority of the Secretary of State for War; if push came to shove, he could
not act without the minister’s approval.^59
The Queen thus found herself in a distasteful position. To defend royal
prerogative in the middle of the Crimean War controversy by opposing
changes in the administration of the Army was to fly directly in the face
of outraged popular sentiment. Any serious opposition to the changes in
the offing would be wasted, and carry a political price far higher than the
Crown was willing to pay. But Albert devised a way to numb the sting
of the loss of yet another slice of the Crown’s prerogative, replacing a
concrete link to the military in the form of the Commander-in-Chief with
an abstract link in the form of the Victoria Cross.^60
The genesis of what became the Victoria Cross came from the Duke of
Newcastle. At some point in 1854 he approached the Prince Consort and
verbally suggested the need for either an expansion of the three classes of
the Order of the Bath to include some of the lower ranks or the creation of
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