THE INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF HEROISM IN BRITAIN 39
after the Queen wrote to Newcastle granting permission for the announce-
ment of intent, the Aberdeen Ministry fell.^71 Palmerston and Panmure had
other fish to fry in setting up the new government and addressing the
pressing issues of military administrative reform, while the press and parlia-
ment had new hobby horses to ride as the new government set to work.
That the scope of those military reforms included the possible severing of
the tie between the sovereign and the Commander-in-Chief and added a
new dimension to Albert’s conception of the new award. Newcastle’s ‘Cross
of Military Merit’ idea evolved into Albert’s conception of the Victoria Cross,
the design of which he sketched while traveling between Windsor and
London by train.^72
While the medal would not replace the direct and tangible control the
Crown had held over the Army through the C-in-C, it could offer a direct,
if abstract, link between the Crown and the officers and the rank-and-file
of the Army. It carried with it the intrinsic understanding that this was a
royal, not a government award – even the very name made that clear. It
was theVictoriaCross, not a ‘Parliamentary Order’ or a ‘Ministry Medal’
or even a ‘British Legion of Honor.’ It was the personal recognition of
valour by the Queen, and intentionally so. It maintained the fiction that the
members of the armed services were soldiers of the Queen, not employees
of parliament, even though in any meaningful sense they were now clearly
the latter.
This conception fitted nicely into the Romantic perception Victoria had
of herself and her relationship to the Army. She was proud of her father’s
military background and often made connection to it. Upon presenting new
colours to the Royal Scots she remarked, ‘I have been associated with your
regiment since my earliest infancy, as my dear father was your Colonel.
He was proud of his profession , and I was always taught to consider
myself a soldier’s child.’^73 She loved the military, often referring to the
soldiers as ‘her own,’ or ‘her children,’ and cherished what she considered
to be a personal bond between the sovereign and the lowest ranker.^74 After
her first review of the 1st Regiment of the Life Guards and the Grenadier
Guards as sovereign, 28 September 1837, she recounted: ‘I saluted them by
putting my hand to my cap like officers do, and was much admired for my
manner of doing it. The whole thing went off beautifully and I felt
for the first time like a man, as if I could fight myself at the head of my
troops.’^75
The royal family had correspondingly perceived the war from afar and
through a thick lens of romantic preconceptions. Victoria forthrightly stated
she wished ‘she were a man’ so she could participate in the battles of
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