THREE

Teething Problems, 1856–1867

T

he Royal Warrant of 29 January 1856 created the award, but it was
up to the War Office and Horse Guards to decide exactly how to
implement the medal and select the individuals to be recommended
to the Crown for the honor. As with any new bureaucratic creation, the
Victoria Cross went through a developmental phase during the first years of
its existence before departmental standards were established. Fifteen clauses
were included in the original warrant governing everything from the color
of the suspender ribbon (red for the army, blue for the Navy) to the
circumstances by which a winner could be stripped of the honor. The
operative clauses were quite vague, however, and offered no exact definition
of what was to be considered heroic and worthy of reward.
The vagueness of these instructions insured the masters of the military
would have ample opportunity to define the form of heroism they wished
to institutionalize. The Crimea and the Indian Mutiny provided critical tests
that established a distinct character for the Victoria Cross. By the time the last
of the Mutiny claims had been processed, the parameters of heroism, both
the officially demarcated and the institutionally understood, had permeated
the fabric of the British military.
Clause V of the warrant, governing the conditions under which the award
could be won, was typical of the nebulous character of the document. It
made it clear that the award was indeed to be egalitarian, open equally to
both officers and enlisted men, and that it was to be a combat award, but
offered no standard by which to judge their actions:
Fifthly – It is ordained that the Cross shall only be awarded to those
officers or men who have served Us in the presence of the enemy, and
shall have then performed some signal act of valour or devotion to their
country.^1
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