48 AWARDED FOR VALOUR
outraged at the thought that a British soldier might need or desire an award
to proclaim his martial prowess to the rest of the world.^14 Already by the
1850s existing (officer only) gallantry awards had been so cheaply won and
widely distributed as to dilute their distinction; many officers saw no need
to extend this situation into the other ranks.^15
This view was also held by some members of parliament. Sir W.
Fraser, 1858:
The great principal advocated by the Duke of Wellington for the English
Army, which, he said, would have gone anywhere and done anything,
was the principal of duty. Of all the despatches written by that great man
there was not one in which the word ‘glory’ did occur, nor one in which
the word ‘duty’ did not occur. Such was the mode of modern warfare
that it was next to impossible for an officer of any rank to attain the
Victoria Cross, and he doubted whether its being attainable by subalterns,
corporals, and men of the line would not lead them to neglect duty in
the pursuit of glory.^16
Fraser did not know what he was talking about, as Wellington died at least
two years before the Cross was even a concept, much less a reality.
Other blank returns represented the opinion of the commanding officer
that no man in his regiment had sufficiently distinguished himself as to
warrant special recognition:
On assuming command of the 41st Regiment, I find the circular dated
September 20th 1856, relative to the institution of the ‘Order of the
Victoria Cross’ has not been replied to.
I have the honour to state that after making a strict enquiry, I do not
find that there are any Officers, Non Commissioned Officers or Soldiers in
the 41st Regiment who could be considered eligible to be recommended
for that most distinguished decoration.^17
Still others could be attributed to a staunch sense of regimental pride.
Several of the regimental historians consulted in the preparation of this
work pointed out that regiments which considered themselves naturally elite
tended to shy away from special recognition of individuals within the unit
by authority figures outside the unit.^18 The acclaim of the immediate peer
group was more important than that of an impersonal War Office. Some
of the nil returns reflected this sentiment, in essence replying to the War
Office request for the names of distinguished soldiers in such a way as to
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