50 AWARDED FOR VALOUR
Queen Victoria would serve in the minds of some as a limiting factor to the
number granted to the other ranks.
Despite his disclaimer Colonel Warre submitted a total of 22 privates,
three corporals, seven sergeants, one lieutenant, two captains, one major,
one lieutenant colonel, and one colonel (Warre himself) for the considera-
tion of the War Office.^24 He was not alone in submitting a glowing account
of his regiment’s gallantry. Some of these were the result of over-zealous
commanders with a low threshold of heroism, while others were intended
to salve the wounds of a battered regiment. Still others owed their origins
to a romantic desire for glory. Lieutenant Colonel Henry Charles Barnston
Daubeney of the 55th Regiment flooded London with a tide of recommend-
ations, naming 26 enlisted men, six officers (including himself), and one
civilian as candidates for the Cross.^25
In the case of Warre, it seems that he was merely anxious to procure
a Cross or Crosses for his regiment, and if he could gain one for himself,
so much the better. For example, Private Charles McCorrie of the 57th had
been recommended and approved for the award, but had died in hospital
on Malta (gazetted 24 February 1857, died 9 April 1857), before the first
investiture. Warre lost no time, writing on the day of McCorrie’s death to his
brigade commander General John L. Pennefather, ‘being naturally anxious
to have a decoration, so much looked up to, in the Corps.’ He sounded out
the idea that perhaps one of the other men who had been recommended
might be reconsidered. The reply was brief, a penciled ‘No’ on the back of
his request.^26 Once his own request had been rejected, however, he made
no further attempts to procure a Victoria Cross for himself.
Colonel Daubeney on the other hand was quite shameless in his efforts
to garner recognition. He had been originally recommended along with
two other officers for the Cross by General Pennefather in October 1856:
‘Distinguished for energy and devotion in keeping his men together crossing
the river under a terrible fire, setting a cool & glorious example [Battle of
the Alma]. Distinguished for gallantry and active zeal & forwardnessafter
Warren was wounded [Battle of Inkerman].’^27
There is evidence, however, that Daubeney had already been pestering his
superiors for some form of recognition. Included in the jacket containing
the 55th Regiment’s recommendations is a June 1855 letter from Lieutenant
General Sir DeLacy Evans, commander of the Second Division in the Crimea,
in reply to a letter from Daubeney: ‘You are perfectly correct in saying that
you were reported to me by General Pennefather & by me to Lord Raglan as
having distinguished yourself in the Battle of the Alma – you were similarly
mentioned in Division Orders.’^28 This reply was sent well before there was
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