THE IMPERIAL VISION OF HEROISM 75
His recommendation did not cause any undue controversy in London, other
than a brief exchange of memos between Horse Guards and the War Office
to determine that the action did come under the provisions of the warrant.^3
It did, however, establish a precedent; it was not long before other recom-
mendations were forwarded to Horse Guards solely on the basis that the
candidate had been ‘first in.’ As early as February 1861 the Odgers VC was
used to justify the submission of another ‘first in’:
This case is cited by the Commd. Officer of the 65th Regiment, as a
ground for conferring the Cross on Lance Corporal Fierock of the regiment
‘as being the first man who entered the far more stubbornly defended
position of Mahoetahi, which was stormed on the 6th November, last.’
The claim is forwarded by the General Commanding without remarks,
and H.R.H does not consider the case as one in which the distinction
should be conferred. Concur?^4
The War Office did concur. To institutionalize the practice of granting a
VC simply on the grounds that an individual was the first to enter an enemy
fortification would have opened the door to widespread abuse of the award.
Military Secretary Edward Lugard passed the memo on to the Secretary of
State for War Sidney Herbert with his own comment: ‘I do not see sufficient
grounds for granting this distinction – indeed the practice of giving it on
every paltry occasionlowersthe character of the distinction.’^5
Thus ‘first in’ came to occupy a middle ground as far as recommendations
went. In some cases it was a valid claim, but was not an automatic cause for
the award. This position was put to a test quite rapidly, as the storming of
the North Taku Fort in the Third China War, 8 August 1860, produced no
less than six recommendations on the basis of being ‘first in.’ The Theatre
Commander – a somewhat lofty title for a general in command of at most
2500 troops – General Sir James Hope Grant, recommended Lieutenant
Robert Montresor Rogers, 44th Regiment (who had been promoted by
the time of the recommendation to captain and had transferred to the
90th Regiment), Private John McDougall, also of the 44th, and Lieutenant
Edmund Henry Lennon, 67th Regiment, for being the first to enter the fort
through an embrasure, in that order; Lieutenant Nathaniel Burslem, 67th
(now a captain in the 60th), Private Thomas Lane, 67th, for trying to be first
in and getting wounded in the process, and Ensign John Worthy Chaplin,
67th (now a lieutenant with the 100th) for planting the colors in a breach
in the wall.^6
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