90 AWARDED FOR VALOUR
Lord Roberts thinks you would like to know that as a result it is now
intended to give Captain Sc[h]ofield the Victoria Cross instead of the
D.S.O.
This action is taken in assumption that although you did not think you
were justified under the terms of the warrant in recommending Captain
Sc[h]ofield, you would nevertheless be glad to learn he was going to
obtain this great distinction.^66
The British did not allow stacking awards for the same deed; when Captain
Schofield was awarded the VC he had to relinquish the DSO he had already
been awarded for the same event. In this instance, he held the DSO for only
30 days before the War Office took it back.^67
Fair play also dictated a review of cases similar to that of Freddy Roberts.
Lord Roberts took the lead in assembling a case for changing the interpreta-
tion of the warrant. The long-standing policy of the government concerning
the VC was to consider it a hybrid award, combining aspects of both a medal
(some of which could be granted posthumously) and an Order (which
could not be granted posthumously).^68
Roberts’s staff attacked the latter premise, dredging up instances in which
an Order had in fact been granted to the widow of the man who earned
it. The strongest case they came up with was that of Lieutenant Colonel
A. Ellis, ‘who would have been recommended for the dignity of Knight
Commander of the Bath (Military Division) had he survived’ operations on
the West Coast of Africa in 1894. They pointed out, however, ‘His widow
was granted the Style, Plan and Precedence which she would have been
entitled to had her husband survived.’^69
There were six instances in the Boer War involving great courage with
fatal results. Horse Guards made a test case out of the actions of Sergeant
Alfred Atkinson of the Yorkshire Regiment. On 18 February 1900 he made
repeated trips under heavy fire to bring water to the wounded, and was
mortally wounded on his seventh traverse of the fire zone. He died three
days later. In April 1902 Lord Roberts gave his endorsement to granting the
VC he should have won to Atkinson’s mother, and then recommended that
the five other dead heroes be given the same.^70 All six were gazetted on
8 August 1902.^71
This set the precedent that the posthumous award of the Victoria Cross
was now an acceptable course of action, but the debate over posthumous
awards was not finished. The announcement of the awards prompted a call
for fair play from outside the War Office and Horse Guards. Even before the
London Gazettewith their citations left the printers word had leaked, prompting
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