Ingredients that make the Victoria Cross

An item from the Legion Magazine.

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Stuff of legend:
ingredients that make the Victoria Cross

Story by Stephen J. Thorne

Everyone knows what a Victoria Cross recipient is made of. But what about the Victoria Cross itself?

Instituted by Queen Victoria at the end of the Crimean War, it has long been believed that the British Empire’s highest award for valour was originally made from bronze taken from Russian cannons captured at Sevastopol in 1855.

Now a British researcher and retired lieutenant-colonel has concluded that it is “highly implausible” the medals, awarded for exceptional gallantry in the presence of the enemy, ever came from Russian guns. Andrew Marriott served 30 years in the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers and is now a visiting researcher at Newcastle University in England.

A gruelling rescue effort

Story by Sharon Adams

On Oct. 30, 1991, a Canadian Forces CC-130H Hercules transport aircraft left Greenland on a routine airlift of supplies to the isolated Canadian Forces Station Alert, an electronic listening post on the northeastern tip of Ellesmere Island in Canada’s High Arctic.

Everything—personnel, food, supplies, fuel—had to be airlifted into the station, situated 817 kilometres from the North Pole, far north of any settlement.

The flight was scheduled to arrive at the Alert airfield in the dark at 4:30 p.m. On board were a crew of five, 13 passengers and 3,400 litres of diesel fuel.

October 27, 1918

Lieutenant-Colonel William Barker shoots down an enemy two-seater over France. Seriously wounded, he shoots down three more enemy aircraft before crash landing near Allied lines. He is awarded the Victoria Cross.