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Martin Everett
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Sheldon,
I am probably one of the few people who have had both the Chard (Stanley Baker) and the Bromhead VCs in my hand at the same time. I am no expert but both appeared to have been engraved by the same man. However I would say that the VCs issued after the Anglo-Boer War have a more yellow appearance than those issued earlier - e.g. Melvill, Coghill, Cobbe and the Hitch replacement. This does suggest the use of different batch of metal. Whether this batch was used into WW1 I do not know. John Tamplin and Peter Abbott in their book 'British Gallantry Awards' published way back in 1971 suggest that the metal was taken from guns captured from the Russians in the Crimean War, although during and after the First World War it is fairly certain that metal from captured Chinese guns was used for a short period. So I suggest Chinese metal might have been used as early as 1903. So what John Glanfield is saying has been in the public domain for at least 35 years - so it is nothing new. |
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_________________ Martin Everett Brecon, Powys
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Michael Boyle
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I'm trying to locate a fairly recent article I read that claimed that the two cannon captured from the Russians during the Crimea were previously captured by the Russians from the Chinese and which gave a close estimate of the amount of V.C.s that could be struck from the remaining metal. It dealt, I think, with a fairly recent and somewhat unprecedented public display of the remnants of the guns.
MAB |
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Michael Boyle
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I can't seem to locate the magazine article ( I subscribe to a dozen history mags) but I did locate some interesting information that pertains:
http://www.ww2awards.com/award/1 comments on the Chinese origins. http://Victoria-cross.biography.ms/ comments on the doubt they were at Sevastopol. http://www.victoriacross.net/facts.asp mentions the cascobels were on display on 28 May of last year at the Imperial War Museum for the V.C./G.C. exhibition and they're normally tended by the 15 Regt. Royal Logistics and the cannon themselves stand outside the Officer's Mess at Woolwich. http://www.donaldsensing.com/2005/03/British-private-awarded-Victoria-cross.html quotes (I'm not sure from where) made of bronze "from Chinese cannons captured from the Russians at the siege of Sebastopol during the Crimean War, large ingots of which are stored at an army depot near London." (May be quoted from the BBC.) I'm not a metalurgist but it seems there could be a slight difference in the composition of the two cascobels not to mention some minor composition changes during smelting and striking and if there are ingots some impurities could be introduced there as well (not to mention the possibilty that the jewelers could have at various times altered the mix for esthetic reasons). It wouldn't be too difficult to test the existing cascobels with the ingots and the medals themselves. Considering there are still the remains of the cannon available for inspection and since only 1355 V.C.s were awarded it would seem odd that some one thought the original metal had run out. Best Michael |
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