Awarding ZW VCs Posthumously Including Other Military Medals |
The Scorer
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I think that the British Medals Forum would be your best place to ask this question.
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Alan
Site Admin
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My understanding has always been that there were doubtless others who would deserve recognition
for their actions at Isandhlwana but the lack of witnesses and confirmation could not substantiate any facts to warrant awarding medals. |
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Colin
Guest
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If you take the example of Schiess being awarded the VC at Rorke�s Drift, fighting at the barricades of a supply depot and hospital, totally surrounded and the men inside trapped with no way of escaping.
Then you look at Isandhlwana accounts, but more importantly the locations of the bodies - Namely, the Colonial Volunteers that were killed at the front of the camp, who had horses and an opening to escape the Zulu encirclement, but chose to dismount and fight on foot, instantly giving up any hope of surviving, when several Imperial officers fled the battlefield on horseback. Or the example of Surgeon-Major Shepherd, who had escaped the battlefield, but gave up a chance of living by dismounting to help a wounded man, killed in the process of remounting. The dead speak to the living, where they lay and references made by others who survived witnessing their actions. Professional soldiers like the 24th has expectations to stand and fight when all seems lost, but the colonials like the NC, NMP, NMR and BBG were not in themselves professionals, expected more as a mounted unit to scout, form vedettes and other such duties. These Colonials who made this stand made the ultimate sacrifice when they could have left the field when the opportunity to do so still existed, so the likes of Capt Bradstreet, Lt. Scott, and the rest of the men with them, in my view were deserving of individual recognition for their bravery, not passed over by awarding 3 VCs to men who were far away from the field at the Buffalo river trying to reach Natal. Nobody saw Melvill and Coghill�s deaths, but assuming that Melvill was ordered to save the colour or saw it as his duty to do so, nor clear reasons why Coghill was there, again it is assumed had orders (likely verbal). I�ve never understood the awarding of only 3 VCs at Isandhlwana, yet Rorke�s Drift was saturated with them, but this has always been a sore point. |
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Awarding ZW VCs Posthumously Including Other Military Medals |
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