Canada & the Victoria Cross
< later articles
During a bitter 10-day struggle—from Aug. 15-25, 1917—the Canadian Corps overran Hill 70, a treeless hillock on the north side of the French mining centre of Lens. The corps suffered nearly 9,200 casualties, among them four of the six Victoria Crosses awarded in that gory battle. The ages of the six recipients ranged from 19 to 41.
Michael James O’Rourke, 39, had already earned the Military Medal [...]
This was appropriately fitting for the deeds of these men and their comrades who provided the inspiration for thousands of youths who flocked to the RCAF to serve. Two of these heroes, Bishop and Barker, started out as cavalrymen before transferring to the Royal Flying Corps. McLeod joined the RFC directly.
William Avery Bishop, the son of an Owen Sound, Ont., lawyer, was born Feb. 8, 1894. He took his early education at Owen Sound Collegiate, [...]
The Battle of Vimy Ridge, which historian George Nasmith called “probably the most brilliant success of the war” on the British front, was sandwiched between the actions of two other feats in the spring of 1917 for which Canadians earned the Victoria Cross.
Frederick Maurice Watson Harvey was decorated with the VC for “most conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty” for leading a cavalry charge on the village of Guyencourt, France, on March 27, 1917.
On May [...]
Das Blutbad the blood bath. The consummate German designation for those murderous battles of the Somme. During the last six months of 1916, over that part of the French countryside aptly named Santerre, a contraction of the French words sang (blood) and terre (land), the Allies suffered more than 620,000 casualties, including 24,029 Canadians. And [...]
Illustration: Sharif Tarabay
Victoria Cross recipient Francis Alexander Scrimger.
More than 70 Canadian Victoria Crosses were awarded during World War I, an incredible achievement for a country with less than nine million people. The first of those awards went to Michael O’Leary. Born in 1888 at Inchigeela in County Cork, Ireland, “Mick”—as he was known—joined the Royal Navy at an early age, but was invalided out with rheumatism. After making a full recovery, he joined the Irish Guards before moving to Canada in 1913 [...]
Clockwise from top left: Victoria Cross recipients William Nickerson, Arthur Richardson, Edward Holland, Hampden Cockburn and Richard Turner. ILLUSTRATIONS: Sharif Tarabay
Canada’s participation in the Boer War or South [...]
From top: Victoria Cross recipients Campbell Mellis Douglas, Herbert Taylor Reade and William Edward Hall. ILLUSTRATIONS: Sharif Tarabay
Two doctors and a black marine. At first glance an unlikely trio to make up the next three Canadian recipients of the [...]
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred
Cannon to right of them
Cannon to left of them
Cannon in front of them
Volley’d and thunder’d
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Lieutenant Alexander Roberts Dunn, VC. ILLUSTRATION: Sharif Tarabay
The Battle of Balaclava! An atrocious disregard [...]
< later articles
