A Victoria Cross medal has been produced in Canada for the first time and sources believe it will be presented by the Queen at a ceremony in April marking the 90th anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge.
The launch will not only restore the decoration to the top of Canada's military honours system, but also end a controversy that raged in the 1980s and 90s about whether an award of British origin had a place in Canada.
The VC has been awarded just 1,350 times since it was instituted by Queen Victoria after the Crimean War in the 1850s. Of those, 94 were given to people serving with the Canadian military -- the first in 1856 and the last in 1945. Canada's last living recipient, Ernest (Smokey) Smith, died last year.
Each of the Canadians received a VC cast by Hancock, a jewellery store in London. Canada assumed responsibility for the decoration in 1993, but it has not been awarded or produced in that time.
Military historian Jack Granatstein said the reinstatement of the VC is a step forward for Canada.
"There is clearly an attachment to the VC as a pretty scarce gallantry award," the former director-general of the Canadian War Museum said. "It will be a continuation of the past and it will be done in a Canadian context. I guess in a sense it's the capping of the Canadian honours system so I think it's a good thing."
Canadian officials are tight lipped about the plans for unveiling the VC.
Emmanuelle Sajous, deputy herald chancellor at Rideau Hall, confirmed that a VC of Canadian design has been cast but said it would be at least a couple of weeks before final decisions are made about how it will be presented to the public.
She said four government departments -- Veterans Affairs, Defence, Canadian Heritage and Natural Resources -- along with the Royal Canadian Mint have been involved in the plans. "Nothing is confirmed," Ms. Sajous said. "We don't have any details about how and who and where and when."
Sources believe, however, that the VC will be presented by the Queen to Prime Minister Stephen Harper at the Vimy ceremony in France to recognize the gallantry of the Unknown Soldier whose remains are in a tomb adjacent to the National War Memorial in Ottawa.
The body of the soldier was exhumed in 2000 from a British cemetery a couple of kilometres from Vimy Ridge -- one of 1,603 unidentified Canadian victims of the famous First World War battle.
The battle, which began April 9, 1917, marked the first time all four divisions of the Canadian Corps went into battle together. Canada suffered 10,000 casualties, 3,598 fatal. The ceremony this April will mark both the anniversary of the battle and the dedication of the newly restored Canadian National Vimy Memorial.
The revival of the VC is a testament to the persistence of veterans' groups, which for years lobbied the federal government to reinstate it as Canada's foremost decoration for military valour. The VC was shunned in 1972 when the government created a new Canadian honours system that neglected the fact that the country might be at war again. The new system included military honours for meritorious service and bravery but nothing specifically for rare instances of military valour.
Former prime minister Pierre Trudeau regularly dodged the question of whether the VC would be awarded again, saying only that Canadians should receive Canadian decorations. In 1987, former prime minister Brian Mulroney promised that the VC would become the cornerstone of Canada's military decorations. A committee struck by his government ignored the call, but a front-page story in The Globe and Mail in 1991 turned the tide by noting that Canadian troops sent to the Persian Gulf War were ineligible to receive the VC.
Later that year, a private member's bill received all-party support and in 1993 the Queen approved the establishment of a Canadian VC, along with the Star of Military Valour and the Medal of Military Valour. (These last two decorations, cast in 1993, were awarded for the first time last month to six Canada soldiers for their service in Afghanistan.)
The Canadian VC is awarded for "most conspicuous bravery, a daring or pre-eminent act of valour or self-sacrifice or extreme devotion to duty in the presence of the enemy." Canada does not have to be at war to acknowledge the existence of an enemy, which would allow it to be awarded for peacekeeping operations.
There are few significant differences between the Canadian and British VCs. The Canadian decoration can be revoked and it bears the Latin inscription "Pro Valore" rather than "For Valour."
The British medals are made from bronze of Chinese origin used in Russian cannons captured in the last Crimean War battle. A supply of the metal is kept at a British military depot.
Natural Resources was given the task of finding bronze for the Canadian VC, but details have not been made public.
The VC story
The Commonwealth's premier military decoration, instituted by Queen Victoria in 1856, is given for "most conspicuous bravery or some daring or pre-eminent act of valour or self-sacrifice or extreme devotion to duty in the presence of the enemy."
The look: A cross pattée -- originally made from bronze cannons captured from the Russians during the Crimean War -- with a crimson ribbon. (The ribbon was dark blue for naval recipients until 1918.) The recipient's name, rank and regiment are engraved on the back of the mounting bar. The front displays the royal crown surmounted by a lion guardant. Below the crown, a scroll bears the inscription "For Valour" on British VCs, and the Latin equivalent "Pro Valore" on Canadian ones.
The bar: A bar is awarded for additional acts of bravery. Only three have been given, none to a Canadian.
First Canadian: Cavalry officer Lieutenant Alexander Dunn of York, now Toronto, was awarded a VC in 1857 for valour in the Battle of Balaclava's ill-fated Charge of the Light Brigade.
Canadian total: Of the 1,351 VCs and three bars that have been awarded worldwide, 94 have gone to Canadians (including Canadian-born or serving in the Canadian army, or with a close connection to Canada):
Prior to the Boer War: 4
Boer War: 4
First World War: 70
Second World War: 16
Other connections to Canada: 13
Canadian VC: Awarding of the medal in Canada was dropped in 1972 when the Canadian set of bravery awards were created. However, the Queen approved the creation of a Canadian VC in 1993.
Photo above: The Queen unveils a memorial to holders of the Victoria Cross and George Cross at London's Westminster Abbey on May 14, 2003. Current holders and more than 1,600 descendants of past holders of the medals were present for a dedication service.
Fallen heroes
William Hall
The son of a freed slave, William Hall was the first black person to be awarded the Victoria Cross. Originally from Horton Bluff, N.S., he joined the Merchant Marines at 17 and then the Royal Navy at 24. When the Indian Mutiny broke out in 1857, he was aboard HMS Shannon; part of the crew fought their way overland to take part in the relief of Lucknow. While there, Able Seaman Hall was one of only two survivors of a gunnery crew that attacked a local mosque, the rest having been killed by the mutineers. He remained in the navy another two decades but, when he died in Nova Scotia in 1904, he was buried without military honours. A monument was erected in his honour in 1945.
Billy Bishop William Avery (Billy) Bishop became an ace pilot in the First World War after leaving Royal Military College to join up in 1914. He served initially in the 7th Canadian Mounted Rifles, an infantry unit, before transferring to the Royal Flying Corps. The native of Owen Sound, Ont., trained as an observer and then as a pilot, earning his wings at a time when the average lifespan for an active pilot was 11 days. He survived an encounter with Manfred von Richthofen, the so-called Red Baron, and in the summer of 1917 carried out a solo attack on a German airfield that earned him the VC.
He ended the war a lieutenant-colonel with 72 downed aircraft to his credit. He died in 1956.
Smokey Smith
Ernest (Smokey) Smith, Canada's last living Victoria Cross recipient, served in the Italian campaign with the Seaforth Highlanders. During an attempt to establish a bridgehead across the Savio River in 1944, amid torrential rain that prevented assistance from Allied armour, the native of New Westminister, B.C., disabled a German tank and then held off attacking infantrymen with a Tommy Gun.
"Private Smith, still showing utter contempt for enemy fire, helped his wounded friend to cover and obtained medical aid for him behind a nearby building," his citation says.
He died two years ago at 91 in British Columbia, and his body lay in state on Parliament Hill before his ashes were sprinkled at sea.