Forfeiting the VC
Sir: Although Charles Moore (Notes, 18 February) is correct to say (quoting Colonel Tim Collins) that a holder of the Victoria Cross cannot be stripped of it whatever subsequent disgrace he suffers, he could have added that this is so only thanks to royal intervention. Early in the last century, some functionary proposed, in a characteristic display of official spite, that VCs should lose the decoration if they were convicted of a serious offence. This came to the attention of King George V, whose sense of decency, just as characteristically, was outraged. As he protested, the VC was awarded for supreme gallantry, which nothing could subsequently efface. To make his point with mordant emphasis, the King added that, if a holder of the VC were convicted of murder, he should be allowed to wear his medal on the gallows. That was the end of the obnoxious proposal.
Geoffrey Wheatcroft
Combe Down, Bath
Sir: Charles Moore raises an interesting point regarding the forfeiture of a VC.
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