On this day a warrant was issued by Queen Victoria creating a new military honour to be known as the Victoria Cross. It was to be awarded “to those officers or men who have served Us in the presence of the Enemy and shall then have performed some signal act of valour or devotion to their country.” The Crimean War was coming to a victorious end for the alliance of the Ottoman Empire, Britain, France and Sardinia against the Russian Empire, and with war correspondents reporting from the front for the first time, it was felt that a medal for valour was needed that was open to common soldiers and not just to officers. It was Victoria’s husband, Albert, who first suggested the simple name, Victoria Cross.
