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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Victoria Crosses on display together

Recipients lived on same Winnipeg street

By: Staff Writer

Posted: 11/6/2012 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

Erik Clarke (in rear), grand nephew of Victoria Cross recipient Cpl. Lionel Clarke, and Douglas Cargo, grand nephew of Victoria Cross recipient Sgt. Maj. Frederick Hall, look a the display of Victoria Cross medals on display at the National War Museum in Ottawa Monday. (CP)

A collection of all three Victoria Cross medals awarded during the First World War to residents of Winnipeg's Pine Street, later renamed Valour Road, was unveiled Monday at the Canadian War Museum.

The collection was completed with the recent acquisition of the medal awarded in 1915 to Company Sgt. Maj. Frederick William Hall. The War Museum in Ottawa acquired the Valour Road Victoria Crosses of Lieut. Robert Shankland and Cpl. Lionel B. Clarke in 2009 and 2010 respectively.

Only 96 Victoria Crosses have been awarded to Canadians in the medal's 156-year history, making this coincidence exceptional. With the acquisition of the Hall Victoria Cross, the Canadian War Museum now has 33 Victoria Crosses in its collection, including one from the 19th century, 28 from the First World War and four from the Second World War.

"Valour Road is remarkable for its association with three recipients of this renowned award for bravery. The three men were honoured for their heroic acts in different battles and in different years, but all were from a single block of the same residential street," said Mark O'Neill, president and CEO of the Canadian Museum of Civilization Corporation, which operates the Canadian War Museum. "These medals belong together and so they shall remain in perpetuity, held in the name of all Canadians."

The trio of medals will remain on permanent display in the Royal Canadian Legion Hall of Honour.

In 2014, this famous trio of Victoria Cross Medals will be loaned to the Manitoba Museum in Winnipeg for a special exhibition commemorating the role of the Winnipeg Rifles and the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders regiments during the First World War.

The Victoria Cross was introduced during the reign of Queen Victoria and remains the highest award for military valour in Britain and much of the Commonwealth, including Canada, which created its own version of the Victoria Cross in 1993.

The Victoria Cross is awarded "for the 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."

Hall received the medal for his actions during the second battle of Ypres, infamous as the site of the first German gas attack on the western front. Hall was shot in the forehead and killed during a prolonged and valiant attempt to rescue a wounded comrade. The posthumous award was presented to his mother.

Clarke received his medal for valour in the face of the enemy at the Somme Front on Sept. 9, 1916, while Shankland received his Victoria Cross for actions during the Battle of Passchendaele in October 1917.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition November 6, 2012 A2

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