George Cross

[David Cochrane]

As there is a fair bit of blurring between what constitutes 'in the presence of the enemy' and what does not (POWs and SOE agents, for instance), I figure the George Cross deserves a spot on this site as well.

To start things off, here are all the GCs directly awarded. Many of them (67 of 160) did not have a proper citation accompanying the Gazette announcement, but the National Archives have 33 of the missing ones online in the form of recommendations.

Attachments:

GCs L Alph.doc (460 KB)

[anthony]

Dec 20, 2014 18:37:57 GMT David Cochrane said:

As there is a fair bit of blurring between what constitutes 'in the presence of the enemy' and what does not (POWs and SOE agents, for instance).

I would agree in the case of the SOE (although not in the case of POWs or for that matter POW guards) that there is a blurring between what constitutes 'in the presence of the enemy' and what was does not. I find it sad that the GC has ceased to be awarded to British civilians, with none in the last 38 years which is more than half of the life of the award. However, excellent work and thank you for your research.

[David Cochrane]

Dec 27, 2014 1:36:03 GMT anthony said:

Dec 20, 2014 18:37:57 GMT David Cochrane said:

I find it sad that the GC has ceased to be awarded to British civilians, with none in the last 38 years which is more than half of the life of the award.

Yes; about 70% of GCs have been given to military personnel, and a fair number of others to cops. Purely civilian awards actually seem to have been rarer since the Second World War than during it, which is a bit of a surprise. I do note that the CV (Australian & Canadian) as well as the NZC, have all been awarded primarily to civilians in the last 30 years, and to a similar standard as the GC.

Here's the text of the Canadian CV citations, in chronological order (I haven't tracked down the Gazette announcements yet for the Australian CV or NZC):

Attachments:

Citations Text.doc (54.5 KB)

[David Cochrane]

For a more detailed breakdown on military/civilian awards, figures for the GC are as follows:

Overall:
Military - 112 (55% posthumous)
Police - 11 (36% posthumous)
Civilian - 37 (57% posthumous)
Total - 160 (54% posthumous)

Second World War:
Military - 85 (54% posthumous)
Police - 2 (50% posthumous)
Civilian - 21 (33% posthumous)
Total - 108 (50% posthumous)

Post-War:
Military - 27 (56% posthumous)
Police - 9 (33% posthumous)
Civilian - 16 (88% posthumous)
Total - 52 (61% posthumous)

I must therefore correct my earlier statement that civilian GCs have been rarer since 1945 than before (though surviving ones certainly have been).

As a comparison, figures for Canada's CV (first awarded 1972, for actions in 1969) are as follows:
Military - 5 (40% posthumous)
Police - 3 (0% posthumous) - I'm including a prison official here
Coast Guard - 1 (0% posthumous) - Canada's Coast Guard isn't part of the military, unlike the US Coast Guard
Civilian - 11 (27% posthumous)
Total - 20 (25% posthumous)

Australia's CV (first awarded 1989, for actions in 1988):
Police - 2
Civilian - 3

New Zealand Cross (first awarded 1999, for actions in 1992):
Civilian - 2 (50% posthumous)




I also include the citations for the Australian CV and New Zealand Cross:
Aus NZ.pdf (57.1 KB)

[anthony]

Excellent analysis.

[David Cochrane]

Here is a spreadsheet similar to the one I've made for the VCs.

GCs etc..xls (116 KB)

It's obviously still very much in progress, with most of the location info still absent and a number of uncertain dates marked in bold. The 'Citation' columns refer to the lack of a proper Gazette citation, and whether or not I was able to find the text of a recommendation.

[anthony]

Impressive work. Suggest Cowra and Blayney, NSW and Melbourne, Victoria or Hobart, Australia. Mt Lamington is now part of PNG but in 1951 was in Papua not New Guinea. The Voyager-Melbourne collision was in the Tasman Sea probably 100 kilometres or more from Jervis Bay.

[David Cochrane]

The Australia/Tasmania distinction has to do with the different islands/continents than states - just as I didn't mention the name of any provinces for the actions in Canada. For places like Borneo or New Guinea that had different countries on the same island, I put the island name instead of the country (such as L/Cpl Rambahadur Limbu on the VC list).

Thanks as well for the clarification on HMAS Voyager.

[David Cochrane]

Further figures for India's Ashok Chakra, to compare with the other national awards:

Military - 49 (80% posthumous)
Police/Security - 11 (100% posthumous)
Civilian - 9 (33% posthumous)
TOTAL - 69 (77% posthumous)

I've yet to find a complete AC recipient list, but I think this is all of them.

(I have also replaced the earlier spreadsheet in the post above - I've now put in all the birth/death dates that I could find, as well as filling in the locations and amending a couple of dates; I've also added a sheet that includes the CVs and NZCs.)

Additionally, here is an updated citation file - now it's chronologically, has some typos fixed, and includes a citation for Major Seagrim.

GCs L.doc (560 KB)

[anthony]

77% is a huge percentage. Thanks for the updated citation list.

[David Cochrane]

Pte Silk's recommendation is now available on the National Archives site (along with a large number of recommendations that didn't end up turning into GCs) - this gives me hope that more will eventually come up. There are now 30-33 missing.

I've updated the citation file to include Pte Silk's, and have also updated the spreadsheet to include most of the units to which the military & merchant navy recipients belonged; a few I'm not sure of yet (either the unit or its abbreviation). Civilians & police I'll just leave blank, as this column doesn't really fit them very well.

As for exact dates, a few are still missing - this includes the actions of Lt Brooke-Smith and Lt-Cdr Hiscock, for whom an exact month is known (it was a specific action for each of them) but not day, and Sub-Lts Danckwerts & Babington, for whom not even an exact month is known yet but each was still rewarded for one specific act apiece!

(Any file changes that I make will simply be uploaded in the post where the file originally was, replacing the old one - this will, I hope, cut out some confusion as to where the most up-to-date versions are.)

[David Cochrane]

Here is the first part of a GC portrait gallery - given the mix of civilian & military recipients, no units are included here. Additionally there are some new colors for text to denote service/profession: teal for police & security, regular blue for merchant mariners, orange for SOE, and red for emergency/explosives/fire/etc. personnel.

Where a date is uncertain or imprecise (there are ten of these, all told), it is in italics.

[David Cochrane]

Sheets 4-6 out of seven:

[David Cochrane]

Finally, sheet #7 (though with only ten faces on it):




One question: The VC/GC book lists S/L Dinwoodie's date of action as 1946 rather than 1945; however, the entry doesn't mention the discrepancy between the Gazette date and theirs. Normally if there's an error like that in the Gazette, the man's entry will address it (2/Lt Moor, L/Nk Sher Shah, L/Cpl Tombs, etc.). Was the year of 1945 itself an error in the printing, or is it correct and the editors just forgot to mention the mistaken Gazette date?

[anthony]

The London Gazette states August 1946. I think some references do state 1945. The detailed citation seems more likely to be 1946 than 1945 but I would be pleased to hear about material that points to 1945.