Indian Mutiny - Michael Murphy

[anthony]

The MOD at www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/DefenceNews/HistoryAndHonour/VcSoldierRemembered150YearsOn.htm is reporting "VC soldier remembered 150 years on", A History and Honour news article, 15 Apr 08

Soldiers from 8 Transport Regiment Royal Logistic gathered at the graveside of Private (Farrier) Michael Murphy, 2nd Battalion Military Train to pay a special tribute to him, 150 years to the day of the courageous actions that were rewarded with the VC. Murphy was one of eight men who forfeited their VC.

The MOD website states that the rules for the award were later changed to exclude forfeiture and restore the listing of these eight men.

Both statements are incorrect. The power to cancel and restore awards is still included in the Victoria Cross warrant. Although none has been forfeited since 1908 no forfeited awards has ever been officially restored.

[Les]

In 1920 the Secretary of State for War approved amendments to the Royal Warrant for the Victoria Cross, specifying that only 'treason, cowardice, felony or an infamous crime' should lead to forfeiture of the award. But the amendments were not retrospective. It was not until 1953 that the War Office issued a list of VCs and the amendments were made retrospective.

[anthony]

From the original warrant in 1856 up until and including the amending warrant in 1920 the grounds for forfeiture were 'treason, cowardice, felony or an infamous crime'. Since 1930, no grounds have been specified only the power to "cancel or annul the award". There has always been the power to restore a forfeited award but that power has never been exercised.

Part 1 of the 1953 War Office List is identical to Part 1 of the 1920 War Office List. Both lists cover awards from 1856 to 1914. Both list all awards for the period with an identical note at the end of each list stating: “The undermentioned, whose names are included in the preceding list, forfeited the Victoria Cross under the authority of the Royal Warrant quoted in ach case.”

I think the National Army Museum correctly states the position at:
www.national-army-museum.ac.uk/exhibitions/vc/page3.shtml states

"King George V felt very strongly about the issue of forfeiture and in a letter written by his Private Secretary, Lord Stamfordham, on 26 July 1920, it was stated:

‘The King feels so strongly that, no matter the crime committed by anyone on whom the VC has been conferred, the decoration should not be forfeited. Even were a VC to be sentenced to be hanged for murder, he should be allowed to wear his VC on the scaffold’.

Although the monarch’s power to both cancel and restore awards is still contained within the Victoria Cross warrant there have been no further awards forfeited since 1920."

However, there is no suggestion that the eight awards forfeited have been restored.

[David Cochrane]

The eight men all had their names put back on the register in 1920, when the warrant was amended.

[anthony]

The names were never deleted from the alphabetical list of recipients. A note was added at the end of the list stating that the undermentioned whose names appear in the preceding list forfeited the Victoria Cross under authority of the Royal Warrant quoted in each case. This practice continued in the 1920 and 1953 War Office alphabetical lists.

[anthony]

www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/Defenc....d150YearsOn.htm has been updated to exclude the statement that the rules for the award were later changed to exclude forfeiture and restore the listing of these eight men.