The sun., 1916-12-25
Victoria Cross vsloP.

AhC iutCs dNutuo VI tut NlOtVIi III
Cross have gone to three officers and
two privates Of English regiments, a
sergeant Of n Scotch regiment and
a sergeant Of IN Irish regiment. All
distinguished themselves by rallying
and leading troops under fire in most
desperate situations and storming or
holding positions against great odds.
To Illustrate, Private ROBERT RIDER of
the Middlesex Regiment assumed COM
mand Of his company when all the
officers had been killed or disabled, led
n remnant Of men forward. worked n
Lewis gun. cleared the trench in front
Of him with 1t, and captured the on
emy's position. RIDER received the
V. c. "for conspicuous bravery and
initiative during an attack"
In the first two years Of the war
100 Victoria Crosses were won by men
Of the army and navy. Regulars. Ter
ritorlals, kITcHENER's volunteers, Co
~lonials. East Indians and naval men Of
oil grades qualified az heroes. n term
that Is not misapplied in their cases.
One of them was an elderly man who
left a wife and nine children at home
to serve his country: another was the
! glorious boy JOHN TRAvERs CORNWALL,
who remained MORALLY wounded ut his
post in the battle OF Jutland until the
end. The first to win the Cross in the
great war was Captain FRANCIS o.
GRENFELL Of the Ninth Lancers. who
was wounded in both legs and n hand
at Andremies. Belgium, on August
"a. 1914, while saving the guns OF the
10th Battery. He was invaded home
but returned to the front and was
killed In action. In his will Captain
GRENFELL, a nephew Of Field Marshal
Lord GRENFELL. left his decoration 10
=! the Ninth Lancers. "to whom" he
wrote. "the honor Of my gaining the
v. G. "a entirely due. thanks to
the splendid discipline and traditions
which exist in this magnificent regi-
ment" of the First One Hundred
Thousand, the "Old Contemptibles,'
whose story has been told by Captain
ERNEST HAMILTON, one Of the few
surviving officers. Some Of the regi-
ments, the COldstream Guards for In.
stance. lost almost every officer. The
Expedltlonary Force had been trained
to fight to the last gasp, and there
was little of 1t left when the battle OF
the Marine was fou hit.
What was the bravest deed that won
the Victoria Cross nj hardly be told.
1t depends upon the point of view
Some soldiers, like Sergeant MICHAEL
O'LEARY and Lance Corporal ALBERT
JAcKA Of the Australian Imperial
Force, acquitted themselves as super.
men in attacking the enemy. The in
domltable O'LEARY's achievement has
rung through the world. JAcKA al
C%ourtney's Post In GallipOli single
handed shot or bayoneted seven Turks
who rushed the trench he was defend.
ing, JAcKA being the only man alive
or unwounded in 1t. The blood o.
these first class fighting men, O'LEARY
and JAcKA, was up; but there were
examples of valor when the head wa.
cool and the will logged. Take the
case Of Corporal CHARLES JARVIS o.
the Royal Engineers, who worked fol-
an hour and a half under fire to OK
plode charges which destroyed a bridge
on the retreat from Mons. Privat,
PORTS Of the Berkshire Infantry, sho'
in the left thigh. dragged a wors'
wounded comrade for three nights OF
an i%ntrenching shovel at Suvla Bay
moving only a few feet with ever!
effort, until a British trench wa.
reached and n sentinel challenged
Lieutenant A. V. SMITH Of an Eas
Lancashire regiment threw himsel
upon a grenade that had fallen from
his hand and saved several officer
and men by sacrificing his own life.
For calm and indomitable heroisu
what could be finer than the devotion
Of Lieutenant GEORGE ALLAN MALIN,
OF the Medical Corps, who at Eau
1uissart worked among the woundc,
In the open under shell fire for twenty
six hours dressing the wounds OF mol
than 100 menu MAILING ut II o'clocl
In the night was knocked down an,
i. stunned b. ths foree Of . high expla