Military Cross

The Military Cross (MC) is the third-level (second-level until 1993) military decoration awarded to officers and (since 1993) other ranks of the British Armed Forces, and formerly awarded to officers of other Commonwealth countries.

The MC is granted in recognition of "an act or acts of exemplary gallantry during active operations against the enemy on land" to all members of the British Armed Forces of any rank.<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> In 1979, Queen Elizabeth II approved a proposal that a number of awards, including the Military Cross, could be recommended posthumously.<ref>Abbott & Tamplin, British Gallantry Awards, 2nd ed.. p. xx.</ref>

History

The award was created on 28 December 1914 for commissioned officers of the substantive rank of captain or below and for warrant officers. The first 98 awards were gazetted on 1 January 1915, to 71 officers, and 27 warrant officers. Although posthumous recommendations for the Military Cross were unavailable until 1979, the first awards included seven posthumous awards, with the word 'deceased' after the name of the recipient, from recommendations that had been raised before the recipients died of wounds or died from other causes.<ref name=Warrant/>

Awards are announced in The London Gazette, apart from most honorary awards to allied forces in keeping with the usual practice not to gazette awards to foreigners.<ref name=Abbott219>Abbott & Tamplin, British Gallantry Awards, 2nd edition. p. 219.</ref>

From August 1916, recipients of the Cross were entitled to use the post-nominal letters MC,<ref>Revised Royal Warrant, clause 8. Template:London Gazette</ref> and bars could be awarded for further acts of gallantry meriting the award,<ref>Revised Royal Warrant, clause 5. Template:London Gazette</ref> with a silver rosette worn on the ribbon when worn alone to denote the award of each bar.

From September 1916, members of the Royal Naval Division, who served alongside the Army on the Western Front, were made eligible for military decorations, including the Military Cross, for the war's duration.<ref name=Abbott217>Abbott & Tamplin, British Gallantry Awards, 2nd ed.. p. 217.</ref> Naval officers serving with the division received 140 MCs and eight second award bars.<ref name=Abbott220/>

In June 1917, eligibility was extended to temporary majors, not above the substantive rank of captain.<ref>"The Military Cross, Royal Warrant of 25th June, 1917, amending the Third Clause of The Military Cross Warrant of 23rd August, 1916", War Office 3 July 1917 Template:London Gazette</ref> Substantive majors were made eligible in 1953.<ref name=Abbott218>Abbott & Tamplin, British Gallantry Awards, 2nd ed. p. 218.</ref>

In 1931, the award was extended to equivalent ranks in the Royal Air Force for actions on the ground.<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref>

After the Second World War, most Commonwealth countries created their own honours system and no longer recommended British awards. The last Military Cross awards for the Canadian Army were for Korea. The last four Australian Army Military Cross awards were promulgated in The London Gazette on 1 September 1972 for Vietnam as was the last New Zealand Army Military Cross award, which was promulgated on 25 September 1970. Canada, Australia and New Zealand have now created their own gallantry awards under their own honours systems.

Since the 1993 review of the honours system, as part of the drive to remove distinctions of rank in awards for bravery the Military Medal, formerly the third-level decoration for other ranks, was discontinued. The MC is now the third-level award for all ranks of the British Armed Forces for "exemplary gallantry" on land, not to the standard required to receive the Victoria Cross (for "the most conspicuous bravery") or the Conspicuous Gallantry Cross.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Description

The Military Cross was designed by Henry Farnham Burke,<ref name=Editorial>"The Military Cross: The New British War Decoration", Illustrated London News, vol. 146, no. 3959 (6 March 1915): 1. </ref><ref name=Evans>Hoyte C. Evans, "Kitchener and the Military Cross", Journal of the Orders and Medals Society of America (March–April 1957): 14–15, accessed 3 November 2020, http://www.omsa.org/files/jomsa_arch/Splits/1957/87251_JOMSA_1957_March-April_13.pdf</ref> while its ribbon was created by Victoria Ponsonby, Baroness Sysonby.<ref name=Evans/>

In the Medal Yearbook 2015 it is described as follows:<ref name=Mussell>John Mussell, Philip Mussell, Medal Yearbook 2015. p. 87.</ref>

• 46 mm maximum height, 44 mm maximum width.
• Ornamental silver cross with straight arms terminating in broad finials, suspended from a plain suspension bar.
• Obverse decorated with imperial crowns, with the Royal Cypher in centre.
• Reverse is plain. From 1938 until 1957 the year of award was engraved on lower limb of cross,<ref name=Duckers>Peter Duckers, British Gallantry Awards 1855–2000, pp. 26–27.</ref> and since 1984 it has been awarded named to the recipient.<ref name=Mussell/>
• The ribbon width is 32 mm and consists of three equal vertical moire stripes of white, purple, and white.
• Ribbon bar denoting a further award is plain silver, with a crown in the centre.

Recipients

Numbers awarded

Since 1914, over 52,000 Military Crosses and 3,717 bars have been awarded.<ref name="Jenn Stowell"/><ref name=Abbott220/> The dates below reflect the relevant London Gazette entries:

Period		Medals	1st bar	2nd bar	3rd bar		Honorary MCs	Honorary MC bars
World War I	1914–20	37,104	2,984	169	4		2,909<ref>The World War I records are incomplete, see p. 220, British Gallantry Awards, (2nd ed), Abbott & Tamplin.</ref>	–
Inter–War	1920–39	349	31	–	–		–	–
World War II	1939–46	10,386	482	24	–		438	3
Post–War	1947–79	643	20	–	–		–	–
Total	1914–79	48,482	3,517	193	4		3,347	3

In addition, approximately 375 MCs have been awarded since 1979, including awards for Northern Ireland, the Falklands, and the wars in the Persian Gulf, Iraq, and Afghanistan.<ref>Post 1979 MCs include 16 for the Falklands (London Gazette Supplement, 8 October 1982); 11 for Gulf War (London Gazette Supplement, 29 June 1991); 84 for Iraq and 215+1 bar for Afghanistan, plus awards for Northern Ireland and smaller conflicts.</ref>

The above table includes awards to the Dominions:

• In all, 3,727 Military Crosses have been awarded to those serving with Canadian forces, including 324 first bars and 18 second bars.<ref>Veterans Affairs Canada – Military Cross (Retrieved 7 November 2018)</ref>
• A total of 2,930 were awarded to Australians, in addition to 188 first bars and four second bars. Of these, 2,403 MCs, 170 first Bars and four second Bars were for World War I.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Over 500 MCs were awarded to New Zealanders during World War I and over 250 in World War II. The most recent awards were for service in Vietnam.<ref>New Zealand Defence Force: British Commonwealth Gallantry Awards – The Military Cross (Retrieved 7 November 2018)</ref>
• The honorary MC awards were made to servicemen from fifteen Allied countries in World War I, and nine in World War II.<ref name=Abbott220/>

Notable awards

Albert Jacka's MC<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> and bar<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref>

File:Military Cross awarded 1915 to 2nd Lt. E. W. Fane de Salis (1894-1980).jpg

MC awarded to 2nd Lt. E. W. Fane de Salis (1894–1980)<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref>

• During World War I, Acting Captain Francis Wallington of the Royal Field Artillery was the first person to be awarded the MC and three bars when he was invested with his third bar on 10 July 1918 (gazetted 13 September 1918: he had obtained the first three awards as a second lieutenant).<ref name="addington">Scott Addington; For Conspicuous Gallantry... Winners of the Military Cross and Bar during the Great War. Volume 1 – Two Bars & Three Bars, Troubador Publishing Ltd, 2006, pp. 343–352.</ref><ref>Template:London Gazette (Wallington)</ref> Three other officers were subsequently awarded a third bar, Percy Bentley, Humphrey Arthur Gilkes and Charles Gordon Timms, all of whose awards appeared in a supplement to the London Gazette on 31 January 1919.<ref name="addington"/><ref>Template:London Gazette (Bentley, Gilkes & Timms)</ref>
• For their key roles during World War I, the cities of Verdun and Ypres were awarded the Military Cross, in September 1916 and February 1920 respectively.<ref name=Abbott220>Abbott & Tamplin, British Gallantry Awards, 2nd ed.. pp. 220–222.</ref> In May 1920, Field Marshal French presented the decoration to Ypres in a special ceremony in the city.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• During World War II Captain Sam Manekshaw, Indian Army (who eventually rose to the rank of Field Marshal), was leading a counter-offensive operation against the invading Japanese Army in Burma. During the course of the offensive, he was hit by a burst of machine-gun fire and severely wounded in the stomach. Major General D.T. Cowan spotted Manekshaw holding on to life and was aware of his valour in face of stiff resistance from the Japanese. Fearing the worst, Cowan quickly pinned his own Military Cross ribbon on to Manekshaw saying, "A dead person cannot be awarded a Military Cross."<ref>Compton McKenzie (1951), Eastern Epic, Chatto & Windus, London, pp. 440–441.</ref>
• The first posthumous Military Cross was that awarded to Captain Herbert Westmacott, Grenadier Guards for gallantry in Northern Ireland during the period 1 February 1980 to 30 April 1980.<ref>Template:London Gazette (Westmacott)</ref>
• The first woman to be awarded the Military Cross was Private Michelle Norris of the Royal Army Medical Corps, while attached to The Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment for her actions in Iraq on 11 June 2006. Norris was awarded her medal personally by Queen Elizabeth II on 21 March 2007.<ref>Template:London Gazette (Norris)</ref><ref name="Guardian">Template:Cite news</ref>
• Able Seaman Kate Nesbitt, second woman, first in the Royal Navy, for acts in Afghanistan in March 2009 as a Medical Assistant attached to 1 RIFLES, 3 Commando Brigade.<ref>Template:London Gazette (Nesbitt)</ref><ref>Template:Cite newsTemplate:Cbignore</ref>
• Sergeant Michael Lockett, awarded the MC in 2008, was killed in action in 2009 in Afghanistan. He was the first holder of the MC to be killed in action since World War II.<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

See also

• Category:Recipients of the Military Cross
• British and Commonwealth orders and decorations
• List of British gallantry awards for the Iraq War

Bibliography

• Abbott, Peter and Tamplin, John. British Gallantry Awards, 2nd ed. (1981). Nimrod Dix and Co., London. Template:ISBN.
• Duckers, Peter. British Gallantry Awards 1855–2000 (2011). Shire Publications, Risborough, Buckinghamshire. Template:ISBN.
• Mussell, J. (ed.). Medals Yearbook 2015 (2014). Token Publishing, Honiton, Devon. Template:ISBN.

External links

• Original Royal Warrant for the MC Supplement to London Gazette, 1 January 1915
• Current Royal Warrant for the MC Supplement to London Gazette, 17 September 2002
• Database of Australian Awardees at the Australian Government Honours website
• Search recommendations for the Military Cross The UK National Archives
• Template:Cite web
• Notes on numbers awarded North East Medals