List of Canadian Victoria Cross Recipients

List Of Canadian Victoria Cross Recipients

The Victoria Cross (post-nominal letters "VC") is the highest war honour of the British Empire and the Commonwealth of Nations and is a military award for extraordinary valour and devotion to duty while facing a hostile force. In Canada, it can be awarded to members of the Canadian Forces of any rank in any service, and to allies serving under or with Canadian military command; it is the highest honour in the Canadian honours system, placed before all other orders, decorations and medals, including the Order of Canada, in the Order of Precedence. As of 1993, Canadians were no longer eligible for the British Victoria Cross, for the medal was replaced with a new Canadian Victoria Cross. It has yet to be awarded. In appearance, the new one is identical to the British medal, but the words are in Latin instead of English; by using a language that is an ancestor of both English and French, the medal avoids linguistic discrimination between Canada's two official languages.

The Victoria Cross has been presented to 94 Canadians, or people closely associated with Canada, between its creation soon after the Crimean War and 1993 when the Canadian Victoria Cross was instituted. However, no Canadian has received either honour since 1945. Thomas Ricketts, a private in the Royal Newfoundland Regiment during the First World War, received the Victoria Cross and is sometimes erroneously considered a Canadian soldier, but Newfoundland was a self-governing dominion at the time and did not become a province of Canada until 1949. Seventy-one Canadian recipients were awarded the medal for actions in the First World War. Sixteen recipients achieved the award for actions in the Second World War. The remaining recipients were for actions in the Battle of Balaclava, the Indian Rebellion of 1857, and the Second Boer War. William Hall, a Nova Scotian, was the first black recipient of the Victoria Cross. The last living Canadian recipient of the British Victoria Cross, "Smokey" Smith, died in August 2005.