Edward St John Daniel's VC Medal

Sometime after 4th September 1861, when Queen Victoria signed the Royal Warrant of forfeiture, Edward St. John Daniel's Victoria Cross medal was returned to the Admiralty.

On 8th February 1868, the Admiralty loaned Daniel's forfeited VC to a Colonel MacKenzie, collector of naval and military medals, on condition that "it be returned, if at any time required".

The medal later came into the collection of Major-General Lord Cheylesmore, where it was displayed at the Royal United Service Institution in Whitehall.

On the death of Lord Cheylesmore, the medal was sold by auction on 18th July 1930, at Glendinings in London for £40.

The medal was subsequently sold at auction several times. The last sale was at Christies, London on 24th July 1990, where the medal realised £19,800. It is believed to have been purchased on that occasion by an agent acting for the businessman Michael Ashcroft, adding to a large personal collection of VC medals which Ashcroft began in 1986.

Michael Ashcroft is a former Treasurer and Deputy Chairman of the UK Conservative Party. He was made a life peer in 2000. Lord Ashcroft's collection of more than 170 Victoria Crosses (which includes Edward St John Daniel's) is now on permanent display in the Lord Ashcroft Gallery at the Imperial War Museum, London, alongside the museum's own substantial VC collection and a sizeable collection of George Crosses.

Description

Blue ribbon. Reverse suspension bar inscribed "Midshipman / Edward St. John Daniel". Reverse centre of Cross dated "5 Nov / 1854 / 18 June / 1855". Slight contact marks to reverse, otherwise very fine.

On Friday 10th February 2006, Edward St John Daniel's VC medal was brought by the Curator of the Lord Ashcroft Collection, Michael Naxton, to the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich for the filming of a BBC TV documentary item about Daniel's life.

Among other things, this allowed Daniel's VC to be reunited with Capt. William Peel's (which is in the National Maritime Museum collection). This was the first time that the medals had been seen together in almost 150 years when, in 1858, they had been sent to India in order to be presented to the two men (though Peel died before he could receive his medal).

It was a thrill and a privilege to be present at that moving event, which gave myself and two of Edward St John Daniel's now elderly grand-nephews the opportunity to finally see and handle his hard-won but sadly forfeited Victoria Cross.

Side by side - the Victoria Crosses of Edward St John Daniel and William Peel
Photo: Michael Daniels (taken 10th February 2006 at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich)