Multiple Victoria Cross Winners

I recently became aware that three people have been awarded the Victoria Cross -- VC, the highest award in the British and Commonwealth forces for valour in the presence of the enemy -- more than once.

Since it is quite rare to win the VC in the first place -- the odds of surviving the types of actions that lead to the award are estimated at some 10:1 in the first place -- it is even more remarkable to be awarded it more than once. Personally, I wasn't even aware that this was possible.

Courtesy of the Victoria Cross Reference site's list of unusual VC's, the three multiple winners of the VC were:

(links in names are to detailed information now hosted on Wikipedia)

Arthur Martin-Leake - awarded first VC during Boer (South African) War, on 8 Feb 1902. Bar to VC awarded for his actions at Zonnebeke, Belgium, between 29 Oct and 8 Nov 1914.

Noel Godfrey Chavasse - awarded first VC for actions at Guillemont, France on 9 Aug 1916. Bar to VC awarded for additional actions at Wieltje, Belgium, between 31 Jul and 2 Aug 1917.

Charles Hazlitt Upham - awarded first VC for actions on Crete between 22 and 30 May, 1941. Bar to VC awarded for additional actions in Egypt on 14/15 Jul 1942.

Surprisingly, the first two come from the Royal Army Medical Corps, with only Upham being an infantryman. Clearly, this is deserved recognition of the hazards that come with providing medical care in the combat zone, as each of their citations emphasize. In my relative ignorance, however, I always had presumed that the VC would be awarded most often to the infantry, given their comparative numbers within the order of battle and their generally closer proximity to the enemy than most other arms of the ground forces.

Not so, according to the excellent Victoria Cross Reference site -- seems that the VC has been awarded most often to the Royal Artillery (approximately 51 awards, accounting for potential duplications when more than one regiment or service arm 'claims' the recipient of the VC as being one of theirs). Inter-service and other regimental rivalries aside, this lends some additional credence to the RA's motto of "UBIQUE" ("everywhere"), doesn't it?

The Victoria Cross Reference site is well worth the visit to anyone interested in Commonwealth military history, and is an excellent commemoration to the individuals whose actions merited the award of this highest honour (all too often posthumously).

Further, the site lists that 90 Canadians have been awarded the VC between its inception after the Crimean War and 1993 (when the Commonwealth-awarded VC was replaced by a new Canadian version of the VC, which has yet to be awarded). One additional VC was awarded to Thomas Ricketts of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment in 1918, but is not included in Canadian statistics since Newfoundland only became a part of Canada in 1949.

And yes, if Chris H. ever chances to read this, you were right about a person named Milne having won the VC, but it wasn't author A.A. Milne of "Winnie the Pooh" fame (who did, in fact, serve in the Great War). He was, as luck would have it, a Canadian -- William Johnstone Milne, a private with the 16th (Canadian Scottish) Battalion -- who was awarded the VC posthumously for his actions during the Vimy Ridge battle on 9 Apr 1917 near Thelus, France. Like many of that war, he has no known grave, with his name only appearing on the Vimy Ridge memorial. His VC is held at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa.

Je Me Souviens