It is known that the wife and four children of Conductor
Buckley died that day as were Shaw's family murdered apart from one child who
was away at school; the fate of the families of the other defenders is not
known. Only Forrest, Raynor
and Buckley were awarded the Victoria Cross as the medal was not at that time
awarded posthumously. Tragically Willoughby had survived the blowing up of the
magazine and if for the fact he hadn't been murdered a day later he would have
received the VC too.
All of the nine probably deserved the VC and in 1920 it
became official policy to also be awarded posthumously.
We believe Lieutenant Willoughby should be awarded the VC
posthumously!
No comments:
Post a Comment