Valiant Hearts: Atlantic Canada and the Victoria Cross

Sidney Allinson is Canadian news correspondent for Britain’s The Army
Quarterly and Defence. He is the author of The Bantams: The Untold Story
of World War I, Jeremy Kane, and Kruger’s Gold: A Novel of the
Anglo-Boer War.

Valiant Hearts recounts the stories of 21 soldiers, sailors, and airmen
who had a connection to Atlantic Canada and were awarded the Victoria
Cross (VC), the British Commonwealth’s highest medal for military
bravery. Its author is John Boileau, a retired colonel of the Canadian
Army, who writes with soldierly directness and clarity.

Boileau describes each man’s brave action that earned a VC, then
explains his personal relationship with the Maritimes. Each account also
presents the political and geographical setting of the action, which
adds further perspective. The result is part biography and part military
history about the region’s valour in numerous wars since the medal was
introduced in 1856.

The East Coast’s first VC recipient was a black man, Able Seaman
William Hall, born near Avonport, Nova Scotia. He joined Britain’s
Royal Navy and showed incredible bravery when manning a field gun
despite fierce enemy fire at the Siege of Lucknow, India, in 1857. The
account of Hall’s modest later life is most affecting.

Understandably, most of the book centres on World War I, in which 72
Canadians earned a VC. We read about such outstanding soldiers as Pete
Robertson of Nova Scotia, who captured a German machine-gun nest
single-handedly and received a posthumous award. Thomas Ricketts was a
gallant 18-year-old Newfoundlander, deemed “the youngest Canadian ever
to be awarded the VC” (though, as Boileau points out, Ricketts was not
actually a Canadian at the time, as Newfoundland had not then joined
Confederation).

At times, Boileau does seem to stretch a point to include subjects
whose Canadian Maritime connection is remote. Several are included just
on the basis of serving with a Down-East unit or having briefly lived in
Canada. For instance, Robert Rider came to this country six years after
he earned a VC while in the British Army. Other non-Canadian VCs are
included on grounds they commanded Canadian units. British immigrants
and foreign-born volunteers are mentioned often, including a Dane, four
Americans, and a Ukrainian. Still, this well-researched book is a
valuable history resource.