[Bcma-l] (Fwd) CMA Clipping Service: Victoria Cross Sale to Launch Controversy
bcma-l@museumsassn.bc.ca
bcma-l@museumsassn.bc.ca
Tue, 21 Apr 2009 09:28:46 -0700
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<b>Victoria Cross sale to launch controversy</b></span></font>
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Randy Boswell, Canwest News Service, Tuesday, April 21, 2009</span></font>
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An iconic Canadian war medal — the Victoria Cross of Robert
Shankland, one of the trio of First World War heroes from Winnipeg's
"Valour Road" — is to be auctioned next month in Toronto a=
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likely to prompt controversy and possible government intervention.</span><=
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Shankland's VC, awarded to him in 1917 for "most conspicuous
bravery" in leading his troops against the Germans at Passchendaele,
is the centrepiece of a nine-medal set being offered at Bonham's May
25 auction of Canadian art and history.</span></font>
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The "very scarce" combination of Shankland's Victoria Cross and =
his
Distinguished Conduct Medal — won in 1916 for leading a team of
stretcher bearers through enemy fire — has pushed the high-end
estimate for the full set to $330,000, a price comparable to other
recent VC sales in Britain. </span></font>
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But recent attempts to auction examples of Canada's highest military
decoration — awarded only 94 times in the nation's history, and not
once since 1945 — have provoked public ire and government action
to stop the planned sales.</span></font>
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In 2004, with the family of Toronto-born Second World War medic
Fred Topham poised to auction his Victoria Cross — earned through
several daring dashes into no man's land in 1945 — the federal
Liberal government of the day vowed to block the sale and later
purchased the medal for $300,000 for the Canadian War Museum.</span></font=
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"These are powerful symbols of our national pride and they should
never be exported when we have a chance to do something about it,"
then-veterans affairs minister Albina Guarnieri said at the time. </span><=
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"Every Victoria Cross that was earned by Canadians should stay in
Canada."</span></font>
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_______________________________</span></font>
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Jim Harding, ED</span></font>
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BC Museums Association</span></font>
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(250) 356-5694</span></font>
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