[Bcma-l] (Fwd) CMA Clipping Service: VC Medal Won't Leave Canada - Minister
bcma-l@museumsassn.bc.ca
bcma-l@museumsassn.bc.ca
Wed, 22 Apr 2009 09:41:05 -0700
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<b>Victoria Cross medal won't leave Canada:
Minister</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 at a sale
that has Veterans Affairs Minister Greg Thompson vowing to do
"whatever it takes" to prevent the "powerful and enduring symbol" of
gallantry from leaving the country.</span></font>
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Shankland's VC, awarded to him in 1917 for "most conspicuous
bravery" in leading his troops against the Germans near the Belgian
town of Passchendaele, is the centrepiece of a nine-medal set being
offered at Bonhams' 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 rescuing a team of
Canadian stretcher bearers under 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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Jack Kerr-Wilson, president of Bonhams Canada, told Canwest News
Service on Tuesday that the Shankland VC is available for sale to any
Canadian or foreign buyer, but added that an international collector
would need federal government approval to take the medals out of
Canada.</span></font>
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"The Cultural Property Review Board will require an application for
an export permit if the Shankland medals are acquired by an overseas
resident who might then wish to have them sent out of Canada," he
said. "Any interested buyers are informed of this obligation. He
added: "With regards to the history of the medals, I regret that we are
not at liberty to divulge that information."</span></font>
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Thompson made clear, however, that there's little chance the medal
could be sold and shipped to an out-ofcountry buyer.</span></font>
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"The Victoria Cross is a powerful and enduring symbol of the
courageous men and women who have always been there to defend
our great country," he told Canwest News Service. "We have a duty
to protect and preserve this proud history of our nation's truest heroes.
We will do whatever it takes to keep this Victoria Cross in Canada -
and to ensure that it is treated with the respect it deserves.</span></font>
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"Our heritage cannot be for export."</span></font>
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Previous 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
objections to 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 even offered to
purchase the medal.</span></font>
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In the end, a public fundraising campaign spearheaded by the veterans
of the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion - Topham's former unit -
raised $300,000 to prevent the medal's sale to a British collector.</span></font>
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Topham's VC was later donated to 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 amid the
controversy over the Topham VC. "Every Victoria Cross that was
earned by Canadians should stay in Canada."</span></font>
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Also in 2004, the planned sale of the Victoria Cross won by Canadian
soldier Filip Konowal during the First World War was halted by the
RCMP after the Canadian War Museum claimed ownership of the
medal.</span></font>
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Konowal's VC had disappeared from a museum storage area in the
1970s. Following a brief police investigation, the medal was returned
to the military history collection in Ottawa, where Konowal had
worked as a Parliament Hill janitor before his death in 1959.</span></font>
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Even the first Victoria Cross awarded to a Canadian - Alexander
Dunn's VC from the 1854 Crimean War - sparked controversy when it
was auctioned in Britain in 1894.</span></font>
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"Canadians in London took strong exception to this mercenary
transaction and demanded action by John Patterson, Canadian
minister of militia," Arthur Bishop, chronicler of the history of the
Victoria Cross in Canada, has written. "Patterson cabled Charles
Tupper, the Canadian high commissioner in London, authorizing him
to buy the medals from the purchaser at the market. They arrived in
Canada in time to be displayed at the Quebec Exhibition that year."</span></font>
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The Scottish-born Shankland, who immigrated to Canada in 1910 and
settled in Winnipeg, earned his Victoria Cross in October 1917 during
one of the bloodiest battles of the First World War, Passchendaele,
subject of the recent award-winning film by Canadian actor and
director Paul Gross. </span></font>
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Shankland, a lieutenant with the Cameron Highlanders, was credited
in his VC citation with "most conspicuous bravery and resource in
action under critical and adverse conditions." The official description
of his exploits describes how Shankland "rallied the remnant of his
own platoon and men of other companies, disposed them to command
the ground in front, and inflicted heavy casualties upon the retreating
enemy. Later, he dispersed a counter-attack, thus enabling supporting
troops to come up unmolested."</span></font>
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The citation also notes that "his courage and splendid example
inspired all ranks and coupled with his great gallantry and skill
undoubtedly saved a very critical situation."</span></font>
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Remarkably, Shankland lived before the war on west-end Winnipeg's
Pine Street along with two other future Victoria Cross recipients -
Cpl. Leo Clarke and Sgt.-Major Frederick Hall. The street was later
renamed Valour Road, which remains a focal point of Winnipeg
remembrance activities. In 2005, at the end of Valour Road, city and
provincial officials unveiled a commemorative plaza featuring a stone</span></font>
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representation of the Victoria Cross and a steel sculpture showing the
silhouette of three soldiers.</span></font>
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Neither Clarke nor Hall survived the 1914-18 conflict. But Shankland
returned to Canada, working in Winnipeg and Vancouver before - at
the age of 53 - rejoining the Camerons in the Second World War and
serving in Britain as an officer at the Canadian army headquarters.</span></font>
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Shankland died in 1968 at age 80 and is buried in Vancouver.</span></font>
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