ninme

The Times – Grieving families to get new Elizabeth Cross military award

The families of thousands of Armed Forces personnel who have been killed on operations or died as a result of a terrorist attack since the Second World War are to receive a new military award.

Around 8,000 families will be eligible for a special silver Elizabeth Cross emblem and a memorial scroll signed by the Queen.

The decision to honour the next of kin of servicemen and women who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as previous wars including Korea, Malaysia, Kenya, the Falklands and Northern Ireland, was in recognition of the “lifetime grief” they had to endure, Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup, the Chief of the Defence Staff, said today.

In a broadcast to the Armed Forces on British Forces Radio (BFBS), which was recorded from Windsor Castle, the Queen said: “This seems to me a right and proper way of showing our enduring debt to those who are killed while actively protecting what is most dear to us all.”

“The solemn dignity which we attach to the names of those who have fallen is deeply engrained in our national character,” she said.

It will be the first time that the name of a reigning monarch has been given to a new award since the George Cross was instituted in 1940 by King George VI, although it was emphasised that the Elizabeth Cross is not a medal but an emblem.

The Victoria Cross, or Vickie X, as I like to call it, is famously apocryphally?) made from gunmetal from a Russian canon captured at Sevastapol, but so far this has only been said to be made out of sterling silver.