Charles Davis Lucas First Recipient of the Victoria Cross

Charles Davis Lucas, born in Drumagole, County Armagh, performs a remarkable act of bravery at the age of 20 during the Crimean War. Serving as a mate in the Royal Navy aboard HMS Hecla, Lucas picks up a live Russian shell—its fuse still burning—that has landed on the deck of the ship, and throws it overboard, saving the vessel and its crew from certain destruction.

For this extraordinary act of courage and quick thinking, Lucas becomes the first recipient of the Victoria Cross, Britain’s highest award for military valor, when the medal is instituted in 1856.