VCs and GCs....

[Chris Boonzaier]

Pictured with Prince Charles and Camilla yesterday are: BACK ROW Barry Johnson GC – critically injured after tackling a set of mortar bombs next to a hos

pital in Derry in October 1989. Michael Pratt GC – police duty, Melbourne Australia, 1976. Corporal Ben Roberts-Smith VC – the Australian became the association’s newest member after fighting off heavily armed insurgents in Afghanistan in 2006. Kim Hughes GC – defused seven improvised explosive devices, three with his bare hands, in Afghanistan. Lance Corporal Johnson Beharry VC – twice saved the lives of countless colleagues while under fire in 2004. Lance Corporal Matt Croucher GC – threw himself on an exploding grenade to save his comrades in Afghanistan in 2008. Jack Bamford GC – rescued brothers from a fire at the age of 15 in 1952. Alfred Lowe GC – Royal Navy, 1948. MIDDLE ROW Bill Speakman VC – fought off enemy fire in the Korean War in 1951 by throwing stones, shoes and beer bottles. Henry Flintoff GC – rescued a farmer from a bull at the age of 13 in 1944. Jim MacDonald – representing the Royal Ulster Constabulary (GC). Awang Anak Raweng GC – Army scout, Malaya 1951. Keith Payne VC – saved the lives of soldiers under his command in Vietnam in 1969. Margaret Purves GC – rescued scout and leader from the sea at the age of 14 in South Wales in 1949. Joseph Zammit Tabona – representing Malta (GC) FRONT ROW Stuart Archer – bomb disposal, South Wales, 1940. Henry Stevens GC – police duty, Kent, 1958. James Beaton – royal protection officer who foiled attempted kidnap of Princess Anne, 1974. Captain Rambahadur Limbu VC – Gurkha, Indonesia 1965. Tony Gledhill GC – police duty, London, 1966. Major Peter Norton GC – supervised a major bomb disposal operation in Iraq in 2005 despite having suffered dreadful injuries

[Megan]

Wonderful picture, Chris... so many courageous folk!

Sadly the 2 VC recipients I've met are no longer with us - both WW2 awards, Tasker Watkins & Peter Wright. The odd thing is, I bumped into both when they were wearing their medals... Tasker Watkins at a formal service for the Welsh legal community, in judge's robes; and Peter Wright had been attending a service in the Guards Chapel & I'd been in the Guards Museum across the square. Both charming gents.

Who else has met a VC or GC recipient?