hampshire hog, on 24 June 2012 - 09:44 PM, said:
i have many posts going on here, victorianwars, and rootschat!,..and it seems that he was a lIar,...it hasnt been Published in any papers!..or on any records!
...although there is lots of newspaper articles of him claiming he won it!, Biblical News, of churches abroad, using his story, in their Sermons, a book titled: Andrew Cameron, how he won the two crosses,. written by a reverend and editor, of the Christian scotsman newspaper, in Glasgow!!!
many newspaper articles, about his diving adventures, and most claim, he did a good deed, in the british navy, and earned a pension for life!,...newspaper claims of him being the world record Deep sea diver, c1898.
He claims to have won the VC, in 1882, in the Bombardment, of Alexandria, his claim was that he was sent down to the seabed, to disarm whitehead torpedeos..............however he was discharged from the Navy in 1878!..so you can see where the doubt sets in!!
i just cant get to the bottom of this!!
The "Bombardment of Alexandria" connection makes me reflect on the fact that one of the 3 VC's won in the1882 Orabi Pasha rebellion was awarded to a man called David Embleton. He served as Frederick Corbett in KRRC, and his medal was forfeited a couple of years later, after he was convicted of several crimes of dishonesty.
It is believed that Corbett/Embleton had several copies of his medal made, and sold the original before it was forfeited. The sale was held to be legal, as he was briefly out of the army, and was entitled to sell, so the buyer was deemed to have acquired good title. In later years the medal had come into the possession of an Urban District Council, the clerk of which was informed by the War Office that the medal should not be returned to Embleton/Corbett, as his name had been erased from the Victoria Cross Register. The medal is now at the Green Jackets Museum in Winchester.
One wonders why he had the copies made - to sell, perhaps ? (Seems likely, bearing in mind his dishonesty - embezzlement was on of the offences of which he was convicted.) It's a tenuous connection, but could the duff VC worn by Cameron here be one ofEmbleton/ Corbett's fakes ?
No aspersions cast on Corbett's bravery - it obviously ran in the family. A great nephew won an immediate (i.e. for bravery) MC as a Chindit in Burma as an officer in The Nigeria Regiment in 1943/44.
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