by electing to stay on horseback throughout the ceremony of awarding the sixty-two recipients with the Cross. An extract in Queen Victoria’s Day Diary is as follows: The Policeman was of course George Walters and George was the 51st person to receive the Victoria Cross. A total of 12 Victoria Cross medals were awarded to those who fought in the Battle of Inkermann. The Times, on the following day published the following article: {{quote|"A new epoch in our military history was yesterday inaugurated in Hyde Park. The old and much abused campaign medal may now be looked upon as a reward, but it will cease to be sought after as a distinction, for a new order is instituted - an order for merit and valour, open, without regard to rank or title, to all whose conduct in the field has rendered them prominent for courage even in the British army. A path is left open to this ambition of the humblest soldier - a road is open to honour which thousands have toiled, and pined, and died in the endeavour to attain, and private soldiers may now look forward to wearing a real distinction which kings might be proud to have earned the right to bear.... The display of yesterday in point of numbers was a great metropolitan gathering - it was a concourse such as only London could send forth.... The persons who composed the fashionable portion of the visitors, if we may so term those who were admitted to the reserved seats, were very punctual in their attendance, and every part of the great expanse of platform was well covered soon after 9 o ·clock. The heat throughout the entire proceedings was intense; the ladies seemed to suffer much from it, and even strong, hearty gentlemen were not too fastidious to extemporize rude fans from coat-tails, handkerchiefs, and morning journals or any suitable material at hand. Not a breath of air seemed stirring, and the standard which marked the Queen's position drooped heavily down, as if it too suffered from the sun and was incapable of fluttering or active motion. Everybody simmered into a state of aggravation, and everybody gasped and said how hot it was in a tone of private communication, as if the temperature was a State secret which must not be bruited abroad. In less tropical nooks, beneath the trees, costermongers drove a brave trade