THE VICTORIA CROSS AWARDED TO STAFF SURGEON WILLIAM MAILLARD, ROYAL NAVY, HAS BEEN SOLD AT AUCTION BY THE AUCTION HOUSE SPINK OF LONDON.
25 November 1998

Medal entitlement of Staff Surgeon William Maillard,
Royal Navy ( HMS "Hazard" )

  • Victoria Cross

The Victoria Cross awarded to Staff Surgeon William Maillard, Royal Navy, has been sold at auction by Spink of London. The sale price realised £50,000. The VC was purchased by the Michael Ashcroft Trust the holding institution for the Lord Ashcroft VC Collection and has gone on display in the Imperial War Museum's Lord Ashcroft Gallery. ( William Maillard is the only Royal Navy medical officer to be awarded the Victoria Cross ).

For the award of the Victoria Cross

[ London Gazette, 2 December 1898 ], Candia, Crete, 6 September 1898, Staff Surgeon William Job Maillard, Royal Navy ( HMS "Hazard" ).

On the 6th September 1898, during the landing of seamen from Her Majesty’s Ship "Hazard" Surgeon Maillard, who had disembarked and reached a place of safety, returned through a perfect deluge of bullets into the boat and endeavoured to bring into safety Arthur Stroud, Ordinary Seaman, who had fallen back wounded into the boat as the other men jumped ashore.

Surgeon Maillard failed to bring Stroud in only through the boat being adrift, and it being beyond his strength to lift the man ( who was almost dead ) out of so unstable a platform. Surgeon Maillard returned to his post with his clothes riddled with bullets, though he himself was unhurt.

William Maillard was invested with his Victoria Cross by Queen Victoria at Buckingham Palace on the 15th December 1898.

William Maillard died on the 10 September 1903 and was buried in the Wimbourne Road Cemetery, Bournemouth.

Acquisitions

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Iain Stewart, 25 November 1998