The bravest of the brave

‘It is the task of a Patton or a Napoleon to persuade soldiers that bits of ribbon are intrinsically valuable. The historian’s job, in part, is to spot contradictions and unravel obfuscations, and the history of the VC is steeped in both.’

To this job of de-obfuscating, Gary Mead, former journalist and military historian, might well add ‘though the heavens fall’.