All ten Royal Marines Victoria Crosses to go on show together

All ten Victoria Crosses ever awarded to members of the Royal Marines are to go on public display together for the first time, at a new museum in Portsmouth.

The medals, Britain's highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy, will be on permanent show at the £15m Royal Marines Experience at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, which tells 360 years of the marines' history and opens on Saturday 24 October.

"Fantastically special"

"It's fantastically special," said Matthew Sheldon, chief executive of Royal Navy Museums. "The Royal Marines have only ever been awarded 10 Victoria Crosses. We have all 10 of them. The originals have never been seen together before. They've been in secure storage, not visible to the public, which seemed like a crying shame."

He said the marines awarded the VC tended to be "youngish" and not of senior rank, and, like modern marines working in small teams, often found themselves at very close quarters with the enemy.

"They are about a moment in time and somebody's choice in that moment. They are powerful because they make you think: 'What would I have done in the same incident?'"

Two stories

Sergeant Norman Finch was awarded the VC for the Zeebrugge Raid on 23 April 1918. Stationed on a high lookout platform on HMS Vindictive, he kept firing on enemy positions despite being badly wounded, after shells killed or injured everyone around him. Because of the bravery shown by the whole battalion, the marines were allowed to vote for who should receive the VC, and chose Finch.

Lance Corporal Walter Parker was a stretcher bearer at Gallipoli. On 1 May 1915 he crossed about 365 metres of open ground under intense fire to reach wounded men in an isolated trench, the only member of his party to get through. He helped evacuate them the next morning, and was himself badly wounded.

"It's a really good example of the multilayered role of the marines. It's not just fighting. It's also trying to save lives," said Mark Berry, the assistant curator.

About the Victoria Cross

The Victoria Cross was created by Queen Victoria in 1856, during the Crimean War, and has been awarded about 1,350 times. The medals are traditionally said to be cast from bronze taken from Russian guns captured in the Crimea. They range, in the marines' case, from the Crimean War to the Second World War.

Birmingham's VCs

Birmingham has its own proud connection with the award. Several men from the city have won the Victoria Cross, and the Hall of Memory in Centenary Square, opened in 1925, commemorates the thousands of Birmingham people who died in the First World War.

The new museum replaces the former Royal Marines Museum at Eastney, which closed in 2017.