WWII Victoria Cross recipients
The highest military decoration in the British armed forces, the Victoria Cross was awarded 182 times to 181 recipients for action in the World War II. See all the recipients here.
What is the Victoria Cross?
The Victoria Cross is the highest military decoration in the British armed forces. It is awarded for valour and devotion to duty in the face of the enemy, regardless of rank. Up to two bars may be awarded in recognition of further acts of gallantry.
When was the Victoria Cross first established?
The Victoria Cross was established on 29 January 1856 by Queen Victoria to recognise valour in the Crimean War (Gazette issue 21846):
‘The Queen has been pleased, by an instrument under Her Royal Sign Manual, of which the following is a copy, to institute and create a new Naval and Military Decoration, to be styled and designated “The Victoria Cross"’
Prior to this, there was ‘no means of adequately rewarding the individual gallant services either of officers of the lower grades in Our Naval and Military Service’.
Who was the awarded the Victoria Cross during World War II?
The Victoria Cross was awarded 182 times to 181 recipients for action in the Second World War. Below is a list of all Victoria Crosses gazetted for services during WWII.
On the list, there are two gazette citations for New Zealander Charles Upham who received the Victoria Cross and Bar – two awards for two separate acts:
- His first Victoria Cross was awarded for his actions in the Battle of Crete in May 1941, where he “performed a series of remarkable exploits, showing outstanding leadership, tactical skill and utter indifference to danger” (Gazette issue 35306).
- His Bar to the Victoria Cross came from his actions during the First Battle of El Alamein in July 1942, where “[i]n spite of being twice wounded, once when crossing open ground swept by enemy fire to inspect his forward sections guarding our mine-fields and again when he completely destroyed an entire truck load of German soldiers with hand grenades, Captain Upham insisted on remaining with his men to take part in the final assault” (Gazette issue 37283).
Upham was and remains only the third recipient of the Victoria Cross and Bar alongside Noel Chavasse and Arthur Martin-Leake.
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Date published |
Recipient |
Gazette issue |
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07/06/1940 |
Bernard Warburton-Lee |
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11/06/1940 |
Donald Garland |
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11/06/1940 |
Thomas Gray |
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26/07/1940 |
Marcus Ervine-Andrews |
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26/07/1940 |
Harry Nicholls |
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16/08/1940 |
Richard Been Stannard |
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20/08/1940 |
Roderick Alistair Brook Learoyd |
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20/08/1940 |
Richard Annand |
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20/08/1940 |
George Gristock |
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03/09/1940 |
Jack Foreman Mantle |
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01/10/1940 |
John Hannah |
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11/10/1940 |
Eric Charles Twelves Wilson |
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15/11/1940 |
James Brindley Nicolson |
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22/11/1940 |
Edward Fegen |
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06/06/1941 |
Premindra Singh Bhagat |
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01/07/1941 |
John Edmondson |
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01/07/1941 |
Richpal Ram |
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22/07/1941 |
Hughie Edwards |
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05/08/1941 |
James Allen Ward |
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10/10/1941 |
Clive Hulme |
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10/10/1941 |
Charles Upham |
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14/10/1941 |
John Daniel Hinton |
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24/10/1941 |
James Heather Gordon |
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12/12/1941 |
Malcolm Wanklyn |
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25/11/1941 |
Arthur Rhoden Cutler |
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28/11/1941 |
Alfred Edward Sephton |
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30/01/1942 |
John Charles Campbell |
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06/02/1942 |
Philip John Gardner |
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13/02/1942 |
Charles Groves Wright Anderson |
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17/02/1942 |
Arthur Edward Cumming |
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27/02/1942 |
Eugene Esmonde |
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10/03/1942 |
Kenneth Campbell |
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27/03/1942 |
James Joseph Bernard Jackman |
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17/04/1942 |
John Beeley |
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17/04/1942 |
George Ward Gunn |
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24/04/1942 |
John Dering Nettleton |
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19/05/1942 |
Stephen Beattie |
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19/05/1942 |
Robert Ryder |
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19/05/1942 |
William Alfred Savage |
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05/06/1942 |
Peter Scawen Watkinson Roberts |
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05/06/1942 |
Thomas William Gould |
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16/06/1942 |
Geoffrey Keyes |
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03/07/1942 |
Anthony Cecil Capel Miers |
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08/09/1942 |
Adam Herbert Wakenshaw |
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08/09/1942 |
Arthur Stanley Gurney |
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08/09/1942 |
Quentin George Murray Smythe |
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22/09/1942 |
Keith Elliott |
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20/11/1942 |
Victor Buller Turner |
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02/10/1942 |
Patrick Anthony Porteous |
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02/10/1942 |
Charles Cecil Ingersoll Merritt |
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20/10/1942 |
Leslie Manser |
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08/01/1943 |
Robert Sherbrooke |
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12/01/1943 |
John Alexander French |
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12/01/1943 |
Rawdon Hume Middleton |
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26/01/1943 |
Percival Eric Gratwick |
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26/01/1943 |
William Henry Kibby |
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05/02/1943 |
Bruce Steel Kingsbury |
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05/03/1943 |
Wallace Le Patourel |
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23/04/1943 |
Hugh Malcolm |
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11/05/1943 |
Derek Anthony Seagnim |
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11/05/1943 |
Parkash Singh |
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14/05/1943 |
Frederick Thornton Peters |
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21/05/1943 |
John Wallace Linton |
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25/05/1943 |
Guy Gibson |
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0106/1943 |
Moana Nui a Kiwa Ngarimu |
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04/06/1943 |
Lorne MacLaine Campbell |
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11/06/1943 |
Lalbahadur Thapa |
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25/06/1943 |
John Thompson McKellar Anderson |
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25/06/1943 |
Willward Alexander Sandys Clarke |
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23/07/1943 |
Chhelu Ram |
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27/07/1943 |
Eric Anderson |
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10/08/1943 |
Charles Lyell |
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13/08/1943 |
John Patrick Kenneally |
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28/09/1943 |
Gaje Ghale |
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15/10/1943 |
William Ellis Newton |
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29/10/1943 |
Lloyd Allan Trigg |
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02/11/1943 |
Arthur Lewis Aaron |
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10/12/1943 |
William Reid |
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28/12/1943 |
Richard Kelliher |
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08/02/1944 |
Donald Cameron |
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08/02/1944 |
Basil Charles Godfrey Place |
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03/03/1944 |
Paul Triquet |
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21/03/1944 |
Thomas Currie Derrick |
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28/03/1944 |
William Philip Sidney |
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28/03/1944 |
Alec George Horwood |
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16/05/1944 |
Henry Bowreman Foote |
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16/05/1944 |
Charles Ferguson Hoey |
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02/06/1944 |
Nand Singh |
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20/06/1944 |
John Pennington Harman |
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23/06/1944 |
Cyril Joe Barton |
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11/07/1944 |
Francis Arthur Jefferson |
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11/07/1944 |
John Keefer Mahony |
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11/07/1944 |
Richard Wakeford |
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25/07/1944 |
Abdul Hafiz |
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25/07/1944 |
Kamal Ram |
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25/07/1944 |
David Ernest Hornell |
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08/08/1944 |
George Alan Mitchell |
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08/08/1944 |
Maurice Albert Windham Rogers |
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15/08/1944 |
Stanley Elton Hollis |
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15/08/1944 |
Hanson Turner |
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29/08/1944 |
John Alexander Cruickshank |
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05/09/1944 |
Peter Harold Wright |
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05/09/1944 |
Geoffrey Leonard Cheshire |
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22/09/1944 |
Frank Gerald Blaker |
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03/10/1944 |
Ganju Lama |
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03/10/1944 |
Aganising Rai |
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10/10/1944 |
Netrabahadur Thapa |
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24/10/1944 |
Michael Allmand |
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24/10/1944 |
David Jamieson |
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24/10/1944 |
Gerard Norton |
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31/10/1944 |
Robert Henry Cain |
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31/10/1944 |
Safanaia Sukanaivalu |
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31/10/1944 |
Tasker Watkins |
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31/10/1944 |
Sidney Bates |
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31/10/1944 |
Yeshwant Ghadge |
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07/11/1944 |
Tul Bahadur Pun |
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21/11/1944 |
John Daniel Baskeyfield |
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24/11/1944 |
David Vivian Currie |
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08/12/1944 |
John Niel Randle |
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19/12/1944 |
Ernest Alvia Smith |
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26/12/1944 |
Sher Bahadur Thapa |
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29/12/1944 |
George Harold Eardley |
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29/12/1944 |
John William Harper |
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02/01/1945 |
Richard Henry Burton |
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23/01/1945 |
John Hollington Grayburn |
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30/01/1945 |
Lionel Ernest Queripel |
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06/02/1945 |
John Henry Cound Brunt |
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06/02/1945 |
Bharidari Ram |
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06/02/1945 |
Ram Sarup Singh |
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16/02/1945 |
George Thompson |
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20/02/1945 |
Thaman Gurung |
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06/03/1945 |
Henry Eric Harden |
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16/03/1945 |
Dennis Donnini |
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20/03/1945 |
Robert Anthony Maurice Palmer |
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10/04/1945 |
George Arthur Knowland |
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13/04/1945 |
James Stokes |
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20/04/1945 |
Edwin Swales |
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04/05/1945 |
Sher Shah |
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11/05/1945 |
William Basil Weston |
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18/05/1945 |
Aubrey Cosens |
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18/05/1945 |
Gian Singh |
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18/05/1945 |
Frederick Albert Tilston |
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22/05/1945 |
Fazal Din |
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01/06/1945 |
Bhanbhagta Gurung |
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01/06/1945 |
Umrao Singh |
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05/06/1945 |
Ian Oswald Liddell |
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08/06/1945 |
Thomas Peck Hunter |
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15/06/1945 |
Augustus Charles Newman |
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15/06/1945 |
Thomas Frank Durrant |
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15/06/1945 |
Namdeo Jadhao |
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26/06/1945 |
Claud Raymond |
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29/06/1945 |
Ali Haidar |
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29/06/1945 |
Karamjeet Singh Judge |
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29/06/1945 |
Prakash Singh Chib |
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06/07/1945 |
Gerard Broadmead Roope |
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10/07/1945 |
Edward Thomas Chapman |
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24/07/1945 |
Reginald Roy Rattey |
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24/07/1945 |
Lachiman Gurung |
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31/07/1945 |
Frederick George Topham |
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14/08/1945 |
Ian Willoughby Bazalgette |
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04/09/1945 |
Edward Kenna |
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04/09/1945 |
Albert Chowne |
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04/09/1945 |
James Joseph Magennis |
|
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04/09/1945 |
Anders Lassen |
|
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26/09/1945 |
Charles Upham (Bar) |
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23/10/1945 |
Norman Cyril Jackson |
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06/11/1945 |
John Bernard Mackey |
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06/11/1945 |
Leslie Thomas Starcevich |
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09/11/1945 |
Robert Hampton Gray |
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09/11/1945 |
Ian Edward Fraser |
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09/11/1945 |
David Lord |
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13/11/1945 |
Nigel Leakey |
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18/01/1946 |
Frank John Partridge |
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05/02/1946 |
Christopher Furness |
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12/02/1946 |
John Weir Foote |
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26/02/1946 |
Leonard Henry Trent |
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29/03/1946 |
John Robert Osborn |
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30/04/1946 |
Edward Colquhoun Charlton |
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21/06/1946 |
Arthur Scarf |
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08/10/1946 |
Andrew Mynarski |
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13/12/1946 |
Thomas Wilkinson |
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20/05/1949 |
George Albert Cairns |
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Publication updated
18 March 2025
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