‘Six before breakfast’: famous Victoria Cross medals to go on display at Fusilier Museum in Bury

SIX Victoria Crosses were handed to British soldiers from the one regiment at the Gallipoli landings. Now, 100 years later, the medals have come home.

Images of medals and awards for web and publications. Various views of the New Zealand Victoria Cross. Close ups of the meda...

THEY’RE known as the “six before breakfast”.

Six Victoria Crosses, the highest military award for gallantry, handed to British soldiers from the one regiment for the futile storming of a Gallipoli beach in Turkey, while most in Britain were still asleep.

Now the six famous medals have come together in the one place this week for the first time in 100 years in a major commemoration for the Gallipoli beach landings and the Anzac allies who also fell in the campaign on that day.

Staff at the Fusilier Museum in Bury in England’s north had spent more than six months on a nationwide search for one of the medals, to bring together with their two and others known to be in private collections, as a centrepiece to commemorations for the area from where the Lancashire Fusiliers Battalion hailed.

Museum general manager Helen Smith said like many regions in Australia, the death toll at

Gallipoli had had a profound effect on the local region for a generation.

Of the first 200 Lancashire Fusiliers to land on April 25 on “W” beach at Cape Helles only 21 men survived, with a total of 700 killed or wounded from the battalion in the failed attempt to conquer the peninsula.

“Bringing the ‘six before breakfast’ together for the first time in 100 years is a big deal,” Ms Smith said.

“April 25 is a big deal in Lancashire, I would say it’s as big if not bigger than Remembrance Day because I think there were so many battalions at Gallipoli from here, so many people from this area affected and every year we have a huge parade, with the streets lined by thousands of people and a church service.

“Everybody around here was affected by it in some way so it’s a huge thing here, I know it’s massive in your Australia but here it’s big too. Bringing the medals together is significant … I mean six VCs in the one go is unheard of I think the only thing surpassing that was Rorkes Drift during the Zulu War (1879).”

The men came to shore aboard HMS Euryalus and the ship’s bell has also been found and would be struck at commemorations in Bury.

Proud heritage ... Australian solider Steve Frost — a relative of VC recipient Corporal John Grimshaw — will fly to England for the commemorations.

In January last year museum staff began searching for one medal, its whereabouts not known for decades, belonging to Major Cuthbert Bromley who was wounded at Gallipoli but survived the action. They had to use detective work and genealogy searches to trace his descendants to find a surviving relative who then pointed them to the current owners of the medal. The owners as well as members of the Bromley family will join descendants of the other five men as guests of honour for commemorations. One of the relatives Steven Frost, a relative of VC recipient Corporal John Grimshaw is ironically an Australian Army soldier and will fly from Australia to attend.

“It’s always been important to Lancashire Fusiliers from a regimental point of view, absolutely essential how Gallipoli affected their soldiers’ future,” Ms Smith said.

“They’re so proud of the legacy left by the six VC recipients and the bravery and pride in the Lancashire Fusiliers and how that affected people even today.

“It’s about pride, passion and not wanting to let forbearers down and carry on their performance and legacy of high standards.”

Originally published as ‘Six before breakfast’: famous Victoria Cross medals to go on display at Fusilier Museum in Bury