Tim Montgomerie
In a special supplement in The Sunday Telegraph, Lord Ashcroft pays tribute to some of the bravest people in our nation's history. In an introduction he writes:
"Courage is a truly wonderful quality yet it is so difficult to understand. Those who display it are, quite rightly, looked up to by others and are admired by society. Wiser men than me have struggled to comprehend gallantry and what makes some individuals risk the greatest gift of all – life itself – for a comrade, for Queen and country, or sometimes even for a complete stranger. Brigadier Sir John “Jackie” Smyth, Bt, VC, MC, was the founder, first chairman and – after Sir Winston Churchill – the president of the Victoria Cross and George Cross Association. With typical wisdom, he once wrote: “Who can say whether it takes more courage to attack an angry bull elephant with a spear, than to disarm a very sensitive mine, or to have your toenails pulled out and still disclose nothing, or to dive into a burning aircraft to try to pull out members of the crew when the rescuer was well aware that the plane was carrying bombs which might explode at any moment.”
Read the profiles of "fifty great heroes"; winners of the Victoria Cross, George Cross and other honours.
