Victoria Cross awarded to Able Seaman William A. Savage. Savage was awarded the Victoria Cross posthumously for his part in the St Nazaire Raid of 1942. The citation read: ‘For great gallantry, skill and devotion to duty as gunlayer of the pom-pom in a Motor Gun Boat in the St Nazaire Raid. Completely exposed, and under heavy fire, he engaged positions ashore with cool and steady accuracy. On the way out of the harbour he kept up the same vigorous and accurate fire against the attacking ships, until he was killed at his gun’ (London Gazette, 21 May 1942).

Savage was born in 1912 and worked for a brewery until he was called up in 1939. He joined the Navy and was rated Able Seaman a year later. This VC was purchased by the Museum following a successful public appeal in 1990 together with Savage’s Atlantic Star (MED2110), 1939–45 Star (MED2109) and War Medal (MED2111).

The medal comprises a bronze Maltese Cross fitted with a loop, ring and a crimson ribbon suspended from a bar of ornamental laurel leaves by a V. In the centre of the obverse face is a Royal Crown surmounted by a lion, crowned passant, guardant, both within a ribbon, together with the inscription, ‘FOR VALOUR’. The reverse is inscribed, ‘ABLE SEAMAN W.A.SAVAGE,C/JX173910, ROYAL NAVY,/MGB.314’, along with the date, ‘28TH MARCH.1942’. The medal is mounted, court style with three war medals.