Cpl Fred Topham VC project

[Long in the tooth]

The onus on the family should be to recognize that it is a piece of Canadian history, not just an item to go to the highest bidder.  I understand this is an idealistic notion when ebay is selling 10 year old cheese sandwiches for $28,000.  However, if we logically extend the 'highest bidder' option, why not just sell annual peerages for the most money as well?  This is not so ridiculous as the British have pondered it.

 

[Bruce Monkhouse]

  http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/TorontoSun/News/2005/01/25/pf-909390.html
 
Tue, January 25, 2005

Fred's VC now ours to keep

SUN CAMPAIGN PRAISED AS MEDALS HANDED OVER
By BRODIE FENLON, TORONTO SUN

WITH A handshake and a $300,000 cheque, Cpl. Fred Topham's Victoria Cross became ours forever. The low-key handover at the Royal Canadian Military Institute yesterday belied the hundreds of volunteer hours and more than 2,000 donations from across the country -- including more than 1,200 from Sun readers -- spent to save the precious medal from leaving Canada.

Lt.-Col. John Fotheringham, former commanding officer of the Queen's Own Rifles who helped lead the fundraising campaign, thanked Sun readers who "pushed us over the top."

"Their contributions have made it possible that a Canadian hero has become known across the country," said Jan De Vries, president of the 1st Canadian Parachute Association.

Without any government help, the association raised $225,000 and Sun Media newspapers raised another $75,000 to meet the list price set by the executors of the estate of Topham's late widow. They were going to auction off the VC in Britain.

Another $30,000 raised from Sun readers in the campaign will go toward the purchase of other medals that become available in the future.

Topham's service medals and Victoria Cross were exchanged for the cheque yesterday, then placed in the permanent custody of the Canadian War Museum.

Only 95 Canadians have won the VC, and only 16 were awarded in World War II. Topham, a medic with the 1st Paras, was awarded his medal for his actions at the Rhine Crossing parachute drop on March 24, 1945. He was the second-last Canadian to receive a VC in the war.

On that day, Topham kept going into the battle area under fire to bring out the wounded, even after he was shot in the face. When ordered behind the lines for treatment, the paratrooper dashed into a burning armoured personnel carrier to rescue another three men.

"Topham was singled out as an example of bravery, but there were tens of thousands of other soldiers who did the same," Fotheringham said.

"I just thought it was important that we keep (the VC) here so that we can keep his memory alive and also remind Canadians of the sacrifices these guys made."

The Canadian War Museum will put Topham's medals on display in its new Ottawa building set to open in May.

The medals will also be displayed in Toronto on April 30 at the Ricoh Centre and in July at the Canadian Airborne Forces Museum at CFB Petawawa, De Vries said.

 

[axeman]

Kudo's

im glad i donated . I'm glad they are staying here in Canada , and glad they are going into the war museum .While they {all the medals ever donated} may not be on display the are stored cataloged and able to be researched and veiwed upon request. Which isnt always the case when a private buyers snaps them up.

 

[3rd Herd]

In the news again http://ottsun.canoe.ca/News/National/2007/07/29/4376744-sun.html
The Usual Disclaimer:
Sun, July 29, 2007
Showing the kids our history
But where is the tribute to VC hero Toppy?
By PETER WORTHINGTON, TORONTO SUN
For the past couple of weeks I've been visiting World War I and World War II war graves and battlefields in France as part of an educational process with grandkids.

It wasn't my idea, but their parents'.

Instead of covering the jury's verdict in the Conrad Black trial in Chicago, I was answering a higher call to family duty. As for Black, even being convicted on minor points is a huge defeat for him, while getting acquitted on nine more serious charges is a black eye for the prosecution. No winners -- but one big loser.

Of the war sites and cemeteries in France, the biggest shock came at the Pegasus Bridge memorial where, at midnight before the D-Day assault began on June 6, 1944, Britain's 6th Airborne Division dropped to secure the Northern flank of the Allied invasion at the Orme river, while at Point du Loc the U.S. 82nd and 101st Airborne Regiments dropped to secure the southern flank.

Both airborne units have proud museums at the drop zone to commemorate their contribution. At the Pointe du Loc church, a paratrooper chute on D-Day got caught on the church's spire, and he dangled from the top while the fight raged beneath him. By playing dead, he survived; today a parachute with a dummy paratrooper hangs permanently from the church's roof.

But it's the Pegasus Bridge Memorial that shocked me.

Here there are the usual displays -- tributes to the division's commander Maj.-Gen. Richard Gale; a life- sized bronze statue of Brig. James Hill, who died last year at age 95 and is beloved by members of the 1st Can Paras whom he commanded in 3rd Brigade; references to brave actions by individuals. That sort of stuff.

HARDEST JOBS

Hill always called the 1st Paras "my Canadians" and assigned to them jobs that he felt only the best could achieve. The 1st Paras never fought with other Canadian units, but saw more action than most, and reached the Baltic Sea where they met elements of Josef Stalin's Red Army.

I poked around the museum where gallantry awards were displayed -- military medals for bravery, the Military Cross to officers for courage, and tributes to individuals.

But no mention of the only Victoria Cross won in World War II by the 6th Airborne Division, and that to Cpl. Fred Topham on the drop to cross the Rhine on March 24, 1945.

I asked a young French guide if there was any mention of Toppy's VC -- which readers will recall was up for auction by relatives of Topham's late wife, and which readers of the Sun raised some $130,000 along with an equal amount by the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion Association to buy the medal for Ottawa's Canadian War Museum.

The young woman was puzzled, and wondered "What medal, who is Victoria?" She directed me to a more knowledgeable official who, I suspect, was a para veteran but too young for World War II.

"No," he said, "there is no mention of the VC in the museum, won by a Canadian -- the only VC the division earned in World War II." I told him I knew all this, and he quickly added that the intention is to get a replica of the VC, and an account of Toppy's courage in saving wounded under fire while being wounded himself.

The person was gracious and apologetic, and knew Topham's VC had been up for auction. He told an assembled group that Britain's Lord Ashcroft sought to buy Toppy's VC for his collection of VCs - "the world's largest private collection of Victoria Crosses" -- some 140 of them, almost 10% of all VCs ever awarded.

No question the 1st Can Para Battalion is esteemed by others in the Airborne Division, but it doesn't answer how 64 years could pass with no mention in the division's honour rolls, or the museum, of the day Fred Topham won immortality.

If not a slight to Canada, it surely is a grievous military oversight.

And why no protest from today's paratroopers?

Fans of the airborne like to recall that the Pegasus landing was the "only action on the whole D-Day invasion that went perfectly to script." Troop-carrying gliders landed within yards of the bridge their job was to secure, as troops dropped on other sites. The vital bridge across the Orme was secured in barely 10 minutes.

When Topham won his VC, the 1st Para's commanding officer was killed -- Lt.Col. Jeff Nicklin, once star defensive end with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, and now immortalized with a trophy in his name presented every Grey Cup game to the west's outstanding player.