Who was the first black man to be awarded the Victoria Cross?
- Able Seaman William Hall
- Captain Paul Triquet
- Corporal Filip Konowal
- Lieutenant Robert Hampton Gray
Answer: Able Seaman William Hall
Able Seaman William Hall of Horton, Nova Scotia, whose parents were American slaves, was the first black man to be awarded the Victoria Cross. He earned it for his role in the Siege of Lucknow during the Indian Rebellion of 1857.
Learn more: Honours and the Victoria Cross
- Canada started its own honours system with the Order of Canada in 1967, the centennial of Confederation. Before that, Canadians received British honours.
- Any Canadian is welcome to nominate a fellow citizen for an honour.
- The Victoria Cross (V.C.) is the highest honour available to Canadians, for the most conspicuous bravery, a daring or pre-eminent act of valour or self-sacrifice, or extreme devotion to duty in the presence of the enemy.
- The V.C. has been awarded to 96 Canadians since 1854.
- First Canadian V.C.: then lieutenant Alexander Roberts Dunn, born in present-day Toronto, who served in the British Army in the Charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava (1854) in the Crimean War.
- First black man to receive the V.C.: Able Seaman William Hall of Horton, Nova Scotia, whose parents were American slaves, for the Siege of Lucknow during the Indian Rebellion of 1857.
- Corporal Filip Konowal, born in Ukraine, was the first member of the Canadian Corps born outside the British Empire to win the V.C., at Hill 70 in 1917.
- Captain Billy Bishop of Owen Sound, Ontario, a flying ace, earned the V.C. in the Royal Flying Corps during the First World War. He was later an honorary Air Marshal of the Royal Canadian Air Force.
- Captain Paul Triquet of Cabano, Quebec, earned the V.C. at Casa Berardi, Italy, in 1943. He later became a Brigadier.
- Lieutenant Robert Hampton Gray, a navy pilot born in Trail, B.C., was killed while bombing and sinking a Japanese warship in August 1945. He was the last Canadian to receive the V.C. to date.