WINNIPEG — A group of current and retired Canadian soldiers have won their battle to buy back a piece of military history.
The members of the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry paid $8,000 for the First World War-era Memorial Cross that was presented to the family of a PPCLI hero.
Sgt. Robert Spall was killed in action in France in 1918; he was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross, the British Empire’s highest award for bravery.
Spall’s family was later given the Memorial Cross to mark his sacrifice. That Memorial Cross, inscribed with Spall’s name, was recently listed for sale on eBay. It was initially listed for sale at $3,000.
The PPCLI members, led by Winnipegger David Jackson, began fundraising earlier this month in a bid to buy the medal and put it in a military museum in Calgary with the rest of Spall’s decorations, including his Victoria Cross.
The group learned Thursday that they had the successful bid.
“He’s one of three Victoria Cross winners from World War I, so it’s a fairly important piece of not just our history but Canadian history too, because World War I was really the foundation of Canada. It’s where we took our main role on the world stage, so it’s not just important to the Patricia family but an important artifact to all of Canada,” Jackson told Global News.
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