A rare and historic Commission document appointing Mr C. D. Lucas, Royal Navy, as Acting Mate on the steam sloop Hecla, in which vessel, one month later, he won the very first Victoria Cross

Commission Document, signed by Vice-Admiral Sir Charles Napier, appointing Mr C. D. Lucas as Acting Mate on the steam sloop Hecla, dated 21 May 1854, folded and repaired but generally in good condition £600-800

Charles Davis Lucas was born in Drumargole, Armagh, Ireland on 19 Gebruary 1834. Serving as a Mate aboard the Hecla, he became the first man to be awarded the Victoria Cross. The Register of the Victoria Cross states of the action: On 21 June 1854 in the Baltic, H.M.S. Hecla, with two other ships, was bombarding Bomarsund, a fort in the Aland Islands. The fire was returned from the shore, and at the height of the action a live shell landed on Hecla’s upper deck, with its fuse still hissing. All hands were ordered to fling themselves flat on the deck, but Mr Lucas with great presence of mind ran forward and hurled the shell into the sea, where it exploded with a tremendous roar before it hit the water. Thanks to Mr Lucas’s action no one was killed or seriously wounded’. (V.C. London Gazette 24 February 1857). Lucas later attained the rank of Rear-Admiral. He died on 7 August 1914.