Victoria Cross awarded to Charles Davis Lucas (1834-1914). Lucas received the first naval Victoria Cross while serving as a Mate on HMS ‘Hecla’ in 1854. On the outbreak of the Crimean War with Russia in 1854, the British Fleet under Admiral Napier was sent to the Baltic in March of that year with orders to bombard the coastal fortresses, one of which was Bomarsund, guarding the entrance to the Gulf of Bothnia.

Captain W.H. Hall, commanding the ‘Hecla’, sailed her, accompanied by two paddle steamers, through the narrow channel to Bomarsund and commenced bombardment of the fort where the Russians were sheltering. During the action, a live shell from an enemy battery landed on the deck of the ‘Hecla’, its fuse still hissing - Charles Lucas with what was described as 'great coolness and presence of mind' ran forward, picked up the shell and threw it overboard whereupon it exploded on hitting the water. Due to Lucas's quick thinking no one was killed or seriously injured. He was immediately promoted to Acting Lieutenant and his Victoria Cross was gazetted in the first list of 24 February 1857. His was, therefore, the first act of bravery to qualify for a Victoria Cross. The medal was presented to him by Queen Victoria on 26 June 1857.

Lucas was born in Ulster in 1834 and entered the Navy in 1848, rising to the rank of Rear Admiral on the retired list in 1885. He died on 7 August 1914 at Great Culverson near Tunbridge Wells and is buried at Mereworth near Maidstone. The Museum also holds the following medals awarded to Lucas: India General Service Medal Bar Pegu 1852 (MED2345), Baltic War Medal 1854–55 (MED2346) and the Royal Humane Society Lifesaving Medal (MED2347 and MED2348).

The medal comprises a bronze Maltese Cross fitted with a loop, ring and a blue ribbon suspended from a bar of ornamental laurel leaves by a V. In the centre of the obverse face Royal Crown surmounted by a lion, crowned passant, guardant, both within a ribbon, together with the inscription, ‘FOR VALOUR’. The reverse is uninscribed. It is not the original medal, which was presumably lost or stolen. There is no record that this Victoria Cross was made by Hancocks.