Buy the medal - and the cannonball that tore off his arm

[DavidDvorkin]

This is strange and disturbing

The first Victoria Cross to be won by a British Army soldier is to be auctioned in London later - along with the cannonball which blew off his arm.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/glasgow_and_west/8636113.stm

The guy was apparently very heroic under fire and deserved the medal, but still. At least the arm itself is not included in the auction.

Interesting bit of info included in the article: "Victoria Cross medals are still cast from bronze taken from cannons captured from the Russians at Sebastopol." Given that I'm close to being a pacifist, I don't know why such military trivia fascinates me. Perhaps the remove of 150 years makes it sufficiently less real.