Their ranks include men like Olaf Schmid, the bomb disposal legend who saved his comrades from 70 Taliban devices before he was killed by the 71st, and Jim Beaton, the royal bodyguard who took three bullets from a madman trying to kidnap Princess Anne.
They include the impossibly brave British wartime agents Odette Sansom, who narrowly survived her Gestapo torturers and Ravensbruck concentration camp, and Violette Szabo, who tragically did not.
They include the wartime population of the most heavily bombed place on earth – Malta.
And now they include the heroes of the Covid front line.
The award of the George Cross to the National Health Service is the greatest accolade a grateful nation can bestow beyond the field of battle. There is no decoration – military or civilian – comparable to the GC other than the Victoria Cross, which can only be won in the presence of the enemy .
Furious medics slam poorly judged decision to award NHS staff the George Cross instead of pay rise
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Kate Middleton is forced into self-isolation after covid scare
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Kate Middleton Locked up in Palace Amid Covid Fears!
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A student nurse
- Credit: SIBAS minich/Getty Images/iStockphoto
Anyone who has worked alongside me in journalism over the last two decades will know one of my pet hates is the plethora of days that have begun clogging up the calendar over recent years.
I know many of them are meant as a bit of fun, but as well as many being incredibly cynical, I believe all this splurge of dedicated days has done, is take away from the ones that really matter.
Take May 12 for instance.
It s National Porridge Day, National Nutty Fudge Day and National Limerick Day, all of which sound to me like cynical events drawn-up by a marketing expert somewhere as a way to gain attention and make money.