Arthur Martin-Leake, serving as a lieutenant in the Royal Army Medical Corps in 1914 was the first man to be awarded a Bar to the Victoria Cross he received during the Second Boer War in 1902. In both circumstances Martin-Leake's conduct was to put the lives of his injured comrades first despite being exposed to constant enemy fire, and being wounded himself. Martin-Leake is the only recipient to gain his two Victoria Crosses in separate wars. Only two other men have been awarded two Victoria Crosses: Captain Noel Godfrey Chavasse in 1916 and 1917, and Captain Charles Upham in 1941 and 1942. Dur: 20mins File: .mp3

On September 22nd, 1862, already almost two years into the US Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation stating that, as of January 1st, 1863, all slaves within any State would be "thenceforward, and forever free." This proclamation freed 3.5 million men and women of African-American descent and, included in the proclamation, was the sentence that "the executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom." This meant that African-Americans could serve in the armed forces of the Union. Dur: 20mins File: .mp3