A colorful series of ads honoring courage were used to promote Pall Mall Cigarettes during the First World War. The military medals that America and its allies award for gallantry were tastefully depicted along with a row of ribbons signifying wars and campaigns that soldiers and sailors have fought in. Pictured below is an ad from this set titled Fame, and the medal pictured is the Victoria Cross. In 1857 Queen Victoria personally presented the first 62 recipients with their Victoria Crosses (VC), Britain’s most coveted military medal for valor. The two most recent VCs were awarded posthumously to members of the 2nd and 3rd battalions The Parachute Regiment during the 1982 Falkland Islands War. Canadian "Smokey" Smith is North America's only living VC recipient. Smith was a member of Vancouver, BC's regiment of Seaforth Highlanders, and earned his VC fighting in Italy during the Second World War. Each of the 1,351 Victoria Crosses that have been made and awarded, is cast from bronze that originally was a captured enemy cannon. Legend tells us that the two captured cannons were Russian from the 1854 Crimea War, but there is a possibly that they are even older Chinese guns. The soldiers and sailors who have received the VC represent most, if not all, of the British and Commonwealth Armed Forces including two men from West Indian regiments, plus an officer serving with the 15th Ludhiana Sikhs, and several soldiers from the different regiments of Gurkha Rifles. Five Americans, four fighting for Canada and one in the Royal Navy, have also earned the Victoria Cross. A sixth VC was presented to the unknown US soldier of World War One.