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Lieutenant Albert Chalmers Borella

Unit: 26th Battalion, 7th Brigade, 2nd Division
Action: 17-18 July 1918, Villers-Bretonneux, France
Borella, at less than a month shy of turning 37, became the oldest member of the AIF to receive a VC. The citation says: ``Whilst leading his platoon with the first wave, Lieutenant Borella marked an enemy machine-gun firing through our barrage. He ran out ahead of his men into the barrage, shot two German machine-gunners with his revolver, and captured the gun. He then led his party, now reduced to 10 men and two Lewis guns, against a very strongly held trench, using his revolver, and later a rifle, with great effect, causing many enemy casualties....

Two large dug outs were also bombed, and 30 prisoners taken. Subsequently the enemy twice counter attacked in strong force, on the second occasion outnumbering Lieutenant Borella's platoon by 10 to one, but his cool determination inspired his men to resist heroically, and the enemy were repulsed, with very heavy losses.''

Biography: Borella had to beg, borrow and almost steal to enlist in the AIF.
Born in Borung, Victoria on 7 August 1881, he quit his job with the Metropolitan Fire Brigade Board, Melbourne, to become a farmer in the Northern Territory.
When he wanted to enlist, the military was not taking volunteers from the NT. So Borella walked 140km and swam across flooded rivers, borrowed a horse at Powell Creek to ride to Katherine where he caught the mail coach, and then train, to Darwin.

Having to pay off some debts when he got to Darwin, he then had to borrow the money to sail to Townsville, becoming among the first 15 volunteers for active service from the Northern Territory.

He arrived at Gallipoli on 12 September 1915 but was evacuated in November with jaundice and did not rejoin his unit for three months. He was wounded at Pozieres, mentioned in dispatches in January 1917 and awarded the Military Medal for his actions in the attack on Malt Trench.

He was commissioned second lieutenant in April 1917. Poor health had him shipped home five days before the war ended.

After the war, he farmed near Hamilton, Victoria, and married in 1928. He was an unsuccessful Country Party candidate in the 1924 state election. He joined the army again in World War II, being promoted to captain before being discharged in 1945.

He died at home in North Albury on 7 February 1968, survived by his wife and four sons.