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Corporal Arthur Charles Hall

Unit: 54th Battalion, 14th Brigade, 5th Division
Action: 1-2 September 1918, Peronne France

In order to capture Peronne, the 54th Battalion had to cross fields that contained two German trenches. They breached the first but were held up at the second until the actions of two men, Hall, 22, on the left and Temporary Corporal Alexander Henry Buckley, 27, on the right, who rushed two different machine-gun posts.

Hall's citation says: ``Single handed he rushed the position, shot four of the occupants, and captured nine others, and two machine-guns. Then crossing the objective with a small party, he afforded excellent covering support to the remainder of the company. Continuously in advance of the main party, he located enemy posts of resistance and personally led parties to the assault.''

Biography: Hall was raised near Byrock, a small NSW town that Henry Lawson labelled ``a dismal place'' which nevertheless offered 23 volunteers to the AIF, four of whom were awarded some of the highest awards for bravery. Born on 11 August 1896, he was working on his father's property before enlisting in the AIF on 3 April 1916. He arrived in France in February 1917 and was wounded -- shrapnel in the right buttock -- the following month.

He was discharged in August 1919 and returned to the land until World War II, in which he served as a lieutenant in the 5th Garrison Battalion. He married in 1927 and when he died at Nyngan on 25 February 1978, he was survived by his widow and four children. He is buried at St Matthew's Anglican Church at West Bogan, near a small wooden church built from timber cut on his property.