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Lieutenant George Mawby Ingram

Unit: 24th Battalion, 6th Brigade, 2nd Division
Action: 5 October 1918, Montbrehain, east of Peronne, France

Ingram, 29, became the last member of the AIF to be awarded a VC. With his company commander wounded, Ingram led the attack against a quarry that held more than 100 Germans armed with 40 machine-guns. The citation says: ``Lieutenant Ingram, without hesitation, dashed out and rushed the post at the head of his men, capturing nine machine-guns and killing 42 enemy after stubborn resistance.

Later, when the company had suffered severe casualties from enemy posts, and many leaders had fallen, he at once took control of the situation, rallied his men under intense fire, and led them forward. He himself rushed the first post, shot six of the enemy, and captured a machine-gun, thus overcoming serious resistance. On two subsequent occasions he again displayed great dash and resource in the capture of enemy posts, inflicting many casualties and taking 62 prisoners. Throughout the whole day he showed the most inspiring example of courage and leadership, and freely exposed himself regardless of danger.''

Biography: Ingram was a carpenter who, on four occasions, joined the military. Born in Bendigo on 18 March 1889, he signed up with the militia aged 14. After his apprenticeship, he moved to Caulfield, set up a business and married in 1910, although that marriage was dissolved 16 years later without children. He enlisted on 10 December 1914 with the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force and served in New Guinea. He was discharged from that on 19 January 1916 and signed up for the AIF on the same day.

He was awarded the Military Medal for his courage and initiative in the attack near Bapaume. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in June 1918 and promoted to lieutenant in October. After the war, he worked with a building contacting firm and became, in 1935, one of the permanent guards at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne. He re-enlisted in World War II and was promoted to captain in the Royal Australian Engineers. He remarried in 1927 but his wife died in 1951. He married a third time later that year. He died at his home at Hastings, Victoria, on 30 June 1961 and was survived by his widow, their son and a son from his second marriage. He is buried at the Methodist section of Frankston Cemetery, Victoria.