Australian Victoria Cross Winners WW1

[spidge]

Private Robert Matthew Beatham

Unit: 8th Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 1st Division
Action: 9 August 1918, Rosieres, east of Villers-Bretonneux, France
Beatham, 24, was part of the push towards Lihons when his battalion was held up by fierce opposition.
Beatham and Lance-Corporal William George Nottingham, DCM, MM, rushed the enemy position.

The citation says: ``(The two men) fought the crews of four enemy machine-guns, killing 10 of them and capturing 10 others. The bravery of the action greatly facilitated the advance of the whole battalion and prevented casualties.

"In fighting the crew of the first gun (Beatham) was shot through the right leg but continued in the advance. When the final objective was reached, although previously wounded, he again dashed forward and bombed a machine-gun, being riddled with bullets and killed in doing so.

"The valour displayed by this gallant soldier inspired all ranks in a wonderful manner.'' A letter from his company commander differs with the citation in saying Beatham was killed by a sniper shot to the head as he returned to the Australian position after capturing the machine-gun post.

Biography: The war took a heavy toll on the Beatham family. Of the seven brothers who served, four died (including Robert) and one spent two years as a prisoner of war.

Beatham was born in Cumberland, England on 16 June 1894 and migrated to Australia as a teenager. He was working as a labourer in Geelong, Victoria when he enlisted in the AIF in January 1915.

He was shipped out from Melbourne in April, but was sent home again from Egypt with a medical condition. He arrived in Gallipoli in December 1915, and was twice wounded in action, in France in August 1916 and Belgium in October 1917.

He also spent 92 days in hospital and at division base at Etaples in early 1917 for illness. He is buried at Heath Cemetery, Harbonnieres. His medal was sold in 1999 for a record price for an Australian VC of $178,500.

[spidge]

Second Lieutenant Frederick Birks

Unit: 6th Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 1st Division
Action: 20 September 1917, Glencorse Wood, east of Ypres, Belgium
Birks, 23, and Corporal William Johnston, attacked a pillbox which was holding up the advance.
Johnston was wounded when he deliberately threw himself at a bomb that was thrown at Birks, saving Birks' life.

The citation says: ``Birks went on by himself, killed the remainder of the enemy occupying the position, and captured a machine-gun. Shortly afterwards he organised a small party and attacked another strong point, which was occupied by about 25 of the enemy, of whom many were killed and an officer and 15 men captured.

"During the consolidation this officer did magnificent work in reorganising parties of other units which had been disorganised during the operations. By his wonderful coolness and personal bravery 2nd Lieutenant Birks kept his men in splendid spirits throughout. He was killed at his post by a shell whilst endeavouring to extricate some of his men who had been buried by a shell.''

Biography: Birks first encountered enemy fire when he single-handedly carried wounded men from the cliffs of Gallipoli on 25 April 1915 where it was impossible to carry a stretcher.
Born on 16 August 1894 in Buckley, Wales, he worked in a nearby steelworks until migrating to Australia in 1913. He worked in Tasmania, South Australia and Victoria for a year before enlisting in the AIF on 18 August 1914 and being posted to the 2nd Field Ambulance.

He was wounded at Cape Helles on May 1915, and again the following month. He was a stretcher bearer at the first battle of the Somme and was awarded the Military Medal at Pozieres.

He was selected for officer training in February 1917 and joined the 6th Battalion in May. He was buried in China Wall Cemetery, Belgium.

[spidge]

Lieutenant Arthur Seaforth Blackburn

Unit: 10th Battalion, 3rd Brigade, 1st Division
Action: 23 July 1916, Pozieres, France
A few hours after the action which resulted in Private Leak receiving a VC, the 23-year-old Blackburn led 50 men in a push to drive the men out of the same trench. The citation says: "By dogged determination he essentially captured their (250m) trench after personally leading four separate parties of bombers against it... Then after crawling with a sergeant to reconnoitre, he returned, attacked, and seized another 120 yards of trench.'' Blackburn's platoon Sergeant Robert Inwood was killed in the action. Inwood's brother, Corporal Reginald Inwood, was awarded the VC in 1917.

Biography: Aside from his VC, Blackburn made a notable achievement. On April 25 1915, he and Private Phil Robing penetrated 1800m inland at Anzac Cove, the furthest point the Australians reached at Gallipoli. Blackburn was born in Adelaide on 25 November 1892, graduated in law and was called to the bar in 1913 but enlisted in the AIF in August 1914. He was evacuated a few months after the action in Pozieres and was discharged in 1917, returning to the law. He served in the South Australian Parliament as a National Party member from 1918 to 1921 and was a founding member of the RSL in that state. He joined the militia in 1925 and led the 2/3rd Machine-gun Battalion in the Syria campaign in 1941.

The following year he was promoted to temporary brigadier and commanded Blackforce, which surrendered under Dutch orders. Blackburn spent the rest of the war in POW camps in Singapore, Japan, Korea and Manchuria. After the war he worked for the RSL. He died in 1960, survived by his wife and four children.

[spidge]

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.

[spidge]

Corporal Walter Ernest Brown

Unit: 20th Battalion, 5th Brigade, 2nd Division
Action: 6 July 1918, Villers-Bretonneux, France
Alerted by a sergeant of nearby snipers, Brown, 33, lay in wait for half-an-hour trying to locate the source of the sniper fire. He then went closer to the enemy, eventually spotting the source of the enemy fire behind a mound of dirt about 60m away.

The citation says: "Hearing that it had been decided to rush this post, Corporal Brown on his own initiative, crept out along the shallow trench and made a dash towards the post. An enemy machine-gun opened fire from another trench and forced him to take cover. Later he again dashed forth and reached his objective. With a Mills grenade in his hand he stood at the door of a dugout and called on the occupants to surrender. One of the enemy rushed out, a scuffle ensued, and Corporal Brown knocked him down with his fist. Loud cries of `Kamerad' were then heard, and from the dugout an officer and 11 other ranks appeared. This party Corporal Brown brought back as prisoners to our line, the enemy meanwhile from other positions bringing heavy machine-gun fire to bear on the party.''

Biography: Brown, who was a grocer before the war, proved to be a soldier of great courage who refused to surrender.
Born on 3 July 1885 in Tasmania, he was working in Sydney when he enlisted in July 1915. He was posted to the Light Horse but claimed he had lost his false teeth in order to be sent to Cairo where he joined the infantry.

He was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal for his actions at Passchendaele, where he rescued wounded men under fire and taking charge of his section when his sergeant was wounded. He was wounded twice in the month after the VC action, and was promoted to sergeant before being discharged from the AIF in February 1920. He worked as a brass-finisher in Sydney and then for the NSW Water Conservation and Irrigation Commission.

He married in 1932 and signed up in 1940 for the next war by claiming his age was 39, instead of 54. His identity was discovered and was promoted to lance-sergeant, but he insisted on being demoted to gunner.

Brown was part of the 8th Division sent to Malaya in 1941. When the Australians were ordered to surrender to the Japanese in Singapore, Brown's last recorded words were ``No surrender for me''. His body was never recovered. He was survived by his wife, son and daughter.

[spidge]

Temporary Corporal Alexander Henry Buckley

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, Corporal Arthur Charles Hall, 22, on the left and Buckley, 27, on the right, who rushed two different machine-gun posts.

Buckley's citation says: ``With one man he rushed the post, shooting four of the occupants and taking twenty two prisoners. Later on, reaching a moat, it was found that another machine-gun nest commanded the only available footbridge. While this was being engaged from a flank Corporal Buckley endeavoured to cross the bridge and rush the post, but was killed in the attempt.''

Biography: Buckley was born on 22 July 1891 at Warren, NSW, and schooled at home before farming on his father's property near Coonamble. He enlisted in the AIF in February 1916 and joined the 54th Battalion at Flers, France, on 17 November. He fought at Bullecourt, Polygon Wood, Broodseinde and Villers-Bretonneux. He is buried at the Peronne Communal Cemetery Extension, Ste Radegonde.

Sergeant Maurice Vincent Buckley (served as Gerald Sexton)
Unit: 13th Battalion, 4th Brigade, 4th Division
Action: 18 September 1918, near Le Verguier, northwest of Mont St Quentin, France
The 13th Battalion, ordered to attack the village of Le Veguier from the south, faced heavy opposition. Buckley rushed a field gun that held up part of the attack, killing the crew and then ran across open ground and under heavy machine-gun fire to attack a mortar. He then captured 30 Germans in a dug out. He continued to lead the attack, rushing at machine-guns that day and taking nearly 100 prisoners.

Biography: Before he was awarded the highest honour, Maurice Buckley had been declared a deserter. He was born on 13 April 1891 at Hawthorn Victoria and enlisted on 18 December 1914. He was shipped to Egypt with the Light Horse but soon sent back to Australia suffering venereal disease. He was admitted to Langwarrin Camp in September 1915 and deserted from there four months later. He re-enlisted under the alias of Gerald Sexton (Gerald was his brother who was killed six months earlier serving with the AIF and Sexton was his mother's maiden name). After the announcement of the VC but before receiving the medal from King George V at Buckingham Palace, he confessed about his past. He served at the Somme, Bullecourt, Polygon Wood, Ypres, Passchendaele and Villers-Bretonneux. He was awarded a Distinguished Conduct Medal for his actions at Amiens on 8 August 1918. After the war, he worked building roads around Gippsland.

He, along with 13 other VC recipients, took part in a controversial St Patrick's Day march in Melbourne. He was injured when he tried to jump his horse over railway gates at Boolarra, Victoria and died shortly afterwards on 27 January 1921. He received full military honours and had 10 VC recipients as his pallbearers. He was unmarried when he died and is buried at Brighton Cemetery, Melbourne.

[spidge]

Private Patrick Joseph Bugden

Unit: 31st Battalion, 8th Brigade, 5th Division
Action: 26-28 September 1917, Polygon Wood, near Ypres, Belgium.
In the three days before his death, Bugden, 20, performed numerous acts of bravery.

The citation says: "When, on two occasions, our advance was temporarily held up by strongly defended pillboxes. Private Bugden, in the face of devastating fire from machine-guns, gallantly led small parties to attack these strong points, and, successfully silencing the machine-guns with bombs, captured the garrison at the point of the bayonet.

"On another occasion, when a corporal, who had become detached from his company, had been captured and was being taken to the rear by the enemy, Private Bugden, single handed, rushed to the rescue of his comrade, shot one enemy, and bayoneted the remaining two, thus releasing the corporal.

"On five occasions, he rescued wounded men under intense shell and machine-gun fire, showing an utter contempt and disregard for danger. Always foremost in volunteering for any dangerous mission, it was during the execution of one of these missions that this gallant soldier was killed.''
Biography: While many Queenslanders may not recognise his name, they may have seen his Victoria Cross which is part of the Queensland Museum collection.

The young barman and champion athlete, who trained at Enoggera and enlisted in Brisbane, was born on 17 March 1897 at South Gundurimba, New South Wales.

He enlisted on 25 May 1916 and joined the 31st Battalion at Bapaume on 19 March 1917.

He is buried at Hooge Crater Cemetery in Belgium. On June 14, 1980, his sister presented his Victoria Cross to the Queensland Museum.

[spidge]

Corporal Alexander Stewart Burton

Unit: 7th Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 1st Division
Action: 9 August 1915, Lone Pine trenches, Gallipoli Peninsula, Turkey
When Lieutenant Symons left Goldenstedt's Post to recapture Jacob's Trench, Captain Frederick Harold Tubb, 33, was put in charge of the post, and ordered to defend it with a group of men including two corporals from the 7th Battalion, Alexander Burton, 22, and William Dunstan, 20.
This is the only occasion when three Australians, fighting side-by-side, all were awarded the Victoria Cross. Burton, who died in the action, was the first Australian soldier to receive the award posthumously.

Australia's official war historian C.E.W. Bean describes the action: ``Tubb had at that position 10 men, eight of whom were on the parapet, while two corporals, Webb and Wright, were told to remain on the floor of the trench in order to catch and throw back the enemy's bombs, or else to smother their explosion by throwing over them Turkish overcoats which were lying about the trenches.

"A few of the enemy, shouting `Allah!', had in the first rush scrambled into the Australian trench, but had been shot or bayoneted.''

"Tubb and his men now fired at them over the parapet, shooting all who came up Goldenstendt's Trench or who attempted to creep over the open ...

"But one by one the men who were catching bombs were mutilated. Wright clutched at one which burst in his face and killed him. Webb, an orphan from Essendon, continued to catch them, but presently both his hands were blown away and, after walking out of the Pine, he died at Brown's Dip.

"At one moment several bombs burst simultaneously in Tubb's recess. Four men in it were killed or wounded; a fifth was blown down and his rifle shattered. Tubb, bleeding from bomb wounds in arm and scalp, continued to fight, supported in the end only by a Ballarat recruit, Corporal Dunstan, and a personal friend of his own, Corporal Burton of Euroa.

"At this stage there occurred at the barricade a violent explosion, which threw back the defenders and tumbled down the sandbags ... Dunstan and Burton were helping to rebuild the barrier when a bomb went off between them, killing Burton and temporarily blinding his comrade. Tubb obtained further men from the next post, Tubb's Corner; but the enemy's attack weakened ...''

Biography: Burton was born at Kyneton, Victoria on 20 January 1893. After going to school locally, he worked at the family store at Euroa, joined the Euroa Presbyterian Church choir and the town band.

He enlisted on 18 August, 1914 and with an army number of 348, was among the first to sign up. One account says he was injured in the April 25 landing at Gallipoli, another says he was ill with a throat infection and had to watch the Gallipoli landing from a hospital ship.

He rejoined his unit on 18 May, volunteered to take part in tunnel digging in the face of the enemy
in July and was promoted to corporal shortly before his death.

His body was never recovered. For many years, his VC was kept in a drawer in a desk at the family store but is now on display at the Australian War Memorial.

[spidge]

Private George Cartwright

Unit: 33rd Battalion, 9th Brigade, 3rd Division
Action: 31 August 1918, Rood Wood, southwest of Bouchavesnes, near Peronne, France

Eight Australians were awarded Victoria Crosses in the capture of Mont St Quentin and Peronne. The first went to 23-year-old Cartwright.

The citation says: "When two companies were held up by machine-gun fire, from the southwestern edge of the wood, without hesitation, Private Cartwright moved against the gun in a most deliberate manner under intense fire. He shot three of the team, and, having bombed the post, captured the gun and nine enemy. This gallant deed had a most inspiring effect on the whole line, which immediately rushed forward. Throughout the operation Private Cartwright displayed wonderful dash, grim determination, and courage of the highest order.''

Biography: Cartwright was born in London on 9 December 1894 but migrated to Australia as a young man and was living near Inverell when he enlisted in December 1915. He arrived in France in November 1916. He was wounded at Messines in June 1917, gassed in April 1918 and was shipped to Britain in September 1918 when he was wounded again. He returned to Australia the following year and was discharged from the AIF, although he continued to serve with the Citizen Military Force. During World War II, he was promoted to captain and was stationed at various training centres.

He lived in Epping, NSW, and married in 1921. The couple had two children before they divorced and Cartwright remarried in 1948. The machine-gun he captured at Peronne is on display at the Australian War Memorial. He died 2 February 1978 and is commemorated by a plaque in the NSW Garden of Remembrance at Rookwood.

[spidge]

Sergeant Claud Charles Castleton

Unit: 5th Machine-gun Company, 5th Brigade, 2nd Division
Action: 28 July 1916, Pozieres, France
The 2nd Division attacked Pozieres heights at 12.15am, but faced heavy opposition.
The Diggers, including Castleton, 23, were pinned down by machine-gun fire. They withdrew before dawn but many wounded were left in no-man's land.

The citation says: ``Sergeant Castleton went out twice in face of this intense fire and each time brought in a wounded man on his back.
He went out a third time and was bringing in another wounded man when he was himself hit in the back and killed instantly.
He set a splendid example of courage and self-sacrifice.''

Biography: Castleton was a school teacher who loved nature and geography. Born in Suffolk,
England on 12 April 1893, he was a pupil teacher in a local council school before migrating to Australia aged 19.
He travelled around the country and worked in Port Moresby for a while on coastal defences and at a wireless station.

He enlisted in Sydney in the AIF on 10 March 1915 and served at Gallipoli from 16 August until he was evacuated a month later with dysentery.

He returned to service before the Diggers evacuated Gallipoli. He transferred to the 5th Machine-gun Company and arrived in France about four months before he was killed.
Castleton, who was unmarried, is buried at the Pozieres British Cemetery.