The AIF Project

Military Medal

Enlisted in Sydney on 4th September, 1914 and went with th 4th Battalion. He took part in the landing on Gallipoli. On May 11th he and a comrade carried in three wounded men, under heavy shell fire, for which they were mentioned in despatches and promoted. He was wounded on May 19th and returned to the front on July 2nd. He took part in Lonesome Pine action, and was one of the few men in his company to get through unhurt. He was one of the seven men picked from his battalion to remain behind at Gallipoli till the evacuation, and he left with the last batch at midnight. While on Gallipoli he and three others, after the remainder of their party had been killed, held a trench for some hours against a heavy Turkish bomb attack. He also turned a man over, found a bomb that had rolled under him and threw it out. It exploded as it left his hand. Had it exploded in the trench, the three would have been killed and the position taken.He was mentioned for further awards in France and recommended for his commission.(G G Nankivell father)

Villers-Bretonneux is a village about 15 km east of Amiens. The Memorial stands on the high ground ('Hill 104') behind the Villers-Bretonneux Military Cemetery, Fouilloy, which is about 2 km north of Villers-Bretonneux on the east side of the road to Fouilloy.

The Australian National Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux is approached through the Military Cemetery, at the end of which is an open grass lawn which leads into a three-sided court. The two pavilions on the left and right are linked by the north and south walls to the back (east) wall, from which rises the focal point of the Memorial, a 105 foot tall tower, of fine ashlar. A staircase leads to an observation platform, 64 feet above the ground, from which further staircases lead to an observation room. This room contains a circular stone tablet with bronze pointers indicating the Somme villages whose names have become synonymous with battles of the Great War; other battle fields in France and Belgium in which Australians fought; and far beyond, Gallipoli and Canberra.

On the three walls, which are faced with Portland stone, are the names of 10,885 Australians who were killed in France and who have no known grave. The 'blocking course' above them bears the names of the Australian Battle Honours.

After the war an appeal in Australia raised £22,700, of which £12,500 came from Victorian school children, with the request that the majority of the funds be used to build a new school in Villers-Bretonneux. The boys' school opened in May 1927, and contains an inscription stating that the school was the gift of Victorian schoolchildren, twelve hundred of whose fathers are buried in the Villers-Bretonneux cemetery, with the names of many more recorded on the Memorial. Villers-Bretonneux is now twinned with Robinvale, Victoria, which has in its main square a memorial to the links between the two towns.

Military Medal

War service: Egypt, Gallipoli, Western Front