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BORN
30 August 1933

Warrant Officer Keith Payne

Keith Payne was born at Ingham, Queensland, on 30 August 1933. He attended Ingham State School and afterwards became an apprentice cabinet-maker. During this time he also served with the 31st Australian Infantry Battalion in the Citizens’ Military Force. Seeking greater opportunities, Payne joined the Australian Regular Army in August 1951 and after his basic and initial employment training was posted to the 2nd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (2RAR) in December 1951.

Payne was transferred to the 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (1RAR) in July 1952 and later that month was sent to Japan as an infantry reinforcement. In September 1952 he was sent to Korea, where he joined his unit. He served with the battalion until they were rotated out of Korea in March 1953, whereupon he was taken on strength of Headquarters, 28th British Commonwealth Brigade. He remained with this formation until the end of the Korean War, and returned to Australia in August 1953.
In December 1954 Payne married Florence Plaw, a member of the Women’s Royal Australian Army Corps. He was promoted to corporal the following year and spent much of the next five years attending various courses and schools of instruction to further his army career.

On 24 February 1969 he was appointed to the Australian Army Training Team in Vietnam. In May that year he was commanding the 212th Company of the 1st Mobile Strike Force Battalion when it was attacked by a strong North Vietnamese force. His company was isolated and, surrounded on three sides, Payne’s Vietnamese troops began to fall back. Payne, by now wounded in the hands and arms and under heavy fire, covered the withdrawal before organising his troops into a defensive perimeter. He then spent three hours scouring the scene of the day’s fight for isolated and wounded soldiers, all the while evading enemy troops, who kept up harassing fire. He found some 40 wounded men, brought some in himself and organised for the rescue of the others, leading the party back to base through enemy-dominated terrain. Years later, asked whether he was afraid, Payne replied, “My God yes, yes, I was.” Payne’s actions that night earned him the Victoria Cross.

He was evacuated to Brisbane in September suffering from an illness, receiving a warm reception at the Brisbane airport before entering hospital. He had recovered by November, and in January 1970 was posted as an instructor to the Royal Military College, Duntroon.

Payne received his VC from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II aboard the Royal Yacht, Britannia in Brisbane on 13 April 1970. He was made a Freeman of the city and of the shire in which his hometown was located. A park in Stafford, Brisbane, where Payne lived, was also named after him. He received the Distinguished Service Cross and the Silver Star from the United States, and the Republic of Vietnam awarded him the Cross of Gallantry with Bronze Star. He retired from the army in 1975, but saw further action as a captain with the Army of the Sultan of Oman during the Dhofar War.

Payne returned to Australia and became active in the veteran community, particularly in counseling sufferers of post-traumatic stress disorder.

BORN
30 August 1933

Warrant Officer Keith Payne

Keith Payne was born at Ingham, Queensland, on 30 August 1933. He attended Ingham State School and afterwards became an apprentice cabinet-maker. During this time he also served with the 31st Australian Infantry Battalion in the Citizens’ Military Force. Seeking greater opportunities, Payne joined the Australian Regular Army in August 1951 and after his basic and initial employment training was posted to the 2nd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (2RAR) in December 1951.

Payne was transferred to the 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (1RAR) in July 1952 and later that month was sent to Japan as an infantry reinforcement. In September 1952 he was sent to Korea, where he joined his unit. He served with the battalion until they were rotated out of Korea in March 1953, whereupon he was taken on strength of Headquarters, 28th British Commonwealth Brigade. He remained with this formation until the end of the Korean War, and returned to Australia in August 1953.
In December 1954 Payne married Florence Plaw, a member of the Women’s Royal Australian Army Corps. He was promoted to corporal the following year and spent much of the next five years attending various courses and schools of instruction to further his army career.

On 24 February 1969 he was appointed to the Australian Army Training Team in Vietnam. In May that year he was commanding the 212th Company of the 1st Mobile Strike Force Battalion when it was attacked by a strong North Vietnamese force. His company was isolated and, surrounded on three sides, Payne’s Vietnamese troops began to fall back. Payne, by now wounded in the hands and arms and under heavy fire, covered the withdrawal before organising his troops into a defensive perimeter. He then spent three hours scouring the scene of the day’s fight for isolated and wounded soldiers, all the while evading enemy troops, who kept up harassing fire. He found some 40 wounded men, brought some in himself and organised for the rescue of the others, leading the party back to base through enemy-dominated terrain. Years later, asked whether he was afraid, Payne replied, “My God yes, yes, I was.” Payne’s actions that night earned him the Victoria Cross.

He was evacuated to Brisbane in September suffering from an illness, receiving a warm reception at the Brisbane airport before entering hospital. He had recovered by November, and in January 1970 was posted as an instructor to the Royal Military College, Duntroon.

Payne received his VC from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II aboard the Royal Yacht, Britannia in Brisbane on 13 April 1970. He was made a Freeman of the city and of the shire in which his hometown was located. A park in Stafford, Brisbane, where Payne lived, was also named after him. He received the Distinguished Service Cross and the Silver Star from the United States, and the Republic of Vietnam awarded him the Cross of Gallantry with Bronze Star. He retired from the army in 1975, but saw further action as a captain with the Army of the Sultan of Oman during the Dhofar War.

Payne returned to Australia and became active in the veteran community, particularly in counseling sufferers of post-traumatic stress disorder.

BORN
26 October 1884

DIED
19 November 1933

Captain Hugo Vivian Hope Throssell

Hugo Vivian Hope Throssell (1884-1933), soldier and farmer, was born on 26 October 1884 at Northam, Western Australia, youngest son of George Throssell, storekeeper and later premier, and his wife Anne, née Morrell, Hugo was one of fourteen children.

With the outbreak of war Hugo and Ric joined the 10th Light Horse Regiment, formed in October 1914. Hugo was commissioned as second lieutenant and remained in Egypt when the 10th was sent to Gallipoli in May 1915. He landed on Gallipoli on 4 August, three days before the charge at the Nek-’that FOOL charge’ as he described it-when 9 officers and 73 men of his regiment were killed within minutes.

At 1 a.m. by moonlight on 29 August the 10th Light Horse was brought into action to take a long trench, 100 yards (91 m) of which was held by Turkish troops on the summit of Hill 60. As a guard, Throssell killed five Turks while his men constructed a barricade across their part of the trench. When a fierce bomb fight began, ‘a kind of tennis over the traverse and sandbags’, Throssell and his soldiers held their bombs on short fuse until the last possible moment before hurling them at the enemy on the other side of the barricade. Throughout the remainder of the night both sides threw more than 3000 bombs, the Western Australians picking up the bombs thrown at them by the Turks and hurling them back. Towards dawn the Turks made three rushes at the Australian trench, but were stopped by showers of bombs and heavy rifle-fire. Throssell, who at one stage was in sole command, was wounded twice. His face covered in blood from bomb splinters in his forehead, he repeatedly yelled encouragement to his men. For his part in the battle Hugo Throssell was awarded the Victoria Cross. It was the first V.C. to be awarded to a Western Australian in the war.

Evacuated to hospital in England, Throssell was promoted captain and joined his regiment in Egypt. He was wounded in April 1917 at the 2nd battle of Gaza where his brother Ric was killed. On the night that Ric disappeared, Hugo crawled across the battlefield under enemy fire, searching in vain for his brother among the dead and dying, and whistling for him with the same signal as they had used when boys.

Throssell married the Australian author Katharine Susannah Prichard whom he had met in England. They settled on a 40-acre (16 ha) mixed farm at Greenmount, near Perth. His wife wrote that those early years of marriage with Hugo, whom she called Jim, were her happiest. When she became a foundation member of the Communist Party of Australia in 1920, Hugo joined her as a speaker supporting unemployed and striking workers. He claimed that the war had made him a socialist and a pacifist. The combination of her award-winning novels and Communism, and his Victoria Cross, brought them fame and notoriety.

Hard times came in the Depression. Katharine believed that her political activities lost Hugo his job with the settlement board, and that his passion to own land led him to borrow recklessly from the banks. He joined the search for gold at Larkinville in the early 1930s. When that proved unsuccessful, he devised a scheme which he hoped would prove a money-spinner. While Katharine was on a six-month visit to Russia, he organized a rodeo on his Greenmount property on a Sunday, not knowing that it was illegal to charge entry fees on the sabbath. The only money Hugo raised from the 2000 people who attended was a meagre silver collection for charity. The episode plunged him further into debt and shattered his optimism.

Imagining that he could better provide for his wife and 11-year-old son if he left them a war service pension, he shot himself on 19 November 1933 at Greenmount. Friends blamed his melancholy on an attack of meningitis at Gallipoli and saw it as the cause of his suicide. He was buried with full military honours in the Anglican section of Karrakatta cemetery, Perth.

In 1954 a memorial to him was unveiled at Greenmount, opposite his home. In 1983 his son Ric presented Hugo’s Victoria Cross to the People for Nuclear Disarmament. The Returned Services League of Australia bought the medal and presented it to the Australian War Memorial, Canberra.

BORN
10 February 1896

DIED
06 July 1967

Sergeant Major Joseph Maxwell

Joseph Maxwell (1896-1967), often claimed as the second most decorated Australian soldier in World War I, was born on 10 February 1896 at Annandale, Sydney, son of John Maxwell, labourer, and his wife Elizabeth, née Stokes.

Employed as an apprentice boilermaker in Newcastle, he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on 8 February 1915. He was posted to the 18th Battalion and served at Gallipoli before proceeding with his battalion to France in March 1916. Promoted sergeant in October, he went to a training battalion in England, briefly returning to France in May 1917 before being sent back to attend an officer training school. Involved in a brawl with civil and military police in London, he was fined and returned to his unit. He was promoted warrant officer in August and appointed company sergeant major.

In September, during the 3rd battle of Ypres, Maxwell took command of a platoon after its officer had been killed and led it in the attack. Later he safely extricated men from a newly captured position under intense enemy fire. For this action he was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal and a few days later was commissioned in the field as second lieutenant; he was promoted lieutenant in January 1918. In March he led a scouting patrol east of Ploegsteert and after obtaining the required information ordered his men to withdraw. He was covering them when he saw a large party of Germans nearby. Recalling the patrol, he organized and led a successful attack, an action for which he was awarded the Military Cross.

In August, during the offensive near Rainecourt, Maxwell, the only officer in his company who was not a casualty, took command and, preceded by a tank, led his men into the attack on time. The tank received a direct hit and Maxwell, although shaken by the explosion, rescued the crew before the tank burst into flames. He continued the attack and the company reached its objective. He was awarded a Bar to his Military Cross.

Maxwell was awarded the Victoria Cross after an attack on the Beaurevoir-Fonsomme line near Estrées on 3 October. After his company commander was wounded he took charge. Reaching the strong enemy wire under intense fire, he pushed forward alone through a narrow passageway in the wire and captured the most dangerous machine-gun, disposing of the crew. His company was thus able to penetrate the wire and take the objective. Shortly afterwards, again single-handed, he silenced a machine-gun holding up a flank company. Later, with two men and an English-speaking prisoner, he encouraged about twenty Germans in a nearby post to surrender, and in doing so was briefly captured himself. Awaiting his opportunity, he drew a pistol concealed in his respirator haversack, killed two of the enemy and escaped with his men under heavy rifle-fire. He then organized a party and captured the post.

In just over twelve months Maxwell was awarded the D.C.M., the M.C. and Bar and the V.C., and he was only 22 when the war ended.

In 1932, helped by Hugh Buggy, Maxwell published the very successful Hell’s Bells and Mademoiselles, an account of the war as he saw it; at the time he was working as a gardener with the Department of the Interior in Canberra. His health was often very unstable. He attempted, unsuccessfully because of his age, to enlist in the 2nd A.I.F., but eventually succeeded in enlisting in Queensland under a false name; his identity was discovered and he was discharged.

On 6 July 1967 Maxwell collapsed and died of a heart attack in a street in his home suburb of Matraville; he had for some time been an invalid pensioner. After a service with military honours at St Matthias Anglican Church, Paddington, he was cremated. His widow donated his medals to the Army Museum, Victoria Barracks, Paddington.

BORN
10 January 1893

DIED
17 January 1932

Captain Albert Jacka

Albert Jacka was born on 10 January 1893 at Layard in Victoria. He completed elementary schooling before working as a labourer, first with his father and then with the Victorian State Forests Department.

He enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on 18 September 1914 as a private in the 14th Battalion. After training in Egypt Jacka’s battalion landed at Gallipoli on 26 April 1915. Just over three weeks later on 19 May, with the ANZACs now entrenched above the beaches, the Turks launched large-scale frontal assaults against their positions. Some Turks captured a small section of trench at Courtney’s Post. Early attempts to drive them out failed, until Jacka, taking advantage of a diversion created by bomb throwers at one end of the Turkish position, leapt in, killing most of the occupants. For this he was awarded Australia’s first Victoria Cross of the First World War.

Jacka quickly became famous – his likeness was used on recruiting posters and his exploits featured regularly in newspapers, particularly in his native Victoria. He began a rapid rise through the ranks, finally becoming a captain in March 1917. Jacka having risen no higher has been attributed to his frequent disputes with superior officers.

After Gallipoli the 14th Battalion was shipped to France, where, at Pozieres in August 1916 and at Bullecourt in 1917 he received the Military Cross and a bar to that award. The Australian official historian, Charles Bean, described his actions at Pozieres, during which he recaptured a section of trench, freed a group of recently captured Australians and forced the surrender of some fifty Germans, as “the most dramatic and effective act of individual audacity in the history of the AIF.” He was severely wounded during this action and was hit by a sniper’s bullet in July 1917. On each occasion he returned to the front, always furthering his reputation as one of the AIF’s most respected warriors. In May 1918 he received the wound that ended his combat career, this time during a German gas bombardment near Villers-Bretonneux.

Jacka returned to Australia in September 1919. Greeted by a large crowd upon his return, Jacka was described in one newspaper as “the symbol of the spirit of the ANZACs.” In 1929 Jacka was elected to the St Kilda Council becoming mayor the following year. His political career was characterised by his strong interest in assisting the unemployed.

At the same time Jacka’s health began to deteriorate. He entered Caulfield Military Hospital in December 1931 and died from kidney disease the following month. More than 6,000 people filed past his coffin as it lay in state and his funeral procession, flanked by thousands of onlookers, was led by over 1,000 returned soldiers – the coffin was carried by eight Victoria Cross recipients. Jacka was buried with full military honours in St Kilda cemetery.

Citation:

For most conspicuous bravery on the night of the 19-20th May, 1915, at Courtney’s Post, Gallipoli Peninsula. Lance Corporal Jacka, while holding a portion of our trench with four men, was heavily attacked. When all except himself were killed or wounded, the trench was rushed and occupied by seven Turks. Lance Corporal Jacka at once most gallantly attacked them single-handed and killed the whole party, five by rifle fire and two with the bayonet.

BORN
13 April 1891

DIED
27 January 1921

Corporal Maurice Vincent Buckley

Maurice Vincent Buckley (1891-1921), soldier, was born on 13 April 1891 at Hawthorn, Victoria, son of Timothy Buckley, brickmaker, and his wife Honora Mary Agnes, née Sexton. His father was a native of Cork, Ireland; his mother was Victorian-born. Educated at the Christian Brothers’ school, Abbotsford, he became a coach-trimmer and was working at Warrnambool when he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on 18 December 1914. Next June he embarked for Egypt with reinforcements for the 13th Light Horse Regiment but by late September 1915 he had returned to Australia and was discharged.

Buckley re-enlisted in Sydney on 16 May 1916 under the name of Gerald Sexton; Gerald was the name of a deceased brother. He left for France in October with 13th Battalion reinforcements and joined his unit on the Somme in January 1917. That year he fought at Bullecourt, Polygon Wood, Ypres and Passchendaele and early in 1918 at Hébuterne and Villers-Bretonneux. He was promoted lance corporal in January and by June was a lance sergeant in charge of a Lewis-gun section. After being wounded at Hamel he resumed duty for the battle of 8 August in which he received the Distinguished Conduct Medal. While advancing from Hamel towards Morcourt his company was delayed by sudden machine-gun fire on four separate occasions; he quickly silenced each enemy post by using his Lewis-gun with great promptness and skill. Once, when the battalion was advancing through tall crops, a hidden gun fired into its ranks causing several casualties. Buckley stood up in full view of the enemy, calmly noted the position of the gun from the flashes and, firing from the hip, put it out of action. He was confirmed as sergeant on 28 August.

On 18 September the 13th Battalion took part in the attack on Le Verguier. Setting off behind the creeping barrage it cleared several enemy outposts, two of which fell to Buckley’s Lewis-gun. When a field-gun held up one company he rushed towards it, shot the crew and raced under machine-gun fire across open ground to put a trench-mortar out of action. He then fired into an enemy dug-out and captured thirty Germans. By the end of the day he had rushed at least six machine-gun positions, captured a field-gun and taken nearly 100 prisoners: he was awarded the Victoria Cross. The award was gazetted under the name Sexton, and Buckley then decided to reveal his identity; a second gazettal was made in his real name.

Buckley returned to Australia and was discharged in December 1919; next year he began work as a road-contractor in Gippsland. On 15 January 1921 he was injured when he tried to jump his horse over the railway gates at Boolarra. He died twelve days later in hospital at Fitzroy, and after a requiem mass in St Patrick’s Cathedral was buried in Brighton cemetery with full military honours. Ten Victoria Cross recipients were pallbearers. Buckley was unmarried. A friend described him as a ‘modest, unassuming young man, with a great fondness for horses and an open-air life’.

BORN
14 August 1892

DIED
28 February 1986

Lieutenant Rupert Vance Moon

Rupert Theo Vance Moon (1892-1986), soldier and businessman, was born on 14 August 1892 at Bacchus Marsh, Victoria, fourth child of English-born parents Arthur Moon, accountant and later bank inspector, and his wife Helen, née Dunning. Rupert was educated to junior public certificate level at Kyneton Grammar School before becoming a bank clerk at 16 with the National Bank of Australasia Ltd.

On 21 August 1914 Moon, having served in the Militia, enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force as a trumpeter. He embarked on 19 October at Melbourne with the 4th Light Horse Regiment, which sailed to Egypt with the 1st Division and was employed as infantry on Gallipoli from 24 May 1915 until evacuated to Egypt in December. Promoted to sergeant on 6 March 1916, he left for France where, on 9 September, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant and appointed a platoon commander in the 58th Battalion.
Promoted to lieutenant on 6 April 1917, Moon led his battalion in the successful breaching of the Hindenburg Line in the second battle of Bullecourt next month. Assisted by the British 7th Division, on 12 May it made the initial assault on a large dugout, a concrete machine-gun redoubt and a hostile trench. Moon personally led the assault during which he was wounded four times. Despite heavy enemy shelling his platoon achieved its objectives and trapped 186 Germans, including two officers. For this action he was awarded the Victoria Cross, the citation reading: ‘His bravery was magnificent and was largely instrumental in the successful issue against superior numbers, the safeguarding of the flank of the attack, and the capture of many prisoners and machine guns’. Considered by his brigade commander, H. E. Elliott, as too diffident for command, Moon had proved to be a brave and tenacious leader.

Moon readjusted to civilian life with difficulty. Having resigned from the National Bank in December 1919, he accepted numerous jobs before becoming livestock manager with the woolbrokers Dennys, Lascelles Ltd, Geelong, in 1928. On 17 December 1931 he married Susan Alison May Vincent at St George’s Presbyterian Church, Geelong. Rising in the company, Moon became general manager (1948-59) and a director (1962-75). He was also a director (1940-75) of Queensland Stations Pty Ltd and chairman (1961-67) of The Northern Assurance Co. Ltd.

In World War II Moon served as a captain in the Volunteer Defence Corps. Posted to the 6th Victorian Battalion (1942 and 1944-45), he was seconded to the South-West Group in 1943-44 for staff duties.

A racehorse owner, ‘Mick’ Moon was a life member and committee member of Moonee Valley Racing Club, and a life member of the Victorian Amateur Turf and the Naval and Military clubs. He was also a member of the Victoria Racing, the Melbourne and the Geelong clubs.

Possessed of great loyalty and integrity, Moon had a direct peppery approach that disguised his fondness for people, particularly the young. He had a retentive memory and a gallant, zestful approach to life. Survived by his wife and their son and daughter, he died at his Barwon Heads home on 28 February 1986 and was buried with Anglican rites at Mount Duneed cemetery. His portrait by W. B. McInnes is held by the Australian War Memorial, Canberra.

BORN
01 December 1880

DIED
07 January 1966

Captain Henry William (Harry) Murray

Harry Murray was born at Launceston, Tasmania, on 1 December 1880. As a youth he helped run the family farm. He was also interested in the military and joined a militia unit, the Australian Field Artillery, in Launceston.

Murray moved to Western Australia at the age of 19 or 20 where he worked as a mail courier on the goldfields. When he enlisted in the AIF as a private on 30 September 1914, he was employing timber-cutters for the railways in the south west of Western Australia. He landed at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915 as a member of one of the 16th Battalion’s two machine-gun crews. Murray was wounded several times, spent June in hospital, was promoted to lance corporal on 13 May and received the Distinguished Conduct Medal for his bravery between 9-31 May. He was wounded again on 8 July and a month later experienced a remarkable series of promotions. On 13 August he was made a sergeant, commissioned second-lieutenant and transferred to the 13th Battalion.

By 1 March 1916 Murray had reached the rank of captain and soon after sailed for France with the 13th Battalion. On the Western Front Murray defied the statistics, participating in each of his unit’s major actions and surviving. He received the Distinguished Service Order for his role in the fighting at Mouquet Farm, where he was twice wounded. His wounds kept Murray from the front until October.

Four months later, on the night of 4-5 February, Murray led his company’s attack on Stormy Trench, near Gueudecourt. Over almost 24 hours they repelled counter-attacks, fought in merciless close quarter battles and suffered under intense shell-fire. Some 230 members of the Battalion were killed in the fight and Murray was awarded the Victoria Cross.

In March 1918 he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and given command of the 4th machine gun battalion. He remained in this position until the end of the war. In April during the attack on Bullecourt Murray was awarded a bar to his Distinguished Service Order. In October 1918 Murray was awarded the French Croix de Guerre and in May 1919 was promoted to CMG.

With the fighting over, Murray toured England studying agricultural methods. His service in the AIF ended on 9 March 1920 and he settled on a grazing property at Muckadilla in Queensland. The following year he married Constance Cameron, but the marriage lasted just a few years and in 1925 he moved to New Zealand where he married Ellen Cameron. The couple returned to Queensland in 1928 and purchased another grazing property at Richmond.

Murray enlisted for service during the Second World War and commanded the 26th Battalion in north Queensland until August 1942. He retired from the army in early 1944. Regarded as a shy and modest man, he was described as the most distinguished fighting officer of the AIF. Murray died of a heart attack following a car accident on 7 January 1966.

BORN
23 July 1889

DIED
07 July 1968

Sergeant Stanley Robert McDougall

Stanley Robert McDougall (1889-1968), soldier and forester, was born on 23 July 1889 at Recherche, Tasmania, son of John Henry McDougall, sawmiller, and his wife Susannah, née Cate. Educated locally, he took up blacksmithing and served his time at this trade. He was an excellent horseman, an expert marksman, a competent bushman and an amateur boxer.

Illness prevented him from enlisting in the Australian Imperial Force until 31 August 1915 when he was posted to the 12th Reinforcements to the 15th Battalion. In Egypt, on 3 March 1916, he was drafted into the 47th Battalion and embarked for France in June. The battalion fought at Pozières Heights in August and in the battles of Messines and Broodseinde in 1917. Appointed lance corporal on 5 May 1917, McDougall was promoted corporal in September; he became temporary sergeant in November and was confirmed in that rank next January.

McDougall was awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions at Dernancourt on 28 March 1918. He was on watch at a post on the 47th’s right flank when he heard Germans approaching. When a Lewis-gun team was knocked out by an enemy bomb McDougall snatched up the gun, attacked two machine-gun teams and killed their crews. He turned one of the captured machine-guns on the enemy, killing several and routing one wave of their attack. Meanwhile about fifty Germans had crossed a section of railway which the Australians had held. McDougall turned his gun on them and when his ammunition was spent he seized a bayonet and charged, killing four men. He then used a Lewis-gun, killing many Germans and forcing the surrender of the remaining thirty-three.

Eight days later, in the same location, McDougall was awarded the Military Medal. During a heavy enemy attack he got a gun into position and enfiladed the Germans at close quarters. When the gun was hit he crawled some 300 yards (275 m) under fire to get a replacement; he then took command of the leaderless platoon for the rest of the action. He was posted to the 48th Battalion on 28 May. At Windsor Castle on 19 August he was invested with the Victoria Cross by King George V and shortly afterwards returned to Australia where he was discharged from the A.I.F. on 15 December 1918.

McDougall entered the Tasmanian Forestry Department and in the early 1930s became an inspector in charge of forests in the north-western part of the State. He several times performed outstanding organisational and rescue work during bushfires. He was living at Scottsdale before visiting London for the V.C. centenary in 1956. McDougall died on 7 July 1968 at Scottsdale, survived by his wife Martha, née Anderson-Harrison, whom he had married in 1926.

The uniform he wore and the Lewis-gun he used at Dernancourt are displayed in the Australian War Memorial Hall of Valour with his Victoria Cross and Military Medal. The memorial also has a portrait of him by Frank Crozier.