Australian Victoria Cross Recipient
Corporal William Dunstan
Unit
7th Battalion
Born
8 March 1895 at Ballarat East, Victoria
Date of action
9 August 1915
Place
Lone Pine trenches, Gallipoli Peninsula, Turkey
Details
Early on the 9th the Turks made a determined counter-attack on a newly captured trench held by Lieutenant Tubb (also a VC winner), Corporals Burton (also a VC winner) and Dunstan and a few others. The Turks advanced up a sap and blew in the sandbag barricade but Dunstan, Tubb and Burton repulsed them and rebuilt it. Supported by two strong bombing parties, the enemy twice more destroyed the barricade but were driven off and the barricade was rebuilt. A bomb burst between Dunstan and Burton, killing Burton and temporarily blinding Dunstan.
Died
2 March 1957
Buried or Commemorated
Springvale Crematorium, Melbourne
Current location of the VC
Australian War Memorial