Australian Victoria Cross Recipient
Lieutenant William John Symons
Unit
7th Battalion
Born
10 July 1889 at Eaglehawk, Bendigo, Victoria
Date of action
8-9 August 1915
Place
Lone Pine trenches, Gallipoli Peninsula, Turkey
Details
Symons was in command of the right section of the newly captured trenches held by his battalion and repelled several counter-attacks with great coolness. At about 5am on 9 August the Turks made a series of determined attacks on an isolated sap known as Jacob’s trench. Six officers were, in succession, killed or severely wounded in the sap and a portion of it was lost. Symons was then instructed by Lieutenant Colonel H.E. Elliot to retake the sap. Symons organised and led a charge which drove the Turks out. He then rebuilt the barricade. He killed two of the enemy with his revolver. Then, when the sap was attacked from the front and two flanks, he obtained permission from Elliot to withdraw to adjacent overhead cover, leaving fifteen metres of open trench to the enemy, so that another barricade could be erected. The Turks persisted in the attack and twice fired the barricade woodwork but Symons led rushes that drove them back and the fires were extinguished.
Died
24 June 1948
Buried or Commemorated
Plaque at Garden of Remembrance, Melbourne
Current location of the VC
Australian War Memorial