Second Lieutenant Hugo Vivian Hope Throssell

Second Lieutenant Hugo Vivian Hope Throssell

10th Light Horse Regiment

27 October 1884 at Northam, Western Australia

29-30 August 1915

Kaiakij Aghala (Hill 60), Gallipoli Peninsula, Turkey

An attack commenced at 1 am on the 29th and within seconds the light horsemen were engaged in furious hand-to-hand fighting in the Turkish trenches. They succeeded in driving the defenders back. About thirty minutes later, during consolidation, the Turks counter-attacked and overwhelmed the barricade in the trench. They were driven back. They attacked again at 3am on the 30th and a bloody fight took place. Despite appalling odds the 10th fought the Turks out of the trench back to their own lines. Just before daylight another attack was beaten back and at dawn the counter-attacks ceased. Despite his terrible wounds Throssell refused to leave his post to obtain medical assistance until all danger had passed. A soldier offered him a cigarette. ‘He took the cigarette but could do nothing with it. The wounds in his shoulders and arms had stiffened, and his hands could not reach his mouth . . . [his] shirt was full of holes from pieces of bomb, and one of the ‘Australia's [shoulder badges] was twisted and broken, and had been driven into his shoulder.' (Richard Reid, For Valour, Australia Post Philatelic Group, 2000 page 14.) When he had had his wounds dressed he returned to the firing line until ordered out of action by the medical officer.

19 November 1933

Karrakatta Cemetery, Perth. A memorial plaque was unveiled at Greenmount on 25 February 1954

Australian War Memorial