Cool bravery turned tables in attack
When John Hamilton joined the AIF in September 1914 he was just 18 and working as a butcher in his father’s shop in Oakey Park, a mining settlement outside the NSW town of Lithgow.
Posted to the AIF’s 3rd Battalion, he landed on the Gallipoli Peninsula on April 25, 1915.
He won the Victoria Cross for outstanding bravery in the trenches of Lone Pine on August 9. It was the only VC awarded to the battalion during the war.
When the Turks launched a massive bombing attack along the newly captured Lone Pine, the 3rd Battalion’s adjutant ordered a number of soldiers to man the parapet and halt the Turks who had forced their way into Sasse’s Sap.
They were moving up the trench towards the battalion’s headquarters. Others were attacking across open ground.
Pte Hamilton was among those ordered to stop them.
Most of the other troops were feverishly working to replace the sandbags destroyed in an earlier mass assault.
Rather than fight from the parados — the rear of the trench — Pte Hamilton sat astride the parapet in the open, protected by only a few sandbags.
From that position he shouted to the others where to lob their bombs, as well as directing a steady rate of rifle fire against the enemy.
He kept this up for six hours.
Pte Hamilton’s citation commented on his “conspicuous bravery” during the fight noting that he, “with utter disregard for his personal safety, exposed himself under heavy fire . . . in order to secure a better fire position against the enemy’s bomb-throwers.
“His coolness and daring example had an immediate effect.”
The Turks lost heavily before breaking off contact.
The 3rd Battalion was eventually sent to the blitzed killing fields of the Western Front. Pte Hamilton was promoted to sergeant and was later sent to 5 Cadet Officer Battalion at Cambridge, England.
He was commissioned as a 2nd lieutenant in July 1919 and was discharged later that year.
From the battlefields of Europe, he went on to work as a wharf labourer for more than three decades on the Sydney docks.
At the time, they were the site of battles of another kind and John Hamilton was a militant member of the Waterside Workers Federation.
With the outbreak of World War II he returned to the active list as a full lieutenant and was later promoted to captain.
He was a member of various service units and was posted to New Guinea (1942-43) and Bougainville (1945-46).
Despite repeated attempts to see active service, he spent the war in support and training roles.
John Hamilton died in February 1961, the last of the seven VC winners from the battles at Lone Pine.
