Bernard Sidney Gordon

Attacked enemy gun posts and captured troops almost unaided.

Born in Launceston in 1891, Bernard Sidney Gordon enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in 1915 and served with the 41st Battalion. He earned the Military Medal near Hamel in August 1918. East of Bray on 26 and 27 August, he attacked gun posts and cleared trenches almost alone, capturing six machine guns and 63 prisoners. After returning to Australia in 1919, he worked as a grocer at Clayfield and later as a dairy farmer near Beaudesert, Queensland. He also served in Queensland during the Second World War. In the early 1960s he sold his farm and moved to Torquay, where he bought flats and cottages for rental income. He died there on 19 October 1963.

Victoria Cross citation: For most conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty on the 26th-27th August, 1918, east of Bray. He led his section through heavy shell fire to the objective, which he consolidated. Single-handed he attacked an enemy machine gun which was enfilading the company on his right, killed the man on the gun, and captured the post, which contained one officer and ten men. He then cleared up a trench, capturing twenty-nine prisoners and two machine guns.

In clearing up further trenches he captured twenty-two prisoners, including one officer, and three machine guns. Practically unaided, he captured, in the course of these operations, two officers and sixty-one other ranks, together with six machine guns, and displayed throughout a wonderful example of fearless initiative.