Frank Partridge (soldier)

Attacked two enemy bunkers despite injuries on Bougainville.

Frank John Partridge was born at Grafton, New South Wales, on 29 November 1924. He left school at thirteen and helped his family raise dairy cattle and bananas near Macksville. After service in the Volunteer Defence Corps he entered full time military service in March 1943. Posted to the 8th Battalion, a militia unit, he served in New Guinea and the northern Solomons before reaching Bougainville in June 1945.

On 24 July, near Ratsua, his platoon came under fire while attacking Japanese positions. Wounded in an arm and a thigh, Partridge recovered a Bren gun after its gunner was killed. He then left cover, threw a grenade into a bunker and rushed it, killing its occupants. He went on to attack another position before blood loss forced him back. He remained with his platoon until it could withdraw. His Victoria Cross was the last awarded to an Australian for the Second World War and the only one earned by a member of the militia in that conflict.

Partridge travelled to Britain with the Australian victory contingent in 1946 and returned for the 1953 coronation and 1956 Victoria Cross centenary. After discharge he farmed and educated himself through extensive reading. His remarkable success on the television quiz Pick a Box in 1962 and 1963 made him nationally known. He married Barbara Dunlop in February 1963 and they had a son, Lachlan. He also sought Country Party preselection and worked in insurance. Partridge died in a motor accident near Bellingen on 23 March 1964 and was buried at Macksville.

Official Victoria Cross citation

In New Guinea, on 24th July, 1945, two fighting patrols, 8th Australian Infantry Battalion, were given the task of eliminating an enemy outpost in Bougainville which denied any forward movement to our troops. The preliminary artillery concentration caused the enemy bunkers to be screened by a litter of felled banana plants, and from these well concealed positions to their front and left, one of our Platoons came under extremely fierce machine-gun, grenade and rifle fire. The forward section at once suffered casualties and was pinned down together with two other sections. Private Partridge was a rifleman in a section which, in carrying out an encircling movement, immediately came under heavy medium machine-gun fire. He was hit twice in the left arm and again in the left thigh, whilst the Bren gunner was killed and two others seriously wounded, leaving only the section leader unwounded, but another soldier began to move up from another position. Private Partridge quickly appreciated the extreme gravity of the situation and decided that the only possible solution was personal action by himself. Despite wounds and with complete disregard to his own safety, Private Partridge rushed forward under a terrific burst of enemy fire and retrieved the Bren gun from alongside the dead gunner, when he challenged the enemy to come out and fight. He handed the Bren gun to the newly arrived man to provide covering fire while he rushed this bunker, into which he threw a grenade and silenced the medium machine-gun. Under cover of the grenade burst, he dived into the bunker and, in a fierce hand to hand fight, he killed the only living occupant with his knife. Private Partridge then cleared the enemy dead from the entrance to the bunker and attacked another bunker in the rear; but weakness from loss of blood compelled him to halt, when he shouted to his section commander that he was unable to continue. With the way clear by the silencing of the enemy medium machine-gun by Private Partridge, the Platoon moved forward and established a defence perimeter in the vicinity of the spot where Private Partridge lay wounded. Heavy enemy medium machine-gun and rifle fire both direct and enfilade from other bunkers soon created an untenable situation for the Platoon, which withdrew under its own covering fire. Despite his wounds and weakness due to loss of blood, Private Partridge joined in this fight and remained in action until the Platoon had withdrawn after recovering their casualties. The information gained by both patrols, and particularly from Private Partridge, enabled an attack to be mounted later. This led to the capture of a vital position sited on strong defensive ground and strengthened by 43 bunkers and other dug in positions from which the enemy fled in panic. The serious situation during the fight of the two patrols was retrieved only by the outstanding gallantry and devotion to duty displayed by Private Partridge, which inspired his comrades to heroic action, leading to a successful withdrawal which saved the small force from complete annihilation. The subsequent successful capture of the position was due entirely to the incentive derived by his comrades from the outstanding heroism and fortitude displayed by Private Partridge.

(Third Supplement to The London Gazette of 18 January 1946. 22 January 1946, Numb. 37439, p. 571)