Jack French

John Alexander French was born on 15 July 1914 in Crows Nest, Queensland. Known locally as Jack and called "Digger" by his family in reference to the First World War commencing shortly after his birth, he spent his youth working in his father’s hairdressing and tobacconist shop following his education at Crows Nest State School and Toowoomba Technical College. A keen sportsman remembered for an unassuming disposition, French enlisted in the Second Australian Imperial Force on 22 October 1939 under service number QX1071. Posted to the 2/9th Infantry Battalion, the initial Queensland infantry battalion raised for the conflict, he embarked aboard the Mauretania in May 1940 with the 18th Brigade. The unit spent five months in the United Kingdom bolstering anti-invasion defences before deploying to the Middle East, reaching Egypt in December 1940.

Assigned with his brigade to the 7th Division, French encountered sustained fighting in the Libyan desert during the assault against Italian fortifications at Giarabub Oasis in March 1941. Transferred to the fortress of Tobruk the following month, the battalion withstood heavy aerial bombardment and frontline combat until relieved in August, subsequently undertaking occupation duties in Syria. During these campaigns, French earned advancement to lance corporal in August and acting corporal in December 1941, earning high regard from his commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel C. J. Cummings, who earmarked him for future commissioned rank.

Brought home in early 1942 to confront the southward expansion of Japan, the 2/9th Battalion refitted and embarked for Papua in August. By mid-August, French was deployed at Milne Bay, where Allied forces met an amphibious landing by Japanese Special Naval Landing Forces. On 4 September 1942, during the counter-offensive eastward along the coastline toward the Goroni River, French commanded No. 7 Section of B Company when the advance was pinned down by heavy fire from three concealed machine-gun emplacements. Directing his men to seek cover, he single-handedly assaulted the positions. Victoria Cross citation, London Gazette, 14 January 1943:

At Milne Bay on the afternoon of the 4th September, 1942, a company of an Australian Infantry Battalion attacked the Japanese position East of the Buna Mission where it encountered terrific rifle and machine-gun fire.

The advance of the section of which Corporal French was in command was held up by the fire from three enemy machine-gun posts, whereupon Corporal French, ordering his section to take cover, advanced and silenced one of the posts with grenades. He returned to his section for more grenades and again advanced and silenced the second post. Armed with a Thompson sub-machine gun, he then attacked the third post, firing from the hip as he went forward. He was seen to be badly hit by the fire from this post, but he continued to advance. The enemy gun then ceased to fire and his section pushed on to find that all members of the three enemy gun crews had been killed and that Corporal French had died in front of the third gun pit.

By his cool courage and disregard of his own personal safety, this non-commissioned officer saved the members of his section from heavy casualties and was responsible for the successful conclusion of the attack.

The original citation mistakenly designated the action as occurring east of Buna Mission rather than K.B. Mission at Milne Bay. French's destruction of the gun pits broke the defensive line, securing an engagement that formed part of the first major land defeat inflicted on Imperial Japanese ground forces. French was killed in the action on 4 September 1942, aged 28. He was buried near the engagement ground before being transferred to Port Moresby (Bomana) War Cemetery.