James Rogers (Australian soldier)

Rode back repeatedly to save comrades cut off by enemy fire.

James Rogers was born near Moama, New South Wales, on 4 July 1873. His family moved to Heywood, Victoria, where he worked on his father’s farm. A skilled horseman and rifle shot, he joined the Victorian Mounted Rifles in 1898 and sailed for South Africa with the first Victorian contingent in 1899.

After service with mounted police in the Orange River Colony, Rogers joined the South African Constabulary as a sergeant. On 15 June 1901, near Thaba ’Nchu, a small party became separated from its column and faced a much larger Boer force. When Lieutenant Frank Dickinson’s horse was shot, Rogers rode back under fire and carried him away on his own horse. He twice returned for other unhorsed men and recovered loose horses for the party. His conduct earned the Victoria Cross.

Rogers returned to Australia and was commissioned in the Australian Commonwealth Horse in 1902, but the war ended before the contingent could take further part. He later worked as a detective with the Cape Police, returned to Australia and married Ethel Maud Seldon in 1907. They had two sons.

At the outbreak of the First World War he was working at Williamstown rifle range. Commissioned in the Australian Army Service Corps in December 1914, he served at Gallipoli, where he was seriously wounded in August 1915. He subsequently served with the Anzac Provost Corps before returning to Australia in 1916.

After further range and ordnance work, Rogers resumed farming in 1922. He lived for many years at Kew and later joined his surviving son in Sydney. He died in Concord Repatriation Hospital on 28 October 1961 and was cremated with military honours.

Victoria Cross citation

On the 15th June, 1901, during a skirmish near Thaba’Nchu, a party of the rear guard of Captain Sitwell’s Column, consisting of Lieutenant F. Dickinson, Sergeant James Rogers, and 6 men of the South African Constabulary, was suddenly attacked by about 60 Boers. Lieutenant Dickinson’s horse having been shot, that Officer was compelled to follow his men on foot. Sergeant Rogers seeing this, rode back, firing as he did so, took Lieutenant Dickinson up behind him, and carried him for half-a-mile on his horse. The Sergeant then returned to within 400 yards of the enemy, and carried away, one after the other, two men who had lost their horses, after which he caught the horses of two other men, and helped the men to mount All this was done under a very heavy rifle fire. The Boers were near enough to Sergeant Rogers to call upon him to surrender; his only answer was to continue firing.

(The London Gazette of 18 April 1902, Numb. 27426, p. 2600)