Joseph Maxwell

One of Australia's Most Decorated Soldiers of the First World War

How does a 19-year-old apprentice boilermaker become one of the most highly decorated Australian soldiers of the First World War? For Lieutenant Joseph Maxwell VC, MC & Bar, DCM, the answer was written across Gallipoli, the Western Front, and finally the shattered defences of the Hindenburg Line. In little more than a year, Maxwell progressed from warrant officer to commissioned officer while earning the Distinguished Conduct Medal, the Military Cross, a Bar to the Military Cross, and ultimately the Victoria Cross. His record was not built on a single extraordinary moment. Again and again, when command broke down and men were pinned under fire, Maxwell moved forward.

Joseph Maxwell was born in Annandale, Sydney, New South Wales, on 10 February 1896. Before the war he worked as an apprentice boilermaker and had already gained military experience through cadet and citizen forces service. He enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in February 1915, received service number 607, and joined the 18th Battalion AIF. Still only 19, Maxwell went overseas with the battalion and served on Gallipoli, where the 18th Battalion entered the fighting during the costly operations around Hill 60. He later accompanied the battalion to France, entering the vastly different industrial battlefield of the Western Front.

France would transform Maxwell from an ordinary soldier into a battlefield leader. He served through the brutal fighting of the Western Front, including operations associated with Pozières and Third Ypres, and was promoted through the ranks. By August 1917 he was a warrant officer and company sergeant major. Then, on 25 September 1917, Maxwell demonstrated the kind of initiative that would repeatedly define his war. After a platoon commander was killed, Maxwell assumed command and led the platoon forward. When a newly occupied strongpoint came under a destructive enemy barrage, he acted without waiting for orders and moved the men clear, preventing what could have become a far greater loss of life.

That action earned Maxwell the Distinguished Conduct Medal. His official citation praised his "conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty" and recorded that his initiative had saved many lives. It also emphasized the inspiration he gave to the men around him through his own example. The award was published in the Commonwealth of Australia Gazette, 27 June 1918, page 1397. Just days after the action for which he was recognized, Maxwell was commissioned as a second lieutenant, later becoming a lieutenant. He had crossed the divide from leading soldiers by rank and experience to commanding them as an officer.

But Maxwell's story was only accelerating. On 8 March 1918, while commanding a scouting patrol east of Ploegsteert, he discovered a substantial group of German soldiers occupying a disused trench. Rather than simply withdraw after gathering the information his patrol had been sent to obtain, Maxwell recalled his men and attacked. Bombs and rifle fire were followed by an assault on the position, leaving enemy casualties and producing a prisoner. For this action he received the Military Cross. The official citation again began with "conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty" and specifically praised his initiative and determination. His Military Cross was gazetted in May 1918, with the detailed citation later appearing in the Commonwealth of Australia Gazette, 24 October 1918, page 2054.

How many times can one officer place himself in danger before courage becomes a pattern rather than an isolated act? Maxwell provided an answer only five months later. During the Allied offensive near Rainecourt on 9 August 1918, almost every other officer in his company became a casualty. Within roughly half an hour of the attack beginning, Maxwell was effectively left to control the company while it faced machine-gun fire, anti-tank fire and artillery. He maintained control of his men and kept the advance moving. Then a tank close to him was struck and caught fire. Despite being shaken by the explosion, Maxwell rushed to it and opened the doors in time for its crew to escape. He then returned to the battle and continued leading his men.

For Rainecourt, Maxwell received a Bar to his Military Cross, signifying a second award of the decoration. The official citation commended his courage and presence of mind under intense fire. The Bar was published in the Supplement to the London Gazette, 31 January 1919, issue 31158, page 1636. By this stage Maxwell already possessed the DCM and had twice earned the Military Cross, but the action that would permanently place his name among Australia's Victoria Cross recipients was still ahead of him.

On 3 October 1918, during the assault on the Beaurevoir-Fonsomme Line near Estrées, north of St Quentin, Maxwell's company commander was badly wounded early in the advance. Maxwell immediately assumed command. Ahead lay exceptionally strong wire covered by German machine guns. With the attack in danger of being stopped, Maxwell went forward through the wire alone and attacked the most threatening machine-gun position, killing three enemy soldiers and capturing four. His action opened the way for his company to penetrate the obstacle and continue toward its objective.

And he was not finished. When another machine gun stopped a neighbouring company, Maxwell again went forward alone and silenced it. Later, accompanied by only two Australians, he became involved with a much larger German party. The Australians were surrounded and disarmed, but amid the confusion Maxwell managed to produce a concealed revolver, shoot two of the enemy and escape with his men under fire. He then organized another party and returned to secure the position. His Victoria Cross citation concluded by emphasizing his personal bravery, judgment and rapid decision-making throughout the day.

For these actions Joseph Maxwell was awarded the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry then available to Australian servicemen. The award appeared in London Gazette issue 31108, with Maxwell among the Victoria Cross recipients announced in January 1919, and his citation was subsequently published in the Commonwealth of Australia Gazette on 23 May 1919, page 892. He was invested with the Victoria Cross by King George V at Buckingham Palace on 8 March 1919. Maxwell was only 23 years old.

When Maxwell returned to Australia in 1919, he carried the reputation of a soldier who had survived Gallipoli and the Western Front and repeatedly distinguished himself in the final years of the war. Civilian life, however, proved far less straightforward. He worked in several occupations and in 1932 collaborated with journalist Hugh Buggy on the memoir Hell's Bells and Mademoiselles, preserving an unusually direct account of Australian soldiers at war. Like many veterans, Maxwell's postwar years contained periods of hardship, uncertain employment and poor health.

Even another world war could not completely separate Maxwell from military service. During the Second World War, he attempted to enlist again despite his age. He eventually joined in Queensland under an assumed identity and served for a short period in a training battalion before his identity became known. The Australian War Memorial confirms this second period of service, an extraordinary final chapter for a man who had already experienced some of the hardest fighting of the previous war.

Maxwell remained closely associated with the Victoria Cross community in later life. He attended commemorative events and revisited the battlefields where his reputation had been forged. On 6 July 1967, aged 71, Joseph Maxwell collapsed and died from a heart attack at Matraville in Sydney. Following a funeral with military honours, he was cremated. His widow later donated his medals to the Army Museum at Victoria Barracks in Paddington.

Joseph Maxwell's legacy is powerful because his Victoria Cross was not an isolated flash of courage. The DCM at Third Ypres, the Military Cross for his patrol action, the second Military Cross for leadership and rescue under fire at Rainecourt, and the Victoria Cross at the Beaurevoir-Fonsomme Line form a remarkable sequence. From a teenage boilermaker and private soldier to Lieutenant Joseph Maxwell VC, MC & Bar, DCM of the 18th Battalion AIF, his career tells the story of an Australian soldier who repeatedly assumed responsibility at precisely the moment when doing so was most dangerous. That is why, more than a century after the guns fell silent, Joseph Maxwell remains one of the most compelling names in the history of Australian Victoria Cross recipients and the Australian Imperial Force in the First World War.