Keith Elliott

Led his men in repeated charges despite four serious wounds.

Keith Elliott was born at Apiti, New Zealand, on 25 April 1916. One of a large farming family, he attended Feilding Agricultural High School and worked on the land. He enlisted in the 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force in 1940 and served with the 22nd Battalion in Britain, Greece, Crete and North Africa. Captured during the fighting around Bardia in November 1941, he regained freedom early in 1942.

On 15 July 1942, during the battle of Ruweisat Ridge, his platoon came under heavy machine-gun fire. Although wounded in the chest, Elliott led a small group in a bayonet charge that captured several gun positions and an anti-tank gun. Further wounds to his thigh and knee did not stop him. He continued directing attacks, including an assault on another machine-gun post. The fighting resulted in approximately 130 prisoners and opened a way through the German positions. His Victoria Cross was announced in September 1942.

Commissioned in 1943, he returned to New Zealand that year. In February 1944 he married Margaret Rachel Markham; they had five children. He initially resumed farming, then trained for the Anglican ministry at College House. Ordained deacon in 1947 and priest in 1948, he worked in parishes, city missions and Maori pastoral communities.

His ministry included service in Palmerston North, Wellington, Pongaroa, Pohangina, Raetihi and Putiki. Fundraising and practical work on church buildings reflected the energetic approach familiar to his congregations. In 1977 he undertook a long walk through New Zealand to raise money. His autobiography, From Cowshed to Dogcollar, appeared in 1967. He retired to Raumati in 1981 but remained active locally. Elliott died at Te Omanga Hospice, Lower Hutt, on 7 October 1989 and was buried with military honours at Paraparaumu Cemetery.

Official citation:

At dawn on 15 July 1942 the battalion to which Sergeant Elliot belonged was attacked on three flanks by tanks. Under heavy tank, machine-gun and shell fire, Sergeant Elliott led the platoon he was commanding to the cover of a ridge 300-yards away, sustaining a chest wound in the process.

Here he re-formed his men and led them to a dominating ridge a further 500-yards away, where they again came under heavy enemy machine-gun and mortar fire. He located enemy machine-gun posts to his front and right flank, and while one section attacked on the right flank, Sergeant Elliott led seven men in a bayonet charge across 500-yards of open ground in the face of heavy fire and captured four enemy machine-gun posts and an anti-tank gun, killing a number of the enemy and taking fifty prisoners.

His section then came under fire from a machine-gun post on the left flank. He immediately charged this post single-handed and succeeded in capturing it, killing several of the enemy and taking 15 prisoners. During these two assaults he sustained three more wounds in the back and legs. Although badly wounded in four places, Sergeant Elliott refused to leave his men until he had reformed them, handed over his prisoners, which had increased to 130, and arranged for his men to rejoin the battalion.

Owing to Sergeant Elliott's quick grasp of the situation, great personal courage and leadership, 19 men, who were the only survivors of B Company of his battalion, captured and destroyed five machine-guns, one anti-tank gun, killed a great number of the enemy, and captured 130 prisoners. Sergeant Elliott sustained only one casualty amongst his men, and delivered him to the nearest advanced dressing station.