Phillip Davey

On 28 June 1918, Corporal Phillip Davey of the 10th Australian Infantry Battalion faced a German machine-gun position at close range near Merris, France. After his platoon commander was killed and the surviving Australians were pinned down, Davey attacked the position alone, ultimately capturing the weapon and turning it against a counter-attack. Although severely wounded during the fighting, his actions enabled his platoon to hold its position and resulted in the award of the Victoria Cross.

Davey was born on 10 October 1896 in South Australia. Before military service he worked as a horse driver. He enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on 22 December 1914 as a private and served with the 10th Australian Infantry Battalion. He embarked for overseas service in February 1915 and served during the Gallipoli campaign, including the landing at Anzac. He was later invalided back to Australia before returning to overseas service and rejoining his battalion in France in 1916.

His service on the Western Front included repeated exposure to combat and injury. Davey was accidentally wounded on 15 March 1917 and was gassed on 3 October 1917. On 3 January 1918, near Warneton in Belgium, he crawled beyond the Australian wire under heavy enemy machine-gun fire to help bring a badly wounded soldier back to safety. This action earned him the Military Medal. The Australian War Memorial preserves Davey’s Military Medal and reproduces the recipient-specific citation describing the rescue.

Davey was promoted to Corporal on 24 April 1918. Two months later, during operations near Merris, his platoon advanced into a newly captured section of the German line but came under intense close-range machine-gun fire. With the platoon commander killed and casualties mounting, Davey moved forward alone and attacked the machine-gun crew with hand grenades. After exhausting his grenades, he returned through the fire to obtain more and attacked again, killing the gun crew and capturing the weapon. He then positioned the captured machine gun against a German counter-attack and continued fighting until he was dangerously wounded.

The Australian War Memorial records 28 June 1918 as the date of the action for which Davey received the Victoria Cross and 10 July 1918 as the date of the associated award recommendation. The Victoria Cross was subsequently published in The London Gazette, Supplement No. 30849, page 9659, with a publication date of 16 August 1918. These dates represent different stages of the award process and should not be treated as interchangeable.

Davey’s wounds at Merris were severe enough to end his active combat service. He was sent to Britain for treatment and later returned to Australia. The Australian War Memorial records his discharge from the Australian Imperial Force on 24 February 1919, with Corporal as his final rank.

After the war, Davey returned to civilian life and worked for the South Australian Railways, including employment in its signals and telegraph operations. The effects of poor health remained with him in later years; the Australian War Memorial records that he suffered for years from bronchitis and emphysema. Phillip Davey died on 21 December 1953, aged 57.

Davey’s wartime record combined sustained infantry service at Gallipoli and on the Western Front with two independently documented acts of gallantry: the rescue near Warneton that brought him the Military Medal and the machine-gun action at Merris that brought him the Victoria Cross. His surviving medals and recipient records are preserved by the Australian War Memorial as part of Australia’s national military collection.