William Dunstan

He rebuilt the barricade while bombs burst inside his trench

William Dunstan was born at Ballarat East, Victoria, on 8 March 1895. He was the fourth child and third son of William John Dunstan, a bootmaker, and Henrietta, née Mitchell. Educated at Golden Point State School, he began clerical work with Snow's drapery business at fifteen. Military training became part of his youth: he rose to captain in the cadets and received a militia lieutenant's commission in July 1914.

Dunstan enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force as a private on 2 June 1915. He joined the 6th Reinforcements of the 7th Battalion, embarked for Egypt later that month and reached Gallipoli during the summer. On 5 August he became an acting corporal. Four days later he helped defend a newly captured trench at Lone Pine during repeated Ottoman counterattacks.

The position's protective barricade was blown apart more than once. Dunstan worked with Lieutenant Frederick Tubb and Corporal Alexander Burton to rebuild it while bombs landed among the defenders. Many of the men around them became casualties, and Burton was killed. Dunstan continued working despite the danger and was temporarily blinded by an explosion.

The Victoria Cross citation published in the London Gazette on 15 October 1915 described the repeated destruction and rebuilding of the barricade, and the determination of the three men to hold the position. The Australian Department of Veterans' Affairs reproduces that account within its biography, placing Dunstan's part in a shared defence rather than an unsupported solitary action (https://anzacportal.dva.gov.au/stories/biographies/william-dunstan).

Invalided home, he was discharged from the AIF on 1 February 1916. The Governor-General presented his Cross outside Parliament House in Melbourne in June 1916. He returned to militia service and worked in repatriation before joining the Herald and Weekly Times in 1921. As chief accountant, company secretary and, from 1934, general manager, he developed a substantial career in newspaper management under Keith Murdoch. He also helped advance the Australian Newsprint Mills enterprise in Tasmania.

Dunstan married Marjorie Carnell in November 1918. Their two sons and daughter all served during the Second World War. His old wounds eventually contributed to his resignation as general manager in 1953, although he remained a director. He died of coronary disease on 2 March 1957. About eight hundred people, including seven fellow Victoria Cross recipients, attended his funeral.

Official Victoria Cross citation

In the early morning the enemy made a determined counter-attack on the centre of the newly captured trench held by Lieutenant Tubb, Corporals Burton and Dunstan and a few men. They advanced up a sap and blew in a sandbag barricade, leaving only one foot of it standing, but Lieutenant Tubb with the two corporals repulsed the enemy and rebuilt the barricade. Supported by strong bombing parties the enemy twice again succeeded in blowing in the barricade, but on each occasion they were repulsed and the barricade rebuilt, although Lieutenant Tubb was wounded in the head and arm and Corporal Burton was killed by a bomb while most gallantly building up the parapet under a hail of bombs.

The London Gazette of 15 October 1915, Numb. 29328, p. 10154