Victoria Cross : Private John Patrick Hamilton, 3 Battalion, AIF

Victoria Cross. Engraved on reverse suspender with recipient's details and on reverse cross with date of award.

John Patrick ‘Jack’ Hamilton was born on 24 January 1896 to William and Catherine (nee Fox) Hamilton of Orange, New South Wales. He was schooled at Oakey Park, a small mining village near Lithgow where his father owned a butcher shop. Although he noted his trade as a butcher at the time of his enlistment, Hamilton was an active member of the Waterside Workers’ Union, an affiliation that he maintained for the remainder of his life.

On 15 September 1914, 18 year old Hamilton enlisted at Sydney and was posted as private 943 of 3 Battalion (3Bn) AIF, part of 1 Infantry Brigade (1Bde). On 19 October he embarked on HMAT Euripides, bound for Egypt, arriving in early December. Following training there the brigade sailed for Lemnos as part of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, before moving to Gallipoli. On the morning of 25 April, 1Bde moved ashore as part of the second and third wave at Ari Burnu, Gallipoli Peninsula. In late May, Hamilton was evacuated to Lemnos suffering from influenza, returning to his unit on 2 June.

On the afternoon of 6 August, 1Bde launched an attack on Lone Pine. Initially successful in gaining their objectives, the Turks launched massive counter-attacks that resulted in four days of pitched battles for control of the area. By the following morning 3Bn casualties were, according to reports, ‘unknown but very high’. Many of the casualties during the Battle of Lone Pine were due to bombs (hand grenades) exchanged between the close trenches of the Australian and Turkish forces. Hamilton not only threw bombs for his company but, like Leonard Keysor of 1Bn who was also awarded the Victoria Cross for his exploits, he would often return enemy bombs before they detonated in the Australian trenches.

At 4am on the morning of 9 August, the Turks began a broad concerted attack across the southern section of Lone Pine. The intensity of the enemy fire destroyed the sandbag defences, the bullet holes causing their contents to empty back into the trenches. The Turks managed to gain entry into Sasse’s Sap, a principal trench leading into the centre of the Australian held section of Lone Pine, but were driven back. They launched a further assault and succeeded in breaching the trench. At dawn, the battalion’s adjutant, Captain Howell-Price, saw the enemy pouring down the trench towards 1Bde’s forward headquarters.

After firing on the advancing Turks with his pistol, Howell-Price ordered Lieutenant Wren and five men, including Hamilton, to climb out of the trench and attack the Turks from the flank, to stop their further movement across open ground toward the Australian trench. At the same time, Howell-Price and another party of men confronted the Turks, exchanging fire across fifteen yards of open trench. Hamilton, pinned down alone in the open ground between the trenches, was protected from the constant gunfire by little more than a few sandbags.

Over a six hour period, he held his ground, directing bomb throwers in the trench behind him toward the Turkish positions, and firing on any of the enemy that he detected moving along the Sap. By mid morning on 10 August 3Bn was relieved and Hamilton returned to the relative safety of the trench. After three days of action it was reported that of the 23 officers and 736 other ranks of 3Bn that had taken part in the initial fighting at Lone Pine, only 7 officers and 295 other ranks could be mustered.

For his actions in the battle, Hamilton was awarded the Victoria Cross. The recommendation for the award reads: ‘On the morning of the 9th of August whilst the enemy was delivering a heavy bomb attack on the captured position at Lone Pine, Private Hamilton, in a most gallant manner exposed himself on the parados in order to secure a better fire position against the enemy bomb throwers. His cool and daring action under heavy fire had an immediate effect by inflicting severe losses on the enemy and encouraging the defence.’

Hamilton was evacuated to England on 21 October, suffering from dysentery, where he remained until April 1916. While visiting England in March 1916, the Australian Prime Minister William ‘Billy’ Morris Hughes expressed a desire to meet Hamilton as the Melbourne Argus reported from London: ‘[Hughes] was anxious to meet Private Hamilton, V.C., who is a fellow member of the Waterside Workers’ Federation of which Mr Hughes is President.’ In April, Hamilton was transferred to No 1 Training Battalion at Tel-El-Kebir in Egypt. Though not always a model soldier when off the line, he was promoted to corporal on 3 May 1916. After a period of illness, where he returned to England, Hamilton rejoined 3Bn in France on 4 December 1916. He was promoted to sergeant on 13 May 1917.

Following a series of training courses through the latter half of 1917 and early 1918, Hamilton joined No 5 Officer Cadet Battalion in Cambridge. He graduated a second lieutenant on 2 January 1919, and was posted to general infantry reinforcements. On 4 April he was promoted to lieutenant before being reunited with 3 Bn. Hamilton returned to Australia on 26 August and his service was terminated on 12 September.

After the war he resumed his affiliation with the waterfront, working as a labourer and, by the outbreak of the Second World War, a shipping clerk in Sydney.

On 3 June 1940, Hamilton was seconded from the retired list to the second AIF as a lieutenant, service number NX150350. He was appointed to 16 Garrison Battalion situated at an internment camp near Hay, NSW. The camp became famous as the detention site for the ‘Dunera Boys’, refugees who were later released by the Australian Government because they had been mistakenly interned. On 4 October 1942, Hamilton transferred to the Australian Army Employment Service (redesignated later to Australian Works Companies) serving overseas in New Guinea and Bougainville. He was promoted to captain on 21 October 1944. His service was terminated on 19 August 1946.

John Patrick Hamilton, the last survivor of the seven Victoria Cross recipients from the Battle of Lone Pine, died on 27 February 1961. In his final years he was a member of the Totally and Permanently Incapacitated Association of NSW. Two months after he died, the Repatriation Board determined that his death was as a result of his war service. His son donated his medals to the War Memorial on the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Lone Pine.