Victoria Cross : Lieutenant W J Symons, 7 Battalion, AIF

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

William John Symons was born on 10 July 1889 at Eaglehawk near Bendigo, Victoria, to William Sampson and Mary Emma (nee Manning) Symons. He was educated at Eaglehawk State School. In 1906, two years after the death of his father, the family moved to Brunswick, Melbourne where he was later employed as a commercial traveller. He had a keen interest in the military, serving in the 5th Australian Infantry Regiment and the 60th (Brunswick-Carlton) Infantry in the eight years prior to the First World War. Symons enlisted in the AIF on 17 August 1914 at Carlton in the newly formed 7 Battalion AIF (7Bn), which, with 5, 6 and 8 Battalions formed the 2nd Infantry Brigade (2 Bde).

Initially enlisted as a private, with service number 174, Symons was promoted to colour sergeant within two days of enlistment. The battalion embarked aboard HMAT A20 Hororata from Port Melbourne on 19 October 1914, bound for Egypt. Symons was promoted to acting regimental quartermaster sergeant on 9 April 1915 and 16 days later, on 25 April, landed with the battalion as part of the second wave at Anzac Cove, Gallipoli. By the end of the first day, 7 Bn had lost 18 officers; 2 killed and 16 wounded, including the battalion’s commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel H. E. ‘Pompey’ Elliott, who was evacuated for treatment. Three of the officers later died of their wounds. Symons recalled later the continuous fire from the entrenched Turks: ‘...we went up straight in the face of a point-blank fire from Turkish machine-guns and artillery. Of 1100 odd who landed, we mustered, after two days continuous fighting, only 300, and a good number of these were wounded.’ (7 Bn Unit War Diary entries put casualties for 25 and 26 April at approx 518 killed, wounded or missing.)

Symons was promoted to second lieutenant the following day. On 6 May the battalion was moved to Cape Helles with 2 Bde to take part in the Second Battle of Krithia. Casualties for the battle were high as an extract from a signal message of 8 May indicates: ’All the Brigade Staff are casualties and there is no War Diary or any other documents available.’ The historian Charles Bean told of the press forward across open moorland: ‘The 6th and 7th [battalions] were now advancing at a rapid walking pace against a growing storm of rifle fire.’ In little over an hour, late in the afternoon of 8 May, 2 Bde lost a man for every one of the thousand yards that they had advanced, a third of the brigade’s strength. Symons was promoted to lieutenant on 2 July.

At 5:30pm on 6 August, an Australian assault on Lone Pine, a diversionary attack designed to occupy the enemy forces of Turkish Commander Essad Pasha from reinforcing his troops at Sari Bair, began. The offensive soon overwhelmed many of the enemy trenches but at great cost. 7 Bn, originally directed to take Johnson's Jolly at dawn on the 7 th following a successful assault on Lone Pine by 1 Bde, was gradually depleted of men as requests for reinforcements rolled in.

At 8pm, the battalion was directed to send a company to support 1 Bde against a Turkish counter-attack and at 11:18 pm a request from 5 Bn for a further 20 men was received. At 4am on 7 August the battalion was given orders to stand to arms for their attack on Johnson's Jolly but no order was received to proceed so they waited in reserve. At 6pm, Elliott sent 32 bomb (grenade) throwers from 7Bn to Lone Pine in response to an urgent request from 1 Bde Headquarters. By the afternoon of 8 August, the remaining units of 7Bn moved into Lone Pine to relieve the exhausted troops of 1 and 2 Bns. Colonel Elliott divided his front lines and Symons was ordered to take his company left and hold the trench between Goldenstedt’s Post and Wood’s Post.

At 7pm a major enemy counter-attack was launched and Goldenstedt’s was in imminent danger of recapture by the enemy troops. Again and again the Turks succeeded in entering the trench only to be forced back by Symon’s company in fighting that lasted into the early hours of 9 August. At 4am, the enemy launched another heavy attack across the entire front of Lone Pine. Jacob’s Trench had been retaken under the onslaught and six officers has been killed or wounded in its defence. Elliot, impressed with Symons’ coolness under fire in the defence of Goldenstedt’s, directed him to recapture Jacob’s Trench. He was replaced at Goldenstedt’s by Lieutenant Tubb, a move that would culminate in Tubb receiving a Victoria Cross for his actions in defending the post.

Symons was ordered to retake Jacob’s Trench at any cost. Appreciating what he was asking of Symons, Elliott handed him his own revolver saying ‘I don’t expect to see you again but we must not lose that post.’ Symons moved to Jacob’s Trench and immediately routed the enemy from the trenches, killing two with his revolver, and began rebuilding the barricade that had been destroyed under the enemy attack. The Turks renewed their attack on the trench from three sides at which point Symons asked Elliott for permission to abandon the post. After permission was granted, Symons withdrew his men to consolidate their position under a covered portion of the trench, thereby yielding 15 yards of open trench to the enemy. The Turks pressed the attack and twice set fire to the overhead covering in an attempt to drive out the Australians. On each occasion, Symons led his men and drove the enemy back and extinguished the flames. The Turks then tried to encircle the trench and attack it from the rear only to be driven off by fire from nearby Australian posts. Finally, facing such determined resistance, the Turks relinquished the Trench. For his part in the action, Symons was awarded the Victoria Cross.

Writing to his mother in October 1915, Symons said of the fight for Jacobs Trench that ‘I only had 40 men with me in the firing line...When I came to muster them afterwards we only had about 15.’

The recommendation for the award reads: ‘I have the honour to recommend that the name of Lieut. W.J. Symons 7th Battalion A.I.F., be submitted to the G.O.C. in C., for consideration for the Victoria Cross in recognition of his conspicuous gallantry in action. On the night of the 8th August Lieut. W.J. Symons was in command of the right section of captured trenches held by the 7th Battalion and repelled several counter attacks with great coolness. About 5 a.m. on the 9th a series of most determined attacks were made by the enemy on an isolated sap in the extreme right where six officers were in succession killed or severely wounded and a portion of the sap lost. Lieut. Symons led the charge which retook the lost sap, shooting two Turks with his revolver. As the sap was exposed to hostile gun fire, and also under fire from three sides, Lieut. Symons withdrew some 15 yards to a spot where enemy overhead cover afforded a little protection, and in the face of the hostile fire built up a sand barricade. The enemy succeeded in setting the woodwork and fascines of the head cover on fire, but Lieut. Symons succeeded in extinguishing the fire and rebuilding the barricade.’

In March 1916 while on leave in Australia, Symons would recount the cost of the battle when he told a crowd that ' …the battalion went into action at Lone Pine 750 strong, and came out of it with 148 men and three officers – Colonel Elliott, Captain Layle and myself.'

During the battle of Lone Pine, Symons was wounded when a bullet hit his rifle, shattering it and sending shards of the barrel into his left hand. Later in August, he contracted enteric fever and was eventually invalided to London to convalesce.
In December, Symons attended Buckingham Palace to be presented with his Victoria Cross by King George V. After resting as a guest of the Earl of Darnley in England, Symons returned on the SS Arawa to Australia on leave for three months where he was feted around Victorian society. Instead of returning to 7 Bn, he was made a Captain in the newly formed 37 Bn and given command of D Company. 37 Bn embarked for England on 3 June 1916 aboard HMAT A34 Parsic, arriving in Plymouth on 25 July.

On 22 November, following a period of training in England, the battalion embarked for France, arriving at Armentieres on 28 July. In February 1917 a special composite battalion was formed from elements of 37 and 38 Battalions, with Symons in command of D raiding company. Among the objectives of the raid, indicating the constant battle for defence against sepsis in wounds was ‘to capture a Medical Officer or his equipment including serum for prevention of Gas Gangrene.’ During the raid Symons received a wound to the hand while pushing forward. Symons’ company was commended for overcoming strong enemy resistance.

In May, Symons was lucky to escape death when two shells hit his dugout. On 7 June, during the battle of Messines in Belgium, he was wounded in a German mustard gas attack and was sent back to England to recover, only returning to his unit in January 1918. The battalion moved to the Somme in March in response to the German Army’s Spring Offensive. In June, Symons returned to England to attend training courses, but in August the Australian Government announced that he, together with thirteen other VC recipients, were to return home on leave.

Before he left, on 15 August 1918, Symons married Isobel Anna Hockley. The following day the couple left for Australia via Vancouver, arriving in Australia on 11 October. A month later the war ended. Symon’s military appointment was terminated on 7 December 1918. He continued to serve as a captain with 59 Infantry Regiment before being transferred to the reserve list in July 1922. He and his wife returned to England and settled at Kenton, Hampshire. Symons enjoyed success in business after the First World War, sitting on the board of several companies. During the Second World War he was given command of 12 Bn, Leicestershire Home Guard with the rank of lieutenant colonel. In the New Year’s list of 1944 he was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire. Symons died in London on 24 June 1948.