Berwick lays claim to first VC hero

WHEN Albert Jacka shot to fame in 1915 as Australia’s first Victoria Cross winner of the Great War, the people of Berwick were quick to lay some claim to him.
The Berwick Shire News and Cranbourne and Pakenham Gazette announced to readers on 28 May 1915 that the new hero was a nephew of Mrs H. Davy of the Kippenross estate.
“To mark his appreciation of the young man’s bravery, Mr John Wren of Melbourne is giving him a gold medal and a gift of 500 pounds,” the paper reported.
Jacka grew up at Layard, near Winchelsea, and enlisted as a private in the 14th Battalion, embarking on 22 December 1914.
He found himself on the Gallipoli Peninsula the day after the landing, on 26 April 1915, and quickly gained a reputation for a no-nonsense approach to fighting.
Early on 19 May the Turks launched a massive counter-attack along the Anzac line and at 4am rushed Courtney’s Post, capturing a section of trench guarded at one end by Jacka. For several minutes he fired warning shots into the trench until reinforcements arrived and, after shouting instructions, he and three others sprang into the trench. He came up with a new plan and two bombs were lobbed at the Turks while Jacka attacked from the flank. He jumped over the parapet, shot five Turks, bayoneted another two and sent the others into retreat.
“I managed to get the beggars Sir,” he reported said to the first officer to appear.
Albert’s young cousin, Private Humphrey Davy, had a lot to live up to when he enlisted in August 1917. The apprentice chemist, under Edwin Whimper Poynter of Berwick, had a less adventurous tour of duty and returned safely home in March 1919.
Almost two years after the Jacka heroics, the paper claimed a link to another VC hero.
On 28 February 1917, it reported that an English Lieutenant – E. Paul Bennett, a cousin of Mr Harvey-Smith, JP, of Beaconsfield Upper – had been awarded the Victoria Cross.
“It was announced in the London Gazette in January that His Majesty the King had been graciously pleased to confer the Victoria Cross on Lieut Bennett, of the Worchester Regiment, for most conspicuous bravery in action, when in command of the second wave of attack,” the paper reported.
“Finding the first wave had suffered heavy casualties, its commander being killed and the line wavering, Lieut Bennett advanced at the head of the second wave and, by his personal example of valour and resolution, reached his objective with but sixty men.
“Isolated with his small party, he at once took steps to consolidate his position under heavy rifle and machine gun fire from both flanks and, although wounded, he remained in command, directing and controlling.
“He set an example of cheerfulness and resolution beyond all praise, and there is little doubt but for his example of courage the attack would have been checked at the outset.”
His brother in the same regiment, Lieutenant Theodore Bennett, had been awarded the Military Cross the previous year.