TWO other rural New South Welshmen committed daring acts of bravery that afforded them a Victoria Cross.
Private Patrick Joseph Bugden, born at South Gundurimba, near Lismore, was a 21-year-old hotelkeeper on the North Coast before enlisting.
He was posthumously awarded the VC for outstanding bravery during three days in September 1917.
Twice, he led small parties under heavy machine-gun fire, to silence the enemy posts.
Five times he rescued wounded men trapped by intense shelling and machine-gun fire.
He rescued an Australian corporal, who had been taken prisoner, by shooting and bayoneting the enemy.
He fought until he was killed.
Private John Hamilton VC was born in Orange and was working as a butcher near Lithgow before he enlisted in September 1914.
He took part in the Gallipoli landing and during the battle of Lone Pine, when the Turks launched a violent assault, Hamilton and several other men were ordered out of the trenches to halt the enemy advance.
For six hours he lay in the open, protected only by a few sandbags, telling those in the trenches where to throw their bombs, while keeping up constant sniper fire.
For his "coolness and daring", Hamilton received the VC.
He later served in France and eventually made second lieutenant after the Armistice.
During the Second World War he made captain in the army.
Hamilton died in 1961.
