To view a photo of Captain Shout sniping with a periscope rifle in the trenches click here. |
It will sit alongside the other VCs won at Gallipoli by the AIF in the Australian War Memorial Museum. |
a u s t r a l i a & n e w z e a l a n d a r m y c o r p s |
Victoria Cross sold at auction for a record $A1 million - July 24, 2006 |
Australia's last privately owned Gallipoli Victoria Cross medal sold for $1 million, plus the buyer's premium in Australia today. |
Thankfully, Captain Shout's VC will remain in public hands and in Australia. |
It will sit alongside the other VCs won at Gallipoli by the AIF in the Australian War Memorial Museum. |
The purchaser, Channel Seven chairman Kerry Stokes, who bought the last Gallipoli Victoria Cross for the Australian War Memorial, said yesterday he felt it was "wrong for anybody to collect a medal won for valour by somebody else". |
Shout was born August 8, 1882 in Wellington, New Zealand. He fought with New Zealand forces in the Boer War in South Africa, where he stayed behind in a military role when the conflict ended. |
He later married a South African (Rose Alice) and moved to Sydney, Australia around 1905. They had one child, a daughter, whom they named Florence Agnes Maud. Rose remarried in 1928, 13 years after Alfred's death. (Rose died in New South Wales, Australia in 1975.) |
He signed up with an army reserve regiment in 1907 and the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) when World War I broke out in 1914, joining Anzac forces at Gallipoli the following year. |
Shout's occupation is listed as Carpenter & Joiner. He was 5 feet 11 inches (180 cm) tall and weighed 12 stone (76.2 kg, 168 lbs). |
Captain Alfred John SHOUT, 1st Australian Infantry Battalion: At Lone Pine Trenches, ANZAC, August 9, 1915. |
"On 27th April, 1915, during operations near Gaba Tepe, for showing conspicuous courage and ability in organizing and leading his men in a thick, bushy country, under very heavy fire. He frequently had to expose himself to locate the enemy, and led a bayonet charge at a critical moment." |
Captain Shout died of wounds at sea on the ship HS Neuralia August 11, 1915 aged 33 and was buried at sea. |
AWARDED THE MILITARY CROSS Lieutenant Alfred John Shout, 1st Australian Infantry Battalion, (New South Wales) |
The above has been promulgated in Australian Military Orders No. 547 of 1915. |
POSTHUMOUSLY AWARDED THE VICTORIA CROSS |
CITATION: For most conspicuous bravery at Lone Pine trenches, in the Gallipoli Peninsula. On the morning of the 9th August, 1915, with a small party, Captain Shout charged down trenches strongly occupied by the enemy, and personally threw four bombs among them, killing eight and routing the remainder. In the afternoon of the same day, from the position gained in the morning, he captured a further length of trench under similar conditions, and continued personally to bomb the enemy at close range, under very heavy fire, until he was severely wounded, losing his right hand and left eye. This most gallant officer has since succumbed to his injuries. |
Captain Shout was also Mentioned in Dispatches for gallantry. |
To view a photo of Captain Shout sniping with a periscope rifle in the trenches click here. |
