Military Medal : Sergeant J H McK Edwards, 21 Battalion, AIF Accession Number: REL/08995.003

Description

Military Medal (George V). Impressed around edge with recipient's details.

Contextual Description

Military Medal awarded to Sergeant John Harold McKenzie Edwards. Edwards had changed his name and age when he enlisted in the AIF as a private in April 1915, giving his name as Harold Edwards and his age as 24. He served on Gallipoli and in France and was commissioned in 1917.

Edwards was retrospectively awarded the Military Medal for his actions on an unknown date on the Gallipoli Peninusla (845 Sergeant Jack Harold Edwards). The recommendation for reads as follows: 'This man did splendid work on the ['Gallipoli' added in pen] Peninsula by suppressing enemy snipers, by intelligent observations and plucky actions, discovered several enemy machine gun positions which were eventually blown out by our Artillery.'

An outstanding infantryman, he was also awarded the Distinguish Conduct Medal for his actions at Mouquet on 24/25 August 1916 and at Mouquet Farm on 26 August 1916 (845 Sergeant Harry Edwards). He was further awarded the Military Cross for his actions on 4 July 1918 near Villers Bretonneux (Lieutenant Harold Edwards).

Edwards was demobilized in Melbourne in August 1919 and served in the permanent army from 1921 to 1923, when he moved to New Guinea where he was employed by Burns Philp & Co. as a native labour overseer at Rabaul. On 13 October 1939 Edwards was appointed a lieutenant in the New Guinea Volunteer Rifles but was not called up for full-time duty. Edwards was officially presumed to have been one of about 200 Australian civilian prisoners of war who died on 1 July 1942 when the Japanese transport, the Montevideo Maru, was torpedoed by an American submarine off Luzon in the South China Sea during its journey from Rabaul to Hainan Island.