Victoria Cross : Lieutenant C Pope, 11 Battalion, AIF Accession Number: REL/18182.001

Description

Victoria Cross. Engraved reverse suspender with recipient's details; reverse cross with date of action.

Contextual Description

Charles Pope was born to William and Jane (née Clark) Pope at Mile End London on 5 March 1883. He was educated at Navestock, Essex, and later migrated to Canada where he was employed by Canadian Pacific Railways. Returning to London in 1906, Pope followed his father into the Metropolitan Police Force and later that same year married Edith Mary Smith. In 1910, accompanied by his wife and two young children, Pope migrated to Australia and settled in Perth.

He was working as an insurance agent when he enlisted in the AIF on 23 August 1915 and posted to 11 Battalion. On 10 February 1916, Pope was commissioned to 2nd lieutenant. Embarking aboard HMAT 'Ajana' at Fremantle on 15 July, he eventually joined his battalion near Flers, France on 10 December and was promoted to lieutenant less than two weeks later.

During a German counter-attack against the village of Louverval on 15 April 1917, Pope was killed in action. For his courage during the attack, he was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross. The recommendation for the award reads:

'At LOUVERVAL FRANCE, on 15 April 1917, Lieut. POPE was in charge of the centre picquet post of the right sector held by the 11th Battalion. The strength of his picquet was one Officer, 3 NCO's [non-commissioned officers] and 30 men. Lieut. POPE had been ordered to hold this post at all costs, as it was an important one.

The post was heavily attacked on the morning of the 15th April, when a German attack was made on the line held by the 1st Australian Division. The Germans, in greatly superior numbers, surrounded the post, and Lieut. POPE found himself running short of ammunition. He sent back for this, but before it could arrive he made a gallant and determined attack upon the enemy with the bayonet. His party was seen to fix bayonets and charge into a superior force of the enemy, by whom it was overpowered.

Lieut. POPE by his sacrifice, not only inflicted heavy loss on the enemy, but held the position as ordered, to the last.
Lieut. POPE'S body was found, with those of most of his men, and eighty dead Germans around the post were evidence of the gallant resistance he had made.'

In a report of the action, the battalion's commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Rupert Anstice Rafferty, wrote that '"A" Company's centre picquet was surrounded and had evidently used up all their ammunition, for with fixed bayonets the remainder of the post charged into the large body of the enemy who had surrounded them. Lieutenant Pope was in charge of this post, and our patrols since report having found his dead body.'

The precise location of Pope's original grave is difficult to determine though it is believed to be close to where he fell. Following the Armistice, battlefield graves were moved to Military Cemeteries under the auspices of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and Pope was re-interred in the Moeuvres Communal Cemetery Extension.

A brother, Private John Pope of 51 Battalion, was killed in action at Villers-Bretonneux on 25 April 1918.

Details

People

• Lieutenant Charles Pope VC

Conflicts

• First World War, 1914-1918

Places

• Louverval

Events

• Western Front

Units

• 11th Australian Infantry Battalion

Tags

• Victoria Cross