William Dunstan VC (8 March 1895 - 3 March 1957) was an Australian recipient of the Victoria Cross (VC), the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. He was 20 years old, and a corporal in the 7th Battalion (Victoria), Australian Imperial Force during the First World War when the following deed took place for which he was awarded the VC. On 9 August 1915, at Lone Pine, Gallipoli, Turkey, the enemy made a determined counter-attack on the centre of the newly captured trench held by a lieutenant (Frederick Harold Tubb), two corporals (Alexander Stewart Burton and Corporal Dunstan) and a few men. The enemy blew in the sand-bag barricade, leaving only a foot standing, but the lieutenant and the two corporals repelled the enemy and rebuilt the barricade. Twice more the enemy blew in the barricade and on each occasion they were repelled and the barricade rebuilt. Dunstan was blind for almost a year after Lone Pine. He later achieved the rank of lieutenant. Before the war, Dunstan had been a messenger boy in a draper's shop. After the war he became the general manager of Keith Murdoch's The Herald and Weekly Times newspaper group. His Victoria Cross is displayed at the Australian War Memorial, Canberra, Australia. In 1995 a Memorial to Dunstan was erected in Sturt St, Ballarat, Victoria, Australia.
References
- Monuments to Courage (David Harvey, 1999)
- The Register of the Victoria Cross (This England, 1997)
- VCs of the First World War - Gallipoli (Stephen Snelling, 1995)
