Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Victor George Roberts

Victor George Roberts was born in Hookers Mill, Western Australia but then later moved to Norwood, South Australia. He wasn’t married and had no children. His father Paul Roberts lived in Bakers Hill, Western Australia. His religion was Church of England. Victor George Roberts was 22 years and 5 months old when he enlisted to go to war. His job at the time was a miner. He signed up in Broken Hill, a town in New South Wales on the 8th of February 1917. In war, Victor's Service number was 3546. He may have wanted to go to war because he wanted to stand up for his country and be a hero. When he signed up, he had an appointment covering the British Army regular forces and what he must do in the war and what rules he must follow.

When Victor was preparing to go to war he had to sign many papers and fill in many spaces to explain that he was ready for war. He also had to enter all of his private information and fill in his medical details.

He left Australia from Melbourne, Victoria on board HMAT A73 Commonwealth on 2 November 1917. When Victor joined the war, his job was unit 3rd LightHorse Regiment, 32nd Reinforcement. He served as a private in the war. Victor George Roberts fought in World War 1 in Gallipoli on the side of Australia.

Victor marched into war on the 15th of December 1917. He then began in the trenches and started to battle, he didn’t get wounded badly on his first few days at war. Later he was wounded by shrapnel but he survived. In the war, Victor didn’t have any major injuries and he wasn’t put into jail for any bad behaviour.

Life as a private in the war involved terror of disease by rolling in the trenches of mud and slime with the threat of shellfire. When he was not fighting, he would be locked in trench deadlock and this caused sickness and boredom which were serious issues. The weapons used in World War 1 consisted of knives and clubs. These weapons killed many in the war and lots of people died with just sitting in the trenches all day. Some other weapons that Victor may have used in the war was artillery, machine guns, rifles, tanks and poison gases. The gasses killed many people and all of these weapons were deadly. In July 1918 Victor George Roberts was transferred to the Royal Air Force. He got in a flying accident in February 1919. His wound wasn’t major but it still would’ve been very painful.

Victor George Roberts survived the war. He was a very lucky man to survive. On the 1st of November 1919, he returned to Australia but there is no information about what he did when he returned back home. After staying a while in Australia he passed away but there was no more information about his death.

In total Victor received two medals. The first one was a British War Medal in gold which had a ribbon with rainbow colours. The second medal was silver with a blue and a mustard yellow ribbon.

Anzac stands for Australia and New Zealand Army Corps. Anzac spirit means to show courage and to never give up on your country. He showed Anzac spirit by not giving up in the war and showing lots of courage.

Bibliography

RSL Virtual War Memorial 2018, accessed 25 March 2018, <https://rslvirtualwarmemorial.org.au/explore/projects/15061/edit?wizard-page-index=3>.

AIF details 2018, accessed 26 March 2018, <https://www.aif.adfa.edu.au/showPerson?pid=257227>.

Unit Diaries 2018, accessed 26 March 2018, <https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/AWM4/>.