Captain Clarence Jeffries V.C. & Private William Currey V.C. Memorial WallPrint Page

The wall commemorates Captain Clarence Jeffries and Private William Currey who each were awarded the Victoria Cross for their actions in World War One and is dedicated to the servicemen and women whose names appear on the wall.

The memorial consists of a brick wall with 5 large brass plaques for the names of those who served from Newcastle. In the centre is a plaque to Currey VC & Jeffries VC. In addition there are 100 small individual brass plaques dedicated to individual servicemen installed by the families. Immediately in front of the wall is a black stone obelisk with the words in white 'Lest We Forget' and a white cross.

Clarence Smith Jeffries VC  was posthumously decorated with the Victoria Cross following his actions in the First Battle of Passchendaele during the First World War, in which he led several parties of men in an attack that eventuated in the capture of six machine guns and sixty-five prisoners, before being killed himself by machine gun fire.

Private Currey was awarded the Victoria Cross for his part in the Australian attack at Péronne on 1 September 1918. The 53rd Battalion began taking heavy casualties early in the day, Currey`s company in particular suffering from a 77 mm field-gun firing at very close range. Currey rushed forward under machine-gun fire, killed the whole crew and captured the weapon. When in mid-afternoon the battalion encountered intense fire from a strong point, he worked round the flank of the position and opened fire with a Lewis-gun before rushing the post, inflicting many casualties and dispersing the survivors. On 16 May 1941 he stood as Labor candidate for Kogarah in the Legislative Assembly. He won the seat, thereby becoming the first V.C. winner to enter the New South Wales parliament. He was twice re-elected—in 1944 and 1947.

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