Corporal John Edmondson V.C. Print Page

The clock commemorates John Edmondson (1941-1941) who was awarded the Victoria Cross (V.C.) during World War Two. 

The clock also contains the names of those from the district who died in service or were killed in action during the Boer War, World War One and World War Two. It was originally located at the South end of Macquarie Street, but had been vandalised, and was no longer in a prominent position. In 1988 it was moved to its present location in the Liverpool City Library forecourt and rededicated.

Corporal Edmondson was the first Australian Victoria Cross winner of World War Two.  On the 13th April 1941 at Tobruk in Libya during an enemy attack, platoon commander F.A.Mackell decided to dislodge the Germans with a bayonet charge and he attacked with Edmondson and five privates. During this counter-attack Edmondson was wounded in the neck and stomach, but he advanced and killed one enemy with his bayonet. Later Mackell was bayoneting a German who held on to him as another came up from behind. Edmondson, some metres away, immediately came to his assistance and in spite of his wounds killed both enemy. The party then returned to their post with a prisoner. Edmondson, badly wounded, died the next morning.

At a well-attended meeting, held in Liverpool Town Hall on Wednesday evening, the type of memorial to thc late Cpl. J. H. Edmondson, V.C., was discussed. The Mayor, Ald. H. J. Jardine, presided. Apologies were received from Mr. J. Pirie, and Messrs. G. P. Longmuir, H. M. Potts and W. P. Nicholls. The meeting had four proposals before it, and, owing to the number of inquiries as to what form the memorial was to take, it was necessary that the matter be finalised. The proposals submitted were: (1) A garden plot near the business centre of the town, to comprise lawns, garden beds, seats, and public conveniences. (2) The establishment of a fund to endow a scholarship at the Hurlstone Agricultural High School, at which Corporal Edmondson received his later education if sufficient funds are available, a university scholarship could be included. (3) The establishment of a wing of a hospital. In this connection there was a fund already in existence, amounting to £800. (4) The erection of a hall at the rear of the present soldiers' Memorial School of Arts. The present building was erected to the memory of the men who fell in the last war. Sergeant Turnbull, in addition to the four proposals already received, brought forward the suggestion of an illuminated clock, in a suitable tower, in the garden plot at the railway station. The cost of the various schemes were estimated to be:-Garden park, £2000; scholarship, £1700; hospital wing, £5000; hall, £1600; clock tower, £500.
Liverpool News, 14 August 1941. 

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