ROBERT MACTIER

Born: 17 May 1890, Tatura, Victoria Died: 1 September 1918, Mont St Quentin, France Rank: Private Unit: 23rd Battalion, Australian Imperial Force Campaign: WWI

AN EARLY MORNING Australian assault on Mont St Quentin was stopped by an enemy machine gun behind a barbed-wire barricade. Two similar posts lay ahead of it. Mactier, the company’s runner, was sent to investigate, armed with a few grenades and a revolver. He threw a bomb and climbed over the wire. When his comrades advanced, they found the eight-man German gun crew dead – he’d toppled the machine gun and captured two more positions. He was charging towards another target when he was shot dead by another German machine gun.