A wise and generous man
He was injured September 17, 1917.
As a sergeant he was in charge of party doing work, according to his action for which commended citation.
“The enemy put down a heavy barrage, but the work was pushed on till the last possible moment. When the fire became intense, he gathered his party which was spread out on work several hundred yards long and installed them in a place of safety.
In traversing the job to make sure all were safe he was severely wounded. His action thro0ugh the whole of the work was an admirable example of work to all ranks.”
He received a Military Medal for his service and bravery on the Western Front (having had his left ankle and lower leg blown off while seeking to protect his in France on engineering team under intense fire) in 1917 and a Distinguished Conduct Medal for his efforts (dealing with water supply condensers while under fire) at Gallipoli in late 1915 – just before the mass evacuation occurred.
Gearge Adddison’s war records show that he was born in England near Wellington. He enlisted into the Army on 7 September 1914 and his enlistment number was 35. He was then 24 years old and his occupation was given as ‘carpenter’.
He joined the Australian 2nd Field Company Engineers (ie as a ‘sapper’). He embarked for Egypt from Melbourne on the Orvieto on 20 October 2014. Interestingly, his records shows that before enlisting he had previously spent 3 years in the “Chillian” Army. He was formally discharged from the army (due to his injury) on February 15, 1918.
After the war, George and his wife (Amy Addison) moved to Neerim South where at various times he farmed land, operated as a real estate agent and ran the butcher’s shop, on the site of Neerim South’s current butcher.
He later did carpentry (until he died in 1965) in a workshop on the Main Road. He was an ardent Collingwood supporter and during his later years kept a black and white cat which he named “Gabby” after Ray Gabelich, the well-known (at the time) Collingwood footballer.
His son Alexander, a pilot, was killed during the World War II – his name is on the Neerim South Cenotaph. George and Amy are buried in the Neerim Cemetery.
George was a wise and witty man and regularly frequented the old timber Kings Arms Hotel in Neerim South (which has since burnt down) – and always sat in the same chair adjacent to a wooden sign on the wall reading “George’s Corner.”
He had a wooden prosthetic leg and one time, in his early days in Neerim South, was in the pub and could hear whispering among the drinkers as to whether or not he did have a wooden leg. George silently settled the matter after taking out his pocket knife, trimming his cigar as he normally did – and then thrusting the knife through his trousers into the wooden leg, leaving the knife protruding there while he nonchalantly finished his cigar and beer before going home.