• 7th Battalion AIF (Victoria) [2nd Infantry Brigade]
  Formed Victoria August 1914. Departed Melbourne Hororata 18 October 1914. 
  • 1st Reinforcements departed Melbourne Themistocles 22 December 1914, 
  • 2nd   Reinforcements departed Melbourne Clan Macgillivray 2 February 1915, 
  • 3rd Reinforcements departed Melbourne Runic 25 February 1915, 
  • 4th Reinforcements departed Melbourne Wiltshire 13 April 1915, 
  • 5th Reinforcements departed Melbourne Hororata 17 April 1915, 
  • 6th Reinforcements departed Melbourne Wandilla7 June 1915, 
  • 7th Reinforcements departed Melbourne Demosthenes 10 September 1915, 
  • 8th Reinforcements departed Melbourne Anchises 26 August 1915, 
  • 9th Reinforcements departed Melbourne Star of Victoria 10 September 1915, 
  • 10th Reinforcements departed Melbourne Osterley 29 September 1915, 
  • 11th Reinforcements departed Melbourne Nestor 11 October 1915, 
  • 12th Reinforcements departed Melbourne Ceramic 23 November 1915, 
  • 13th Reinforcements departed Melbourne Demosthenes 29 December 1915, 
  • 14th Reinforcements departed Melbourne Themistocles 28 January 1916, 
  • 15th Reinforcements departed Melbourne Wiltshire 7 March 1916, 
  • 16th Reinforcements departed Melbourne Suffolk 1 April 1916, 
  • 17th Reinforcements departed Melbourne Euripides 4 April 1916, 
  • 18th Reinforcements departed Melbourne Ayrshire 3 July 1916, 
  • 19th Reinforcements departed Melbourne Themistocles 28 July 1916, 
  • 20th Reinforcements departed Melbourne Euripides 11 September 1916, 
  • 21st Reinforcements departed Melbourne Nestor 2 October 1916, 
  • 22nd Reinforcements departed Sydney Port Napier 17 November 1916, 
  • 23rd Reinforcements departed Melbourne Hororata 23 November 1916, 
  • 24th Reinforcements departed Melbourne Ballarat 19 February 1917, 
  • 25th Reinforcements departed Melbourne Themistocles 4 August 1917.
• Battle Honours: Landing at Anzac, Anzac, Helles, Krithia, Defence of Anzac, Suvla, Sari Bair, Gallipoli 1915,  Egypt 1915-16, Somme 1916-18, Pozieres, Bullecourt, Ypres 1917, Menin Road, Broodeseinde, Polygon Wood,  Poelcappelle, Passchendaele, Lys, Hazebrouck, Amiens, Albert 1918, Hindenburg Line, Epehy, France and Flanders 1916-18

• Egypt, Gallipoli, Western Front

An aboriginal serviceman, Corporal Harry Thorpe MM. Thorpe was born at the Lake Tyers mission station, near Sale, Victoria. He enlisted at Sale 1916-02-12, embarked in April and joined the 7th Battalion in France 1916-07. He was wounded in action at Pozieres in 1916 and Bullecourt in 1917. In 1917-01 he was promoted to Lance Corporal. On the night of 1917-10-4/5 Thorpe was conspicuous for his courage and leadership during operations at Broodseinde, near Ypres, in Belgium. For his 'splendid example' he was promoted to Corporal and awarded the Military Medal, although the original recommendation from his unit was for the Distinguished Conduct Medal. During the advance 1918-08-09 at Lihons wood, southwest of Vauvillers, France, a stretcher-bearer found Thorpe shot in the stomach. He died shortly after and is buried in the Heath cemetery, Harbonnieres, France, with his friend William Rawlings, another aborigine who won the Military Medal, and was also killed on the same day. (Donor A. Jackomos

7th Battalion

The 7th Battalion was among the first infantry units raised for the AIF during the First World War. Like the 5th, 6th and 8th Battalions, it was recruited from Victoria and, together with these battalions, formed the 2nd Brigade.

The battalion was raised by Lieutenant Colonel H. E. “Pompey” Elliott within a fortnight of the declaration of war in August 1914 and embarked just two months later. After a brief stop in Albany, Western Australia, the battalion proceeded to Egypt, arriving on 2 December. It later took part in the ANZAC landing on 25 April 1915, as part of the second wave. Ten days after the landing, the 2nd Brigade was transferred from ANZAC to Cape Helles to help in the attack on the village of Krithia. The attack captured little ground but cost the brigade almost a third of its strength. The Victorian battalions returned to ANZAC to help defend the beachhead, and in August the 2nd Brigade fought at the battle of Lone Pine. While holding positions captured by the 1st Brigade, four members of the 7th Battalion, Corporal A. S. Burton, Acting Corporal W. Dunstan, Lieutenant W. Symons and Captain F. H. Tubb, earned the Victoria Cross – Burton posthumously. The battalion served at ANZAC until the evacuation in December.

After the withdrawal from Gallipoli in December 1915, the battalion returned to Egypt. In March 1916, it sailed for France and the Western Front. From then until 1918 the battalion took part in bloody trench warfare. The battalion’s first major action in France was at Pozières in the Somme valley. After Pozières the battalion fought at Ypres, in Flanders, before returning to the Somme for winter. In 1917 the battalion moved to Belgium for the advance to the Hindenburg Line. During the battle of the Menin Road in September 1917, Major Fred Tubb VC was mortally wounded. In March and April 1918 the battalion helped stop the German spring offensive, later participating in the great allied offensive of 1918 and fought near Amiens on 8 August. The advance by British and empire troops was the greatest success in a single day on the Western Front, one that German General Erich Ludendorff described as, “the black day of the German Army in this war”.

The battalion continued operations until late September 1918. At 11 am on 11 November 1918, the guns fell silent. The November armistice was followed by the peace treaty of Versailles signed on 28 June 1919.

In November 1918 members of the AIF began to return to Australia for demobilisation and discharge. In March, the battalion was so reduced that it and the 6th Battalion were amalgamated to form a composite battalion. In turn, this battalion was merged with another, formed from the 5th and 8th Battalions, to form the 2nd Brigade Battalion. Text from AWM

• 1045 killed, 2076 wounded (including gassed)

• Decorations

  • 4 VC
  • 1 CMG
  • 2 DSO
  • 20 MC, 2 bars
  • 31 DCM, 1 bar
  • 100 MM, 5 bars
  • 6 MSM
  • 37 MID
  • 6 foreign awards