Victory Medal : Lance Corporal S J Kitchener, 18 Battalion AIF

Victory Medal. Impressed around edge with recipient's details.

Related to the service of 6340 Lance Corporal Stephen Joseph Kitchener, a railway labourer of Mascot, NSW who enlisted on 30 October 1916 aged 26. After training, he embarked for overseas service aboard HMAT Suevic from Sydney on 11 November 1916, arriving at Devonport, England on 30 January 1917. Following further training in England, Private Kitchener proceeded to join 18 Battalion in France on 13 May 1917. On 27 March 1918, soon after returning from leave in England, Kitchener was recommended for a Military Medal for an action at Wambeek (in the Messines sector) where he protected his patrol from enemy attack using a Lewis gun, inflicting casualties and silencing a German light machine gun, but the award was never promulgated. Soon after, on 19 May 1918, Kitchener was involved in an action during the attack on Morlancourt, for which he was awarded the Military Medal. He and two other men – Lance Corporal William Nuttall and Private George Milliken – volunteered as a bombing party to attack German machine guns enfilading the attack from the right rear. Their attack was successful and succeeded in restoring contact between the two attacking Brigades. The next day, Kitchener was promoted to Lance Corporal. He was killed in action on 17 August 1918 at Harbonnieres, where he is buried.