Military Medal : Sergeant C A Deuchar, 9 Battalion, AIF

Military Medal (Geo V). Impressed around edge with recipient's details.

Cecil Audley Deuchar, born at Petersham, NSW, was a 27 year old station hand in Queensland when he travelled to Brisbane to enlist in the AIF on 26 July 1915. After initial training he was assigned to 25 Battalion, with the service number 3280 (later 3280A) and sailed for overseas service aboard HMAT Itonus, on 20 December 1915. He had been promoted to corporal shortly before he sailed, but reverted to the rank of private in Egypt, when he transferred to 9 Battalion on 4 March 1916. A week later he was reinstated as a corporal and the following month arrived in France for service on the Western Front. Deuchar was promoted to sergeant on 14 July, shortly before the battalion took part in the Battle of Pozieres. He was awarded the Military Medal for his actions during the battle. The recommendation for the award reads, 'In a forward position in POZIERES before daylight on 23rd July a party of enemy snipers established themselves behind a wall a short distance in front of our line and rapidly commenced to inflict losses on us. Sgt. Deuchar took a small party forward and climbing on to the wall himself bombed the enemy out of position although already having a bullet wound in the thigh.' Deuchar was subsequently evacuated to England for medical treatment and did not rejoin his battalion until December. A month later, at the end of January 1917 he was admitted to 36 (British) Casualty Clearing Station suffering from trench feet and trench fever, and was then evacuated to England. On recovery, he transferred to the newly formed core of 69 Battalion (6 Division), but when the proposal to raise the new division was dropped because of the shortage of recruits he rejoined 9 Battalion in France, serving in 9 Platoon, C Company. Deuchar was killed in action at Meteren on 27 April, 1918, when he and five other men were killed by machine gun fire as they walked along the parapet of a new trench they had just occupied. Deuchar died instantly from a bullet to the head and was buried nearby. His body could not be located after the war and his name is commemorated on the Villers Bretonneux Memorial.