Colour patch : Sergeant J H Gordon, 2/31 Battalion, AIF

Colour patch of 2/31 Infantry Battalion AIF, showing a circle horizontally divided black over red, on a grey circular background.

Associated with the service of WX2437 Sergeant James Heather Gordon, AIF. Gordon was awarded the Victoria Cross for his gallant actions during an attack on Vichy French positions at 'Greenhill' near Jezzine, Syria, on 10 July 1941. A farmer from Gin Gin, Western Australia, he had joined 2/31 Battalion as a private in February of that year, and the Syrian campaign was his first combat experience. Gordon subsequently served with the battalion for the remainder of the war, seeing service in New Guinea and Borneo, and rising to the rank of sergeant. He was discharged in February 1947, but re-enlisted in the regular army in December of the same year with the service number 5900231, and served until 1968, reaching the rank of warrant officer class II. Jimmy Gordon died in Western Australia in July 1986.