Victory Medal : Lieutenant C Pope, 11 Battalion, AIF

Victory Medal re-issue. Impressed around edge with recipient's details.

Charles Pope was born to William and Jane (née Clark) Pope at Mile End London on 5 March 1883. He was educated at Navestock, Essex, and later migrated to Canada where he was employed by Canadian Pacific Railways. Returning to London in 1906, Pope followed his father into the Metropolitan Police Force and later that same year married Edith Mary Smith. In 1910, accompanied by his wife and two young children, Pope migrated to Australia and settled in Perth.

He was working as an insurance agent when he enlisted in the AIF on 23 August 1915 and posted to 11 Battalion. On 10 February 1916, Pope was commissioned to 2nd lieutenant. Embarking aboard HMAT 'Ajana' at Fremantle on 15 July, he eventually joined his battalion near Flers, France on 10 December and was promoted to lieutenant less than two weeks later.

During a German counter-attack against the village of Louverval on 15 April 1917, Pope was killed in action. For his courage during the attack, he was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross.

In a report of the action, the battalion's commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Rupert Anstice Rafferty, wrote that '[Pope's] picquet was surrounded and had evidently used up all their ammunition, for with fixed bayonets the remainder of the post charged into the large body of the enemy who had surrounded them. Lieutenant Pope was in charge of this post, and our patrols since report having found his dead body.'

The precise location of Pope's original grave is difficult to determine though it is believed to be close to where he fell. Following the Armistice, battlefield graves were moved to Military Cemeteries under the auspices of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and Pope was re-interred in the Moeuvres Communal Cemetery Extension.

A brother, Private John Pope of 51 Battalion, was killed in action at Villers-Bretonneux on 25 April 1918.