Military Medal : Warrant Officer Class II F G Jurd, 5 Pioneer Battalion, AIF

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

Frederick George Jurd was born in London in 1870, and enlisted in the Royal Marines at the age of 19. He emigrated to Australia some time after 1910. On 15 August 1914, aged 43, Jurd enlisted in the naval contingent of the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force as an Able Seaman serving with it until January 1915. In May 1915, he enlisted as a private in 2 Infantry Battalion AIF. He joined the Battalion on Gallipoli and served with it until the evacuation. In 1916, he was posted to 5 Pioneer Battalion, and served with it for the remainder of the war, rising to the rank of warrant officer. Jurd was decorated three times in 1918, receiving the Distinguished Conduct Medal, the Military Medal and the Belgian Croix de Guerre. He returned to Australia in February 1919, and was discharged medically unfit due to a gun shot wound to his right leg, suffered at Bellicourt. Frederick Jurd died in Sydney in 1939. The recommendation for the award of his Military Medal reads 'On the 29th September 1918 at BELLICOURT, C.S.M JURD led a small party across to the left and captured a small party of about 20 Germans and a Machine Gun, which had to be attacked before it was taken. Immediately afterwards, when Lieut. Whitfield called for Lewis Gunners to put out of action some enemy Machine Guns. C.S.M. JURD at once went forward and was wounded whilst endeavouring to put the M.G's out of action.'