Belgian Croix de Guerre : Warrant Officer Class II F G Jurd, 5 Pioneer Battalion, AIF

Belgian Croix de Guerre. Unnamed as issued.

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.
No citation is available for the Croix de Guerre but it may be connected to a recommendation for a Mention in Despatches which was not granted. The recommendation for this award reads 'East of Polygon Wood on the night of 28th/29th September 1917, C.S.M. Jurd was with his Company wiring a portion of the front line. As the party was about to withdraw our S.O.S. Signal was fired and heavy Machine Gun and Artillery fire immediately followed, to which the enemy replied. Several casualties were caused and the party became somewhat disorganised. With great courage C.S.M. Jurd assisted Lieut. Whitfield and L.Cpl. Purtill in reorganising the party and in locating and attending to the wounded.'