Shell Company of Australia 'On Active Service' medal : Warrant Officer II D S Gill, 2/1 Machine Gun Battalion

Sterling silver medal suspended from a red, dark and light blue, and white striped ribbon. The obverse showsa laurel wreath above the 1930s pattern Shell Oil cockle shell, with 'ON ACTIVE SERVICE' in the centre. The obverse has raised lettering 'PRESENTED TO ... A MEMBER OF THE SHELL COMPANY OF AUSTRALIA LIMITED' A raised scroll after the word 'TO' is engraved with the recipient's name, 'D.S. GILL'.

The Second World War ushered in a period of rigid controls on energy industry companies. The Federal Government took over control of the petroleum industry, individual trade names were withdrawn and all petroleum products were pooled and distributed under one brand through Pool Petroleum Pty Ltd for the duration of the war.

Participants in Pool Petroleum, many no longer household names, included Alba Petroleum, Atlantic Union Oil, Australian Motorists' Petrol (now Ampol), Gaiter Ltd, Gaiter Queensland Pty Ltd, Independent Oil Industry Pty Ltd, Neptune Oil Company, Hamilton Morton-Howard Sleigh Co Ltd, Shell Co of Australia and Vacuum Oil.

As early as 1938, the Federal Government successfully lobbied employers to support enlistment in the militia units. Wages and conditions were maintained for employees to enlist in local units and attend military training. During the war, energy sector businesses, among others, extended the protection to those who enlisted by giving security of employment on their return and supplementing their military wages to make up any shortfall to their civilian earnings. The families of those who died or who were injured in service received financial assistance.

Many companies actively encouraged their employees to enlist. The Shell Company of Australia struck their own silver medals for presentation to employees who enlisted for active service and by the end of 1941 more than a third of the company's employees had joined. This medal was presented to Donald Story Gill, a clerk from the company’s Geelong Depot, probably around the time of his enlistment in October 1939.

Posted to 2/1st Machine Gun Battalion, Gill went on to become a distinguished soldier, rising to the rank of warrant officer, class two. He was awarded a Military Medal for outstanding bravery for his actions on two occasions during the disastrous Greek campaign in 1941. The first occurred while the battalion’s transport, the SS ‘Ben Rinnes’ (or Binnies), was sailing between Alexandria and Athens in late March and early April 1941. Gill was in charge of one of 16 machineguns being used as the ship’s anti-aircraft defence.

Despite the ship being subjected to numerous enemy aerial machine gun and torpedo attacks, Gill, ‘by his coolness and courage’ was in the thick of beating off the attacks. Two weeks later at Servia Pass, Greece, he again engaged enemy aircraft in an attack on his company’s headquarters. He ‘fired his gun continuously throughout a determined enemy air attack’, bringing down one plane and a probable second. By the end of May, the ill-fated Greek and Crete campaigns had cost the battalion over 100 casualties.

Gill returned to Australia in March 1942 and following a number of postings was attached to 1 Australia Corps Headquarters in August 1944. The following month he was accidently wounded when a Japanese rifle grenade exploded while an enemy weapon familiarisation course was being conducted. He was discharged from the army in September 1945.

While Gill and other colleagues fought overseas, at home employees of Shell had themselves initiated a war service fund with subscriptions deducted from their wages. Monies collected went to buying items for those preparing to leave, arranging hampers for men already overseas, wool for knitting items and cash donations for the Australian Comforts Fund, Red Cross and Mercantile Marine. The company contributed large sums of money and produced numerous free cinema reels including the morale raising 1939 film ‘Cavalcade of Empire’ and the 1940 Red Cross documentary, ‘They Serve’. Offices for the headquarters of the ARP (Air Raid Precautions) in Victoria were supplied by the company for the duration of the war at no cost.

By war’s end, two thirds of eligible men employed by the Shell had served in the armed forces. Approximately eighty-five died and scores spent much of the time in captivity as Prisoners of War.