Frank Partridge

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Frank Partridge was a farmer, a quiz show winner and Australia's youngest Victoria Cross (VC) recipient in World War II. He received the VC for his action in northern Bougainville on 24 July 1945. He attacked 2 Japanese bunkers during fighting there.

Patridge was the last Australian awarded the VC in World War II.

After the war, Partridge won acclaim as a quiz show winner of Pick-a-Box after the war. But his television fame was short-lived. Partridge died in a car accident when he was only 39.

Early life

Partridge was born in Grafton and raised in northern New South Wales. He grew up on a family farm near Macksville with his brothers and sister. His parents, Patrick 'Paddy' Partridge and his English-born wife, Mary, raised dairy cattle and grew bananas.

Partridge left school at 13 to help his father on the farm.

War service

Partridge was only 15 when war broke out. He joined the Volunteer Defence Corps as soon as he was old enough, and was called up for full-time duty in March 1943. He was posted to the 8th Australian Infantry Battalion, a militia unit.

After military training in northern Queensland, Patridge embarked with his unit for Lae in May 1944. Lae is a town in eastern New Guinea, an area rich in gold. It had been under Australian control since 1920, when it was granted to Australia as part of Germany's World War I reparations.

Japanese forces occupied Lae on 8 March 1942. It was an important base for the Japanese until Australian troops recaptured it in September 1943. When Partridge arrived in May 1944, the 8th Battalion took up garrison duties.

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Bougainville

Partridge was sent to Bougainville in June 1945. The Bougainville campaign was one of the last campaigns in the Pacific. Some 30,000 Australians served in Bougainville, and around 500 of them died. Two men were awarded the Victoria Cross for their actions in the campaign.

By mid-1945, Japanese forces had been defeated in several battles in the Pacific theatre of operations. And, it would only be a couple of months later before the American bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki brought the war finally to an end. But, when Partridge and his mates in the 8th Battalion arrived in Bougainville, the war was not expected to end any time soon.

Conditions on the island were challenging:

The war the infantry knew was one of patrolling along stinking, humid jungle tracks and putrid swamps in an intimate, personal war of section patrols and the occasional company-size attack. The strain of constant clashes with the Japanese and harassing artillery fire eroded the men's morale.

... The Japanese resisted stubbornly, fighting to hold each track and river crossing. They skilfully infiltrated the Australian lines, laying improvised mines and setting ambushes along muddy, corduroyed roads. The Japanese experience of the campaign was one of deprivation, desperation and defeat. In the most extreme instances, a few even resorted to cannibalism.

[Karl James, The Hard Slog: Australians in the Bougainville Campaign, 1944-45, 2012]

On 24 July 1945, Partridge was part of an attempt to take a Japanese post, north of Ratsua in northern Bougainville. He was shot in the arm and left thigh when his section came under heavy fire.

Partridge quickly understood the danger for him and others nearby. Ignoring his wounds and the gunfire around him, he grabbed a Bren gun from beside a dead gunner. 'Come out and fight!' he shouted at the Japanese.

Partridge handed his Bren gun to another Australian soldier who had just come up beside him. Partridge asked him to provide cover as he rushed to the nearby Japanese bunker, armed with a grenade and knife. Partridge hurled the grenade into the bunker, destroying the enemy's machine gun. Then, in what his citation described as a 'fierce hand to hand fight', Partridge used his knife to kill the only surviving Japanese soldier in the bunker.

Partridge tried to attack another Japanese bunker. But blood loss from his wounds made him too weak to continue. He called for help from his section. Despite his injuries and loss of blood, Partridge kept on fighting until his platoon had retrieved their casualties.

Partridge was nominated for a VC for his 'outstanding heroism and fortitude.'

Victoria Cross citation  

Private Frank John Partridge, N454409.

AUSTRALIAN MILITARY FORCES.

For most conspicuous bravery and great devotion to duty: —  

On 24th July, 1945, two fighting patrols were given the task of eliminating an enemy outpost known as Base 5 in Bougainville which denied any forward movement by our troops.

Our preliminary artillery concentration caused the enemy bunkers to be screened by a litter of felled banana plants and from these well concealed positions the patrols came under extremely fierce fire. The forward section was pinned down immediately suffering two killed and one wounded.

Private Partridge as a rifleman in a section carrying out an encircling movement was hit twice in the left arm and again in the left thigh whilst the Bren gunner was killed and two others seriously wounded. There was then only one unwounded—the section leader. Appreciating the extreme gravity of the situation and the possible annihilation of troops in the immediate vicinity Private Partridge rushed forward under a terrific burst of enemy fire and retrieved the Bren gun then challenged the enemy to come out and fight. Heavy MMG and rifle fire from the nearest bunker had necessarily to be silenced before any movement could be made. He handed his Bren to a newly arrived man while he rushed this bunker, into which he threw a grenade. Under cover of the burst he dived into the bunker and in a fierce hand to hand fight killed the only living occupant. He then prepared to attack another bunker in the rear; but weakness from loss of blood compelled him to halt when he shouted to his section commander he was unable to continue.

With the way clear the platoon moved forward and established a defence perimeter in the vicinity of the spot where Private Partridge lay wounded. Under heavy fire casualties were evacuated and the platoon withdrew. Despite wounds and weakness due to loss of blood Private Partridge joined in this fight and remained in action until the completion of the withdrawal.

The information gained by both patrols and particularly from Private Partridge enabled another Company to mount an attack later. This led to the capture of Base 5.

The serious situation during the fight of the two patrols was retrieved only by the outstanding gallantry and devotion to duty displayed by Private Partridge.

[1946 'Government Gazette Notices', Commonwealth of Australia Gazette (National: 1901-1973), 24 January, p 157, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article232779630.] 

After the war

Partridge was on leave at home on the family farm when he received news of his VC. He was presented with his VC by the Duke of Gloucester in April 1946, in a ceremony at Government House in Sydney.

Partridge left the Army in October 1946. However, he joined the Regular Army Special Reserve for 4 months in 1953 to attend Queen Elizabeth II's coronation in England. After his discharge, Patridge worked with his father on their farm near Macksville.

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Partridge loved reading and learning and had 'an extraordinarily retentive memory'. By the light of a kerosene lamp, Partridge would sit and read the Encyclopedia Britannica.

In 1962 and 1963, Partridge put his vast general knowledge to the test. He entered the popular Australian quiz show, Pick a box, and won £12,000 in prizes.

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Partridge used his winnings to buy a diamond ring for his fiancée, Barbara Dunlop, a nurse from Turramurra in Sydney. The Australian Women's Weekly published a feature on Frank Partridge's Pick a box win and his plans for an overseas honeymoon and new home.

Partridge was killed in 1964 when his car collided with a truck carting timber west of Bellingen.

Frank Partridge was buried with military honours at a ceremony attended by 4,000 people at Macksville Cemetery. He was survived by his new wife, Barbara, and his 14-week-old son, Lachlan.

Commemorating Frank Partridge

Frank Partridge is commemorated by:

• Frank Partridge VC Public School, Nambucca Heads
• Frank Partridge VC Military Museum, Bowraville
• Frank Partridge VC Memorial rest area, Menangle

A scholarship was also established in his name for local school children.