b. 14/03/1896 Ballinrush, Queensland. d. 15/05/1918 Vaire-sous-Corbie, France.
DATE OF AM ACTION: 15/05/1918 Vaire-sous-Corbie, France.
David E Coyne AM
David Emmet Coyne (1896-1918), soldier and farmer, was born on 14 March 1896 at Ballinrush, near Mackay, Queensland, eighth child of David Emmet Coyne, farmer, and his wife Anne, née Hughes, both of whom were Irish-born. He was educated at Marian State School and then joined his father on the land.
Coyne enlisted as a private in the Australian Imperial Force on 25 January 1916 and went into training at Fraser’s Hill Camp, Brisbane. While there he showed considerable athletic prowess and figured in an incident which was perhaps a portent of the selfless act which resulted in his death two years later. After the horses of an express wagon had bolted, endangering several soldiers’ lives, Coyne leapt on to the back of one of the horses and managed to bring the wagon to a halt. He embarked for France with reinforcements in May and on 24 December was taken on strength with the 31st Battalion. His unit spent the winter of 1916-17 on the Somme engaged in raiding and patrol work, then in March took part in the advance on Bapaume. On 21 April 1917 he was promoted lance corporal and for the next six months was absent from his unit qualifying as a bombing instructor and serving temporarily with the 67th Battalion. He was promoted sergeant in June and rejoined the 31st Battalion in October.
From November 1917 until March 1918 the battalion served in Flanders in the Messines-Wytschaete sector, then returned to the Somme. On the night of 15 May, while in the line at Vaire-sous-Corbie, Coyne was testing some Mills grenades which he believed had been affected by damp. He threw one of them but it rebounded off the parapet and fell into the trench in which he and several others were standing. Ordering his men out, he tried to find the grenade in the darkness; then, realizing that his companions were not clear, deliberately threw himself over the grenade’s approximate position and received over twenty wounds when it exploded. At first it was thought that Coyne would survive and it was typical of his courageous and genial nature that he joked about the incident as he received preliminary medical attention. His wounds proved worse than expected and he died within hours. He was posthumously awarded the Albert Medal in Gold, the highest class of that decoration: he was the only member of the A.I.F. to gain such a distinction. Coyne’s grave lies in the Vignacourt British cemetery near Amiens. He was unmarried.
AM CITATION:
On the night of the 15th May, 1918, in order to test some Mills grenades, Sergeant Coyne threw one of them, but it failed to clear the parapet and fell into the trench in which there were a number of. other men. Sergeant Coyne shouted to them to run for their lives, and endeavoured to find the bomb in order to throw it away, but owing to the darkness he was unable to lay his hand on it in time and, the men not being clear of the trench, he deliberately threw himself on to the top of it and let it explode under him, receiving fatal injuries, but saving the lives of his comrades.
BURIAL LOCATION: VIGNACOURT BRITISH CEMETERY, NEAR AMIENS, FRANCE.
PLOT II, ROW D, GRAVE 6.
LOCATION OF MEDAL: AUSTRALIAN WAR MUSEUM, CANBERRA.
