Edgar Thomas Towner VC MC

b. 19/04/1890 Blackall, Australia. d. 18/08/1972 Longreach, Australia.

Edgar Thomas Towner (1890-1972) was born on 19th April 1890 at Glencoe Station, Barcoo, near Blackall, Central Queensland, Australia. His father, also Edgar Thomas Towner, was from Port Sorrell, Tasmania, Australia, was a grazier at Glencoe Station, Barcoo. He married Ann Eliza Casey on 13th August 1881. She died in 1886, and Edgar remarried to Greta Freda Herley, originally from County Cork, Ireland, on 16th June 1889 at Blackall, Queensland. Edgar junior had ten siblings from his father’s two marriages.

Edgar was educated at Blackall State School and Rockhampton, Queensland in addition to private tuition. He worked in farming from an early age and took possession of a block of land, which he named Valparaiso in 1912. Edgar enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on 4th January 1915 at Blackall, Queensland and was posted to Greenhills, Brisbane, Queensland. He was assigned to the Light Horse and transferred to 17th Company on 20th March. He transferred to the Transport Section, 25th Battalion on 21st April and embarked for the Middle East aboard HMAT A60 Aeneas on 29th June at Brisbane. He disembarked at Alexandria, Egypt and moved to Heliopolis and Tel-el-Kebir on 4th August. He rejoined the Battalion at Tel-el-Kebir from details on 10th January 1916. On 1st February he was promoted sergeant and appointed Transport NCO at Ismailia. He left for Marseille, France on 14th March, disembarking on 19th March.

He transferred to 7th Machine Gun Company, 2nd Machine Gun Battalion on 3rd November and was commissioned on 18th November 1916. He was promoted to lieutenant on 24th February 1917.

Edgar T Towner VC MC

At Morlancourt, France, on 10th-11th June 1918 he won the Military Cross while fighting with the 2nd Machine-Gun Battalion. One of the first to reach his objective near the town of Albert, he quickly brought his section into action, thereby assisting troops from the 7th Infantry Brigade to advance and consolidate; he also made use of captured enemy machine-guns. On the morning of 11th June he capped his gallantry with a feat of daring in daylight, helping to re-establish a post under heavy attack ‘at great personal risk’. On 1 September he again distinguished himself at Péronne during the assault on Mont St Quentin. In the early stages of the advance Towner single-handedly captured an enemy machine-gun, then brought his men forward to produce ‘such effective fire that the Germans suffered heavy losses’. He later took twenty-five prisoners before capturing another machine-gun ‘which, in full view of the Germans, he mounted and fired so effectively that the enemy retired, thus enabling the Australians to advance’. Even when wounded, Towner continued to fight and to inspire his men.

His bravery saw him awarded the Victoria Cross which was gazetted on 14th December 1918. He was wounded by a gunshot to the scalp during this action but was not evacuated until 4th September. He was treated at 5th Australian Field Ambulance and No 41 Casualty Clearing Station before being transferred to 2nd Red Cross Hospital, Rouen on 6th September.

The hero returned to Australia in April 1919, but was unable to raise sufficient funds to stock his property. He gave up Valparaiso, went jackerooing and did itinerant work for three years from 1922. Entering into a partnership in Kaloola station (near Longreach) in 1925, Towner thenceforward made the pastures and lands of central Queensland the focus of his life and successfully built up Russleigh Pastoral Co., Isisford.

He took on the bush just as he had accepted the challenges of battle and stuck it out through hard times, preserving his stock as best he could. Towner made himself an expert on the frontier environments of western Queensland and Central Australia, as well as on the exploits of Sir Thomas Mitchell who had mapped and named parts of the country. By 1946 Towner had successfully lobbied the Commonwealth government for a postage stamp to commemorate Mitchell. In 1955 he crowned his lifelong geographical work with an address to the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia in Brisbane; his efforts were rewarded with the James Park Thomson gold medal and a fellowship of the society; next year his address was published as a booklet entitled Lake Eyre and its Tributaries.

He attended a number of VC related events. An Anzac Dinner on 23rd April 1927, was attended by 23 VCs including Edgar Towner. He also attended the ANZAC Commemoration Service on 25th April 1927 at Exhibition Building, Melbourne. He attended with 23 other VCs. He also attended the opening of the VC Corner at the Australian War Memorial in 1964 with 17 other VCs. On 13th May 1970, he attended the investiture of Keith Payne VC on board the Royal Yacht Britannia in Brisbane, Queensland. In World War II, he was appointed to 26th Battalion Militia as a captain. He retired from service in 1942.

Edgar Towner was a big man with an imposing personality. In military kit he was burly and tough-looking, but out of it he was shy and distant, engrossed in thought. Without wife or children, he was deemed a loner. A younger generation regarded him as eccentric: always to be seen wearing a suit and frequently disappearing into the outback for long periods of study or exploration. Towner died at Longreach on 18th August 1972 and was buried in Longreach Shire Cemetery. He was commemorated with Towner Place, Canberra, on the VC recipients plaque in Campbell, ACT, and with a commemorative display at the Australian War Memorial. There is also a bronze statue to him at Memorial Park, Blackall, and he is named on the VC Memorial in Springvale Botanical Cemetery, Melbourne. There is also Towner Drive in Wodonga, and he is named on North Bondi War Memorial in New South Wales. He also has a VC commemorative stone at the National Memorial Arboretum, Alrewas, Staffordshire.

In addition to his VC and MC he was awarded the 1914-15 Star, British War Medal 1914-20, Victory Medal 1914-19 with Mentioned in Despatches oakleaf, War Medal 1939-45, George VI Coronation Medal 1937 and Elizabeth II Coronation Medal 1953. On his death, the medals were passed to his nephew, Trevor St Quentin Watts, who handed them to Edgar’s brother, Gresley. He sold them to a dealer in 1973. They were purchased by Dr William A Land, a dermatologist, of Dee Why, New South Wales. He sold them at a Spink’s auction on 16th November 1983 for $AUS64,000. They were purchased on behalf of a Brisbane collector, Terry Truswell, who offered them for sale at Noble Numismatics on 13th July 1994. They failed to make the reserve, were withdrawn from sale, and he eventually sold them privately.

LOCATION OF MEDAL: PRIVATELY HELD.

BURIAL PLACE: LONGREACH TOWN CEMETERY, LONGREACH, AUSTRALIA.

Protestant Section 6