b. 21/10/1890 Beaconsfield, Tasmania, Australia. d. 05/12/1959 Hobart, Tasmania.
Percy Clyde Statton (1890-1959) was born on 21st October 1890 at Beaconsfield, Tasmania. His father, Edward Samuel Statton, was a miner born at Sebastopol, Victoria, and later of Bendigo, Victoria. He moved to Tyrenna, Tasmania, where he became a farmer and married Margaret “Maggie” Lavinia Hosking on 4th January 1889 at St James’ Church, Waratah, Tasmania. Maggie died when Percy was ten, and his father remarried to Catherine “Kate” Blaney in 1914 in Tasmania. Percy had four siblings.
Percy was educated at Zeehan State School, Tasmania and became a farm labourer at Tyrenna, Tasmania. On 12th September 1907 he married Elsie May Pearce, born at Ballarat, Victoria, at New Norfolk, Tasmania. They had three children – Florence, Alexander (died as a baby), and Percy.
Percy C Statton VC MM
Percy enlisted at Claremont, Tasmania on 29th February 1916. He was living with Elsie, in Hobart at the time. He was promoted to lance corporal 22nd May and embarked for Britain on 1st July, disembarking at Devonport, Devon on 22nd August. He was based on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, and was promoted to corporal on 19th November at Larkhill, Wiltshire. He went to France, landing at Le Havre on 23rd November. He was appointed temporary sergeant on 16th January 1917 and was promoted to sergeant on 23rd April.
He was awarded the Military Medal for his actions at Messines, Belgium between 7th-9th June 1917, while under heavy enemy artillery and machine gun fire he supervised and conducted carrying parties to the advanced troops with great determination, never failing to reach the most advanced lines, despite the party being decimated by shellfire on several occasions.
On 12th October he received a gunshot wound to the right shoulder near Passchendaele, Belgium and was treated at 22nd General Hospital. On 16th October he was evacuated to Britain aboard HMHS Pieter de Connick and was admitted to Fort Pitt Hospital, Chatham, Kent. He would not rejoin his unit in Etaples until 12th May 1918. He was gassed at Villers-Bretonneux and was admitted to 10th Australian Field Ambulance. He was transferred to No 12 Casualty Clearing Station on 15th June and to No 49 Casualty Clearing Station next day. He rejoined the Battalion on 24th June.
Early on 12th August 1918, the 40th Battalion was assigned an objective south of the Proyart-Chuignes road, requiring an advance of some 1400 yards (1280 m). After covering about 875 yards (800 m), the battalion was halted by an intense artillery barrage. ‘A’ Company managed to reach Proyart village and with the aid of Statton’s Lewis-gun achieved its objective; the rest of the battalion was then able to follow. At dusk the advance of the supporting 37th Battalion was held up by fierce machine-gun fire. Assisting the 37th’s progress with two Lewis-guns, Statton saw the attack fail. He took three men with him and got to within 80 yards (73 m) of the first enemy strong-point. Revolver in hand, he then led his men across open ground into the German trench. They destroyed two machine-guns and Statton killed the crews. His party dashed towards the next two gun-posts whose crews fled, only to be killed by the two Lewis-guns which Statton had earlier sited. With one member of his party dead and another wounded, Statton and the third man crawled back to their lines and the 37th moved forward. That night Statton went out and brought in the wounded man and the body of the other. For his valour he was awarded the Victoria Cross.
He was granted leave to Paris between 20th and 30th October 1918. He was posted to the Fourth Army Guard, Amiens between 31st October and 3rd November. He was granted leave between 20th December 1918 and 22nd January 1919. The VC was presented by King George V at Buckingham Palace on 7th June 1919. He was detached to the Australian Imperial Force HQ, London on 9th July, where he was assigned to motor training instruction at 10 Heddon Street, London until 20th August. He embarked for Australia aboard SS Pakeha at Southampton on 6th October.
On 26th November 1919 Statton received a hero’s reception in Hobart. He was less certain, however, of a welcome from his wife who had warned the ‘strapping, handsome soldier’ that if he went off to war she would leave him when he returned. She kept her word, and she had an affair with Francis Albert Roy Boucher and they had a daughter, Lily. He divorced her on 1st October 1920. After demobilization, Statton found work in a sawmill and then became a farmer at Fitzgerald.
On 21st December 1925 at the Registrar General’s Office, Hobart, he married a divorcee Eliza Grace “Queenie” Hudson, née Parker (d.1945); on 16th December 1947 in Hobart he married Monica Enid Effie Kingston, a teacher. They lived at Ouse where Statton worked as a commercial agent. In the 1950s he was employed by Australian Newsprint Mills. Percy attended the VC Centenary Celebrations in Hyde Park, London on 26th June 1956.
Survived by his wife and son, Statton died in Hobart of stomach cancer on 5th December 1959 and was cremated with full military honours and ashes interred at Cornelian Bay Cemetery, Hobart, Tasmania. There is a plaque in AIF Arch No 4, Niche F-3. He is commemorated on the VC Memorial at Campbell, ACT, with Statton Street, Canberra, with a memorial plaque in Ouse, Tasmania, with Statton Way in Wodonga, Victoria, and is named on the Bondi War Memorial. He also has a VC commemorative stone at the National Memorial Arboretum, Alrewas, Staffordshire.
In addition to the VC and MM, he was awarded the British War Medal 1914-20, Victory Medal 1914-19, George VI Coronation Medal 1937 and Elizabeth II Coronation Medal 1953. He signed a declaration in 1937 that his medals were lost when his farm was burned out in 1932. The VC was found in the ruins but not the clasp. However, he failed to return the necessary application to meet the costs of a replacement. In 1950 he declared that his medals were lost when his home at Fitzgerald, Tasmania was destroyed by fire in September 1938. Eventually in 1950, the 40th Battalion Association took the matter up with the AIF Base Records at Canberra. Eventually a replacement VC was issued. It was presented to Percy on 11th November 1950. Percy, Percy’s son presented the medals to the Returned and Services League on 27th February 1995 and they were entrusted to the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.
LOCATION OF MEDAL: AUSTRALIAN WAR MEMORIAL, CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA.
BURIAL PLACE: CORNELIAN BAY CEMETERY, HOBART, AUSTRALIA. (CREMATED – ASHES INTERRED)
Acknowledgement:
Richard Yielding – Image of the Statton VC MM Plaque at Cornelian Bay Cemetery and Crematorium, Hobart.