b. 23/07/1889 Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. d. 07/07/1968 Scottsdale, Tasmania, Australia.
Stanley Robert McDougall (1889-1968) was born on 23rd July 1889 at Recherche, Tasmania. His father, John Henry McDougall, was a saw miller, born in Cygnet, Tasmania. He married Susannah Ann Cate, who was from Nelson, New Zealand, in Esperance, Tasmania on 13th February 1884. Stanley had six siblings – one died as an infant, and one brother died serving in the Royal Australian Navy in World War II.
Stanley was educated locally to Recherche, and became a blacksmith. He was an excellent horseman, marksman and bushman, who also took up amateur boxing.
Stanley R McDougall
VC MM
Illness prevented him from enlisting in the Australian Imperial Force until 31st August 1915 when he was posted to the 12th Reinforcements to the 15th Battalion. He was originally wanted by the Light Horse due to his experience as a farrier, but he chose to stay in the infantry. In Egypt, on 3rd March 1916, he was drafted into the 47th Battalion and embarked for France in June. The battalion fought at Pozières Heights in August and in the battles of Messines and Broodseinde in 1917. Appointed lance corporal on 5th May 1917, McDougall was promoted corporal in September; he became temporary sergeant in November and was confirmed in that rank next January.
McDougall was awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions at Dernancourt on 28th March 1918. He was on watch at a post on the 47th’s right flank when he heard Germans approaching. When a Lewis-gun team was knocked out by an enemy bomb McDougall snatched up the gun, attacked two machine-gun teams and killed their crews. He turned one of the captured machine-guns on the enemy, killing several and routing one wave of their attack. Meanwhile about fifty Germans had crossed a section of railway which the Australians had held. McDougall turned his gun on them and when his ammunition was spent he seized a bayonet and charged, killing four men. He then used a Lewis-gun, killing many Germans and forcing the surrender of the remaining thirty-three.
Eight days later, in the same location, McDougall was to earn the Military Medal. During a heavy enemy attack, he got a gun into position and enfiladed the Germans at close quarters. When the gun was hit he crawled some 300 yards (275 m) under fire to get a replacement; he then took command of the leaderless platoon for the rest of the action. He was posted to the 48th Battalion on 28th May. At Windsor Castle on 19th August he was invested with the Victoria Cross by King George V and shortly afterwards returned to Australia where he was discharged from the A.I.F. on 15th December 1918.
McDougall entered the Tasmanian Forestry Department and in the early 1930s became an inspector in charge of forests in the north-western part of the State. He several times performed outstanding organizational and rescue work during bushfires. He married Martha “Matty” Florence Anderson-Harrison in 1926 and they settled in Scottsdale, Tasmania. There were no children in the marriage.
Stanley attended the Anzac Commemoration Service on 25th April 1927 in Melbourne in the presence of the Duke of York (later King George VI). In 1937, he lost his Military Medal. The police found it but it was destroyed before he could reclaim it and he therefore applied for a replacement on repayment. At an ANZAC Day parade in Sydney in 1938 he lost his Coronation Medal and applied for a replacement. He attended the VC Centenary Celebrations in Hyde Park, London on 26th June 1956, travelling on SS Orcades with other Australian VCs. In 1964, he was one of 17 Australian VCs present at the opening of the VC Corner at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra by Lord De L’Isle VC.
McDougall died on 7 July 1968 at the North East Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital, Scottsdale, survived by his wife Martha. Stanley was cremated at Cornelian Bay Cemetery and Crematorium, and there is a memorial plaque at Norwood Crematorium, Mitchell, near Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. His ashes are not interred in either location. He is commemorated with a display at the Australian War Memorial, Canberra featuring his uniform and Lewis gun used at Dernancourt, on the VC recipients plaque in Campbell, Canberra, on the Victoria Cross Memorial at Hobart Cenotaph, on the Dover RSL Club Memorial, with McDougall Street in Wodonga, Victoria, on the VC Memorial in Sydney, on the North Bondi War Memorial, and with a VC commemorative stone placed at the National Memorial Arboretum, Alrewas, Staffordshire, placed on 5th March 2015.
In addition to his VC and MM, he was awarded the 1914-15 Star, British War Medal 1914-20, Victory Medal 1914-19, George VI Coronation Medal 1937 and Elizabeth II Coronation Medal 1953. His medals were reunited together as a complete group in 2014, and were donated to the Australian War Memorial, Canberra where they are displayed in the Hall of Valour.
LOCATION OF MEDAL: AUSTRALIAN WAR MEMORIAL, CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA.
BURIAL PLACE: CORNELIAN BAY CREMATORIUM, HOBART, AUSTRALIA.
LOCATION OF ASHES UNKNOWN.
Acknowledgement:
Steve Lee www.memorialstovalour.co.uk – Image of the McDougall VC Medal Group at the Australian War Memorial, Canberra.