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Lawrence Weathers

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Lawrence Carthage Weathers

VC

a black and white 3/4 portrait of a male in uniform

Private Lawrence Weathers c.1916

Born 14 May 1890

Te Kopuru, New Zealand

Died 29 September 1918 (aged 28)

Péronne, France

Allegiance Australia

Service/branch Australian Imperial Force

Years of service 1916–1918

Rank Corporal

Unit 43rd Battalion

Battles/wars World War I

Western Front

Battle of Messines

Spring Offensive

Battle of Hamel

Hundred Days Offensive

Awards Victoria Cross

Lawrence Carthage Weathers, VC (14 May 1890 – 29 September 1918) was a New Zealand-born
Australian recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in battle that could be awarded
to a member of the Australian armed forces at the time. His parents returned to their native South
Australia when Weathers was seven, and he completed his schooling before obtaining work as an
undertaker in Adelaide. He enlisted as a private in the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) in early 1916, and
joined the 43rd Battalion. His unit deployed to the Western Front in France and Belgium in late
December. After a bout of illness, Weathers returned to his battalion in time to take part in the Battle of
Messines in June 1917, during which he was wounded. Evacuated to the United Kingdom, he rejoined
his unit in early December.

Promoted to lance corporal in March 1918, Weathers fought with his battalion during the German
Spring Offensive, but was gassed in May and did not return to his unit until the following month. He
participated in the Battle of Hamel in July, the Battle of Amiens in August, and the Battle of Mont Saint-
Quentin in September. At Mont Saint-Quentin he was recommended for the award of the Victoria Cross.
Promoted to temporary corporal, he was mortally wounded in the head by a shell on 29 September
during the Battle of St Quentin Canal, and died soon after, unaware that he was to receive the Victoria
Cross, which was not announced until late December. As of 2007, his Victoria Cross was in private hands.

Contents

1 Early life

2 World War I

3 Footnotes

4 References

Early life

Lawrence Carthage Weathers was born in Te Kopuru, near Dargaville, New Zealand, on 14 May 1890,
one of eight children of John Joseph Weathers, a pastoralist, and his wife Ellen Frances Johanna née
McCormack. Both his parents were from Adelaide, South Australia, and the family returned there when
he was seven years old. They settled in the rural mid-north of the state and Weathers attended
Snowtown Public School.[1][2][3] After leaving school, in 1909 he and two of his brothers travelled to
Europe and America, including a four-month stay in England. Having spent two years away,[4] he
returned to Australia and worked as a horse handler, coachman, and as an undertaker in Adelaide.[1][5]
On 10 September 1913, he married Annie Elizabeth "Tess" Watson of Unley. The couple lived in the
suburbs of Yatala and Parkside, and had two children.[1][6] Weathers' elder brother Thomas enlisted to
serve in World War I and died of wounds during the Gallipoli Campaign of 1915, while serving with the
9th Light Horse Regiment. His younger brother Joseph also enlisted, but was discharged at his own
request before leaving Australia.[5]

World War I

men on stretchers with medical staff standing

Casualties at a dressing station at Messines in June 1917

On 8 February 1916, Weathers enlisted as a private in the Australian Imperial Force (AIF), and was a
reinforcement in the 10th Battalion. In June, he was transferred to the 43rd Battalion, part of the 11th
Brigade, 3rd Division.[1][7] The 43rd Battalion embarked on HMAT A19 (formerly SS Afric) in June 1916,
and after a brief stop in the Middle East and transit through France, spent the rest of the year training at
Larkhill on the Salisbury Plain in southern England. The 3rd Division embarked for the Western Front in
November, and entered the trenches for the first time in late December. Weathers reported sick in late
January 1917, and did not rejoin his unit until late April.[8][9][10] He returned to the front lines in time
to participate in the first major action his battalion saw in the war, the Battle of Messines,[8] during
which the 43rd Battalion incurred 122 casualties in a night-time operation to capture the final objective,
the Oosttaverne Line.[11][3] One of those casualties was Weathers, who suffered a gunshot wound to
the leg on 10 June. Evacuated to hospital in the United Kingdom, he did not return to his unit until early
December.[12] The 3rd Division spent the winter of 1917–1918 rotating through the front lines in the
Messines sector of the Flanders region of Belgium, largely improving the trenches against an expected
German offensive in the spring.[13]

Weathers was promoted to lance corporal on 21 March 1918,[9] and a week later his battalion helped
blunt the German Spring Offensive, taking up defensive positions between the Ancre and the Somme
rivers west of Morlancourt.[14] In late May he required medical treatment following a gas attack near
Villers-Bretonneux that caused 230 casualties among the 43rd, and Weathers did not return to duty
until mid-June.[1][15][16]

The 43rd Battalion's next major action was the highly successful Battle of Hamel on 4 July.[17] The
battalion was responsible for clearing the village itself and suffered 97 casualties.[18] The 43rd played a
supporting role in the first phase of the Battle of Amiens on 8 August, which marked the beginning of
the Hundred Days Offensive to drive the Germans back to the Hindenburg Line of fortifications.[19] This
included fighting west of Suzanne on 25–26 August.[20] On 2 September, during the Battle of Mont
Saint-Quentin, the 43rd Battalion was tasked with clearing trenches north of the village of Allaines. It
captured Graz Trench opposite Allaines without a fight, then using hand grenades (known as bombs),
fought northwards towards Scutari Trench, and succeeded in containing about 150 Germans at a fork in
the trench. Faced with a deluge of German fire, a deadlock ensued, which was broken by Weathers,
supported by three other men.[21][22][3] His actions on that day resulted in a recommendation for the
award of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in battle that could be awarded to a member
of the Australian armed forces at the time.[23] The citation read:[24]

a bronze Cross pattée suspended from a crimson ribbon

The Victoria Cross

For most conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty on the 2nd of September 1918, north of Peronne,
when with an advanced bombing party. The attack having been held up by a strongly-held trench,
Corporal Weathers went forward alone, under heavy fire, and attacked the enemy with bombs. Then,
returning to our lines for a further supply of bombs, he again went forward with three comrades and
attacked under very heavy fire. Regardless of personal danger, he mounted the enemy parapet and
bombed the trench, and, with the support of his comrades, captured 180 prisoners and three machine
guns. His valour and determination resulted in the successful capture of the final objective, and saved
the lives of many of his comrades.

When Weathers returned to his comrades, his uniform was covered in mud, he had blood running down
his face, and he had five days' stubble on his chin. He was also festooned "like a Christmas tree" with
souvenired German binoculars and pistols. Full of nervous tension, he chattered to his mates about how
he had "put the wind up" the Germans.[1] During the Battle of Mont Saint-Quentin, the 43rd Battalion
suffered 67 casualties.[25] Over the next week, the 11th Brigade was part of the pursuit of the Germans
to the main Hindenburg Line.[26] Weathers was promoted to temporary corporal on 10
September.[1][27] On 29 September, the 3rd Division was part of the Battle of St Quentin Canal,[28] one
of the last Australian ground actions of the war, which involved breaching the Beaurevoir Line, the third
line of defences of the Hindenburg Line. During the battle, the 43rd Battalion was sheltering in a trench
when a shell burst among a small group of men, wounding Weathers in the head. He died soon after,
not knowing he would receive the Victoria Cross, which was gazetted on 24 December 1918.[22][3] The
same shell killed his uncle, Lance Corporal J. J. Weathers.[8]

Weathers was buried at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Unicorn Cemetery, Vendhuile.[29]
As of 2007, his Victoria Cross was in the hands of a private collector.[22]

Footnotes

Ritchie 1990.

Wigmore & Harding 1986, p. 127.

Staunton 2005, p. 179.

The Southern Cross 14 February 1919, p. 16.

Blanch & Pegram 2018, p. 291.

The Southern Cross 10 January 1919, p. 19.

National Archives 2017, pp. 1–4.

Australian War Memorial 2017.

National Archives 2017, p. 23.

Bean 1941, p. 168.

Bean 1937a, pp. 675, 682.

National Archives 2017, pp. 23–24.

Bean 1937b, p. 34.

Bean 1937b, pp. 212–235.

Bean 1942, p. 264.

National Archives 2017, p. 24.

Bean 1942, pp. 280–296, 310.

Bean 1942, pp. 294, 326.

Bean 1942, pp. 538–543.

Bean 1942, pp. 764–766.

Bean 1942, pp. 861–862.

Harper & Richardson 2007, pp. 176–177.

Wigmore & Harding 1986, p. 9.

National Archives 2017, p. 37.

Bean 1942, p. 874.

Bean 1942, pp. 879–883.

National Archives 2017, p. 30.

Bean 1942, pp. 958–959.

Wigmore & Harding 1986, p. 128.

References

"43rd Australian Infantry Battalion". Australian War Memorial. Retrieved 4 August 2017.

Bean, C.E.W. (1941). The Australian Imperial Force in France, 1916. Official History of Australia in the
War of 1914–1918. 3 (12 ed.). Sydney, New South Wales: Angus & Robertson. OCLC 271462387.

Bean, C.E.W. (1937a). The Australian Imperial Force in France, 1917. Official History of Australia in the
War of 1914–1918. 4 (5 ed.). Sydney, New South Wales: Angus & Robertson. OCLC 216975066.

Bean, C.E.W. (1937b). The Australian Imperial Force in France, during the Main German Offensive, 1918.
Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–1918. 5 (1 ed.). Sydney, New South Wales: Angus &
Robertson. OCLC 17648469.

Bean, C.E.W. (1942). The Australian Imperial Force in France: May 1918 – The Armistice. Official History
of Australia in the War of 1914–1918. 6 (1 ed.). Sydney, New South Wales: Angus & Robertson. OCLC
830564565.

Blanch, Craig; Pegram, Aaron (2018). For Valour: Australians Awarded the Victoria Cross. Sydney, New
South Wales: NewSouth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-74223-542-4.
"For Valour". The Southern Cross. XXXI (1530). South Australia. 14 February 1919. p. 16. Retrieved 28
June 2018 – via National Library of Australia.

Harper, Glyn; Richardson, Colin (2007). In the Face of the Enemy: The Complete History of the Victoria
Cross and New Zealand. Auckland, New Zealand: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-1-86950-650-6.

"NAA: B2455, Weathers Lawrence Carthage". National Archives of Australia. Retrieved 4 August 2017.

Ritchie, John (1990). Weathers, Lawrence Carthage (1890–1918). Australian Dictionary of Biography. 12.
Canberra, Australian Capital Territory: Melbourne University Press. Retrieved 4 August 2017.

Staunton, Anthony (2005). Victoria Cross. Prahran, Victoria: Hardie Grant. ISBN 978-1-74273-486-6.

"War Items". The Southern Cross. XXXI (1525). South Australia. 10 January 1919. p. 19. Retrieved 28
June 2018 – via National Library of Australia.

Wigmore, Lionel; Harding, Bruce A. (1986). Williams, Jeff; Staunton, Anthony (eds.). They Dared Mightily
(2 ed.). Canberra, Australian Capital Territory: Australian War Memorial. ISBN 978-0-642-99471-4.

Categories: 1890 births1918 deathsAustralian World War I recipients of the Victoria CrossNew Zealand
World War I recipients of the Victoria CrossAustralian military personnel killed in World War IAustralian
Army soldiersPeople from the Kaipara DistrictPeople from Adelaide

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