| Full Name |
| Sergeant Richard Charles Travis |
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| Next of Kin |
| Miss Lette Murry (friend), Roal Bush, Southland, New Zealand |
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| Enlistment Address |
| Ryal Bush, Southland, New Zealand |
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| Destination |
| Suez,Egypt (3 December 1914) |
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| Other Units |
| 8th (Southland) Company, 2nd Battalion, Otago Infantry Regiment |
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| Military Awards |
- Victoria Cross (VC)
- Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM)
- Military Medal (MM)
- Croix de Guerre (Belgium)
- Mentioned in Despatches (MiD) Twice
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| Award Circumstances |
- Victoria Cross - London Gazette, 27 September 1918, p11431, Rec No 2282: "For most conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty. During "surprise" operations it wa necessary to destroy an impassable wire block. Sergeant Travis, regardless of all personal danger, volunteered for this duty. Before zero hour, in broad daylight, and in close proximity to enemy posts, he crawled out and successfully destroyed the block with bombs, thus enabling the attacking parties to pass through. A few minutes later a bombing party of the right of the attack was held up by two enemy machine guns, and the success of the whole operation was in danger. Perceiving this, Sergeant Travis, with great gallantry and utter disregard of danger, rushed the position, killed the crew and captured the guns. An enemy officer and three men immediately rushed at him from a bend in the trench and attempted to retake the guns. These four he killed single-handed, thus allowing the bombing party, on which much depended, to advance. The success of the operation was almost entirely due to the heroic work of this non-commissioned officer, and to the vigour with which he made and used opportunities for inflicting casualties on the enemy. He was killed twenty-four hours later when, under a most intense bombardment prior to an enemy counterattack, he was going from post to post encouraging the men."
- Distinguished Conduct Medal - London Gazette, 25 November 1916, p11563: "For conspicuous gallantry in action. He went out by himself and accounted for several enemy snipers who were firing at a working party. He has on many previous occasions done very fine work."
- Military Medal - London Gazette, 13 September 1918, p10779, Rec No 2169: "Operations: On the British Front east of Hebuterne - 14th May 1918. For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. This N.C.O. commanded a patrol of four men which went out in broad daylight, and captured an enemy machine gun post; although their Battalion was in support these men volunteered to go out and secure identification, which was urgently required. They left our front line trench at about 7.15pm in broad daylight and by skillful use of ground they crept up to the enemy post unobserved, and, disposing themselves very cleverly completely surprised the enemy post of seven Germans. The Officer of the post showed fight and had to be shot; the connections in the post aroused a neighbouring post post who rushed down the sap to the aid of their comrades, firing at the above patrol who were conducting our prisoners to our lines; two of them being shot by their own comrades. The withdrawal was very cleverly covered by Sergeant Travis who fired his revolver until it was emptied. The above was carried out in a most daring manner, and the men concerned showed courage of a very high order, while the scheme was worked out very cleverly in all details. These men were subjected to heavy machine gun fire on withdrawing from the enemy post and were sniped at from all sides. The whole scheme had to be carried out with the utmost despatch, but nevertheless it was a complete success without casualties on our side. This N.C.O. by his excellent patrol work has obtained much valuable information example of courage and devotion to duty."
- Croix de Guerre (Belgium) - London Gazette, 12 July 1918, p 8191
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| Last Unit Served |
| OtagoInfantry Regiment, 2 Battalion |
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| Cemetery Name |
| Couin New British Cemetery, Pas-de-Calais, France |
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| Biographical Notes |
- Born Dickson Cornelius Savage at Opotiki, New Zealand, on 6 April 1884, the fifth child in a family of nine. He changed his name to Richard Charles Travis when he reached twenty one and served under this name.
- Travis was promoted to Sergeant at Flanders, and was given command of the sniping and observing organisation of the 2nd Battalion, and in that capacity gathered around him a small band of men whose special function was night patrolling of No Man's Land and of enemy territory generally.
- "For distinguished services rendered during the course of the campaign.". Victoria Cross awarded for action on 24 July 1918 at Rossignol Wood. This is is the last of many reports bearing on the remarkable achievements sent in by Sgt Travis. The report was as follows : "A few seconds before 5pm several Stokes bombs thrown in enemy entanglements in front of blocks. At 5pm our trench mortars put up a perfect barrage on enemy's forward posts for one minute. Our bombing parties rushed the trench and found the enemy very much shaken. Some ran down communication trenches, while remainder were killed, except those who were sent to the rear. Fifteen dead bodies counted and two machine guns captured in forward positions. On several occasions enemy tried to hold c.t.'s with bombing parties, but the ground was gained yard by yard. We reached objective about two minutes past 5 p.m.; but bombing party and several scouts bombed up Hawk trench for a distance of about 250 yeards. As we were running short of bombs we had to establish a temporary block across saps. Huns tried to cut us off from the left of Hawk trench, but were beaten off with their own bombs. Very heavy casualties inflicted on enemy in Hawk trench. Total for the day about 50 killed (including two officers) and six machine guns captured. Had our party had enough bombs they could have gone to Berlin.'
- In the records of the 2nd Battalion of the Otago Regiment in the Field dated 26 July 1918, these words were written of Sgt Travis :'His name will live in the records of theBattalion as a glorious example of heroism and devotion to duty.'
- Travis was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross on 27 September 1918.
- He was buried in the falling rain of the late afternoon on July 26th in the little cemetery above Couin by the Rev. D.C. Herron, M.C., padre to the 2nd Battalion of the Regiment.
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| Further References |
- Bryant, G. A. Where the prize is highest. Auckland, 1972
- Byrne, A. Official history of the Otago Regiment, NZEF, in the Great War. Dunedin, 1921
- Gasson, J. A. 'Travis, Richard Charles'. In An encyclopaedia of New Zealand. Ed. A. H. McLintock. Wellington, 1966
- Gasson, J. A. Travis VC. Wellington, 1966
- N.Z. Army Department. Archives. AD 36/29. NA
- Fox, Aaron P. 'Travis, Richard Charles 1884 - 1918'. Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, updated 11 December 2002. URL: http://www.dnzb.govt.nz/
- Auckland Museum Scars on the Heart World War 1 " On the Fringe of Hell" and "Trench Raider" displays.
- Military personnel file listed at Archives New Zealand. Search http://www.archway.archives.govt.nz for information about this person's Military Personnel File. Use the Simple Search option.
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| Sources Used |
- Nominal Rolls of New Zealand Expeditionary Force Volume I. Wellington: Govt. Printer, 1914-1919
- Harper, G. & Richardson, C. (2006). In the face of the enemy: The complete history of the Victoria Cross and New Zealand. Auckland, NZ: HarperCollins NZ.
- Pugsley, C. (1996). Scars on the heart : two centuries of New Zealand at war. Auckland: David Bateman in association with Auckland Museum
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