Samuel Pearse was killed after charging a machine gun post during an action at Emtsa, in North Russia, for which he was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross.
16 Facts About Samuel Pearse
1.
2.
Samuel George Pearse was born on 16 July 1897 at Penarth, Glamorganshire, Wales, to George Stapleton Pearse and his wife Sarah Ann, nee Sellick.
3.
Samuel Pearse served in the Militia for two years with the 73rd Infantry Regiment, before volunteering for overseas service with the Australian Imperial Force during the First World War.
4.
At the time of his enlistment in the AIF in July 1915 just before he turned eighteen, Samuel Pearse's occupation was as a rabbit-trapper.
5.
Samuel Pearse sailed from Melbourne on 10 September 1915 aboard the Star of Victoria, assigned to the 9th Reinforcement for the 7th Battalion reaching Gallipoli shortly before the evacuation and spending two weeks in the line there in December 1915.
6.
Challinger records that Samuel Pearse was awarded his Military Medal in the field by General Sir William Birdwood but that at the time Birdwood had run out of medals and decorated Samuel Pearse with a strip of medal ribbon.
7.
Samuel Pearse was promoted to lance corporal on 21 November 1917, and to corporal on 10 April 1918.
8.
Samuel Pearse was wounded in action for a second time on 19 May 1918.
9.
Samuel Pearse subsequently returned to England to recover, but did not return to his unit until the end of the war.
10.
Many of the volunteering Australians had come late to action in First World War but Samuel Pearse was a battle-hardened veteran and was promoted to sergeant.
11.
Samuel Pearse was a 22-year-old sergeant in the 45th Battalion, The Royal Fusiliers during the North Russia Campaign under the command of Brigadier General Lionel Sadleir-Jackson when the following deed took place for which he was awarded the VC:.
12.
Sergeant Samuel Pearse cut his way through enemy barbed-wire under very heavy machine-gun and rifle fire and cleared a way for the troops to enter an enemy battery position.
13.
Samuel Pearse was buried in a military graveyard near the Obozerskaya railway station, between Emtsa and Archangel, North Russia.
14.
Samuel Pearse ; the remains of a slouch hat were found in the grave; the grave was precisely as shown on the 1925 map; a toe was missing from the right foot, as mentioned in Samuel Pearse's Australian army records; and the whitewashed stones found during the exhumation appeared to be those shown in the 1919 photograph.
15.
On 29 August 2019, a brief ceremony with nine people in attendance took place at the remains of the bunker where Samuel Pearse died, unofficially commemorating the 100th anniversary.
16.
The couple had a daughter, Victoria Catherine Sarah Samuel Pearse, born in February 1920, after his death.