Have You a Tiger In Your Family?

Rank : Major

Unit : Leics Home Guard (WW2)

Biography :

William Symons, an Australian, served for eight years in the Victoria Militia, then enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) in August 1914. Posted as a sergeant, Symons landed with 7th Battalion (Victoria) AIF on Gallipoli on 25.4.1915. He was commissioned 2Lt on 2.7.1915.
The citation for his VC reads, “On 8-9 August 1915, at Lone Pine, Gallipoli, Turkey, Symons was in command of a section of newly captured trenches and repelled several counter-attacks with great coolness. An enemy attack on an isolated sap early in the morning resulted in six officers becoming casualties and part of the sap being lost, but Symons retook it, shooting two Turks. The sap was then attacked from three sides and this officer managed, in the face of heavy fire, to build a barricade. On the enemy setting fire to the head cover, he extinguished it and rebuilt the barricade. His coolness and determination finally compelled the enemy to withdraw.”
He was evacuated from Gallipoli with enteric fever to London where, on 4.12.1915, the medal was pinned on his uniform by King George V at Buckingham Palace. On this occasion, so the story goes, the King said to Symons, “I am proud to decorate an Australian with this Cross. You may be interested to know that its intrinsic worth is only five and a half pence. I hope that you live long enough to wear it.” Symons returned to Australia in 1916, then embarked in June with the 37th Battalion as a company commander. He was badly gassed during the battle of Messines in June 1917, but after a break to recover fought on the Somme in 1918.
His military service ended in 1918. After the war he settled in Britain with his wife. In the Second World War he joined the Leicestershire Home Guard in 1941. There he commanded the Mobile Unit, headquartered in Blackbird Road, Leicester and comprising two companies of four platoons each, and whose transport was two 8 horsepower cars, six 10 hp cars, eleven 12 hp cars, and six motorcycles.
On its disbandment Symonds left the Home Guard in 1944. He died on 24.6.1948 at Paddington, West London, aged 59 years. His grave is at Golders Green Crematorium. His VC is displayed at the Australian War Memorial, Canberra, Australia. His name is upon memorials at The National Memorial Arboretum, and at Eaglehawk, Victoria, Australia.
There is more on him at http://www.victoriacrossonline.co.uk/william-j-symons-vc/4588316029

Date of Birth : 1889

Place of Birth : Victoria, Australia

Date of Death : 24.6.1948

Place of Death : Paddington, London

Civil Occupation : commercial traveller

Period of Service : 1914-18; 1941-44

Conflicts : WW1, WW2

Places Served : Gallipoli, France and Flanders; England