Reverent Mark Smith, speaking at Lithgow's Dawn Service, remembered the service of VC recipient John Patrick Hamilton.
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JP Hamilton, part of the 2015 Anzac landings at Gallipoli, was recognised for his "coolness and daring example", Rev Smith said, during a prolonged Turk attack on August 9.
During violent assault, Rev Smith said Hamilton was ordered out of the trenches and up onto the parados.
"And for six hours Hamilton lay in the open protected only by a few sandbags, telling those down below, those who were in the trenches, where to throw the bombs, where to shoot," Rev Smith said.
A crack shot himself, he took advantage of his position to better target the enemy forces.
About John Patrick Hamilton VC
John Patrick Hamilton was born in Orange on January 24, 1896, three years after his parents married at St Josephs Catholic Church. He was the eldest of six surviving children. The family moved to Lithgow where his father opened a butcher shop and the family moved again, this time to Penshurst in Sydney.
Hamilton was 14 when his mother died and the youngest child just a small baby. When the siblings were split up to be cared for by relatives the future Victoria Cross winner worked in his fathers butcher shop.
He was one of the first to sign up to fight, enlisting at 19 with the Australian Imperial Force and was posted to the 3rd Australian Infantry Battalion sailing from Albany in Western Australia in a convoy of 38 Australian and New Zealand Ships on November 1, 1914.
After landing in Egypt which was the stopping off point for allied troops, he sailed on to Gallipoli where he was part of the landing force on April 25, 1915.
After being evacuated from Gallipoli following the conflict where 20 young men from Orange died on the peninsula, Hamilton went to England where he was presented with his Victoria Cross (one of nine earned at Lone Pine), by King George V at Buckingham Palace.
However he was soon re-posted to the front where he fought in the Somme offensive and was involved in the famous battles at Pozieres, Mouquet Farm and Flers where he was promoted to the rank of corporal.
In May 1917 he achieved the rank of sergeant ending his war service at a posting in the United Kingdom.
He was commissioned as second lieutenant following the war in 1919.
When he returned to Australia, Hamilton worked on the wharves as a clerk, a storeman and a packer.
When World War II broke out he again enlisted and served in Papua New Guinea.
Hamilton died at Concord Repatriation Hospital on February 27, 1961, leaving his widow Myrtle and married son Alwyn. After a private funeral he was buried at Woronora cemetery.
His war medals, including the Victoria Cross are now at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.
Daring and cool
ON August 9, 1915 Private John Hamilton along with a handful of fellow soldiers was ordered out on to a parapet at Lone Pine in an effort to counter a heavy attack by the Turks.
The men were ordered to attack the Turks in the trenches and those on open ground.
As a crack shot not only was Hamilton engaged in shooting at the enemy from an exposed position, he was pivotal in the bombing duels which took a heavy toll on both sides.
Hamilton from his position hurled bombs made of jam tins at the Turks and was seen picking up enemy bombs and throwing them back at the Turks before they exploded.
His citation for his Victoria Cross read as follows:
For most conspicuous bravery on August 9, 1915 in the Gallipoli Peninsula.
During a heavy bomb attack by the enemy on the newly-captured position at Lone Pine, Private Hamilton, with utter disregard to personal safety, exposed himself under heavy fire on the parados, in order to secure a better fire position against the enemys bomb throwers.
His coolness and daring example had an immediate effect.
The defence was encouraged and the enemy was driven off with heavy loss.
