Sunday, January 15, 2012

Remembering Captain Albert Jacka VC who died on 17 January 1932

Albert Jacka was the first Australian to be awarded the Victoria Cross in World War 1. Descendants of Albert Jacka [pictured here] and of the 14th Battalion, as well as people interested in his life, gathered today at St Kilda Cemetery to commemorate his life and service. Jacka returned to Australia at Port Melbourne on board the SS Euripides on 20 October 1919. The Advertiser reported that 'the people pelted Captain Jacka with flowers, swarmed over his motor car, breaking the hood and rendering the springs so flat that the wheels jammed against the mudguards and the car could not be moved.* Such was the public admiration for the man. Jacka later became a councillor of St Kilda and was mayor in 1930. Ponder photographs of Jacka online here. *The Advertiser, Tuesday 21 October, 1919

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