Curio

State Library of New South Wales
Military Cross and Bar

Military Cross and Bar

awarded to Lt Joseph Maxwell, 1918
silver with silk moiré grosgrain ribbon
Bequest of Sir William Dixson, 1952
DN / M 1287

An apprenticed boiler-maker from the Sydney suburb of Annandale, Joseph Maxwell enlisted in February 1915 aged 18 years. He was posted to the 18th Battalion, serving at Gallipoli and the Western Front. On the Western Front, he was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal, the Military Cross and Bar and the Victoria Cross. He was only 22 when the war ended.

By 1934 Maxwell was out of work. Struggling to make ends meet, he sold his Distinguished Conduct Medal and Military Cross and Bar to Sir William Dixson. These medals came into the State Library’s collection as part of Dixson’s bequest in 1952. Maxwell’s Victoria Cross is currently at the Australian War Memorial, on loan from the Victoria Barracks Museum in Paddington.

Maxwell might have achieved a higher rank had he moderated his behaviour: ‘On one occasion, whilst in England attending officer training school, he was fined £20 and sent back to his unit after military and civilian police arrested him at a party in London. He was also present when a piano was hurled through a Cairo brothel window.’*


Footnotes
* M Arthur, Symbol of Courage: Men Behind the Medal, 2nd edn, 2005, p 349

In 1932 Maxwell published the story of his experiences in World War I, Hell's Bells and Mademoiselles. At the time of the publication, he was working as a gardener with the Department of the Interior in Canberra. Maxwell’s second book, based on his experiences of returning to civilian life, From the Hindenburg Line to the breadline, was never published.

After World War II, Maxwell applied to the War Department for a new set of medals to be issued so that he could wear them at Anzac Day commemorations. This second set of medals are now in the collection of the Australian War Memorial.

The Military Cross was instituted following the outbreak of World War I to recognise ‘gallant and distinguished services in action’ by junior officers. The additional award of a bar (worn above the ribbon) recognised further acts of bravery.