Samuel George Pearse, VC, MM (16 July 1897 – 29 August 1919) was an Australian recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. Serving in the Australian Imperial Force during the First World War, he saw action during the final weeks of the Gallipoli Campaign in 1915 and later on the Western Front from 1916 to 1918. Following the Armistice he fought as part of the North Russia Relief Force with the British Army during the North Russia Campaign in 1919. He 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. Early life Samuel George Pearse was born on 16 July 1897 at Penarth, Glamorganshire, Wales to George Stapleton Pearse and his wife Sarah Ann, née Sellick. Initially educated at Penarth Boarding School, he moved to Australia with his family in 1911, with his father acquiring a property near at Koorlong, near Mildura, Victoria. Pearse later worked as a fruit-picker, labourer, trapper, and as a deck-hand on a paddle-steamer. Military service Pearse served in the Militia for two years with the 73rd Infantry Regiment, before volunteering for overseas service with the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) during the First World War. At the time of his enlistment in the AIF in July 1915 just before he turned eighteen, Pearse's occupation was as a rabbit-trapper. He 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. After transferring to the 2nd Machine Gun Company, assigned to support the 2nd Brigade, Pearse subsequently saw action on the Western Front where he was wounded on 24 August 1916 but soon returned to his unit. On 28 September 1917 he was awarded the Military Medal for an action in single-handedly raiding a German machine gun-post east of Ypres in Belgium: Challinger records that 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 Pearse with a strip of medal ribbon. Challinger also references Pearse's army record which quite apart from his awards for valour includes entries for