V.C.S DEATH

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 85, 12 April 1937, Page 10

V.C.S DEATH

RESPECTS OF COMRADES

HEROISM IN RUSSIA

: (British Official Wireless.) (Received April 12, 3 p.m.) •'. ; 1 RUGBY, April 11. All engagements of the Australian Coronation contingent have been' cancelled for the next three days as a I mark of respect for Gunner. Percy Sullivan, V.C, who was knocked .down last night by a cyclist in Birdcage Walk within twenty yards of Wellington • Barracks, , where the contingent is stationed, and later, died from the injuries sustained. Gunner Sullivan, who had been signing his namein the books, of autograph-hunters by whom he was besieged, stepped, off the. pavement into the roadway without noticing the .approaching cyclist. • •-.'.

He won the supreme distinction of a y.C. in North . Russia. in- 1919 for rescuing four of his comrades under heavy machine-gun fire who, in crossing a river, over a narrow plank, fell into a deep swamp. The official record of the award said, !."Ifc was a splendid example of heroism, as all ranks were on the point of exhaustion and ,the enemy ■ were less than, 100 yards distant." • . .-. '. :

Gunner Sullivan returned a few days ago from Liverpool where he handed over to relatives the ashes of another Australian V.C. who was.to have accompanied the * : contingent but died shortly before it left. ;: