Clarence Jeffries

Clarence Smith Jeffries
C. S. Jeffries c.1916
Nickname(s)	"Jeff"
Born	(1894-10-26)26 October 1894 Wallsend, New South Wales, Australia
Died	12 October 1917(1917-10-12) (aged 22) Passchendaele, Belgium
Buried at	Tyne Cot Cemetery
Allegiance	Australia
Service/branch	Citizens Military Force (1912–16) Australian Imperial Force (1916–17)
Years of service	1912–17
Rank	Captain
Unit	34th Battalion (1916–17)
Battles/wars	First World War Western Front Battle of Messines Battle of Passchendaele
Awards	Victoria Cross

First World War

Clarence Smith Jeffries, VC (26 October 1894 – 12 October 1917) was an Australian recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest decoration for gallantry "in the face of the enemy" that can be awarded to members of the British and Commonwealth armed forces. He was posthumously decorated with the Victoria Cross following his actions in the First Battle of Passchendaele during the First World War, in which he led several parties of men in an attack that eventuated in the capture of six machine guns and sixty-five prisoners, before being killed himself by machine gun fire.

Born in a suburb of Newcastle, New South Wales, Jeffries was employed as a surveyor at a mining company where his father served as general manager following his completion of school. Joining a militia battalion in 1912, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant upon the outbreak of war and tasked with the instruction of volunteers for the newly raised Australian Imperial Force. Transferring into the Australian Imperial Force himself in 1916, Jeffries embarked with his battalion for service on the Western Front. Wounded at Messines, he was promoted to captain before being killed fourteen days short of his twenty-third birthday.

Jeffries was born in the Newcastle suburb of Wallsend, New South Wales, on 26 October 1894. He was the only child of Joshua Jeffries, a colliery manager, and his wife Barbara, née Steel. Jeffries attended Dudley Primary School before moving onto Newcastle Collegiate and High schools. Apprenticed as a mining surveyor at the Abermain Collieries on the state's northern coalfields, where his father was general manager, Jeffries was noted as a cricketer and a keen horseman who took a particular interest in breeding thoroughbreds. In July 1912, Jeffries joined the 14th (Hunter River) Infantry Regiment, Citizens Military Force, as a private under the compulsory training scheme. He was promoted to sergeant a year later.