Arthur Sullivan ( VC ) Arthur Percy Sullivan VC ( 27 November 1896 – 9 April 1937 ) was a banker , soldier , and an Australian recipient of the Victoria Cross , the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces . Born in 1896 at Crystal Brook , South Australia , Sullivan volunteered for service with the First Australian Imperial Force ( AIF ) during the First World War . The war was effectively over by the time he arrived in Europe . After being discharged from the AIF in 1919 , he joined the British Army so that he could serve with the North Russia Relief Force as part of the Allied Intervention in the Russian Civil War . He was awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions in rescuing some of his fellow soldiers from a swamp while under enemy fire . Demobilised from the army after completing his service , he resumed his civilian career as a banker . He was in England for the coronation of King George VI as part of the Australian Coronation Contingent in 1937 when he died of head injuries received in a fall in London . Early life . Arthur Percy Sullivan was born on 27 November 1896 , at Crystal Brook , South Australia , the son of a storekeeper and his wife . He was educated at Crystal Brook Public School and Gladstone High School . After completing his education in 1913 , he gained employment at a branch of the National Bank of Australasia in Gladstone . Soon after starting work at the bank , he was transferred to a branch at Broken Hill in New South Wales . He later returned to his home state to work at a branch in Maitland . Military service . Sullivan volunteered for the First Australian Imperial Force ( AIF ) and was posted to the 10th Battalion as a private on 27 April 1918 . After training , he embarked for Europe in July 1918 . Upon arriving in Europe , Sullivan transferred to the Royal Regiment of Australian Artillery on 5 October 1918 . He was still in training in Wiltshire when the Armistice was declared on 11 November 1918 , and Sullivan saw no action . On 23 May 1919 , a few days before his discharge from the AIF , Sullivan was promoted to corporal . Although not formally discharge from the AIF until 12 June , he was attracted by the prospect of a tour of duty with the North Russia Relief Force as part of the Allied Intervention in the Russian Civil War . Sullivan enlisted in the British Army on 28 May 1919 as a private . He was posted to Lionel Sadleir - Jackson ' s 45th Battalion , The Royal Fusiliers . The North Russia Relief Force landed at Archangel in the period from June to July 1919 , and began to deploy immediately , in the process relieving the original expeditionary force which had been in Russia since 1918 . By July 1919 , 45th Battalion had moved towards the Dvina front . On 10 August 1919 , it had arrived at the Dvina front in northern Russia . Sullivan ' s battalion , as part of a brigade , launched an attack to aid the evacuation of the last remaining members of the 1918 expeditionary force . The attack was also intended to harass and disrupt the Bolshevik positions . During the attack his platoon was cut off and , under fire , was making its way back to the British lines when it was forced to cross a crude bridge of planks over a swamp on the Sheika River . Four men fell into the swamp . Despite the Bolshevik gunfire , Sullivan immediately set about retrieving them . The first man that Sullivan followed into the swamp was Lieutenant Charles Henry Gordon - Lennox , Lord Settrington , who had been wounded . He was the eldest son of the 8th Duke of Richmond and heir to the dukedoms of Richmond , Lennox and Gordon . He would die of his wounds two weeks later in hospital at Bereznik . The second and third soldiers rescued were similarly pulled out of the swamp by Sullivan after either being hit or avoiding enemy fire . The fourth man was some distance away and Sullivan waded out with a piece of broken handrail from the temporary bridge which the soldier was able to grab and be pulled to safety . It was his actions in saving his fellow soldiers that led to Sullivan being awarded the Victoria Cross ( VC ) . The VC citation read as follows : The evacuation of all forces was completed by late September 1919 , and the North Russia Relief Force was demobilised upon its return to England . Sullivan wished to return to Australia immediately without waiting for his investiture from King George V . He left England on 1 November 1919 . He was presented with his VC in Adelaide on 12 July 1920 by Edward , the Prince of Wales during his royal tour of Australia , who smiled at Sullivan , and quipped " Aren ' t you the man who ran away from father ? " Later life . Arthur Sullivan was a very popular man , and was known as the " Shy VC " . Upon his return to Australia , he resumed his former employment with the National Bank of Australasia . He married to Dorothy Frances Veale at an Anglican church in Fairfield , Victoria , on 5 December 1928 , and in 1929 he transferred to the bank ' s head office in Sydney where he and Dorothy lived for five years . During this time they had three children , two of whom were twins . In 1934 , Sullivan was made the manager of the Casino branch of the bank . As a VC recipient , Sullivan was selected to join the Australian contingent to attend the coronation of King George VI and to return the remains of British soldier Sergeant Arthur Evans , VC , who had died in Australia . The " Australian Coronation Contingent " comprised 100 soldiers , 25 sailors and 25 airmen . Half the soldiers were serving troops and half were returned members of the AIF . Sullivan was the only VC winner in the group . On 9 April 1937 , eleven days after ceremonially handing over Evans ' s ashes and thirty - four days before King George VI ' s coronation , Sullivan died when he was returning to his accommodation and accidentally slipped in Birdcage Walk , Westminster , near the Wellington Barracks , and struck his head against the kerb . He died as a result of the severity of the head injuries he had sustained . He was afforded a full military funeral in London where the Australian contingent ' s salute volley was respectfully returned by the Foot Guards . General Birdwood and a dozen British VC winners attended the funeral . His body was cremated in London and his ashes were returned to Sydney and interred at the Northern Suburbs Crematorium . A month after the funeral , a gap was deliberately left in the ranks of the Australian contingent as they marched in the coronation parade . In 1939 a plaque was placed upon the iron railings of Wellington Barracks in his honour . When his wife died in 1980 , she left his Victoria Cross to the Australian War Memorial in Canberra . It is displayed in the Hall of Valour .