Wilbur Dartnell William Thomas Dartnell VC ( 6 April 1885 – 3 September 1915 ) ( enlisted as Wilbur Taylor Dartnell ) was 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 . Dartnell was born in Melbourne , Australia . After marrying Elizabeth Smyth , he moved to South Africa , where he was living at the outbreak of the First World War . He enlisted in the Royal Fusiliers and was shipped to British East Africa . On 3 September 1915 , whilst his company were being evacuated , he stayed behind in an attempt to save the lives of the wounded . Early life . William Dartnell was born on 6 April 1885 at Collingwood , Melbourne , to Henry Dartnell , an English - born fruiterer , and his Australian wife Rose Ann , née Hanley . He was brought up in Melbourne and after leaving school , he became an actor . At the age of 16 he served in the Second Boer War . He married Elizabeth Edith Smyth on 15 April 1907 , at Queen Street , Melbourne . Soon after , they settled at Fitzroy . First World War . At the age of 27 , Dartnell settled in South Africa . When the First World War started , he volunteered for service and sailed for England . On 12 February 1915 , using the name Wilbur Taylor Dartnell , he joined the 25th ( Frontiersmen ) Battalion , Royal Fusiliers . He was promoted to temporary Lieutenant on 25 July 1915 . The regimental history notes of this battalion states that it " included men of various ages and with strange experience from all quarters of the globe " . Raised especially for use against German troops in British East Africa , it was the only British unit sent on active service during the war without preliminary training . The Fusiliers reached Mombasa on 4 May and went at once to their military post on the Uganda railway ; their main task was to protect the railway from enemy raiding parties . In June , Dartnell retrieved the Imperial Ensign from the local headquarters at Bukoba , the German base for attacks on the Uganda frontier . The regiment were subsequently awarded battle honours for " Bukoba " . Victoria Cross . Shortly after the victory at Bukoba , the battalion moved to Voi in preparation for an allied advance towards German East Africa . Two companies were dispatched by rail to Maktau , a small village in the lee of the Taita Hills . Thirty - five miles from Voi , it was the railhead of the military railway then under construction towards Taveta . On 3 September 1915 , his mounted infantry patrol was ambushed . " On 3 September 1915 , near Maktau , Kenya , during a mounted infantry engagement , the enemy were so close that it was impossible to get the more severely wounded away . Lieutenant Dartnell , who was himself being carried away wounded in the leg , seeing the situation , and knowing that the enemy ' s black troops murdered the wounded , insisted on being left behind , in the hope of being able to save the lives of other wounded men . He gave his own life in a gallant attempt to save others . " ) Memorial . Dartnell and eight other European troops were originally buried at Maktau . After the war they were reburied in the Commonwealth War Grave Cemetery at Voi , 100 miles inland from the port of Mombasa on the East African coast . His headstone with the VC emblem lies to the right of the entrance to the Cemetery . His Victoria Cross is displayed at the Australian War Memorial .