Year of birth: 1894

Place of birth: Wallsend, Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia

Profession: Surveyor

Country: Australia

Force: Australian Imperial Force

Rank: Captain

Units:  —  Australian Infantry, 34th Bn.  (Last known unit)

Date of death: 12/10/1917

Place of death: Augustus Wood, Passchendaele, Belgium

Cause of death: Killed in action (K.I.A.)

Age: 23

British War Medal Medal

Victoria Cross Medal — 18/12/1917

Victory Medal Medal

Captain Jeffries served in the Australian Infantry 34th Battalion, part of the 9th Australian Brigade of the 3rd Australian Division. At the end of September the 34th Battalion was transferred to Belgium where they found themselves in the middle of the Battle of Passchendaele. On 12 October 1917 the Battalion carried out a disastrous attack on Passchendaele itself. The Battalion’s jumping off line was what is now Tyne Cot Cemetery, and its final objective lay just beyond Passchendaele village. The 34th Battalion was the first Battalion to advance, followed by the 35th and 36th Battalion.

At 5.25 a.m., the barrage came down. It was very weak and it was difficult to determine, which was the own barrage and which was German shell fire. The advance was slow. A first obstacle, were two concrete pillboxes. One in the north of Augustus Wood and one to the northeast of Heine House. German machine-gun fire from those positions caused several casualties and held up the centre of the advance. Captain Jeffries organised a bombing party, which rushed the strongpoints. Four machine guns and 35 prisoners were captured. 150 yards in the rear of this strongpoint was a small trench in which were up to 30 Germans. An attacking party received the order to take control of the small trench. By now the 34th had s-suffered heavy losses and it was decided to send the entire Battalion up with the 35th and 36th Battalion, in the attempt to take control over the next two objectives. The Battalions reached the second objective, the Blue Line, but suffered heavy losses, from German machine gun- and shell fire.

At 3 p.m., the Battalions received instructions to hold the line at all costs. Eventually a new line was constructed from Defy Crossing on the Ypers-Roulers Railroas to the direction of Waterfields.

Capt. Jeffries was posthumous rewarded with the Victoria Cross. After the war the remains of Capt. Jeffries were found near Augustus Wood. He was later reinterred in Tyne Cot Cemetery

34th Australian Infantry Battalion, Australian War Memorial, Campbell (AWM), AWM4 23/51/12). https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C1338583 Sources used

E. Beaver and J.W.G. Meldrum, A Short History of the 34th Battalion, AIF, (Carlton, Illawarra Press, 1957), pg. 22-24 Sources used

First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920, (National Archives of Australia, Canberra (NAA), B2455, JEFFRIES C S). https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/SearchScreens/NameSearch.aspx. Sources used

McCarthy C., The Third Ypres Passchendaele. The Day-by-Day Account, (London, Arms & Armour Press, 1995), pg. 113-115. Sources used

Snelling S., VC's of the First World War, Passchendaele 1917, (London, Wrens Park Publishing, 2000, 1998), pg. 227-230. Sources used

Lives of the First World War (Imperial War Museum) https://livesofthefirstworldwar.iwm.org.uk/lifestory/7619081

Commonwealth War Graves Commission Database https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/463369

The AIF Project (UNSW Canberra) https://www.aif.adfa.edu.au/showPerson?pid=153075

Namenlijst (In Flanders Fields Museum) https://namenlijst.org/publicsearch/#/person/_id=01947587-eacd-4d30-8ca3-0ae95f8eab14