By David Finlayson
The following article first appeared in Ironsides and appears here with permission.
Lieutenant Colonel Leslie Cecil Maygar VC, DSO, & VD.
The award of the Victoria Cross has proven to be a critical moment in the recipient’s life. Along with the crimson ribbon comes a public interest in their life and set of public expectations that create ongoing obligations upon them. An often-recorded thought that appears in the biographies of Victoria Cross recipients is that it was easier to win than wear.
Victoria’s first Victoria Cross recipient was Lieutenant Leslie Cecil Maygar of the 5th Victorian Mounted Rifles. Maygar’s Military life is well documented, and most biographies focus on these periods of service. Whilst these are essential aspects of his story, one ponders what it was like to wear the crimson ribbon in a small rural Victorian community between the South African and Great Wars?
Leslie Cecil Maygar was born at Dean Station, near Kilmore Victoria in May 1868 the seventh child of Edwin and Helen Maygar. The Maygars arrived in the Port Phillip District from Bristol England in the late 1830s. Edwin Maygar’s family were political refugees from Hungary.
Life in Colonial Victoria was bountiful to the Maygars: Edwin’s joint ownership of the Strathearn Station near Euroa with his three sons illustrates the family’s success. During this period the Maygars became skilled horsemen.
The Maygars whilst being successful graziers led lives that rarely resulted in public attention. A survey of the newspapers prior to 1900 provides very few glimpses of the family. The Euroa Advertiser of September 1897 contains the first public mention of Leslie Maygar. Maygar and his bother Horace were felling trees when an accident occurred killing Horace instantly: “Leslie Maygar carried his brother to the camp, then ran home some three miles for help.”
The article also makes mention of the brothers being members of the local detachment of the Victorian Mounted Rifles which Leslie had joined in March 1891. By 1899 Leslie had been promoted to Sergeant with Ruffy Detachment of E Company.
Maygar attempted to join the earlier Victorian Contingents to South Africa but was turned down due to bad teeth. After being appointed as a Lieutenant in Militia in August 1900 he enlisted in the 5th Victorian Mounted Rifles in January 1901. He embarked aboard the “Orient” for South Africa on February and was appointed as a Lieutenant with the Contingent in March after arrival in South Africa.
On November 23 1901 Lieutenant Maygar was to distinguish himself near Geelhoutboom by rescuing a comrade whilst under fire. For his Courage he was recommended for the Empires highest honour the Victoria Cross.
In February 1902 the Melbourne Age reported “A Victorian Gets the VC” It is officially announced that the Victorian Cross has been awarded to Lieut Leslie Maygar, of the Fifth Victorian Contingent, for especial gallantry. The action for which Lieutenant Maygar receives the cross “for valor” was performed in a fight at Greelhoutboom. One of his men was left dishorsed on an open plain, under heavy Boer fire, and Lieutenant Maygar, placed the man on his own horse, himself running the gantlet of the Boer fire on foot until he could reach cover!
Lieutenant Maygar was a Lieutenant in the Victorian Mounted Rifles before he joined the Fifth Contingent. He was a grazier, living near Ruffy, in the Longwood district,.”
Various other newspapers throughout Victoria also ran with Maygar’s exploits. The Melbourne Leader of 22 February reported that; “there is much rejoicing in the mounted Rifles that the first Victoria Cross won by a Victorian has gone to Lieut Maygar of the Ruffy Detachment F Company” in 1902 there are 50 newspaper reports concerning Maygar and his Victoria Cross. The grazier from Ruffy had become a public figure before his return from South Africa.
Lieutenant Maygar did not return to Australia with the 5th Contingent but served briefly with a South African irregular unit, Doyle’s Australian Scouts, between March and May 1902. He returned to Australia September 1902. For his service in South Africa he was awarded the Victoria Cross and The Queen’s South Africa Medal with five clasps and he was also mentioned in Dispatches.
The Euroa Advertiser between 1902 until 1917 would provide a constant chronicle to Maygar’s life in Ruffy. In October 1902 a meeting was held at Ruffy to discuss and plan a “formal and united welcome to Lieut Maygar VC and Private Ryan” on their return from the front. A social and dance would follow with Lieut Maygar being “presented with a handsome medal as a souvenir.” The Advertiser reporting the event starts with a grand statement. “There is but one V.C in the district, but more than that, there is one in Victoria gained by a native born soldier and that distinction is Ruffy’s.” The welcome home appears to have been attended by who’s who society and politics. The closing lines clearing establish the standing of a new local identity for Maygar; “So the district and the people rose to all requirements and carried out well its welcoming and congratulatory social to its first and greatest warrior.”
Maygar resumed his appointment with the 16th and later 8th Regiment Australian Light Horse soon after his return to Ruffy. In this period the activities of the Militia were regularly reported in the Advertiser. Typical reports see Lieutenant, later Captain, and Adjutant Maygar: attending the opening of the Longwood Soldier’s Memorial, officiating at military dinners and balls, acting as patrol to military concerts, attending militia camps and shoots. These activities would cover many towns in Victoria’ North East.
The outbreak of the Great War in 1914 saw Captain Maygar being appointed to the 4th Australian Light Horse Regiment. He was promoted to Major in October and embarked aboard the Wiltshire on 19 October. By May 1915 he was serving on Gallipoli as the Officer Commanding B Squadron. Whilst on Gallipoli he was transferred to the 8th Light Horse Regiment as Acting Commanding Officer and Lieutenant Colonel this appointment and promotion were confirmed in March 1916. He would later take temporary command of the 3rd Light Horse Brigade between September and late October 1917.
For his leadership at the Battle of Gaza he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order and was twice Mentioned in Dispatches
On the evening of 31 October enemy aeroplanes attacked Australian positions near Khassim Zanna. A bomb landed near to Lieutenant Colonel Maygar wounding both horse and rider. The horse bolted into the darkness taking Maygar with him. Despite a search Maygar was not found. Maygar was later found by another unit and evacuated to the 65th Casualty Clearing Station at Karm, where his shattered left arm was amputated. He died of wounds on November 1 1917. Chaplain R Skipper conducted a military funeral at El Imara the following day. Later he would be reinterred at the Beersheba War Cemetery. The epitaph the family selected for his grave was “Greater love hath no man that this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. John 15.13”
The news of Maygar’s reached Euroa within days the Euroa Advertiser reports; ”..comes the regretted tidings of the death of Lieut Colonel Leslie Maygar V.C. The crusader hero from this district. Among every class of the community there is but one feeling-intense sorrow that the all-devouring war has taken toll of one so brave, so humble so honourable”
The Euroa Gazette of November 1917 obituary for Maygar again asserts his special place in the Longwood district. “The reported death of Lieut-Col. Maygar V.C., caused feelings of intense sorrow throughout the whole community. As a soldier he has won for himself the rank that he occupied by sheer merit. He has proved himself to be a capable officer, who had the respect and esteem of his men. In his civilian life, as a worthy resident in our midst his quiet, unassuming disposition endeared him to all… Flags were flown at half-mast for the gallant officer who died such a noble death”.
It is clear that prior to Maygar’s exploit at Geelhoutboom that his life was both the unremarkable and typical of county grazier of the Federation era. The award of a Victoria Cross would propel Maygar into a very public life. Whether the language and the sentiments found in the press reports were welcome or, not it appears that Maygar responded with a sense of dignity that befits the wearing of the crimson ribbon.
(Original spellings from the period have been left uncorrected.)