Edgar Thomas Towner, VC, MC 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. A lieutenant in the Australian Imperial Force during the First World War, Towner was awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions on 1 September 1918, during an attack on Mont St. Quentin on the Western Front.
Lieutenant Edgar Towner c.1919
Lieutenant E. T. Towner c. 1918
Full-length portrait of Lieutenant Edgar Towner c. 1918
A group of Victoria Cross recipients gathered to march in the 1938 Sydney Anzac Day march. Towner is second from right.
2nd Machine Gun Battalion (Australia)
The 2nd Machine Gun Battalion was an infantry support unit of the Australian Army that was raised for service during World War I as part of the all volunteer Australian Imperial Force. It was one of five such units raised as part of the AIF during the war. Formed in March 1918, the battalion consisted of four machine gun companies, which had previously existed as independent companies assigned mainly at brigade level. The battalion consisted of 64 medium machine guns, and took part in the final stages of the war, seeing action during the Allied defensive operations during the German spring offensive and then the Allied Hundred Days Offensive, which finally brought an end to the war. The battalion was disbanded in mid-1919 during the demobilisation of the AIF.
Machine gunners from the 5th, 6th or 7th Machine Gun Companies