VC hero Roden Cutler was “six feet five of sheer courage”

“Six Feet Five Of Sheer Courage” applauded a Melbourne newspaper comic strip as it introduced young readers to Victoria Cross winner Lieutenant Roden Cutler early in 1946, months after World War II ended.

Roden Cutler as a young lieutenant.

‘Six Feet Five Of Sheer Courage” applauded a Melbourne newspaper comic strip as it introduced young readers to Victoria Cross winner Lieutenant Roden Cutler early in 1946, months after World War II ended.

The bold strip graphically recounted Cutler’s critical action in Syria in 1941 that delivered the town of Merdjayoun, held by Vichy French troops, to Allied forces.

Cutler’s heroism, which cost him his right leg, set the stage for a lifetime of public service as a diplomat and later as the longest-serving NSW governor since Lachlan Macquarie.

Cutler, born a century ago tomorrow, also proved as popular as his colonial predecessor.

Describing official protocols not as “stuffiness, but basically good manners”, Cutler noted: “A Governor has to have some sense of public acceptance — not public relations. There are times when you’re on parade, but there’s room for humanity and friendliness. If you want to get the interest of people, you must show interest in them.”

And so drinkers outside country pubs raised schooners and casually hailed the vice-regal visitor with “good on you, Guv”.

Roden Cutler receives his Victoria Cross at Admiralty House in Sydney in 1941, accompanied by sister Doone, mother Ruby, his aunt Dais and brother Rob.

Arthur Roden Cutler was born May 24, then Empire Day for Queen Victoria’s birthday, in 1916 at Manly. The eldest of Arthur, a champion rifleman, and Ruby’s three sons and a daughter, he grew up on Addison Rd.

Known as Ro, Cutler was a capable swimmer, sailor and crack rifleman, instructed by his father. At 15 he won a place at Sydney Boys’ High. His father lost his job in the Depression and went on the road, while Cutler worked after school for Texaco.

He wanted to attend university but without a high enough pass for a public service job, instead studied economics, majoring in public administration, at Sydney University at night while working 48-hours a week at Texaco. He sustained his family after his father died in a car accident in 1935, although taking a salary cut to join the public service.

A friend suggested Cutler bolster his income by joining the Sydney University Regiment, when he became regimental marksman. Cutler also earned University Sporting Blues for swimming and rifle shooting.

Transferring to the AIF in April 1940, Cutler was commissioned a lieutenant in 2/5th Field Regiment, 7th Division, recognised for his leadership, navigational skills, calm manner and physical strength. As an artillery forward observer near Merdjayoun and Damour, Syria, between June 19 and July 6, 1941, Cutler’s act of outstanding bravery included establishing an observation post and repairing a telephone line to the outpost under heavy fire. At Damour on July 6, Australian forward infantry “were pinned to the ground by hostile machine gunfire when Cutler, regardless of all danger, went to bring a line to his outpost”. Seriously wounded, it was 26 hours before he could be rescued.

Sir Roden Cutler with the royal family.

“My leg was bleeding pretty fiercely, but I stopped it by making a tourniquet with my revolver lanyard,” Cutler explained. His wounds became septic, so his leg was amputated.

“Throughout the campaign this officer’s courage was unparalleled, and his work was a big factor in the capture of Merdjayoun,” Cutler’s VC citation noted in December 1941.

As the first World War II veteran to join the RSL, he became NSW Secretary, then an assistant deputy director of the Australian Security Service. Cutler married Helen Morris in 1946, before being posted as Australian High Commissioner in New Zealand, where two of their four sons were born. Next posted to Ceylon, he found the High Commissioner’s residence crawling with insects in food dumped after a food exhibition.

Posted to Egypt in July 1955, he was embroiled in the 1956 Suez crisis when president Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalised the canal. With an invasion imminent, Cutler sent all but four staff home, then watched from the roof of the British embassy as the airport was bombed.

With the British embassy cut off and short of food, Cutler and his commercial secretary drove rapidly to a bazaar to buy rice and a whole sheep, smuggled over the embassy fence. He fled to Libya on a local train with other diplomats.

Sir Roden Cutler was popular with the public when engaged on official duties.

Later High Commissioner to Pakistan, and New York Consul General from 1961-65, Cutler was briefly ambassador to the Netherlands when NSW premier Robert Askin named him as the next NSW Governor in November 1965, likely on the suggestion of Cutler’s cousin Charles Cutler, then NSW deputy premier.

Knighted in December 1965, Cutler was sworn in on January 20, 1966, when he greeted waiting media with poet Hilaire Belloc’s lines, “But as it is, my language fails, / Go out and govern New South Wales!”.

Cutler stepped aside as governor in January 1981 and died in 2002.

Originally published as VC hero Roden Cutler was “six feet five of sheer courage”