100 Days of Heroes: Policeman Vic Lisson missing in action after Pozieres charge

SECOND-GENERATION law enforcement officer Vic Lisson was born at Geeveston in 1890 and was working as a mounted policeman when he enlisted for World War I in 1915.

Private Victor Tasman Lisson is remembered at tree 96 on the Soldiers’ Memorial Avenue.

SECOND-GENERATION law enforcement officer Vic Lisson was born at Geeveston in 1890 and was working as a mounted policeman when he enlisted for World War I in 1915.

Standing six feet tall (1.82m) he was taller than the average Anzac. His father was also a police officer, serving as a senior constable at Dover during the war.

Vic joined the 26th Battalion in Egypt in January 1916 and proceeded to France two months later.

He attended a school of instruction in France in May 1916 and was wounded in action that July.

Later in the same month, he was listed as missing in action following a charge at Pozieres.

Vic Lisson, with his great mates George and Herbert Eppingstall.

Sergeant G. Eppinstall told a later inquiry that he had seen Vic — his best mate — wounded by machinegun fire on July 28.

“This was in the charge. We were scrapping pretty hard,” Sgt Eppingstall told the Red Cross Missing and Wounded and Missing Bureau.

Private W. Milne reported that he had given aid to Vic on the night in question. “I attended Pte Lisson who had a bad wound over the heart,” he said.

“He was too bad to move into our own lines so I put him in a shell hole and he told me to go on with the boys, he would be all right.

“Dear sir, I feel sure he died from the wound which was very bad.”

Vic has no known grave and is commemorated on the Villers-Bretonneaux Memorial in France.

George Eppingstall would later write to Vic’s mother in Dover:

Dear Madam, A letter is to hand from my sister inquiring about your son Victor Lisson. It is with regret that I am to let you know that your son is dead. He was my best mate and was wounded on the night of July 28, 1916, and died before we could get him to our lines, having been wounded with five machine-gun bullets, the fatal one being in his side.

We charged for a certain position that night but did not reach our objective, and had to retire with our wounded; it was then that we discovered Vic was dead. He was in the same platoon as me and almost side by side.

The then Commissioner of Police, Richard McCreadie, left, with Colin Lisson at the unveiling of Private Victor Lisson’s new plaque on the Soldiers’ Memorial Avenue in 2006. Picture: JAMES KERR

I wrote to you a fortnight later, and, by all accounts, the letter did not reach you. As Vic, my brother and I were sworn mates, I felt Vic’s death as if it had been my own brother. It was the first time we had been in a charge together, and he was as brave a man as ever held a rifle. He cared for nothing, and it’s a mate like him you miss.

We had done a lot of work in the trenches together for months past and had many a good time together as well as the rough ones. He was a lance corporal and was only waiting a vacancy for promotion. The boys in the company thought the world of him and he got on well with everyone.

I received a letter from the Red Cross concerning him and I made a statement straight away and forwarded it to them. I got a slight wound myself in November 1916, and have been away since but I start back for my battalion tomorrow. We have been in France twelve months and had some very hard fighting but I trust we shall shortly be repaid for it.

This is a terrible war and we boys all know how our dear ones at home are thinking and worrying over us, but no man could have died a nobler death than your son Vic and with deepest sympathy to my old comrade’s people, I remain, your sincere friend, Sergeant G. R. Eppingstall, 26th Battalion.

Private Victor Tasman Lisson is remembered at tree 96 on the Soldiers’ Memorial Avenue and on honour boards at the Hobart Town Hall and Holy Trinity Church.

Private Victor Tasman Lisson’s plaque on the Soldiers’ Memorial Avenue.