24 April 2018 | Alan Parker
Born on 27th October 1884 in Northam, farmer Hugo Vivian Hope Throssell was a member of the 10th Light Horse Regiment and was the first Western Australian awarded a Victoria Cross in WW1 and the only Australian Light Horseman so honoured.
Captain Throssell was awarded his Victoria Cross for most conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty during operations on the Kaiakij Aghala (Hill 60) in the Gallipoli Peninsular on 29 and 30 August 1915. Although severely wounded in several places during a counter-attack, he refused to leave his post or to obtain medical assistance till all danger was passed, when he had his wounds dressed and returned to the firing-line until ordered out of action by the Medical Officer. By his personal courage and example he kept up the spirits of his party, and was largely instrumental in saving the situation at a critical period.
One of 14 children, Captain Throssell’s father George Throssell was Western Australia’s second premier for just three months between February and May 1901, and Hugo Throssell was educated at Prince Alfred College in Adelaide where he excelled at sport.
After a period working on cattle stations in the State’s north before taking up land with his brother Ric in Cowcowing in 1912 where the two developed a remarkable bond.
Both brothers joined the 10th Light Horse which was formed in October 1914 and they arrived at Gallipoli in August 1915 just a couple of days before the infamous charge at the Nek which he survived by virtue of being in the fourth and last line of attacking troops.
After his gallantry in late August 1915 Throssell was sent to hospital in England to recover from his wounds. After his recovery he was promoted to Captain and re-joined his regiment in Egypt before being wounded in the second battle for Gaza where his brother Ric was killed.
While in England being treated for his wounds Hugo Throssell met the Australian author Katherine Susannah Prichard and after the war the couple were married in a Melbourne registry office and moved back to Perth where they settled on a 16 hectare mixed farm in the Perth Hills at Greenmount.
Prichard was a founding member of the Communist Party and Hugo Throssell joined her as a speaker supporting unemployed and striking workers.
Somewhat unsurprisingly in light of his wartime experiences, Throssell became a pacifist but the effects of the Great Depression and his poor business acumen saw him struggle financially and on 19th November 1933 Throssell shot himself hoping that his war service pension would better provide for his widow Katherine and his then 11yo son Ric.
Hugo Throssell was buried with full military honours in the Anglican section of Perth’s Karrakatta Cemetery.
His son Ric Throssell was later to become distinguished diplomat and in the late 1940s he was and adviser to H V Evatt in his capacity as President of the United Nations General Assembly.
While farming at Darlington, Hugo Throssell began to breed Standardbreds but he died before any of the horses he bred won.
On 13th December 1933, less than a month after he died, the Alfred Donald gelding Don Patch won a double at a race-meeting held on the East Northam Oval.
The best of the three winners bred by Hugo Throssell was the Antique mare Miss Curio which won six races in Perth and Kalgoorlie between 1936 and 1938 for owner/trainer James Kidd. In three of those wins Miss Curio was driven by another WW1 veteran Bill Johnson.
The third of the winners bred by Hugo Throssell was an Alfred Donald gelding called Coonardoo which won races in the country as a trotter but failed to win in Perth despite several attempts.
Coonardoo was the name of a novel written by Katherine Susannah Prichard and published in 1929. It was notorious for its candid portrayal of relationships between white men and black women in the North West of Western Australia.
In 1954 and memorial to Hugo Throssell was unveiled in Greenmount, opposite his home at 11 Old York Road, and in 1983 Throssell’s Victoria Cross was presented by his son Ric to the People for Nuclear Disarmament. It was later purchased by the Returned Services League and presented to the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.
Lest We Forget.
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
Driving The Future Of Harness Racing
