John Hutton Bisdee VC OBE (1869 - 1930)

Born 28 Sep 1869 in Melton Mowbray, Tasmania (Australia)

Ancestors

Husband of Georgiana Theodosia (Hale) Bisdee — married 11 Apr 1904 in New Town, Tasmania, Australia

Died 14 Jan 1930 at age 60 in Melton Mowbray, Tasmania, Australia

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Kenneth Evans [send private message]

Australian Victoria Cross Recipients

Biography

John Bisdee VC OBE is Notable.

John Bisdee VC OBE is an Anzac who served in World War One.

Lieutenant Colonel John Hutton Bisdee VC OBE was an Australian recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. He saw active service in both the Second Boer War and the First World War.

John Hutton Bisdee was born on 28th September 1869 at Hutton Park, Melton Mowbray, near Jericho in the Southern Midlands of Tasmania (Australia). He was the fourth and youngest son and eighth of nine children of John Bisdee and Ellen Jane Butler. His grandfather, also John Bisdee, had arrived in the colony (then Van Dieman's Land) in 1821 from Hutton, Somerset and established Hutton Park. As well as farming, he later served as governor of the Hobart Town gaol, chief constable for the district of Murray, keeper of the Hobart pound, and a Justice of the Peace.

Young John was educated at The Hutchins School, Hobart, as had his father, and then worked with his father on the family's Hutton Park property.

Victoria Cross

He enlisted in the 1st Battalion, Tasmanian Imperial Bushmen. Aged 31 years, he sailed with his battalion on 26th April 1900 for the Second Boer War and subsequently served in operations in Cape Colony, the Transvaal and the Orange River Colony. On 1st September, near Warmbad, Transvaal, he was with a scouting party ambushed by Boers in a rocky defile; six of its eight men were wounded, including an officer whose horse broke away and bolted. John dismounted, put the wounded man on his own horse and ran alongside, then mounted behind him and withdrew under heavy fire. For this gallant action he received the Victoria Cross (VC)—the first awarded to a Tasmanian. Wounded during the ambush, he was invalided home but, upon recovering, went back to South Africa as a Lieutenant in No.1 Company, 2nd Battalion, Tasmanian Imperial Bushmen; serving from March 1901 until the end of the war in May 1902. ^[1] For his war service he was awarded both the Queen's (Victoria) South Africa Medal and the King's (Edward VII) South Africa Medal.

After his return home, John resumed farming at Hutton Park.

On 11th April 1904 in St John's Church of England (now Anglican Church), New Town, Tasmania, John married Georgiana Hale, the 42 year old daughter of the late Right Reverend Bishop Matthew Hale (1811-95) and Mrs Sabina Hale (1831-1905). The Tasmanian News published the following report of the wedding on Saturday, 16th April: ^[2]

"WEDDING REPORT. Monday, the 11th, was the scene of an interesting wedding at St. John's Church, New Town, when Mr John Hutton Bisdee, V.C., of Hutton Park and Tedworth, was married to Miss Georgiana Theodosia Hale, youngest daughter of the late Rt. Rev. Dr. Hale, Bishop of West Australia and Brisbane. The bride, looking very well in a graceful gown of white crepe-de-chine, and wearing a beautiful old lace veil, walked up the aisle on the arm of her brother, Mr Harold Hale, who also gave her away ...

Georgiana's mother came to live with them at Hutton Park until her death the following year. John and Georgiana had no children.

On 26th May 1915, clearly following hearing the news of the ANZAC landing at Gallipoli a month earlier, John was commissioned in the Australian Imperial force with the rank of Major, and posted to the Egyptian Section, Australian Provost Corps. ^[3] He later served with the 12th Light Horse Regiment as the Desert Mounted Column advanced through the Ottoman territory of Palestine (Israel) and Syria. As a Temporary Lieutenant Colonel, he was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE), gazetted on 3rd June 1919 ^[4] and Mentioned in Despatches, equivalent to today's Commendation for Gallantry gazetted in London on 5th June 1919. ^[5]

Georgiana passed away whilst in the South of France in the Northern Hemisphere Winter, on Christmas Day 1926. She was subsequently buried in the St Kenelm Churchyard, Alderley, Stroud District, Gloucestershire.

Aged 60 years, John passed away just three years later, on 14th January 1930, at Tranquillity, Melton Mowbray. The Mercury published the death notice on the following day: ^[6]

"DEATH. BISDEE.-On Tuesday, January 14, 1930, at Tranquillity, Melton Mowbray, John Hutton Bisdee, V.C., O.B.E., the youngest son of John Bisdee, late of Tedworth, Spring Hill, in his 61st year."

"FUNERAL. BISDEE.-The funeral of the late Lt.-Col. J. H. Bisdee, V.C., will take place at St. James's Church, Jericho, on Thursday, at 2 p.m."

WILL OF JOHN HUTTON BISDEE ^[7]

Name: Bisdee, John Hutton

Record Type: Wills

Year: 1930

Will number: 17898

Page: 583

Record ID: NAME_INDEXES:642897

Resource AD960/1/54

Sources

1. ↑ Australian War Memorial nominal roll: Boer War: John Hutton Bisdee; accessed 22 Jun 2018
2. ↑ Tasmanian News (Hobart, Tas.: 1883-1911) Sat 16 Apr 1904, Page 3
3. ↑ Australian War Memorial nominal roll: First World War: Major John Hutton Bisdee; accessed 22 Jun 2018
4. ↑ Australian War Memorial honours and awards: OBE; accessed 4 Feb 2023
5. ↑ Australian War Memorial honours and awards: Mention in Despatches; accessed 4 Feb 2023
6. ↑ The Mercury (Hobart, Tas.: 1860-1954) Wed 15 Jan 1930 Page 1
7. ↑ Will

See also

• Blanch, Craig and Pegram, Aaron. For Valour: Australians awarded the Victoria Cross. New South Publishing, Sydney NSW, 2018. ISBN 978 17422 35424.
• L A. 'Bisdee, John Hutton (1869–1930)'. Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, published first in hardcopy 1979; accessed online 23 Jun 2018.
• Virtual War Memorial Australia: John Hutton Bisdee VC.
• Wikipedia: John Bisdee; accessed 22 Jun 2018.