Arthur Percy Sullivan VC (27 November 1896 – 9 April 1937) was an Australian recipient of the Victoria Cross (VC), the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to a member of the British Armed Forces. Born in South Australia, Sullivan worked for the National Bank of Australasia prior to enlisting in the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) in April 1918 for service in World War I. He had arrived in the United Kingdom, but had not completed training when the Armistice came into effect on 11 November. Sullivan was promoted to corporal in March 1919, but wanting to see active service he sought and received his discharge from the AIF on 28 May. On the same day, he enlisted in the British Army for service with the North Russia Relief Force, part of the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War.
Sullivan was deployed to northern Russia with the relief force. Following a successful attack, he was a member of the rearguard of a column withdrawing across the Sheika River. As his platoon crossed the river on a crude one-plank bridge in the early hours of 11 August 1919, it came under intense fire from Bolshevik troops, and four members fell into the river. Sullivan immediately jumped in and rescued them all, one by one, and was awarded the VC for his actions. Demobilised from the British Army after completing his service, Sullivan returned to Australia and resumed his civilian career as a banker. He was in London for the coronation of King George VI as part of the Australian Coronation Contingent in 1937, when he died of head injuries received in a fall. His medal set is displayed in the Hall of Valour at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.
Early life Arthur Percy Sullivan was born on 27 November 1896 at Prospect, South Australia, the only child of Arthur Monks Sullivan, a storekeeper, and his wife Eliza Dobbs of Crystal Brook in the mid-north of the state. Beginning on 9 February 1904, he was educated at Crystal Brook Public School and from 1910 at Gladstone High School where he was the school captain. Sullivan was also editor of the school magazine and the best Australian rules football player for his school.
After completing his education in mid-1913, he gained employment at a branch of the National Bank of Australasia in Gladstone on 25 September. After six months' probation, he was taken on as a clerk on 8 April 1914. Only 17 at the outbreak of World War I, Sullivan wanted to enlist, but his parents would not give the necessary permission. On 25 May 1915, he was promoted and transferred to a branch at Broken Hill, New South Wales, just over the northeastern border of South Australia, where he was promoted to ledger keeper. The following year he returned to his home state to work at a branch in Maitland commencing on 30 October, where he was promoted to teller. Sullivan played golf and Australian rules football, and was the secretary of the Maitland Patriotic Society, which organised farewells and welcome home events for local men who had enlisted or returned from the war. He turned 20 soon after his arrival in Maitland, and his parents permitted him to enlist, although he did not do so immediately.
Military service World War I On 27 April 1918, Sullivan attended a fund-raising parade in Port Pirie for the Returned Soldiers' Appeal. After the parade, the attendees congregated at the town recreation grounds, where a sports carnival was held, and volunteers for the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) were encouraged to come forward. Sullivan enlisted that day as a private in the AIF and was allocated as a general reinforcement. He underwent training at Mitcham Camp in Adelaide between 14 May and 4 June, and was then farewelled in Maitland at an event similar to those he had organised for other recruits before their departure. He embarked with about 700 others on the troopship HMAT A74 Marathon in Melbourne on 23 July bound for the United Kingdom. The convoy in which the Marathon travelled sailed via Albany, Western Australia, Durban and Cape Town, South Africa, and Freetown, Sierra Leone. Upon arriving in Tilbury in the UK on 27 September, Sullivan was briefly allocated as a reinforcement to the 10th Battalion before transferring to the Royal Regiment of Australian Artillery training camp at Heytesbury, Wiltshire, on 5 October 1918. He was still in training when the Armistice was declared on 11 November 1918, and Sullivan therefore saw no action in World War I.
Russia
While posted to the camp at Heytesbury, Sullivan contracted gonorrhea and was hospitalised at Bulford Camp between 25 November 1918 and 11 March 1919. Upon discharge from hospital he was transferred to a training battalion at Codford, and on 23 March he was promoted to acting corporal, and employed as a camp orderly room corporal. He was keen for a tour of active duty with the North Russia Relief Force (NRRF) as part of the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War. This intervention had begun after the Bolsheviks had overthrown the Russian government and made peace with the Central Powers in 1917. Allied troops had become involved in the ongoing civil war, and after the Armistice in November 1918, their involvement continued, albeit with poorly defined objectives. In March 1919, the NRRF was conceived to intervene against the Bolsheviks and create a situation where the original force could be withdrawn. Although no Australian contingent was being sent with the NRRF, it was recruiting amongst Australians then in the UK, and a recruiting officer visited Codford in April. Sullivan was attracted by the high pay and potential for adventure. The Australian government limited recruitment to single Australians who were willing to forgo their right to repatriation. Sullivan was discharged from the AIF on 28 May 1919, and enlisted in the British Army on the same day as a corporal.
The NRRF was an 8,000-strong force of two brigades that included about 150 Australians who had been awaiting repatriation from the UK. Sullivan was allotted to the 45th Battalion, the Royal Fusiliers (45th RF), part of the NRRF brigade commanded by Brigadier General Lionel Sadleir-Jackson. The Australians were permitted to continue wearing the Australian uniform, and wore the NRRF colour patch on their sleeve. The commanding officer of the 45th RF was Lieutenant Colonel Charles Davies, an Australian who had commanded the 32nd Battalion on the Western Front. Sullivan and the other Australians went into camp at Sandling in Kent where they prepared for their deployment. The Australians who volunteered for the NRRF were concentrated in two units: the 45th RF, and the 201st Company, Machine Gun Corps.
Sullivan sailed directly from Leith to Russia with an advance party on board the cargo ship Steigerwald on 9 June, and, travelling via Murmansk, landed at Arkhangelsk on 20 June. A 50-man detachment of the advance party was almost immediately sent up the Dvina River by paddle steamer to the village of Pinega, where they stayed for five days, ostensibly to quell rioting, although they actually encountered no trouble. They returned downstream to the village of Osinovo where they were reunited with the rest of the advance party. Osinovo was about behind the frontline at the village of Seltso, and the camp contained about 4,000 troops. At Osinovo, they went into camp with the rest of the advance force, and underwent intensive training. On the river was a flotilla of British monitors and gunboats. The main body of the NRRF arrived in Arkhangelsk on 11 July, following two mutinies by British-led White Russian battalions in the area. The Bolsheviks held a fortified line about south of Osinovo.
Dvina offensive In August the NRRF was ordered to advance down the Dvina River to attack the Bolsheviks. About 4,000 men of the NRRF, supported by the river flotilla, artillery and aircraft, were set against about 6,000 Bolshevik troops of the 3rd Brigade of the 18th Division, also supported by artillery. D Company of the 45th RF, which included Sullivan and about 20 other Australians, was to push down the western side of the Dvina and take the villages of Sludka and Lipovets from the rear. Other columns were to attack other villages on the river. The D Company column included machine gun sections, mortars, mountain guns and some cavalry. They were ferried across the river to the village of Yakovlevskoye and set off on the afternoon of 7 August. They then undertook a wide-sweeping approach march of nearly through a thick forest to be in position for the attack at 12:00 on 10 August. The aims of the overall offensive were three-fold: to lower Bolshevik morale; to push back the Bolshevik river flotilla so that mines could be laid to impede any follow-up of the imminent British withdrawal; and to improve the morale of the anti-Bolshevik forces.
Sludka was the column's first objective, but on 9 August, scouts reported that the location of a swamp made a direct attack on the village impossible. As a result, the column pushed further south to attack the village of Kochamika, after which they would turn north and capture Sludka. The approach march began at 06:00 on 10 August, and the men slogged through the mud to positions at the edge of the forest by 11:00. Thirty minutes later, the British artillery, the river flotilla and aircraft began bombarding Kochamika. At 12:00, the D Company column, which included Sullivan's 16 Platoon, launched its assault, although without the support of the mountain guns and cavalry that had been left behind owing to the difficult terrain. With bayonets fixed, the force easily put the stunned Bolshevik defenders to flight. As soon as the village was taken, they came under fire from the Bolshevik river flotilla.
D Company then pushed northwards, capturing several hamlets and many Bolshevik prisoners, although D Company's commander was killed by river gunboat fire. After scouting out Sludka, a successful assault was mounted on that village as well, while another column led by A Company captured Lipovets. The D Company column then joined A Company at Lipovets aiming to then reunite with the rest of the force, which had been unsuccessfully attacking the village of Seltso from the north. The Bolsheviks landed around 100 sailors between the two Allied columns, cutting off the southerly column including A and D Companies. Without their commander and running low on ammunition, the remaining officers decided to try to break out rather than push on towards Seltso. Impeded by their own wounded, over 500 prisoners-of-war, and local townspeople forced to accompany the column to stop them informing the Bolsheviks, the column made slow progress. Sullivan's 16 Platoon was designated as the rearguard.