Posthumously Recognised With Victoria Cross on Remembrance Day
The late Private Richard Norden VC: a true Australian hero. Photo: Government House.
Gundagai’s very own Hero, Private Richard Norden who served in Vietnam and went on to serve as an ACT policeman has been posthumously awarded the nation’s highest military honour for a 1968 effort involving him rescuing a wounded soldier and recovering the body of another while enduring enemy fire in Vietnam.
The fresh-faced country boy from Gundagai, was just 19 when he was sent to war. His bravery now the stuff of ANZAC legend.
Richard’s brother Roger Norden, said “All the Gundagai people knew, but now Australia knows.”
A statement from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Private Norden had been recognised for the “most conspicuous acts of gallantry” in action in the presence of the enemy.
Governor General Sam Mostyn has announced that the King has given approval for the award of the Victoria Cross for Australia to be bestowed to Private Richard Norden, who died in a traffic accident in 1972 while on police duty in Canberra.
The Remembrance Day announcement came more than two years after the Defence Honours and Awards Appeals Tribunal recommended Private Norden receive the award for his bravery.
During the 1968 Battle of Fire Support Base Coral, the young soldier showed extraordinary bravery by running towards North Vietnamese enemy fire to retrieve his section commander who had been shot.
After managing to drag his commander successfully back to safety, the already wounded Private Norden again placed himself in grave danger trying to save another member of his platoon who had been shot.
Norden is the 102nd Australian to be awarded the honour.
On his return to Australia, Private Norden became an Australian Capital Territory Police Officer. He was only 24 when he died as a result of injuries sustained in an ACT Police motorcycle accident.
The Governor-General’s Office will work with Private Norden’s family to finalise plans for the investiture ceremony.
Roger Norden said about his brother Richard who was awarded the Victoria Cross, “We got a little bit of notice that my brother was going to receive the award.
“It was only an announcement; it wasn’t a presentation or anything. They didn’t say for sure, they just said they would be making an announcement on Remembrance Day, so we thought that’s what it would be.
“More will happen. Whoever goes. I remember when he got his DCM he was only allowed to have a couple of representatives there.
“This one might be different when it’s only a single one. We will wait and see.
“The two boys, Shane and Scott, will be getting it I would say. They are up at Rockhampton, along with their mother.
“I was very proud that he got it.
“His mates in the unit with him have been fighting this for years and years and years. They are the ones that have done the job to get it awarded.
“They have been the main people pushing for it, besides a lot of other people too.
“Keith Payne, a VC winner, has been on it for months and months.
“It should have been awarded in the first place instead of giving him the DCM. That’s what Roden Cutler said to him when he presented him with it.
He said “what have you got to do to get a VC these days?”.
“I didn’t think there would be that many Victoria Cross recipients, it seems a lot, but I suppose it’s over a long time. They don’t give them out too easily.
“If he was alive, he would be 76 and he was only 24 when he got killed. He was about a year and a half younger than me.
“I remember I had to take mum and dad over the Canberra when he came off the bike. He laid in a coma for four days until they switched all the lifesaving gear off.
“It wasn’t too good for mum especially.”
Now a hero of Gundagai has finally been recognised for his efforts.
