John Charville (SN 2334) born in Melbourne, was a married 26 year old saddler when he enlisted at Ballarat on March 4th1915. Assigned to the 7th Infantry Battalion, he embarked aboard the Demostenes on July 16th , first to Egypt and then to Gallipoli for the final months of that campaign. From April 1916 he served on the Western Front where he was wounded on three separate occasions but where he earned the Distinguished Conduct Medal 'For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty in action. A post on his right was successfully raided by the enemy, and five prisoners were captured. He went out, under heavy machine gun fire, and in broad daylight, to cut the enemy party off, with the result that he rescued three of the captured men and took five prisoners, including two officers, and accounted for several of the enemy. This success was mainly due to his personal courage and initiative.' He returned to Australia aboard the Karoola, disembarked at Melbourne on January 29th 1919 and was discharged on July 26th ‘medically unfit, multiple wounds’.