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Private William "Bill" Jackson was only 17 when he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in 1915. He became the first – and youngest – Australian to receive the Victoria Cross on the Western Front during World War I. Jackson's medals were put on display on Friday at the Australian War Memorial. The teenager, from Gunbar, NSW, lied about his age to join the 17th Battalion in February 1915. He served in Gallipoli before arriving on the Western Front in 1916. On the night of June 25, Jackson was part of a raiding party that broke into the German trenches outside the town of Armentieres on the border of France and Belgium. He returned to the Australian trenches with a prisoner in tow but immediately went back to no man's land under heavy shell fire to bring in an injured soldier. Jackson went out again to recover wounded men until a German shell explosion severed his right arm. Despite this, he got medical help and returned again to retrieve more wounded men. Jackson was awarded the Victoria Cross at the age of 18 at a ceremony at Buckingham Palace. The war memorial's director, Brendon Nelson, said he remained the youngest Australian to receive the country's highest military honour. "Private Jackson's story represents those of many ordinary men and women who have done extraordinary things in unimaginable circumstances; their deeds form an immortal part of our nation's history," Dr Nelson said. Australia lost the most soldiers at the Western Front than any other battlefield. A senior military historian with the memorial, Aaron Pegram, said Jackson's arm was amputated while he was recovering in a hospital in England. He returned to Australia to work as a farm labourer, but struggled to find work during the Great Depression. Jackson re-enlisted in World War II but did not fight overseas. He later entered the public service in Victoria, working at the Melbourne Town Hall. He died in Melbourne in 1959. The private's Victoria Cross medals will be on public display from Saturday in the memorial's Hall of Valour.

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