Australian billionaire buys Vietnam War Victoria Cross
SYDNEY: An Australian billionaire has helped buy a Vietnam War Victoria Cross medal for $488,000 to prevent it leaving the country, officials said on Wednesday.
The South Australian government said television proprietor Kerry Stokes contributed to its winning bid for the medal, which was awarded posthumously to Major Peter Badcoe for heroic actions during the Vietnam War in 1967.
Stokes and the state government are believed to have evenly split the cost of the medal, which was the last Australian-awarded Vietnam War VC in private hands before it was auctioned with other military memorabilia Tuesday night.
"Together, we have ensured that these precious historic items remain in safe hands and available for all Australians to appreciate," South Australian Treasurer Kevin Foley said.
Stokes also bought the last Victoria Cross put up for auction in Australia, paying 1.2 million dollars in 2006 for the medal awarded to an Australian captain in the Gallipoli campaign of World War One.
The Victoria Cross is the highest honour for gallantry for Britain and some countries of its former empire, and is struck from bronze from a captured Chinese-made cannon used by the Russians at Sebastopol during the Crimean War.
Badcoe earned his medal for a series of actions leading South Vietnamese troops in the Vietnam War.
These included rescuing an injured US medic under heavy machine gun fire then storming the machine gun nest and repelling a Viet Cong attack on a regional headquarters.
He was killed in April 1967 while leading a fightback against a Viet Cong ambush on a convoy of armoured personnel carriers.
Badcoe's VC will go on display in Adelaide for 12 months before being exhibited at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.
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