George Gosse
Australian naval officer and George Cross recipient (1912-1964)
Lieutenant Commander George Gosse, (16 February 1912 – 31 December 1964) was an Australian recipient of the George Cross, the highest award for extraordinary acts of gallantry away from the field of battle that could be awarded to a member of the Australian armed forces at the time. Gosse served in the Royal Australian Navy between 1926 and 1933, reaching the rank of sub-lieutenant and receiving training and experience with the British Royal Navy.
In 1940, he joined the Royal Australian Naval Volunteer Reserve (RANVR) for service in World War II. Quickly sent back to the United Kingdom, he served on several shore establishments before being sent to British India as a naval mine clearance specialist. He returned to the UK in late 1944, and in April 1945 he was given command of a naval party responsible for mine clearance in the recently captured Bremen Harbour in Germany. He displayed exceptional courage in defusing three mines under very difficult conditions between 8 and 19 May 1945, which resulted in him being awarded the George Cross.
Gosse continued to serve in the RANVR after the war, reaching the rank of lieutenant commander before retiring in 1958, and died of a heart condition in 1964. His medal set is displayed in the Hall of Valour at the Australian War Memorial.
Early life and career
George Gosse was born on 16 February 1912 at Harvey, Western Australia, the elder child of William Hay Gosse, a farmer, and his wife Muriel née Davidson. He was a grandson of the explorer William Gosse and a nephew of the businessman Sir James Hay Gosse. His father had served in the 2nd South Australian Mounted Rifles in the Second Boer War in South Africa, and joined the British Army as an artillery officer in World War I. He was awarded the Military Cross for gallantry and was killed in action in 1918.
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This entry incorporates text from “George Gosse” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.