VC to be loaned to war memorial

A Victoria Cross and other medals awarded to a South Australian soldier for exceptional gallantry during World War I will be handed to the Australian War Memorial on Thursday morning.

These medals, awarded to Sergeant Roy Inwood, will go on display with other VC medals in the Memorial's Hall of Valour.

Sergeant Inwood, a Gallipoli veteran, went out alone during an artillery barrage in the 1917 Battle of Polygon Wood in Belgium, knocking out an enemy strongpoint then the next night went out alone to report on enemy movements.

If that wasn't enough, he then located a German machinegun position and singlehandedly attacked, killing all but one of the German soldiers, returning with his prisoner and the machinegun.

Inwood, who died in 1971 aged 81, stipulated in his will that his VC stay in Adelaide and not go to Canberra.

Consequently it's on loan to the Australian War Memorial from the Adelaide City Council, the Army Museum of South Australia and the 10th Battalion Association.