Lt Leslie Maygar, VC. Photo: Australian War Memorial

The name Maygar is honoured at Ruffy and Terip Terip. The Ruffy Recreation Reserve oval is named after the Boer War soldier’s family.
Lieutenant Leslie Maygar (pictured) was educated at a number of locations including Alexandra.
He farmed at Euroa, and his memory is honoured with the Maygar’s Hill winery at Longwood.
In November 1901, Lieutenant Leslie Maygar, 5th Victorian Mounted Rifles, Victoria Cross saw action at Geelhoutboom, Natal.
Maygar was the sixth and last Australian to be awarded the Victoria Cross during the Boer War.
Leslie Cecil Maygar (1868-1917), soldier and grazier, was born on May 27, 1868 at Dean station, Kilmore, seventh child of Edwin Willis Maygar, grazier, and his wife Helen, née Grimshaw, both from Bristol, England. He was named Edgar Leslie Cecil Willis Walker Maygar. His father’s family were originally political refugees from Hungary. Leslie was educated at Alexandra and Kilmore State schools and privately.
He was nearly 6 ft (183 cm), and had brown hair and later a Kitchener moustache.
He, his father and three brothers owned Strathearn station, Euroa.
A very fine horseman, Maygar enlisted in the Victorian Mounted Rifles in March 1891.
At the start of the South African War he was not accepted among the first volunteers, owing to a decayed tooth, but went with the 5th (Mounted Rifles) Contingent, arriving in Cape Town in March 1901.
For 12 months the contingent was constantly in action, north of Middelburg, East Transvaal, then at Rhenoster Kop, Klippan, Kornfontein and Drivelfontein.
It was transferred to Natal in August. At Geelhoutboom, on November 23, Lieutenant Maygar was awarded the Victoria Cross for rescuing a fellow Victorian whose horse had been shot.
With the enemy only 200 yards (183 m) away Maygar dismounted, put the man on his own horse, told him to gallop for the British lines, and ran back under heavy fire.
His V.C. was presented by Lord Kitchener.
Before returning home in March 1902 he was also mentioned in dispatches.
Resuming work as a grazier at Euroa, Maygar also served as a lieutenant in the 8th (later 16th) Light Horse, V.M.R., and was promoted captain in 1905.
He enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force soon after World War I broke out, lowering his age by four years.
On August 20, 1914 he was appointed a captain in the 4th Light Horse Regiment and sailed for Egypt in October.
On Gallipoli, with the dismounted light horse, he was promoted major. On October 17, 1915 he was given temporary command of the 8th L.H.R., both rank of lieutenant-colonel and command being confirmed in December.
During the evacuation of Gallipoli Maygar, left in command of 40 men, was instructed to hold the trenches, at all costs, till 2.30 a.m.
He wrote: ‘I had my usual good luck to be given command of the last party to pull out of the trenches, the post of honour for the 3rd L.H. Brigade’.
Maygar led his regiment throughout its service in Sinai and Palestine until his death and was a much-admired leader.
During the 2nd battle of Gaza, on April 19, 1917, the 8th was in a most exposed sector and suffering heavy casualties.
Maygar rode about the battlefield all day on his grey charger and ‘in every crisis stirred the spirit of his regiment by his example in the firing line’.
Sir Henry Gullett records that Maygar was ‘always very bold in his personal leadership’ and writes of April 19: ‘It was a day when true leaders recognised that their men needed inspiration, and Maygar gave it in the finest manner’.
He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order in June 1917, and was thrice mentioned in dispatches in 1916-18.
When Brigadier General J. R. Royston was invalided home, Colonel Maygar acted as brigadier general in command of the 3rd Light Horse Brigade.
Late on the day of the battle of Beersheba, October 31, 1917, a German aeroplane, using bombs and machine-guns, hit Maygar whose arm was shattered.
The grey bolted into the darkness and was found later by 8th Regiment troopers but Maygar was not with him.
‘He was picked up during the night by other troops … and, having lost too much blood, died the next day at Karm’.
L. C. Maygar, ‘Elsie’ as he was affectionately known, was ‘a true fighting commander’.
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One of the first local references to the Maygarsy in the Alexandra area was in the appointment of a family member as a guardian of St John’s Church of England in January 1886.
Gravelling works from Maygar’s to Spring Creek, in the main Road to Boundary section, receives notation in the Alexandra Shire Council capital works budget published in The Standard on April 19, 1886.
Worshipful Master Maygar, a member of the Albert Edward Masonic Lodge is listed as one of the gathering of Freemasons paying last respects to Henry Keene on Good Friday 1889.
In that year, Maygar and Sons wrote, again drawing Yea council’s attention to the necessity ot clearing portion of road between Hayes and Penny’s, parish of Ruffy; for £12.
In 1890, in a report about the Yarck Presbyterian Church, the Standard noted that “Miss Maygar sang The Reaper and Flowers in acceptble manner”.
The Maygar name was to the fore when The Standard reported on February 20, 1891: “Mr F. Popple’s homestead, “Fair View,” situated on the Yea road, was burnt to the ground on Friday night last.
“It is only a few weeks ago that Mr Popple and family removed from “Fair View” to another residence near the Alexandra road station, leaving the former in charge of a Chinaman,
who slept in the house.
“Unfortunately, business and other matters had only per mitted of their removing a few articles of furniture and apparel from the old resi-
dence, and at the time of the fire the house was almost in the same state as when Mr Popple and his family lived in it. The piano even was not removed, and it and all other contents were utterly destroyed.
“How the fire origi noted is a mystery. Mr Maygar, who lives opposite, was awoke from sleep by hearing some person shouting in peculiar accents, and in rushing to his front gate beheld the Chinaman in the middle of the road per forming a war dance after the manner of Dr Carver’s Sioux warriors.
“Looking across to Mr Popple’s house he saw a flame in one of the bed rooms, and returned to his own room to put on some apparel. Quick as he was, before he could get across
the road, the house was enveloped in flames, and he at once saw that any effort to save so much as a single stick would be utterly useless.
“In a few minutes the building was burnt to the ground. Mr Popple is covered by an insurance in the Commercial Insurance Company to the extent of £400.
“The Chinaman in charge of the house had “planted” £23 in the mattress on which he slept, all of which he lost.”
On September 3, 1897, the Alex-andra Standard reported: “We regrethaving to record the untimely
death of Private Horace Maygar, of the F Co. Victorian. Mounted Rifles, and who for some years past had resided with his parents at Ruffy.
“On Thursday while travelling in the bush. he was struck on the head by a falling tree and killed instantaneously. Deceased was well known in the Alexandra shire, and for some time was a member of the Alexandra detachment of Mounted rifles, during which period his conduct and interest in the regiment won for him the respect anid esteem of the officer commanding his detachment and his colleagues in the ranks.
“We re gret the death of so good a soldier, and tender our sympathies to his bereaved parents and relatives, which we feelisure will be shared by the deceased’s late companions in arms.”
In the August 23, 1900 Yea Chronicle it was noted: “In the last issue of the Government Gazette, it is announced that Sergeant Leslie Cecil Maygar of the F. Company of Mounted Rifles has been appointed to the rank of Lieutenant on probation.”
Ruffy notes in the Yea paper (Dec. 20, 1900) recorded: “Corporal McAlpin was banqueted at the Ruffy Hotel on Saturday night. Lieutenant Maygar occupied the chair. “There was a fine spread in Mrs. Hobart’s best style and everyone enjoyed the evening’s proceed ings.”
The Alexandra Standard commented (Feb. 14, 1902): “Lieutenant Maygar is the pluckiest and beat subaltern officer that has ever left Victoria. He is not afraid of anything, and never gets his men into a hole.”
“The above-are.the words of an officer of high rank in the Fifth.
“Lieutenant Maygar is the first Victorian officer to be recommended for the Vic toria Cross: Upon this occasion he displayed great bravery and, gallantry in saving a detached post from a serious disaster.
“During a hot engagement he galloped out under a heavy fire, and
ordered the post, which was being out flanked, to retire. During the retirement a private’s horse was shot under him.
“Lieutenant Maygar dismounted, placed the disabled man upon his horse, and jumped on behind him. But very soon the lieutenant saw that the horse was unable to carry both, owing to the boggy nature of, the ground.
“He dismounted and told the private to gallop for his life, while he himself proceeded on foot.
“Both escaped. All this took place under a hail of bullets,” the Standard reported.
“He knows how to lead his men into action and how to lead them out.”

The Victoria Cross (VC) is the highest and most prestigious award of the British honours system.
It is awarded for gallantry “in the presence of the enemy” to members of the British Armed Forces. It may be awarded posthumously.
It was previously awarded to Commonwealth countries, most of which have established their own honours systems and no longer recommend British honours.
It may be awarded to a person of any military rank in any service and to civilians under military command although no civilian has received the award since 1879.
Since the first awards were presented by Queen Victoria in 1857, two thirds of all awards have been personally presented by the British monarch. These investitures are usually held at Buckingham Palace.
The VC was introduced on January 29, 1856, by Queen Victoria to honour acts of valour during the Crimean War.
Since then, the medal has been awarded 1358 times to 1355 individual recipients.
Only 15 medals, 11 to members of the British Army, and four to the Australian Army, have been awarded since the Second World War.
The traditional explanation of the source of the metal from which the medals are struck is that it derives from Russian cannon captured at the Siege of Sevastopol.
However, research has suggested another origin for the material. Historian John Glanfield has established that the metal for most of the medals made since December 1914 came from two Chinese cannon, and that there is no evidence of Russian origin.
Owing to its rarity, the VC is highly prized. A number of public and private collections are devoted to the Victoria Cross.