''For Valour'' is a 1960 Australian stage play by

Ric Throssell Ric Throssell (10 May 192220 April 1999) was an Australian diplomat and author whose writings included novels, plays, film and television scripts, and memoirs. For most of his professional life as a diplomat his career was dogged by unproven a ...

. The play was based on the life of Throssell's father

Hugo Throssell Hugo Vivian Hope Throssell, VC (26 October 1884 – 19 November 1933) was an Australian soldier in the First World War who was the first Western Australian and only Australian light horseman to receive the Victoria Cross (VC), the highest awar ...

, who had won the

Victoria Cross The Victoria Cross (VC) is the highest and most prestigious award of the British honours system. It is awarded for valour "in the presence of the enemy" to members of the British Armed Forces and may be awarded posthumously. It was previously ...

and later committed suicide. The play debuted in Canberra in 1960 in a production sponsored by the Elizabethan Theatre Trust. Leslie Rees later wrote:

Such a play could hardly have hoped for wide use by theatres because of its remote scene and time, and down-beat moods of pessimism. But because of its alert, skilled dialogue, its sure sense of scene movement, its quick but accurate limning of characters (perhaps too many?) and even more so because of the degree of underlying compassion, For Valour must continue to earn the high respect of true students of Australian theatre—and life.

Th play was published in 1976 by Currency Press.

Premise

In a small Victorian country town, a war hero struggles to adjust to peace time. He winds up committing suicide.

References

{{reflist

External links

Review of 1960 Canberra Production
at Bulletin 1960 plays Plays by Ric Throssell 1960s Australian plays