ROWAN Borella won’t part with the Victoria Cross his father, Captain Albert Borella, won in 1918.
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The family doesn’t intend to give the medal to the Australian War Memorial’s Hall of Valour.
“They have 66 VCs and this would just make it 67,’’ Mr Borella, of Lavington, said yesterday.
“It’s important it stays in Albury where it belongs and where our family lives.
“I don’t see myself as owning the VC, but more as the custodian and we keep it in a bank.’’
The family has a replica VC mounted with Captain Borella’s Military Medal and other medals.
Mr Borella, the last surviving son of Captain Borella, was commenting ahead of the unveiling by Vietnam war hero Keith Payne VC of the Borella display at Cafe Borellas in Albury on Tuesday.
Mr Payne’s VC is one of 66 at the Hall of Valour. The latest was donated this year by Corporal Ben Roberts-Smith, who won it for action in Afghanistan last year.
The collection has 63 VCs awarded to Australians and three to British men, including that won by Commander Norman Holbrook, which is on loan, courtesy of the Hume Council and the Holbrook community.
Australians have won 95 VCs, the first in the Boer War.
The most recent Australian VC sold was bought in April for more than $600,000 by Kerry Stokes, who donated it to the Hall of Valour.
Mr Borella says he would like a plaque about his father restored to Borella Road. It was on a wall near Schubach Street but work on the Hume Freeway in 2005 forced its relocation.
Mr Borella said the Roads and Traffic Authority had told him it couldn’t be re-erected in the same place and put it on a rock beside a path near tennis courts.
“The RTA man didn’t give me much option so I went along with it at the time,” he said, “but it should be placed where people can see it in Borella Road.
He said he was thrilled with Cafe Borellas’ display and was delighted that Mr Payne would open it.
Saturday Focus — pages 34, 35
