Sam Merrifield Library 762 Mt Alexander Rd, Moonee Ponds
FREE
Please book before you attend 03 9243 1950
or see the Library website
Sam Merrifield Library 762 Mt Alexander Rd, Moonee Ponds
FREE
Please book before you attend 03 9243 1950
or see the Library website
With insufficient shipping to achieve their repatriation within the "duration of the war plus four months" stipulated when they enlisted, a huge effort was needed to keep the waiting troops occupied and entertained. One program was for sporting competitions between sportsmen of the allied armies, included such sports as shooting, boxing, athletics, football, and rowing.
Major Middleton, who was putting together personalities, programs, locations, and events, in various sports had been a successful rower himself. He put out a call for men experienced in rowing to come forward and try out for the AIF crew. He also sent out cables to rowers he knew to be in France or England and asked them to come. Whether Lieutenant Harold Newall received a personal invitation from Middleton, or responded to a notice in a newspaper, Newall turned up to tryout and was placed in the stroke seat of the AIF 2 crew, with Albert Dresser being in the stroke seat of AIF 1 crew.
The AIF crew was more democratic that the crews of other countries. England relied on officers only, who had attended public schools before the war. Class distinctions still counted in England. The USA crew likewise filled their crews with officers and men who had been to Ivy League schools. Australia put men of any rank in their boats, as long as they rowed well.
A large number of the Australians selected had represented Australia in their pre-war careers, several having rowed in the 1912 Olympics, for instance. Unlike these men, Newall before the war had rowed only as a club rower in Melbourne, for the Essendon Rowing Club. This club in itself was and is a democratic club, not relying on the public schools of Melbourne to crew their boats, but taking all comers.
In his 1914 season Newall had distinguished himself as the Men's Senior Eight stroke, and in his last row for 1914, his team-mates lifted him to their shoulders and chaired him onto the shore on the Yarra. Early in 1915 again, Newell won races for his club with his superior skills as the stroke, but it was the news of the severe losses at Gallipoli of which the Australian public only learnt in May 1915 that had 6 of 9 of the Essendon crew members join the AIF.
Patterson provides a detailed and interesting account of the vicissitudes of the training of the Australian crew prior to the Peace Regatta of 1919. Some had suffered severely at Pozieres, and probably all had a degree of PTSD. Major Middleton somehow got these two crews to pull together in the boats, selecting himself to balance out the crew that eventually won the Regatta for the AIF. It was unfortunate that the AIF 2 crew were selected to row against the AIF 1 crew in the first heat, and was thus eliminated from the Regatta early.
The Australian team cheerfully seized the King's Cup from the British rowing authorities who had been very reluctant even to allow overseas crews to compete, because heaven knows the Australians were not gentlemen. So the King's Cup came to Australia, and even then there was a controversy over it. The Australian War Museum seized it as a trophy of war. The Rowing authorities argued that it was not a war trophy and they petitioned King George V to allow them to keep the trophy as an annual perpetual trophy for the men's annual eight-oared competition. King George graciously agreed to the rowers' request, much to the chagrin of the AWM and others who were appalled at the effrontery of the rowers to go over the heads of the Australian government to petition the King. (See, I said they weren't gentlemen.)
This book is a jolly good read, and I recommend it strongly to anyone with an interest in sports of any kind, rowing in particular, and the history of the AIF. Scott Patterson is an excellent story-teller, and is also a film maker. His documentary film project on the AIF rowing team is nearing completion, and you can read about it at the above link.
Local AIF volunteer, George Gilchrist, of St Leonards Rd, Ascot Vale, survived the landing at Gallipoli with the 7th Infantry Battalion on 25 April 1915.
Gilchrist was 19 when he enlisted, and worked as a clerk. He'd been involved in the cadet movement for some years, spending one year as a junior cadet, 2 years in senior cadets, and 15 months in the Citizens Military Forces with the 58 Infantry (Essendon Rifles). As compulsory military service had only been implemented in 1913, his years as a cadet before that would have been as a volunteer cadet, possibly training at school, indicating his early interest in soldiering. This was one reason he would have been an early appointment to Lance Corporal, and Sergeant while still at Gallipoli.
Gilchrist was mentioned several times in extracts of letters published in the Essendon Gazette, and following are extracts from letters he wrote himself to his parents:
Sergeant George A. Gilchrist writes to his parents at Moonee Ponds from "Rabbit Hole Villa," Gallipoli, describing the landing of the Australians at Gallipoli. Out of 35 in his boat only 15 got ashore. They rushed across the beach, and took cover, and connecting with another battalion rushed a small hill and took possession. They remained in the discarded trenches for a while, until they started off to regain the firing line which was well inland. Unable to do this, they retired. They rejoined the battalion later on. Alick MacArthur was one of those killed on the boat. He was rowing, and was shot through the thigh; but kept on pulling till he dropped from loss of blood.
In a later epistle, Sergt. Gilchrist tells of the trip to Cape Hellas with a party of New Zealanders. Here they spent a couple of days in the reserve trenches. It was very cold, and they went to bed looking like Esquimaux. On 5th May, they moved into trenches about 1000 yards from the enemy, and about 500 yards from a trench held by British troops. When word came, they jumped out of the trenches and went for the enemy. No. 5 platoon, under Lieut. Swift, was the first to move, and just as the Australians got to the top of the gully, the Turks poured shrapnel into them. Lieut. Swift was hit here and slightly wounded. (His brother, Alick, has since been killed in action.-Editor.) They- reached the trench held by the British, and advanced. The enemy had the range to a nicety, and their firing was very accurate. The boys got within 35 yds. of the Turks, and owing to the firing line having been thinned, they lay down and scratched up a bit of cover, without entrenching tools. They dug all night, and by morning were safe from anything but high explosive shells.
Sgt. Gilchrist had several narrow escapes. A shrapnel pellet landed in his pack, and while digging he had four other close shaves. At time of writing, he was all right; but complained of the heat, and flies, especially the latter.
OUR SOLDIERS. (1915, October 14). The Essendon Gazette and Keilor, Bulla and Broadmeadows Reporter (Moonee Ponds, Vic. : 1914 - 1918), p. 4 Edition: Morning. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article74590395
For more stories of local volunteers, see: The Empire Called and I Answered: the Volunteers of Essendon and Flemington, 1914-1918
Pozieres, pulverised by shelling, where George Young suffered shell shock. AWM A05776 |
George Henry Young suffered a bit of a battering in the war. He was wounded in the foot at the Dardanelles, being invalided to Malta and later England. In 1916 in France he was hospitalised with shell shock, and again invalided to England. During his lengthy periods in convalescence, he managed to marry a young English woman, and when repatriated in 1919, they had a baby with them.
When he returned to France he suffered shell shock after the terrible shelling of Pozieres, where his Battalion had been posted.
Rod Martin tells the story of George Young's war.
Private Thomas Keddie, State school teacher at San Remo.
Thomas Keddie, a State school teacher, enlisted in the AIF at the first opportunity in August 1915. Like many men of his educational attainments he was made up to a Sergeant at an early stage in his training, but was reduced in rank in February 1915 to Private. His service record does not specify why that occurred, though it is possible he requested the change himself. He may have taken part in the defence of the Suez Canal when it was attacked by the Turks, but that remains another mystery.
On 25 April 1915 Thomas landed at Anzac Cove with his 8 Battalion comrades. Later in the day he was shot in the leg and evacuated. It meant the end of the war for Private Keddie, and he returned to teaching in Victoria. His presence in the Ascot Vale State School "Book of Noble Deeds" suggests he taught there for a period.
You can see Rod Martin's account of Thomas Keddie's part in the Great War here.
Somme mud, 1916 (AWM P905380.002)
Private William Yeats arrived in France in January 1917 in time to enjoy the worst winter in 40 years. A slight increase in temperatures preceded a thaw that changed conditions to a muddy quagmire. Rod Martin takes up the tale of young William Yeats, iron moulder of Flemington, who struggled through the appalling conditions in France until struck by shelling at Polygon Wood, his death bringing grief to yet another Flemington home. See his detailed story on the Empire Called website.
William Yeats' memorial at Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery.
Elizabeth
Martha Anne Browne (but known as Pattie) was born at Camp Hill,
Tullamarine Victoria on 1 January 1863. She was the third of the eleven
children of Hugh Junor Browne and his wife Elizabeth (née Turner).
Throughout her married life, Pattie devoted herself to her
family and charity work, especially in the area of child welfare. She encouraged her three daughters to live a
life of service to others.
For a listing of her philanthropic work, see the Australian
Women's Register.
Vera
Deakin and the Red Cross, by Carole Woods, was published by the Royal
Historical Society of Victoria in 2020.
While reading this book I was interested in the reference to the Anzac
Buffet, and most particularly just exactly where it was in St Kilda Road. It required a little bit of digging, but now
I know.
When the war began in 1914, the Australian Army put its
efforts into equipping and training their recruits for war, but it was the
women of Australia who threw themselves into providing comforts and morale
boosting for young men separated from their friends and family. Though the troops were surrounded by young
men similar to themselves, they could be
lonely for their wives and girlfriends, mothers and sisters. The women of Australia understood this and
with a will they threw themselves into providing home comforts for the
men.
The women also excelled at seeing a need and working out a
way of filling that need without the support of a huge organisation around
them. The Soldiers’ Refreshment Stall,
later called the Anzac Buffet, is one example of a need met by a group of women
without a formal organisation. Leadership was provided by older women, self-selected
largely through class and status, and the rest generally formed a supportive
group around them with no formal structure required, only a willingness to work
hard and fill a need.
The 5AGH was located in the newly completed Police Hospital.
Before ever having admitted a patient, the Police Hospital was taken over by
the Army to provide for soldiers yet to embark and also by wounded returning
from Gallipoli. The first patients were admitted in March 1915.
A news
article described this drawing: “The Building elevation shown above is that of
the new police hospital which is in course of erection upon a site on the
corner of St Kilda road and Nolan-street, which was formerly part of the old
Immigrants Home property.” (Argus,
20 June 1914).
The hospital faced Nolan Street on the north side, now
renamed Southbank Boulevard. St Kilda
Road passes in the foreground. It
reverted to a Police Hospital in 1920.
The Police Hospital from a drawing of the entire
Police Depot in St Kilda Rd.
See The Heritage-Listed Old Police Hospital is Born Again.
Former Prime Minister Alfred Deakin had accepted an invitation to form a delegation to visit the USA in January 1915, and despite his daughter Vera being anxious to find a way to serve the war effort, she was obliged to accompany her parents to California. Pattie, his wife, and Vera Deakin had been original members of the British Red Cross organising committee in Melbourne in 1914, but left the committee when they travelled overseas with Alfred. Both of the women were accustomed to leadership roles, so on their return they had to find a new activity rather than appropriate their former positions, now occupied by other women. The Australian Red Cross was providing workers in the kitchens at the 5th Australian General Hospital (5AGH), and it might have been their suggestion that there was a need for a refreshment service for the men who had long waits to see doctors and other health professionals.
Vera Deakin worked with her mother and Jane McMillan in the
establishment of the Soldiers Refreshment Stall, but on 21 December 1915, Vera
and her friend Winifred Johnston left Melbourne on a ship bound for Cairo, to
begin her important war work with the Australian
Red Cross Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau.
The Deakins arrived home in early July 1915. On 29 August 1916 The Argus reported
that the first birthday of the Soldiers’ Refreshment Stall had taken place on
the previous day, implying that the Deakin women had taken less than two months
to set up and commence their work in 1915. There were formalities to go through – permission from the authorities at the
5AGH, a tent to work in, some basic equipment to assemble and the first
donations of tea, coffee, cocoa and bread, cake and appropriate provisions for
soup, and a team of volunteers to operate the stall seven days a week. They kept this up for four solid years, with
the work building from 4,000 per week in 1916
to an average of 1,000 “serves” per day in 1919. (The Herald, 11
Nov 1919, p 1).
The Stall served hospital
outpatients, drivers, men from the camps, orderlies and all soldiers who
had a need of it. Ten and later 15
volunteers turned up each day to run the stall. The group photographs show thirty-six
and forty-eight volunteers respectively, and thirty-five are listed
individually in the Voluntary
War Workers Record, Australian Comforts Fund, 1918. Between 400 and 500 volunteers assisted
throughout the period of its operation, and 130 names were on the roll in 1919.
(The Herald, 11 Nov 1919, p 1).
From the Ladies Letter, Punch, 4 May 1916:
“The Base Hospital Soldiers' Refreshment Stall celebrated Anzac Day by entertaining over two hundred overseas "Anzac" men, presenting each guest with packets of cigarettes, sweets, and matches. There was no speechifying or boresome formality about the affair—just a homely, cheery greeting characteristic of this pleasant "corner" run by the "Serve You Right Sisters," as the volunteer- caterers at the S.R.S. are affectionately dubbed by their khaki customers. Each arrival was just enjoined, in greeting to "remember the day, and what it commemorates” and, indeed, the majority, of those present, with limp, hanging, empty sleeves, shaded eyes and pathetic bandages, had every reason to remember.
This "corner," by the way, is kept so busy now that it requires an average "of ten helpers a day. There is no committee, no board, no red tape. Practically every suburb is represented among the helpers, among whom exists a wonderful esprit de corps and absence of friction. Over 900 men per day are fed and "mothered" very often, or a mean average of 4000 per week. Supplies and cheques just flow in without any necessity for canvassing or pleading on the part of the organisers — not in huge, spasmodic lumps and amounts, mind you. There is just that knowledge among the S.R.S. that they know where to turn for support ; a regular fifty pounds of tea, for instance, keeps the caddy replenished from one firm ; so many pounds of cake per week arrive from another ; and so on. A leading Prahran emporium the other day handed in a cheque for £25, saying that was only the beginning of what the employes intended to do as a recognition of the fine work being done.
"By their works ye shall know them," and the gratitude of the soldiers who have been administered to, and of their relatives and friends, is constantly being signified in a variety of ways. One soldier—a baker by trade—sends along his "thank you" every week in the form of a trayful of pastry cook's goodies. The mother of one soldier who was shown kindness by these volunteers tried to express her gratitude by offering little gifts to the chief ministering angel. This was gently declined, with the explanation that other soldiers who were not able to afford such presents might be made to feel unhappy; but if "Mum" liked to send along some scones or something they would be very welcome. Now, with frequent regularity, a package of home-made cakes, scones, etc., arrive at the buffet from this grateful "Mum." In addition to the hundred-and-one little services which the workers in this "corner" are able to do, such as sewing on buttons, writing letters (for those, alas ! incapacitated), interceding with authority, helping through inquiries, comforting relatives, etc., a regular "Returned Soldiers' Aid Fund" has become established.
Temporary loans for small amounts are advanced to those who need them. Poor Billy Khaki is so often "stoney," awaiting pay arrears—goodness knows why and how ! This temporary accommodation is given, with discretion, with common-sense judgment, but without cold official inquiry, without red tape, without even hesitation" as to its being "deserving." And how it is appreciated ! In nine cases out of ten all such advances are returned in due course. And as for the tenth—well, what are we all supposed to be doing, and thinking, and talking of, and bragging about, if it is not helping soldiers in need? Another excellent movement instituted is for the provision of suits of civilian clothes for discharged invalids. A soldier is given one outfit by the Government when he doffs his khaki. If that gets wet or damaged he can very seldom afford to buy another. Husbands and friends of this helpful sisterhood are only too glad to contribute suits for this, purpose, particularly duck and linen, outfits for on board ship for those discharged men who have to return to England”. (Punch, 4 May 1916, p 32.)
The soldiers', new refreshment stall at the base hospital, St. Kilda road, was opened on November 30 by the acting State Commandant, Brigadier-General R. E. Williams. The pavilion was built at the expense of the Defence department in order to provide better accommodation for carrying on the work than the old structure afforded. The new stall has been christened the "Anzac Buffet," and in it returned soldiers are provided with refreshments at a nominal cost. The buffet is conducted by a number of patriotic sympathetic ladies, who give their services, voluntarily. After Brigadier-General Williams had explained the launching of the movement two and a half years ago by women eager to serve their country in any capacity, Mrs Alfred Deakin (directress) responded, thanking the Defence department for the gift of the pavilion, which would greatly assist in the work they were devoted to, at which announcement the soldiers cheered enthusiastically. Luncheon was subsequently served, and amongst those present were Brigadier-General and Mrs Sellheim, Mr. Alfred Deakin, Colonel F. D. Bird, Major and Mrs. Courtney, Colonel G. Cuscaden, Lieut.-Colonel Pleasants, Matron C. Milne, Mr. T Trumble, Mr. F. Gates, and others. (The Australasian, 8 Dec 1917, p 41)
At the same time as the improvement in accommodation and name change for the buffet came also some smart uniforms for the women.
On 1 August 1918 the Punch featured the Anzac Buffet in a page of photographs, by F W Tolra:
The two women who were most synonymous with the Anzac Buffet in Melbourne, Pattie Deakin and Jane McMillan had, however, bowed out in 1919, thanking the Diggers:
Pattie’s husband Alfred Deakin, former Prime Minister of Australia, had died on 7 October 1919, just a month before this gracious farewell from the two ladies. Jane had lost her only child in September 1917, but somehow had drawn herself together and returned to work at the Anzac Buffet.
Most diggers understood that the women of Australia had their own
burdens to carry – sorrow, grief, anxiety, and often found on their return to
Australia, that their families had been badly affected, with their parents or
grandparents carried off by the constant stress of having their sons away, or
the death of cousins and nephews, or deaths of sons of their close
friends. The war left a shadow on
Australia for many decades.
I need to disclose that I am a member and volunteer of the Royal Historical Society of Victoria.
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