Sister Fleming at Dartford, 1917

A lovely new portrait of Sister Elizabeth Gertrude Fleming has appeared at the Australian War Memorial - it certainly wasn't there the last time I looked for pics of Gertrude.   Just goes to show that it is worth rechecking repositories from time to time.  There was also a portrait of Lt General Chauvel on horseback said to have been taken by Gertrude.  You can further details on Gertrude's Empire Called webpage.

This memorial plaque for Pte David Fiddes of the 58 Inf Battalion (formerly 60 Inf Bn) was sent to his father, Andrew Fiddes, of 80 Gower St, Kensington.

The plaque was later donated to the Flemington & Kensington Returned and Services League.  The RSL now has a grant to frame some of their memorabilia of the Great War, and this plaque will be among those items.

Remembrance Day at the Flemington & Kensington Memorial, 

Racecourse Rd, 2018.  Photo: LenoreFrost

Private Wren Teale of Moonee Ponds

The above newspaper photograph which includes Hugh Lindsay (Wren) Teale was spotted in Winner  by Cheryl Griffin, who is doing a mighty job for Coburg at the Fighting the Kaiser blogspot.  Cheryl looked for "Wren Leale" on the Coburg Cycling Club Honour Board and realised he would be W Teale on the board.     Wren, from McPherson St, Moonee Ponds,  is seated front left in the photo.  He served with the 38 Inf Bn, and was killed in action on 19 Nov 1917.

Gunner Thomas Hogg, the mature recruit

With his usual precision, Rod Martin follows the military career of the mature recruit, Thomas Bell Hogg, a railway employee of Ascot Vale.

Mud and Blood

 

At the Clocktower Centre, Moonee Ponds, 

31 Aug at  12pm and 8pm

Local hero General 'Pompey' Elliott led the Essendon Rifles and took most with him to WWI after a farewell at Essendon Town Hall..

This compelling play by Moonee Ponds writer, Meg McNena, is directed powerfully by Alice Bishop. Set 1914-1921, in battle and at home, Pompey inspires as husband, father, brother, general, Anzac, veteran, leader. He and a soldier's mother deal with his vow to look after his boys in war as if they were his own. Women's contribution and their struggles also drive the drama. Potent themes of family, duty, loyalty, trauma, betrayal, legacy and grief vividly unfold during world-changing times.

The matinee performance will be followed by a Q&A and then by a talk by Ross McMullin, an award winning historian, biographer and author of two books on Pompey Elliott.

The matinee running times (approx):
Performance: 12.00 - 13.20
Q&A: 13.20 - 13.35
Break: 13.35 - 13.45
WWI Talk: 13.45 - 14.30
Questions: 14.30 - 14.45

---

Duration: approximately 80 minutes,no interval. Note: 12pm performance is followed by a Q&A and interval (approximately 160 minutes in total).

Adult	$40
Children (17 and under)	$25
Student (FT)	$25
Concession (Age Pensioner)	$28
Concession (Health Care)	$28
Family (2 Adult / 2 Child)	$110

Book tickets

Sergeant George of the Railways Unit

British light rail engine, as used on the Western Front      (AWM H01948)

In late 1916, at the request of the British government, Australia advertised for experienced men to join a new railway operations division.  By the end of January 1917, the Victorian section was filled by ‘a very fine body of men’ from the Victorian Railways. Among these  was thirty-two-year-old engine driver, Alfred George of 37 Hardiman Street, Kensington.

Rod Martin describes the experiences of Sergeant Alfred Thomas George in Number 2 Section, Australian Railways Operations Division.  

Peter Stanley in his book Bad Characters, talked of the AIF being civilians in uniform:  

"In broad terms the AIF resembled the factories, workshops or shearing sheds that many of its members had known in civilian life.  Privates were the workers; non-commissioned officers (NCOs) were foremen, gangers or overseers; officers were the proprietors, managers or supervisors.  Soldiers saw them in these terms....  Australian soldiers often applied their civilian principles to their military experience."  (p37)

 This applied particularly to the trades unionists among them, and the railway soldiers were probably among the most heavily unionised soldiers of the AIF.   This becomes apparent in Rod's story telling of the reactions of the Number 2 Railway Unit when faced with unacceptable directions from their officers.

Putting Imperial into the AIF

Griffiths family grave in Krugersdorp, South Africa, courtesy of Jena Griffiths.

To underscore the imperial nature of the AIF, here is the gravestone of the Griffiths family, originally of Llanelly, Glamorgan Shire, South Wales, but more recently settled in Krugersdorp, Transvaal, South Africa.  Emlyn Griffiths left South Africa for Melbourne, where he lived in Ascot Vale for a period before war was declared in 1914.  He was one of the earliest recruits, signing on 19th August 1914 at the Essendon Drill Hall, joining many other locals in the 7th Infantry Battalion.

The gravestone is in Krugersdorp, commemorating the deaths of two young men of the family, one in 1910 (cause not known), and Emlyn at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915.

Female Relatives Badges

Female Relatives Badge, WW1

Female Relatives Badge, WW2

I have known for a while that the National Archives of Australia held the Registers for these badges, but only tonight have I had another look for them and found them digitised, which is a huge plus.  Unfortunately it will be a bit hit and miss as to whether you are likely to locate the recipient of a badge by the number on the back, in the sense that the coverage of these registers in this collection is incomplete. 

If you look under Series number MT1384/2 Registers of Issued Medals and Badges 1939/45 War - 1914/18 War  and click on "Items in this Series on Record Search" you will find a long list of records, not all of which are Registers of Female Relatives Badges.   It appears that the majority of available registers are from the WW2 period, with fewer available for WW1.  States have separate registers, and it was my impression that there were fewer registers for Victoria than other states, but that might be my natural bias.

I could not locate an appropriate register for the WW1 badge at the top, which was among my mother's things.  This is frustrating because I don't know any relative whom it might have represented.   The only close relative to my mother who served was her uncle Jim, but he was in the Royal Navy, and the Australian Defence Department would not have handed out badges men who did not serve in the Australian Forces.  In addition, the Naval version has an anchor in the centre, where AIF is shown in this one.  Unless some more registers come to light (could there be some in another series?) it will remain a mystery for now.

I was able to find a register entry for the WW2 badge using the registered number on the back.  I bought this badge on eBay many years ago, so it was not issued to our family, but I had the thought that as none came to light amongst my paternal grandmother's effects, I would like one to recognise HER sacrifice. There are stories of her distress when my father was called into service with the CMF when he was 18, and sent to New Britain with the AIF when he was 19 or 20.  It occurred to me only today that perhaps she never applied for a badge. (You had to fill in a form to get one).  She was Catholic, which may have influenced her thinking on patriotic display.  She was a young woman during WW1 when Archbishop Mannix spoke out against conscription.

I had a look at Ancestry to see if I could see the original recipient's family, but it is a little too recent for anything to appear.  I will bide my time and check back from time to time.

The Registers record the name and address of the applicant, and the relationship to the member.  It also gives the name, rank and unit (I found the VX number rather than a unit), the number of the application form, and a few other details, not necessarily the same as the column heading would suggest.

His Heart's Blood. Alex McArthur of Ascot Vale

Pte A J McArthur, courtesy of Kim Phillips of The Spirits of Gallipoli
website. Source:  The Australasian, 3 July 1915, page iii.

Alex McArthur grew up in Ascot Vale, running with other boys around the playground of the Ascot Vale State School.  He attended the Ascot Vale Presbyterian Church in Maribyrnong Rd, Moonee Ponds, with his brother and sisters.   He  undertook his compulsory military training while still at school as a cadet, and as he grew older moved on to the Citizens Military Forces, serving with the 58 Infantry (Essendon Rifles) where he was promoted to Sergeant.  He worked as a salesman, and joined the Maribyrnong Lacrosse Club, associated with the Ascot Vale Presbyterian Church. 

Alex was a slight lad of five feet four inches (162 cm), 8 stone ten pounds (55 kg), with a fresh complexion, brown eyes and auburn hair, aged 19.  He was noted for his cheerful disposition. When the call came for recruits, Alex joined the excited queue of young men, many of whom he knew well,  down at the Essendon Drill Hall, and joined the 7 Infantry Battalion, to be commanded by his old CO of the Essendon Rifles, Colonel H E (Pompey) Elliott. 

CAREERS OF THE FALLEN (1915, June 23). The Age (Melbourne, Vic. : 1854 - 1954), p. 13. 

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article154945795

Alex was assigned the Regimental number of 475, and the page of the Embarkation Roll in which he appeared was crowded with names of other young lads from the suburbs around his home, many of whom he would have known from the Essendon Rifles.  He got to know them better in the following months.  They embarked on the Hororata, leaving from Albany in WA in a convoy for what they thought was Europe, but changed en route to Egypt.   Training took place in the dry desert sands, but their immediate objective was the scrubby  shore of Turkey, on the Gallipoli Peninsula.

The troops were intended to disembark into rowboats which were then to be towed by pinnaces to the landing point within a few hundred meters of the shore, but on the night there was a long delay with the pinnaces not arriving to take the 7 Battalion ashore.  When sporadic fire began just before dawn the captain of the Galeka, standing off the coast, was reluctant to remain in the area to be a target for shelling, and the men of the 7 Bn  were ordered into the Galeka lifeboats to row themselves ashore, despite the lack of experience in rowing.    Alex was one of the D Company men who scrambled over the side of the Galeka and took up an oar. 

Alex’s boat soon came under fire, and men struck by bullets collapsed into the boat.   The only account of Alex’s death came from Colonel Elliott himself, though he was not an eye witness, not being in the boat.  It was a story Elliott liked to tell to extol the selfless bravery of the young men who lost their lives that day.  

“Private Danaher was in one of the three leading boats on the day of the landing. He was not one of the oars men, and was consequently facing the enemy. He received a machine gun bullet in the face, just above the mouth. The bullet passed out of the back of his head, and he fell forward, dead without making a sound.   Private McArthur was in the same boat, and was one of the crew. The boat was caught in the machine gun fire, and a bullet passed clean through his neck as he rowed, and then through his thigh, severing the artery. Sergeant Bastin, the Platoon Sergeant, saw the blood spurt out, and attempted to rise to render first aid, but was so encumbered by the bodies of the fallen, that he could not get to his feet. McArthur saw his face and read his intention. "Don't bother with me, Sergeant,"- he called out "I am done for," and it was so. In about four or five minutes at the outside, he fell forward dead but until death relaxed his grasp on the oar he kept on rowing and keeping the stroke. He was a member of the Essendon Rifles - a Sergeant--and I am proud indeed of him and the manner of his death, which deserves to be recorded in the annals of his regiment for all time”.

The Ascot Vale State School “Book of Noble Deeds” refers to Alex as Corporal McArthur.  His army record of service is bare.  It records his date of joining, 17 August 1914, and the next entry is “Killed in Action”.  It may be that Alex was indeed promoted to Corporal, but there was no-one left to record it.

It would appear that Alex’s body was brought to shore, because he has a grave at No 2 Outpost Cemetery at Gallipoli.  He lies in company with other young men from the local area with whom he lived, ate, trained, enjoyed the sights of Cairo, perhaps together swam in the bright waters of the Aegean sea.  

Adams-J-K-Pte--510  Butt R Pte 423 Carless J N Pte 471 Danaher-E-B-Pte-477 Evans A Pte 425 Hawkins G G C Pte 496 Jones C E Pte 504 McDonald L G Pte 500  Pettigrew-T-C-Pte-505 Stone-R-F-Pte-435 Twining-J-J-Pte-483 Wills W H Pte 436

These  young men all died on or shortly after 25 April 1915.

The shock of these and other deaths and casualties back in Essendon and Flemington was immense as the lists of names began appearing in Melbourne papers.  Grieving was meant to be private, it was not the done thing to complain.  Only tributes to bravery and sacrifice were acceptable as public expression.   Alex’s family expressed their sorrow in short but heartfelt notices in the paper. Alex’s bible class friends remembered him along with his classmates, in another notice.  And in the egalitarian way of the Australian army, Lieutenant William Robert Ferguson Love, his mate Billie, paid a tribute of love to the memory of his boyhood friend with whom he played lacrosse in the joyous days before the war.

Lenore Frost

25 April 2018 

You can see more of Alex McArthur's story on the Empire Called website.

Sergeant E R Fairlie, killed at Cape Helles

An image of Ernest Fairlie in his pre-war Militia uniform, The Australasian, 17 July 1915.

Of those local soldiers who survived the landing at Gallipoli, some went on to lose their lives in a wasteful battle to take Krithia, at Cape Helles.  Schoolteacher Ernest Robert Fairlie, 5th Battalion
was one of those.   Rod Martin explains in a clear way what happened and why.  How Fairlie died remains a mystery, with no one left who could tell. Ernest Fairlie taught at  Essendon High School, and his name is on the Honour Board of the school, as well as the Essendon Town Hall (shown as E H Fairlie).   Read his story here.

Tribute to Plucky RN Midshipman

View from the Promenade deck of the Galeka, off Anzac Cove, looking to Sea. In the background are other troop transports and warships. In the foreground are four of the Galeka's boats, loaded with Australians of the 6th and 7th Battalions  being towed by a steam-pinnace to Fisherman's Hut, North Beach, Gallipoli Peninsula.

A youthful Royal Navy Midshipman without the white uniform, but with the accoutrements of a dandy.  Photo source:  http://www.ww1photos.com/RoyalNavy_B.html

"DANDIES, BUT BRAVE KIDS"

TRIBUTE PAID TO MIDDIES

Signaller H. O'Neill, of the 7th Battalion, who is a son of Mr H. J. O'Neill, clerk of courts at Essendon, writes to a friend regarding a visit he and some comrades paid to a troopship after the Lone Pine fight, when they had a good dinner, and, metaphorically, took their hats off to a conceited middy, as Australians now admire all British seamen.

"We were given a holiday to get some stores," he writes, "and visited the vessel. After some trouble we got luncheon passes from the purser".

 

"We then strolled into the officers' mess and had soup, roast mutton and baked potatoes, cold tongue and mashed potatoes, and Snowden pudding and cheese. This, you must remember, after we had been for 24 hours in trenches, where we had 340 killed and wounded". 

 

"We were greatly amused at the awful 'dog' which a middy, aged 17, put on. The way he walked through about 40 'non-coms., looking over their heads, is hard to describe. He resembled a conceited girl, with his white shoes and white duck uniform. But we thought of those kids in charge of the pinnaces who ran us ashore that morning at Anzac, and recalled their marvellous coolness under the hot fire. They might be dandies, but you can't beat those English kids for pluck. Two of them won Victoria Crosses in the Anzac landing."

 

"DANDIES, BUT BRAVE KIDS" (1916, January 7). The Herald

(Melbourne, Vic. : 1861 - 1954), p. 7.  http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article242409993

Gunner Eddy of the 114 Howitzer Battery

114 Battery column, drawn by mules, France, 13 October 1918. AWM E03563

Munitions worker Joe Eddy joined the AIF near the 2nd anniversary of the landings at Gallipoli.  The Eddy family lived in Charles St, Ascot Vale, which was a convenient location for him to walk to work in Maribyrnong each day.  His father, Walter Lawrence Eddy had been an Essendon Councillor for nine years, serving as Mayor during that period, but had resigned in August 1914 on the cusp of the war. 

Munitions workers needed permission to enlist in the AIF and this might have been the reason Joe did not join until the end of April 1917 when the need for more men was very pressing.  He embarked with the 4th Light Horse Regiment, but after arriving in England he was transferred to the 14 Field Artillery Brigade, and within that served with the 114 Howitzer Battery. 


At least two other local men served in the 114 Howitzer Battery - Corporal William Hodgens of Ascot Vale Rd, Flemington and Corporal Alan Stanley Rankine of 110 McConnell St, Kensington.

 Rod Martin employs his considerable writing skills to explore Gunner Eddy's experiences with the 114 Howitzer Battery on the Western Front in Belgium and France, which you can read here.

Australian Naval & Military Expeditionary Force Nominal Roll

Detail from cover of the nominal roll of the ANMEF to New Guinea, 1914-1918, military component.  AWM AWM190 [4]

Yesterday I had cause to have a look at the WW1 Nominal Roll for the AIF, but noticed while tracking it down that a new roll had been added to the digital records - the ANMEF Nominal Roll which I had gone looking for about 4 years ago, but it was not then available on the AWM website.   I originally sought to find local men who had embarked in 1914 with the ANMEF.  I found a newspaper article naming the 104 men from Victoria who had departed with the Force, but they are not included in this nominal roll, presumably because they were Naval reservists.


The details included in the ANMEF nominal roll are Regimental Number, Rank, Full Name, Birthplace, Place of Enlistment, Date of Enlistment, Date of Embarkation, and Disposal (usually discharged at end of agreement.)  The record also contains annotations of subsequent AIF service.

Here is a link to the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force [Military Component] Nominal Roll, 1914-1918.

Edmond Danaher, tinsmith of Newmarket

Reconstruction of a ‘Gallipoli boat’, Melbourne Shrine of Remembrance   (Rod Martin)

The above reconstruction of a boat used to ferry the soldiers from troop transports to the shore of Gallipoli clearly illustrates how exposed the soldiers were when Turkish troops opened fire on them.  In his new story about Edmond Danaher, Road Martin tells the story of a young man who went to war and never came home.

Lieutenant D F C Coles, 8th FAB

Officers of the 8 Field Artillery Brigade, courtesy of the State Library of South Australia, PRG 1364/1/15

David Frederick Clifford Coles, a sergeant in the Royal Artillery, came to Australia in 1913 to take up an appointment as a Staff Sergeant Major with the Instructional Staff at the Royal Military Academy, Duntroon, in 1913.  On 1 May 1916 David enlisted in the AIF, being given an immediate commission with the 8 Field Artillery Brigade.   Rod Martin tells the story of David Coles' service with the AIF here.

Chaplain Captain Potter

Chaplain Captain Sydney Morkham Potter, courtesy of Marjorie Morkham.

Sydney Potter, a minister at the Newmarket Baptist Church first went overseas, aged 38, with the YMCA to provide comforts to Australian Soldiers.  While overseas he was appointed Chaplain, with the honorary rank of Captain.  You can read a little more about Sydney on his webpage: http://empirecall.pbworks.com/w/page/50485660/Potter-S-M-Chaplain

By clicking on the tags Chaplains or YMCA on the above webpage, you will get a list of other local men who served the AIF in this way.

Private Charles Malcolm Baker

  24 Tennyson St, Kensington.  Reproduced with the permission of view.com.au.

From this single-fronted terrace house at 24 Tennyson St, Kensington, salesman Charles Malcolm Baker, known as Malcolm, left in 1916 to do his bit for the war effort.   Initially allocated to the newly formed 39 Infantry Battalion, Malcolm later transferred to the battle-hardened 7 Battalion which had strong links to the Essendon district.

Rod Martin is on a roll, and tells the story of Malcolm Baker's war service on the Empire Called website in his usual sparkling style.

Private John Knox Adams - missing

The Argus 25 Apr 1916 (Courtesy of Kim

Phillips, Spirits of Gallipoli website.)

John Knox Adams of McPherson St, Essendon, was an enthusiastic AIF recruit of 22 years when he enlisted at the outbreak of the war in 1914.   He worked as a grocer in Sydney Rd, Brunswick, and was a keen baseballer and cricketer  on weekends.

John Adams stepped ashore at Gallipoli on 25 April and no-one was able to say what became of him after that.  Probably those who knew were also missing.

Rod Martin tells the story of this young man's appointment with fate on The Empire Called website.