Private Yeats and the attack at Polygon Wood

 
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.

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 John Dale, 58th Bn

A member of 2 Battalion writing a letter in the mud at Flesselles, November 1916  (AWM E00030)

John Dale, a butcher of Maribyrnong, passed through Flesselles in November 1916 as a very bitter winter descended on the Western Front.  Rod Martin again looks at the overall progress of the war through the experiences of one soldier, Private John Walter Dale.

RSL Virtual War Memorial

Here's an interesting new website from the South Australian Branch of the RSL. 

http://www.rslvirtualwarmemorial.org.au/

Amongst other features is what appears to be nominal rolls for the different battalions (not only South Australian), for instance here is  one for the previously mentioned 58th Infantry Battalion:

http://www.rslvirtualwarmemorial.org.au/explore/units/216/people

The list does not include the men who transferred in from the 6th Inf Bn, because it would take too long to go through individual files to work out who transferred.   It would have been compiled from Embarkation Nominal Rolls.


You can also search for individuals, and upload details of your relatives.

58th Infantry Battalion AIF Memorial Book

Detail from image in the Moonee Valley Leader 24 Sep 2014. The Memorial Book is on permanent loan to the Essendon Historical Society.

There has been some confusion between the 58th Infantry Battalion AIF, which created the Memorial Book, and the local 58th Infantry (Essendon Rifles), a Citizens Military Force which did not serve overseas, though many of its members did when they joined AIF battalions.

The 58th Infantry Bn AIF was formed in Egypt in 1916, after the Gallipoli campaign. The AWM website says that it was formed in part from fresh recruits from Australia, and veterans from the 6th Infantry Bn which had served on Gallipoli.
https://www.awm.gov.au/units/unit_11245.asp

Some Essendon/Flemington men served in the 6th Battalion and probably transferred to the 58th Infantry Bn in 1916, but it is not clear how many, nor how many subsequently died. There is not likely to be a very large number of local men included in the Memorial Book.

The 58th Infantry (Essendon Rifles) CMF provided many recruits for the 7th Infantry Battalion AIF which did serve in Gallipoli, and suffered grievous losses. After troops were evacuated to Egypt, half of the 7th Infantry Battalion were transferred to the new 59th Infantry Battalion AIF, not the 58th.

My research into the local AIF volunteers shows that only 32 locals joined the 58th Infantry AIF directly from Australia, though others will have transferred from the 6th Infantry Battalion in Egypt. The numbers would not have been very large, as only 100 locals embarked with the 6th Inf Bn in time to be involved in the transfers in 1916 – and not all of those would have transferred.

The association of the 58th Infantry Bn AIF with Essendon occurred after the war when the Citizen Military Forces were re-organised.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/58th_Battalion_%28Australia%29


The book memorializes men from all over Victoria.

Pte Valentine Legg embarks, 1916

Members of 3 Reinforcements/58 Battalion on the dock before boarding

HMAT Ajana, 8 July 1916

Private Valentine Legg was amongst the reinforcements of 58 Inf Bn which boarded the Ajana on 8 July 1916 en route for the war in France.  In March 1917 Valentine received a head wound from a fragment of high explosive shell. Rod Martin tells his story.