Scotch College Commemorative website

Above two images are from the Scotch College commemorative website. 

Scotch College moved it's WW1 Roll of Honour while I wasn't looking, but I have lately relocated it, now with articles about those who died, and those who won honours and awards.  The above images come from a page about Australian Flying Corps Cadet George Robinson Johnston.  Johnston initially embarked with the 6th Infantry Battalion, but later transferred to the Australian Flying Corps.

He met  his death while still in training as an observer in a two seater aeroplane.  Johnston's pal from the Flemington Presbyterian Church, Driver Reginald Robert McLean, wrote home that the pilot was thought to have fainted at the controls, and George had no way of controlling the aircraft from his seat behind.

The pictured cross made from an aeroplane propeller, perhaps even the one from the crashed aeroplane, was made by the mechanics in his unit, and placed over his grave at Winchester (West Hill) Old Cemetery. 

Beloved by all who knew him

Ceramic leaving Port Melbourne, 23 November 1915  (AWM PB0284A)

Charles Murray Bloomfield, the son of a former Councillor of Essendon, was only 19, as the song goes, when he embarked with the 12th reinforcements of the 6th Infantry Battalion.  They left on the Ceramic in November 1915.  His was not the only loss suffered by the Bloomfield family.   Rod Martin tells the story of this young soldier.

Memories Dear - Stanley Vaughan

Private Stanley Paul Vaughan's memorial stone, Shrapnel Valley Cemetery, Gallipoli.  Courtesy of Kim Phillips, The Spiritis of Gallipoli website. 

Stanley Vaughan, 6 Inf Bn, was lost at German Officers Trench in one of the several badly planned attacks at Gallipoli.  Rod Martin tells the story.    

Departure of the first Victorian convoy, 1914

Infantry boarding the Hororata  at Prince's Pier, October 1914.

Tomorrow, 19 October 2014, is the centenary of the day that the first troops from Essendon and Flemington of the 6th and 7th Battalions departed Port Melbourne  on the Hororata to join the first convoy assembling in Albany, WA.    It was one of 17 troop ships that left Victoria in october 1914.

A commemoration will be held tomorrow at Prince's Pier.  You can see the program, which commences at 4 pm,  at the Anzac Commemoration website.

Training in Aldershot, 1917

Jan Colliver tells the poignant story of her great uncle Hughie Waldren of Ascot Vale. He enlisted with 6 Infantry Brigade in August 1915, but a pre-war episode of rheumatic fever came back to haunt him while training in Egypt, and he was returned to Australia unfit for further service.  Undeterred, a few months later he volunteered for the Army Medical Corps, and spent some time in Home Service before again embarking for overseas service.  The photo above shows him - number 4 in the back row - while in training at Aldershot in June 1917.  Two months later he was in France with the 46 Inf Battalion. Read Jan's story here.

S S Mamari homeward bound, 1918

Arthur Beachcroft, 6th Infantry Battalion, of Athol St, Moonee Ponds returned home on the SS Mamari, embarking 21 December 1918.  The inscription on the rear reads: "Signatures of Battalion pals given day before leaving boat coming home  Feb 4th 1919".  Postcard courtesy of Ann McLeish. 

Brothers in Arms, Zeitoun February 1916

 

Bert Manderson (front left) of the 6th Infantry Battalion, and his brother Ernie Manderson (front right) of the 14th Infantry Battalion, photographed with their pals in Zeitoun in February 1916.  It is thought that their cousin Arthur Soutter, 14th Bn, is in the photo, possibly at the back on the left.  The fellow behind Ernie on the right appears to be wearing a 14th Bn colour patch.  Can anyone identify the others in this photo?

This detail shows Bert Manderson with 'ESSENDON' written on the puggaree around his hat.  It is not properly discernable in this image, but can be seen on the original.