A letter from Rabbit Hole VIlla, Gallipoli

Typical accommodation on Gallipoli, H03942  AWM

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

Bill Elliot - one of the "Essendon boys"

There was a group of soldiers in the 7th Infantry Battalion which Colonel H E (Pompey) Elliott used to refer to as his "Essendon Boys".  He knew them from their time with the 58 Infantry (Essendon Rifles), of which he was Commanding Officer before the war.  He took a special interest in their careers, and was saddened by the loss of so many of them on the Gallipoli Peninsula.

Bill Elliot, Ellis Stones and Ken Walker, who knew each other well back in Essendon, were known as the Three Musketeers.  Bill Elliot was living with the Stones family when he enlisted in August 1914.  Of the Three Musketeers, only Ellis Stones survived the assault on Gallipoli.  Bill Elliot fell on 25 April 1915.

Rod Martin now gives us the story of  William Walker Highton (Bill) Elliot,  one of the 'Essendon boys'.

Lest we forget any of the local boys who went away and never came home.

Mud and Blood

I saw this play in Moonee Ponds last year and it is an outstanding piece of work.  See it if you can.  Darren Mort is Pompey to the life.

See the Mud and Blood website for further details.

The title of the play is a reference to the colour patch of the 7th Infantry Battalion - brown over red, or mud over blood.

Pte Herbert Keam - Missing in Action

Private Herbert Millest Keam landed at Gallipoli with the 7th Battalion on 25 April 1915, but by the following day he was missing.  He was never found.  Rod Martin tells the poignant story of the inquiries made to try and establish what had become of this young man, his mother's only child.

He was only 19. Private Laurie James

Troops on board HMAT Hororata at Port Melbourne, 17 April 1915, AWM PB0448.

Laurie James, a bricklayer from Ascot Vale, was 19 years old when he swung out of the front gate of his family's tiny weatherboard home in Walter St, Ascot Vale and headed into Melbourne to enlist in the AIF.  It was January 1915.

The Hororata had left with the first contingent of troops in October the previous October, but had returned in time to embark a fresh lot of troops, including Laurie James, in April 1915.  The first troops had not yet scaled the heights of Gallipoli on the day Laurie left Melbourne on 17 April. By July that year Laurie was landed at Anzac Cove.  From that time forward Laurie was almost continuously engaged in warfare. For years it seemed he led a charmed life, but it all came to an end in an offensive against the Germans in August 1918.  As Rod Martin put it, 

"He had come so close to the end of the war, successfully fighting at Gallipoli, Pozières, Mouquet Farm and Passchendaele, only to fall less than three months before the Great War came to  a close."

Laurie served with the renowned local Battalion, the 7th Battalion, and in his story about Laurie, Rod Martin traces the dogged steps of the 7th Battalion as they ground their way towards an Allied Victory.  You can read Laurie's full story here.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The young Sergeant Young

Sergeant Alfred Thomas Young, courtesy of Liz Clarke.

Alfred Thomas Young, born in Moonee Ponds, was the son of a well-known local businessman and Essendon Councillor, A E Young. Aged 21, he was with the first volunteers who enlisted at the first Essendon Rifles Drill Hall.  He embarked as a Corporal with the first convoy of troops, and landed at Gallipoli on 25 April in the second wave of boats with the 7th Infantry Battalion.  Five days later he was promoted to Sergeant.

A severe wound to his arm took him off Gallipoli initially to Malta and later to England recover.  He rejoined his battalion in May 1916.  Rod Martin, in another well-told account goes on to describe what happened to Sergeant Young and the 7th Battalion as they became approached Pozieres.  You can read that account here.

The Fair Dinkums, by Glenn McFarlane

In this recently published book, The Fair Dinkums, Glenn McFarlane examines a cohort of men from the 8th Reinforcements of the 7th Battalion, who embarked on the Anchises in August 1915.  They were called the Fair Dinkums because they knew about the disaster at Gallipoli, and enlisted anyway,  knowing the risks.  Among this group was McFarlane's great-uncle Alf Layfield.

Also among the group was a name well-known to the folk of Moonee Valley - the renowned William Scurry whose invention of the drip-system of firing a rifle to aid in the evacuation of Gallipoli won him the Distinguished Conduct Medal and promotion to Commissioned rank.

McFarlane draws heavily on the letters Scurry wrote home to his mother at 70 Middle St, Ascot Vale, and mentions other local men, both with the 8th Reinforcements and other units.  

The one big hole in McFarlane's work is the lack of an index, so I have indexed references to our local men, and have put the page numbers on their web-pages in The Empire Called website.

Bowtell-Harris, James 

Fraser, Robert

Jackson, Alf (Major)

Lawrence, Bunty

Littlemore, Thomas

McKenzie, Hugh

Scurry, William Charles

Southwell, Bert

Swift, Arthur

Thomas, Bert

Wardrop, Archie

McFarlane follows the service and fate of the above men, and others from the 8th Reinforcements of the 7th Battalion, including those who were transferred to other Battalions. Endnotes provide sources, though there is no bibliography.  McFarlane has provided a number of previously unpublished photos and portraits of the men.

Private Langham and the South Australian Red Cross

Private Langham taken at Broadmeadows in 1915, from the Australian War Memorial Collection.

Having another look at the South Australian Red Cross Information Bureau files, I decided to do a search based on military units, so tried the 7th Infantry Battalion as a unit closely associated with the local area. Doing this I came upon a file mentioning Joseph Oswill Langham, a horse-trainer who gave his Next of Kin as his sister in Grafton New South Wales, and no particular address for himself.  However, his presence on the Essendon Town Hall Roll of Honour and various other local references made it clear that he was resident in the local area prior to the war.

Some small items of correspondence in the files for a Sergeant Pyke Evans of Adelaide gave some shape to Langham's pre-war activities.   He and Evans, a jockey,  had enlisted in the 7th Infantry Battalion together, having previously known each other at Scobie's Stables in Ascot Vale Rd, Flemington. They went into camp together at Seymour.  Evans had originally come from Adelaide, and Langham was attempting to discover Evans' mother's address as he wanted to write to her.  This caused a file to be raised in the South Australian branch of the Australian Red Cross.

We also learn from the letters that Langham was a 'cot case' on returning to Australia, that in June 1917 he was in the Caulfield Hospital, and that his mail address was care of G Jobson, Charles St, Ascot Vale.  George Jobson of Doncaster St, Ascot Vale was a horsetrainer.  No Jobson had a street address of Charles St in the Electoral Rolls during the war, but to throw another address into the confusion, a George Jobson was listed in the 1917 Sands & Mcdougall Directories in Morphett St, Ascot Vale and another at Charles St, Footscray.

Langham's informant of Evans' death was Mrs Power of 4 Newtown Pde, Moonee Ponds.  In the 1915 Electoral Roll Jeanie Power lived at 4 Newtown Parade.   The another resident at the address was Charles Power, jockey.

The Red Cross files from South Australia together with the Electoral Rolls, Victorian marriage index and the Sands & McDougall directories have enabled me to give a broader picture of Langham's life before and after the war, though there is no doubt plenty more to learn.

Another couple of men associate with the racing industry in Flemington also mentioned James Scobie in their records.  These can be found by clicking on the tags in Langham's pbworks file.

Lieutenant Earl Haddon Simpson Chapman

Portrait of Haddon Chapman in his Essendon Rifles uniform before the war.

Earl Haddon Simpson Chapman, known as Haddon by his family, was a young man showing a lot of promise.  Educated at the local State School, he was a sufficiently good scholar to win white collar job as a clerk and obtain a Commission with the pre-war militia unit, the Essendon Rifles. In the All Australian Memorial Victoria - Australia's Fighting Families,  he was described thus:  "Lieut. Chapman was a keen student, a good cricketer, and was among the first to volunteer."  In his role in the Essendon Rifles he sufficiently impressed his officer, Colonel "Pompey" Elliott, to be offered a Commission as a 2nd Lieut with the new 7th Battalion.   Rod Martin takes up his story, which you can read here.

Eric Survives Lone Pine

We met Private Eric Herman a little while ago, but now his grandson has provided the story of Eric's service with the AIF.  Buried before his time in a bomb blast at Lone Pine, Eric's next appointment to 4 Div Headquarters unit kept him a little further away from the front line, but not from the risk of shelling.  See Eric's story  on the Empire Called and I Answered website.

Eric Herman at the Helouan Convalescent Hospital

Pte Eric Herman and other convalescents, courtesy of Matt Freckelton.

Eric Herman, front left, at the Australian & New Zealand Convalescent Hospital, Helouan, Egypt, between 17 September 1915 and 16 Jan 1916.  Eric, 7th Infantry Battalion,  had received injuries to his leg and back at Gallipoli, and spent some time in Helouan recovering.    Get in touch if you can identify anyone else in this photo.

The AWM has a photo of convalescents at  Helouan which shows the same balustrading.

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.

Christmas tins at Mena Camp, 1915

 

Unibic Anzac Biscuits

Driver Robert Allan Bunning (right) enjoys 7th Inf Bn Christmas Dinner

25 Dec 1914 at Mena Camp.  The photographer was Harry Barker.

Australian War Memorial collection. http://cas.awm.gov.au/item/J05573

Nearly 100 years ago, local digger, Robert Bunning of Moonee Ponds sat down to Christmas dinner with a tin of goodies to enjoy.  Now Driver Bunning is on the front of a tin of goodies himself.  Perhaps the biggest treat back then was a bath, a shave, and a clean set of clothes. It would have been a very mixed celebration in 1915.

Thank you Marilyn for the tip!

Wilf Young and the 7th Battalion

Sedate and sober troops marching from Mena towards Cairo. (AWM) PS0412

Private Wilfred John Young was amongst the first to enlist when AIF enrolment commenced in August 1914.  He was aged 27, a furniture fitter, and residing in Newmarket when he joined the 7th Infantry Battalion and embarked for overseas service.  Rod Martin gives a careful telling of Wilf's story.

Private Sproston and the Gallipoli Landing

Lenoard G Sproston of Ascot Vale enlisted on 17 August 1914, one of the very first.  Embarking just a few weeks later with 7 Infantry Battalion, he celebrated his 21st birthday in Egypt while preparations were made for the landing on that fateful shore of Gallipoli.

Marilyn Kenny tells the poignant story of Len Sproston, who is remembered on the Lone Pine Memorial.


Images courtesy of Kim Phillips of The Spirits of
Gallipoli.