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

The Disaster at The Nek

Tpr Robert Kerr, courtesy of Kim Phillips,

Spirits of  Gallipoli website

An early recruit to the AIF in 1914, Robert Kerr, a commercial traveller of Brewster St, Essendon was assigned to 8 Light Horse Regiment.  When the campaign opened at Gallipoli, it was quickly apparent by the terrain and the danger from Turkish bombs that horses could not be used, and they were left behind in Egypt.  The Light Horsemen became Infantrymen.

The British generals were keen to break through the stalemate on Gallipoli and created an elaborate plan of feints, diversions and charges in August 1915.   The 8 LHR part in the plan involved a bayonet charge at The Nek against Turkish machine guns.   Of course it would work!

Rod Martin takes us through the plan, and explains why it didn't work.  The stupidity of the British Officer Class might have had a bit to do with that. (My interpretation, but I think Rod would agree.)

Robert Kerr was a part of the charge which was seen to be so stupid that some of the men were said to have left their guns behind, and went bravely to their deaths.   Read Rod's story about Trooper Robert Kerr.  

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.

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.

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 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 Reluctant Soldier

Samuel Gaudie and the 5th Infantry Battalion landed at Gallipoli on day one. Gaudie remained there until he returned to Lemnos in October 1915 though the reason is not clear from the records.  The troops were quite debilitated by exposure and disease by that time, and many were evacuated for a rest, or to recover from disease.  Sam seems to have decided he liked it on Lemnos, and disappeared.  He may have found someone to shelter him in the Greek village of Castro on the island, which would have been delightfully human after the horrors of Gallipoli.  He probably just didn't want to return.  It set a pattern for the next few years.   You can read the story of Sam's misadventures, as told by Rod Martin.

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.

5th Battery 2nd Field Artillery Brigade at Gallipoli

Group portrait of 5th Battery, 2nd Field Artillery Brigade, in old gun pit, Gallipoli. Caption on rear: "This is a snap shot of some of our battery gunners in an old gun pit.  Notice some have no shirts on". Courtesy of the John Oxley Library, State Library of  Queensland Neg No:  OM65-30/50

A number of snaps taken by, or acquired by, Lance Corporal Burdeu of Mascoma St Ascot Vale, have been donated to the John Oxley Collection, State Library of Queensland.  The photos show him and his friends in camp at Mena, on excursions to Alexandria, Cairo and elsewhere in Egypt, and later some scenes at Gallipoli.  Cyril died after only 16 days at Gallipoli, though it may have seemed like a lifetime to him.

Cyril served in the 5th Battery, 2nd Field Artillery Brigade, and if you have any relatives who served in the 5th Battery (check the AWM Embarkation Roll to see the names of those who embarked with the 5th Battery) you might see them in some of the snaps.

You might also like to read the article on Driver Douglas Gibbs Baker, by Rod Martin, who served in the 6th Battery, 2 FAB at Gallipoli.  

Spirits of Gallipoli talk tonight by Kim Phillips

Cape Helles Cemetery, Gallipoli Peninsula.

Hello folks, just a reminder that Kim Phillips will be at the Sam Merrifield Library  tonight at 7.30.  Come and hear some stories of young Australians who were lost at Gallipoli.  Join us for a cuppa afterwards.

Where:  Sam Merrifield Library, 762 Mount Alexander Rd, Moonee Ponds

When:  Wednesday 29 July, 7.30 pm

Cost:  Free

Website:  http://www.spirits-of-gallipoli.com/

Bookings and enquiries:  lenore10@hotmail.com

The Spirits of Gallipoli: A Centenary of Anzacs

All of us would be familiar with the heroic efforts of our brave Anzacs as they fought in the First World War at Gallipoli.

Yet, we do not have many records of the background or of the families of these brave men.  Probably many Australians were deprived of knowledge about their grandfathers, or their great uncles, and may not have had a photo of them.

Anyone who has visited Gallipoli cannot helped but be moved by the experience.  Kim Phillips certainly found it a deeply moving experience when she first visited in the year 2000.

On returning home, she wanted to find out more about the campaign and the Anzacs that fought and died in it.   However, in her research, she couldn’t find out much at all about the men, and this frustrated her to the point where she decided to do something about it.   Thus, “The Spirits of Gallipoli project” was started.

For the past 15 years, Kim has devoted herself to finding out as much as possible about these men and in 2009 she led a team of self-funded enthusiasts to Gallipoli, where they photographed all the headstones, memorials and cemeteries which now form part of a large amount of information gathered by the project, available to those interested.

Kim Phillips will introduce you to her project, give you a brief history of the Gallipoli Campaign and take you on a tour of Gallipoli today.

Where:  Sam Merrifield Library, 762 Mount Alexander Rd, Moonee Ponds

When:  Wednesday 29 July, 7.30 pm

Cost:  Free

Website:  http://www.spirits-of-gallipoli.com/

Bookings and enquiries:  lenore10@hotmail.com

Seating is limited, so please book using the above email. 

The Spirits of Gallipoli: a Centenary of Anzacs, by Kim Phillips

Anyone who has had a good browse through The Empire Called and I Answered website will know that Kim Phillips has been very generous in sharing her research into the young men who died at Gallipoli.  Kim has lately launched a book and CD: The Spirits of Gallipoli: a centenary of Anzacs, the details of which you can see at her website.

Kim has also arranged for Ancestry to make her research and images available as a collection.  There is a 14 day free trial (scroll to the bottom of the page).  I was pleased to see the first memorial stone image on the Ancestry blog was for J K Adams, an Essendon lad.

I commend both to your attention.

Lieut R G Casey's WW1 Photo Album

Emden sailors leaving the 'Orvieto' at Port Said to go aboard the 'Hampshire', 2 Dec 1914. National Archives of Australia.

Martin Elliget came across this interesting WW1 photo album on the NAA website. It belonged to Lieut. Richard Gavin CASEY (later Governor-General of Australia), starting with his voyage from Australia to Egypt on the Transport Orvieto. Later photos are of Egypt, Gallipoli, England and France.

Martin has transcribed the first ten pages of annotations, which you can see here.

You can find the album and scroll the album here.  Click to enlarge to get a really good scan of the album pages.  These are very clear and interesting photos, one minute in Egypt strolling round the Pyramids, and the next minute Anzac Cove.

Well worth a browse, and thanks to Martin for locating it.