"I was thinking of home at the last"

"Going into action tomorrow.  I shall be among the first fifty  to land.  This will probably prove to be one of hardest fights in history. We land under fire.  Perhaps long before you get this you will have read all about the fight and the result. I wrote this last note so that you should see I was thinking of home at the last.  Whatever happens you may be confident that I shall do my job properly.  The boys are singing away, just as if nothing was about to happen.  I'll go and join them.  Hope you are all well and happy.  Don't worry about me".

479 Pte Charly Bale, Napier St, Essendon, 24 April 1915


What happened to Charly Bale?

Galbraith cousins fall in France

Cousins Albert and Alfred Galbraith lived a few doors from each other in Mackay Street, Essendon.  Alfred Galbraith, 21, died of wounds in 1916, and his cousin, Albert Galbraith, 23, died on the last day of the war - Armistice Day 1918.  Rod Martin tells their stories.

Mementos of Alfred have been lodged at Museum Victoria.

Major William Bernard Ryan, AAMC

Captain, later Major William Bernard Ryan, enlisted in the AAMC in 1915, and travelled with the Sea Transport Service as Medical Officer several times before being stationed in England.

He took advantage of the opportunity for further study in psychiatry while in England, and put this to use in his later career.

Peter Ryan tells the story of Major Ryan on The Empire Called website.

Died on Armistice Day 1918 - Driver A D Galbraith

Conditions on the front during the Third Battle of Ypres, November 1917 (Wilkins, G.H. (ed.): Australian War Photographs, A.I.F Publications, London, 1919)

Driver Albert David Galbraith of Essendon survived two and a half years of war in France, but died of illness on the day the guns stopped firing.  Read Rod Martin's account of Galbraith's service in the AIF on The Empire Called and I Answered  website.

Lieutenant Harold Harthacnut Herbert Locke

Harold Locke, a veteran of the South African War, enlisted with the 4th Light Horse Regiment in 1915.  His story is told by Rod Martin, and can be found on The Empire Calls website here

St Thomas Grammarians and Carlton Collegians Honour Board

This board records the "Old Boys" of St Thomas' Grammar and Carlton College.  It is now located in the junior school of Penleigh and Essendon Grammar School, Raleigh St, Essendon.   The names on the board are listed here, and identifications are being made progressively.

The Khaki Girls

 

This interesting photo shows a group of women from the Commonwealth Clothing Factory who had formed a patriotic organisation known as the Khaki Girls.  Presumably they sewed their own uniforms at the Factory.  The sign indicates that the photo was taken on the occasion of the "Our Boys' Day" in March 1918.  This Day was held annually from 1916 to raise funds to provide comforts to the men in the trenches and in hospital.  

The Khaki Girls performed both in displays and in ceremonial duties - the latter being Welcome Homes at the docks and forming guards of honour.  They did displays of marching, physical culture, and they had a bugle band.

The photo belonged to Pte Julius Rudolph (Ru) Jacobsohn of Moonee Ponds, who is standing in the centre row at the right. Jacobsohn was an original Anzac, invalided home and discharged in 1916.  

Identifying the other men in the group is a challenge, but the man seated on the left of the front row with the cane is probably Thomas Trumble, the Secretary for the Defence Department.  The man to his left is Senator George Foster Pearce, the Minister for Defence.  The man in the centre is unknown, but the next two men appear in an AWM photo of the manager and office staff from the Commonwealth Government Clothing Factory.

The sergeant seated second from the right in the front row may be Sergeant E C Perkins, whose name is mentioned in an Argus report as being in charge on the occasion of a fete at the Exhibition Building in September 1918.    This same man is in a SLV photograph of the Commonwealth Clothing Factory Personnel in 1918.

The biggest challenge is to identify the women of the Commonwealth Clothing Factory.  If you had a nanna or great aunt who worked at the Factory in World War 1, have a look and see if you can identify her.