Do you have an ANZAC in your family

Pte Cyril Arthur BENNETT. 2 ASH & Tpr Roy BENNETT 10 LHR

1204, [WX29216]  Pte Cyril Arthur BENNETT, 2 ASH
365 Tpr Roy BENNETT, 10 LHR

It could be said that the Bennett family’s proud military tradition began with the enlistment of two brothers in the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) at the outbreak of the Great War.

At 19 years of age Pte Cyril Arthur BENNETT, 1204 [WX29216] sailed from Fremantle on 14th December 1914 aboard the transport Kyarra A55, one of the troopships comprising the Second Convoy.  He served with the 2nd Australian Stationary Hospital (ASH).  His older brother Roy also enlisted, serving with the 10th Light Horse Regiment (10LHR).

Cyril was employed as a clerk in the family’s grocery business, Bennett and Burnside in Fremantle.  Established in 1902 by his father Phillip and partner William Burnside, the store was located in Adelaide Street near the Town Hall.  Building a reputation as purveyors of fine locally produced and imported foods, the business was considered one of the best grocery and hardware stores in Fremantle.  Not only was an extensive customer base established in Perth, with a branch opening in Subiaco, orders from country clients were welcomed with a promise of careful packaging and prompt delivery!

One of ten children, Cyril was born in Fremantle and educated at Fremantle Boys School.  In 1909 he was awarded dux of the school, winning the headmaster’s special prize.  He joined the cadets and was training as a senior cadet at attestation. Leaving Fremantle, the 2nd ASH sailed to Egypt, quickly establishing medical facilities to accommodate an outbreak of disease and infection.  By 24th April 1915, the unit was positioned at Lemnos with orders to supply medical officers and personnel for the transports stationed nearby.  The horrendous outcome of heavy casualties at Gallipoli saw hospital ships engage in the critical evacuation of thousands of wounded from Gaba Tepe on the peninsula, to Alexandria.

After Gallipoli, Cyril was attached to the Assistant Director of Medical Services (ADMS) staff and served with the 2nd Light Horse Field Ambulance (LHFA) in the Middle East.  He advanced through the ranks, being promoted to Staff Sergeant (S/Sgt) in 1917. 

Cyril had spent more than four years abroad with the AIF, but his war service did not end with his discharge in 1919.  In 1940 he re-enlisted in the army, serving with the 8th Australian Casualty Clearing Station and 103 Convalescent Depot at Ingleburn.  Gaining a rank of lieutenant on enlistment, he served as a quartermaster and was promoted to captain in 1941.  He remained with the 2nd AIF until 1946, volunteering for service in the demobilisation period.

Cyril returned to the family business at the end of the First World War for a short time before moving to Melbourne for work.  He married there and returned to Western Australia in 1925, securing work with the State Steamship Line as chief steward.  After the Second World War, Cyril was employed as an accounting officer with the Ordnance Depot at Midland.  He remained there until retirement in 1956.  
Cyril died 1981 aged 87 years and is memorialised in the Garden of Remembrance at Fremantle Cemetery.  He is remembered by his family as a quietly spoken ‘gentle giant’ and whilst he had a strong sense of duty, he was admiring of the Turks, regarding them as honourable men and soldiers, unlike Churchill!

Cyril’s brother, Tpr Roy BENNETT, 365 embarked at Fremantle with the 10LHR in February 1915. At 23, he also worked in the family business as a bookkeeper.  On 29th August during the final phase of the notorious August Offensive, Trooper Bennett was mortally wounded at Hill 60.  He died in Egypt on 11th September 1915 and is buried in the Cairo War Memorial Cemetery.  

Continuing the family’s military association were Cyril’s sons, Phillip and Peter.  Highly decorated Duntroon graduate, General Sir Phillip Harvey BENNETT, AC KBE DSO gained postings to Japan, Korea and Vietnam, amongst others.  His distinguished career culminated with the appointment of Chief of the Defence Force 1984-1987 and Governor of Tasmania in 1987.  He now lives in Canberra.   
Phillip’s younger brother Peter also attended Duntroon, choosing to pursue a post war career with the RAAF as a navigator.

   

 

Pte William Albert BETTS, 10 LHR

706, Pte William Albert BETTS, 10 LHR

When volunteers were called for at the outbreak of the Great War the impact upon small rural communities was immense.  Young men who enlisted from these areas were not only known to each other, they were close mates, often through familial bonds.  The settlement of Tenterden, a small siding on the Great Southern Railway near Cranbrook was no exception.  Of no less than seven mates who enlisted, only two were to return.

Private William Albert BETTS, 706 served with the 10 LHR [Light Horse Regiment].  Born in York his family were amongst some of the earliest settlers of the state.   Willie’s great grandfather had arrived in the Swan River Colony as part of Thomas Peel’s ambitious but disordered colonisation scheme.   Taking up land at Guildford to establish the property ‘Turtle Creek’, the Betts family forged lasting links to the agricultural industry with subsequent generations operating successful farming businesses at Tenterden and Dangin.

Willie Betts was working on his father’s property ‘Ronaldshaw’ at Tenterden when he enlisted at the area office in Albany late in November 1915.  Assigned responsibility for allocated farm jobs as a child, he became adept at bush practice from an early age, acquiring the skills keenly sought for a posting to the 10th Light Horse.  Obtaining a rudimentary education at the local state school, his heart was in the bush with much enjoyment derived from roving the scrub and honing his skills with a firearm.  He became a skilled marksman, winning many awards at the Cranbrook Rifle Club.  In anticipation of securing a place in the 10th LHR he would proudly but humbly describe himself as a good horseman, bushman and rifleman. 

Unsuccessful in the first intake, Willie stayed in Perth at his grandfather’s farm at Guildford.  His patience would be rewarded with a posting to the 2nd Reinforcements of the 10th LHR of which 2nd Lieutenant Hugo Throssell VC was the commanding officer.   He embarked at Fremantle on HMAT Itonius in February 1915 and proceeded to Egypt to join the many Australians training at Abbasich and Mena Camps.

Willie was transported to the Gallipoli peninsular where he took part in an operation at Quinn’s Post.  The event would be cataclysmic in changing the course of his life.  The shrapnel wounds received to his shoulder and the loss of his right eye would cause immeasurable and chronic suffering for the rest of his life.  Exhibiting the spirit for which our ANZACs are renown, his physical incapacitation and emotional trauma did not stop him from attempting to re-enlist, or in later years winning trophies for golf.

Deemed medically unfit for any further participation in the war, Willie was repatriated back to Australia and discharged.  Granted a soldier settlement landholding at Dangin he became increasing despondent and progressively reclusive, withdrawing from family and from society.  He took solace in re-educating himself, immersing himself in literary classics.  A favourite spot of escape on the property was a thatched tea-tree bush hut with its very own [pet] carpet snake.    

Willie retired to Subiaco, living there for five years.  He was a frequent visitor to his local library and recognised around the suburb wearing his pork pie hat on his jaunts down to the Shenton Park Hotel. He enjoyed regular visits back to the farm at Dangin and down to Tenterden.  He is remembered by his family with great love and affection as a quiet, gentle and unassuming man with a warm sense of humour.  He died in 1955 aged 65 years and is buried at Karrakatta.

 

Sr Margaret Coombe BIRT

Sr Margaret Coombe BIRT

2, Pte Alfred Edward BRADSHAW, 16 Bn

21699, Pte Murray Wells BRADSHAW, FCE

4364, Lt James Coombe BIRT, 28 Bn

2635, Pte Frederick Arthur STACY, 44 Bn

402, Pte Elworthy Luke FLANAGAN, 10 LHR

 

For the Bradshaw and Birt families of Tambellup, military service has spanned generations, conflicts and different sections of the armed services.  When war broke out on the Transvaal in 1899, Sister Margaret [Meg] Coombe Birt was in Capetown.  Volunteering for service, Margaret was posted to St Helena where she tended wounded Boer prisoners until the end of the conflict in 1902.  In Germany at the outbreak of hostilities in 1914, she again volunteered, nursing in England as matron of the Red Cross Hospital at Huntingdon.

With two younger brothers also serving, Colonel Charles William Howard Birt, D.S.O with the Border Regiment of the British army and Lieutenant James Coombe Birt, MC, 4364 with the 28^th Battalion of the Australian Imperial Force, the enlistment of nephews Private Murray Wells Bradshaw, Private Alfred Edward [Ted] Bradshaw, Private Frederick Arthur Stacy and Private Elworthy Luke Flanagan in the AIF extended the family’s contribution to the war effort even further. 

Murray Bradshaw was born to Alfred Edward Bradshaw and Mary Ellen Birt in 1892 at Murray Bridge in South Australia.  His brother Ted was born at Broken Hill in 1895 where their father was working on the mines.  Arriving in Albany from the eastern states in 1905, the boys with their father, made their way to Tambellup, the family reuniting with the Birts who had already taken up a farming selection north west of the town on Ellensfield. 

Landing at Tambellup on his 13^th birthday, Murray would remember the train journey, the densely timbered countryside, compared to the barren landscape of Broken Hill, and the stop at Mount Barker where the largest apples he’d ever seen were being transported at the station.

On a selection three miles from the Birt property, the Bradshaws set about establishing Woodlands, building a timber and iron home on the farm and a shearing shed of bough construction, “[most] certainly a dry weather outfit”.  Shepherding sheep for his uncle, Murray would later recall the spine chilling experience of camping at Pindellup Pool, listening to the dingoes howl near the only fresh water source close to the properties.

When war broke out in 1914, Private Alfred Edward Bradshaw, 2, was among the first to enlist in the AIF.  He was 19.  Posted to the 16^th Battalion, Ted sailed from Fremantle for Melbourne, training there before embarking aboard HMAT Ceramic A40 on 22^nd December 1914.  Arriving at Albany on 27^th December, the transport assembled with the 15 other Australian and New Zealand troopships anchored in King George Sound, the convoy departing on 31^st December, bound for the training camps in Egypt.

Amidst the heavy fighting of the Gallipoli landing, including the days that followed, the 16^th Battalion proceeded to occupy critical positions in the front, moving up Monash Valley to occupy Pope’s Hill on the eastern fork.  On 2^nd May, 1915 under heavy fire in the assault at Bloody Angle, Ted was killed in action in the charge at Dead Man’s Ridge.  Witnessing the event was his hometown mate Private William Herbert Giles, the digger writing to the Bradshaw family of the tragedy.  Private Bradshaw is buried at Quinn’s Post Cemetery, Gallipoli.

Private Murray Wells Bradshaw, 21699 enlisted on 2^nd March, 1917 aged 24.  Posted to the 1^st Draft Reinforcements of the Field Company Engineers [FCE], Murray travelled to the eastern states, training at Broadmeadows and at the Equitation School at Roseville.  He embarked at Sydney on 22^nd March, 1918 marching in to Parkhouse training camp in England in May. Proceeding to France in January 1919, Sapper Bradshaw was posted to the Australian Staging Camp at Abancourt, France.  Repatriated back to England in May, he returned to Australia in August, 1919.

Farming at Woodlands after the war, Murray soon established himself on his own property The Ranch, the block about 14 miles south west of the original Bradshaw selection.  Actively involved in sport and community activities he was captain of the Bobalong tennis club, a valuable player in the Bobalong football and cricket teams and in later years, enjoyed bowls.  When the original Tambellup Bush Fire Brigade was reorganised as an association of several brigades centred around local telephone exchanges, Murray was instrumental in the formation of the Borderdale Bushfire Brigade, holding the position of captain for many years. With an acute awareness of progressive farming practices, he regularly entering pasture, cereal crop and sheep competitions, winning prizes at local field days.  He remained on The Ranch in retirement.

Murray passed away in 1984 at the age of 91.  He is buried in Tambellup.

Also farming at Tambellup when they enlisted, were Lieutenant James Coome Birt, MC, 4364 and Private Frederick Arthur Stacy, 2635.  Aged 35, James enlisted in the AIF in December, 1915.  Posted to the 28^th Battalion, he embarked at Fremantle in March 1916 aboard HMAT Shropshire, A9.  Having recovered from a bullet wound sustained to his shoulder in Belgium, James was advancing on an enemy machine gun post near Belle Vue Farm in France in an attempt to breach the Beaurevoir Line when he was killed in action on 3^rd October,1918.  He was awarded the Military Cross “For conspicuous gallantry during an attack.  He led his men splendidly to their objective, himself rushing an enemy strong point and capturing 20 of the enemy and two machine guns.  On the objective he quickly consolidated his position, and sent back helpful information.  Later, he led a party against an enemy strong point, and captured 40 prisoners and four machine guns.  He did magnificent work.”  His gravesite is located at Prospect Hill Cemetery, Picardie.  James’ older brother Captain George Howard Birt, 341 had served with the 4^th Queensland Imperial Bushmen in the Boer War. Their father George Howard Birt sr passed away in 1916 while James was on active service.

Private Frederick Arthur Stacy, 2635, was 39 when he enlisted in the AIF in July 1916.  Posted to the 44^th Battalion, Fred embarked at Fremantle on 9^th November on HMAT Argyllshire A8 with the 5^th Reinforcements.  Seeing active service in France from April 1917 until the end of the war, he returned to Australia in August 1919.  He continued farming on the property Kurrajong until incapacitated from injuries sustained in the war.  He died in Albany in 1944 and is buried in the Albany Memorial Park Cemetery, the final resting place also of Margaret Coombe Birt and her sister, Mary Ellen Bradshaw.

 

Albany born Private Elworthy Luke Flanagan, 402, was farming at Kojonup when he enlisted in the AIF in October 1914.  The son of James Michael Flanagan and Annorah Elizabeth Treasure, Elworthy [Peb] was posted to 10^th Light Horse Regiment, C Squadron, embarking at Fremantle in February, 1915 on HMAT Surada.  After serving dismounted on Gallipoli, he was taken on strength with the 3^rd Australian Machine Gun Squadron in 1916, serving in Egypt, Sinai and Palestine until the end of hostilities.  Remaining in the Middle East until July 1919, he returned to Australia and to farming, his property ‘Lone Pine’, situated between Broomehill and Gnowangerup.  Peb died in 1964 at the age of 71.  He is buried at Katanning.

     

Pte John Thomas BORNEMAN, 8 Bn

2795, Pte John Thomas BORNEMAN, 8 Bn

 

Characteristic of an extended family, small communities take a certain responsibility for those volunteering for military service for it is the young men and women of a district who represent hope for the future survival of small country towns.  From the outbreak of war in 1914, a common thread ran through rural newspapers.  Local men were supported on their enlistment, with others encouraged to follow, pride was taken in their achievements and grief was shared by all, families were embraced and sustained, cared for in times of sorrow.  When almost 500 people gathered to commemorate the life of Private John Borneman at the Horton-Leitchville Hall in 1916, a fitting tribute was paid to an aspiring young farmer of the Cohuna district. 

Private John [Jack] Thomas Borneman, 2795 was the second son of August Borneman and Jane Mahon.  Of German ancestry, Jack was born in Bendigo.  His grandfather August had migrated to Australia from Bremen, arriving at Adelaide in 1846.  Strong and athletic, Jack was a popular member of the Mincha East community.   A valuable player with the Wee Wee Rup football club, his strong performance in the team saw them win many games.  He made the most of social functions, winning prizes in fancy dress and was committed to the progress of his local community.  A respected Freemason in the Cohuna lodge and member of the Cohuna rifle club, Jack was amongst the first to volunteer to form a troop of the Light Horse when hostilities broke out in Europe in 1914.

On the 7^th July 1915, Jack enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force [AIF].  Posted to the 8^th Battalion, he completed his training at Broadmeadows before embarking at Melbourne on 15^th September aboard the SS Makarini.  Serving on Gallipoli with the 9^th Reinforcements, Jack returned to Egypt after evacuation.  He was attached to the school of instruction at Zietoun and transferred to the 60^th Battalion at Serapaeum when the ‘doubling’ of the AIF resulted in the formation of several new battalions and two new divisions.  Taken on strength of the 15^th Infantry Brigade Machine Gun Company, Jack remained in Egypt until June 1916, disembarking at Marseilles for the ensuing onslaught at Fromelles, the disastrous battle which followed just weeks later.

On the 19^th July, 1916 Australian troops launched their first major offensive on the Western Front, the attack implemented as a diversionary tactic to engage German troops, pulling them away from reinforcing the battle weary on the Somme.  In a bloodbath lasting less than twenty four hours, the 5^th Australian Division suffered more than five and a half thousand casualties, Jack tragically losing his life in the first hours of the attack.           

Labelled ill conceived, hastily planned, opportunistic and reactive, the battle of Fromelles remains contentious in its failure.  While the artillery fire plan, critical to the success of the operation, appeared to meet all the requirements of a successful battle strategy, the failure lay, it is argued, in the assumptions upon which the battle plans rested.  Jack Borneman is buried in the Rue-du-Bois Military Cemetery, Fleurbaix.

When a small package arrived at Mincha East in 1923, August Borneman was requested to acknowledge the receipt of two medals issued to his son.  Respectfully placed with other personal effects returned some years earlier, the items would remain a poor substitute for Jack’s life.

Decorated for conspicuous service with a field artillery brigade, Jack’s older brother, Acting Bombardier Albert Borneman, MM, 14655, also served in France.  Enlisting in January 1916, Gunner Borneman was posted to the 12^th Field Artillery Brigade, sailing from Melbourne aboard HMAT Port Lincoln A17.  Losing his young wife to appendicitis in 1914, the recently widowed farmer left behind an infant son of eight months.  Attached to the 105^th Australian (Howitzer) Battery of the 5^th Australian Field Artillery, Albert was awarded the Military Medal “For gallantry and devotion to duty at Ribemont on 16^th May 1918”. 

His citation reads, “A/Bdr Borneman at great personal risk to himself with two others endeavoured to check the spread of the blazing ammunition exploding charges and primers.  Although driven back repeatedly by the heat and fumes he returned and continued his efforts each time, until, finding his efforts futile and the gun enveloped in flames and in danger of being destroyed, he, with the assistance of two others went into the flames and manhandled the gun wheels.  But for the courage and initiative displayed by him and the two other men, the gun would have been seriously damaged and put out of action”.  Fitter Albert Borneman was honoured with the Croix de Guerre in 1919, the decoration conferred by the president of the French Republic. Regrettably, Albert’s medals were destroyed in a house fire in 1923.

 

Tpr Albert George COBB, 10LHR

142, Tpr Albert George COBB, 10 LHR

If family legend runs true, it would come as little surprise that Albert George Cobb worked in the field of metalwork and blacksmithing, his distant relative being Freeman Cobb of Cobb & Co fame.  Born in Carlton, Victoria in 1887 Albert arrived in Western Australia with parents John Joseph [Jack] Cobb and Phoebe Frances Elliott.  Jack had come to WA as a diver and a ganger, working on the construction of the Fremantle harbour.  He also worked on the Barrack and William Street jetties.  Arriving in 1891, Jack lived in a tent in the middle of the Swan River mouth at Willis’ Point, Fremantle.  With accommodation in the seaport town stretched given the influx of families arriving from the eastern colonies in the mid 1890s, temporary dwellings were erected establishing Canvas Town, the site being the adjoining locations of Forrest and Holland Streets near Monument Hill in East Fremantle. 

Private Albert George Cobb, 142 enlisted with the Australian Imperial Force at Guildford in November 1914.  He was almost 28.  Married to Catherine [Kitty] Rinaldi, Albert, his wife and baby son were living at Kurrawang, a junction between Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie on one of the main timber lines.  He had previously worked as a striker for the Western Australian Government Railways at Midland and is understood to have been a perfectionist in the art of blacksmithing, operating his own smithy in Kalgoorlie. Joining in many of the sporting and social activities of the area, Albert was frequently named amongst the best players for the Kurrawang football team. 

Serving three years with the citizen forces 11^th Australian Imperial Regiment in Fremantle, Corporal Albert Cobb resigned, moving to the goldfields.  So keen was Albert to be allotted to the light horse when he attested, he offered to supply his own “first class” horse to the expeditionary forces should he join the mounted infantry unit.  His ambition realised, Albert was posted to the 10^th Light Horse Regiment, A squadron, the same squadron of Albany boys Humfray Hassell and John Morton Playne.  None were to return.

Raised in October 1914 with three squadrons comprised of Western Australian recruits, the 10 LHR was originally concentrated at Guildford before being billeted at the Claremont showgrounds.  In January 1915 the regiment boarded the ss Zephyr at the Claremont Jetty journeying down the Swan River and coastline to an encampment at Rockingham where a more intensive and rigorous training schedule was undertaken. 

Embarking at Fremantle on 8^th February 1915, HMAT Mashobra A47, carrying over 400 troops and more than 300 horses headed for Egypt, arriving at Alexandria four weeks later.  On 16^th May, 1915, Trooper Albert Cobb headed to Gallipoli, about to take part in one of the most defining and tragic moments of a hostile military campaign.  Amidst the heavy fighting surrounding him, Albert wrote to his wife [dated 2^nd August 1915] “My dear Kitty, Just a few lines to let you know I am still alive, and doing as well as can be expected, considering it is pretty tough.  We are in supports one night and trenches the next night, so we have no sleep at night at all.  We are 12 hours out of the firing line out of 48.  Well dear Kitty our mail is hung up again, I have not had a letter for a fortnight, if they don’t hurry up, they might have to send them on to Constantinople.  Just before I started this scribble, the Turks have been firing a very powerful shell about 20 yards from where I was having a sleep and I thought she was going to fill my dugout in but she knocked off after breaking a telephone wire, they were trying to pick off one of our batteries.  Well dear Kitty this is all as we have to get tea on and then go into the trenches tonight with always a prayer for yourself and baby.  Hoping you have the same for me, remember me to mother and all of our friends.  Hoping this will find you and baby in the best of health with fond love and wishes.  From your Loving Husband, Albert Cobb”. [August 4^th OK]

Ordered to mount an offensive scheduled for 7^th August, the 3rd Light Horse Brigade prepared itself for a pre dawn attack on the strongly held Turkish trenches at the Nek.   With the first two lines of light horsemen from the 8^th Light Horse mown down by Turkish machine gun and rifle fire, the third line comprising the 10^th Light Horse went over the top, similarly decimated.   Albert Cobb was killed in action at Walker’s Ridge on 7^th August 1915.  He is remembered at Lone Pine Memorial Cemetery. 

Albert’s letter to Kitty arrived well after his death, a treasured possession which remains with family.  A small parcel of personal effects including field glasses, postcards and photos was also returned, a meagre representation of one soldier’s life.

Two of Albert sons served in the Second World War.  Pte Albert Elliott Cobb W13290, a son from Albert’s first marriage served in the army and Cpl John [Jack] Francis Elliott Cobb 29024, born to Kitty prior to his embarkation, served in a communications unit with the RAAF in WWII.

    

Capt Clive COOKE, 51 Bn

Capt Clive COOKE, 51 Bn

From the age of four, Captain Clive Ernest Alexander Cooke knew exactly what he wanted to be, telling his mother “I will be Captain Cooke when I’m a big man”.   That indeed he became, the tragedy being, that the lifelong ambition was so short lived.

Born in 1891 at North Fitzroy, Victoria, Clive was the only son of Robert Cooke and Frederica [Rica] Georgina Elizabeth Wheeler.  Robert, a Scottish plumber and lamp maker died in Fitzroy in 1904, leaving Rica to raise their three children Pheobe, affectionately known as Tottie, Clive and Frances on her own.   Never one to step away from a challenge, Rica accepted an opportunity to train as a midwife under the direction of the family doctor, Dr McInerney. 

Gaining her qualification, Nurse Cooke as she fondly became known, migrated to Western Australia with Tottie and Clive, her older sister Amy having settled in the state with her husband Robert Cuthbert.  Drawn to the goldfields, Nurse Cooke established a boarding house in Boulder, supplementing her income as a practising midwife.  While a growing friendship developed between Tottie and a highly thought of boarder Chris Sandilands, Clive was student, preparing for a career as an electrical engineer. 

Educated at the state school in North Fitzroy, Clive continued his study in Boulder, attending the School of Mines, technical school and the International Correspondence School.   A gifted scholar, he could turn his hand to anything, with talents ranging from designing garden features  to making a special gift for his mum, a lamp of red glass which was lit at night and hung over the front gate, the shining white letters reading “Nurse Cooke – Midwife”.  Energetic, resourceful and innovative Clive lived life to the fullest.  When he wasn’t studying or working he enjoyed time at the skating rink or going the pictures, heading off on his gleaming bicycle decked out with all the modern devices including a carbide lamp. 

When war was declared in 1914, Clive was serving with the local militia unit, the Goldfields Infantry Regiment, 84^th Infantry, attaining the rank of sergeant.  Enlisting in the Australian Imperial Force [AIF] in April 1915, he was posted to the 11^th Battalion, being subsequently transferred to officer’s school.   Commissioned, 2^nd Lieutenant Cooke embarked at Fremantle on the 2^nd November 1915 aboard HMAT Ulysses, the transport bound for Egypt.

Amongst the hundreds of fresh reinforcements to arrive in Egypt, Clive was absorbed on strength of the 11^th Battalion, many of whom were Gallipoli veterans.  With the doubling of the AIF, the 51^st Battalion was raised, one of four battalions comprising the ‘all states’ 13^th Brigade and the newly formed 4^th Australian Division.  Transferred to the 51^st on its formation, he was promoted to lieutenant.

On the battlefields of the Western Front in 1916, Clive suffered a painful knee condition requiring surgery at Wimereux, transferring to England for recovery.   Rejoining his unit in France, he served in the field until his secondment to the 13^th Training Battalion in England where he was subsequently promoted to captain.   Attending the 24^th Course of Instruction of the Southern Command Bombing School at Lyndhurst, Clive qualified as an instructor before returning to France in 1917.  Rejoining his battalion, he was detached to the 4^th Division artillery, returning from detached duty in 1918 before a brief period of leave in England, a visit which would be his last.

Returning from leave, Clive rejoined his battalion.  The commanding officer of A Company, he earned the respect of his men by leading from the front.    When German infantry and tanks captured Villers Bretonneux in April 1918, it triggered one of the most successful but costly counter-attacks by Australian troops fighting on the Somme.  While the surprise attack of 24^th April halted the German advance on the major rail centre of Amiens, the night time assault proved fatal for Clive.

Heavily engaged, the 51^st Battalion attempted to retake Villers Bretonneux with other battalions of the 13^th and 15^th brigades.  Attempting to get through barbed wire ahead of the German front line, Clive was killed instantly by machine gun fire.  That the wire had not been cut proved catastrophic for many.

Clive Cooke was 26 when he died, his final resting place being Adelaide Cemetery at Villers Bretonneux.

In a world turned upside down by Clive’s death, it is the words of Nurse Cooke’s letter to the Department of Defence which remain poignant.  “Dear Sir, In reply to yours.  I should like “God bless my hero son” put on his headstone. . .  for he was one of the most noblest of men and had worked so hard to get to the top of the ladder.  It is no wonder I am broken-hearted”. 

  

Pte Charles John Beauchamp DAVY, 10 LHR

1703, Pte Charles John Beauchamp DAVY, 10 LHR

 

For two brothers with similar interests, abilities and aptitude, the bonds of friendship forged as children would be strengthened by a keen intellect, love of sport and sense of community. When war broke out in Europe, Private Charles John Beauchamp Davy, 1703 enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force, his older brother of six years Thomas Arthur Lewis Davy, returning to his university regiment in England. 

Born in Coolgardie in 1896, John Davy was the youngest son of Thomas George Davy and Emily Gates.  Thomas, a highly respected physician and surgeon had practiced medicine in London, New Zealand and Western Australia.  Arriving at the port of Albany in 1895 with his wife and three children, Margaret, Thomas jr and Gertrude, he settled in Coolgardie where a population spike associated with the gold rush saw unprecedented levels of infectious disease, an area in which Dr Davy specialised.

The family moved to Fremantle when John was five, and later to West Perth when Thomas snr. accepted a government appointment to a senior medical position.  John and Thomas attended Perth High School, later to become Hale, the school situated close to their home at 9 Ord Street. 

In a family of notably high achievers, Thomas jr, affectionately known as ‘Taddy,’ excelled at sport and academically, winning a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford to study law.  Equally talented, John aspired to follow in the footsteps of his older brother, having lost his father when he was fourteen and Taddy to study abroad a year later.  A gifted athlete and sportsman, John won many trophies for sprinting, high jump, cricket and rowing, his team winning the coveted Headmasters’ Cup and the Head of the River title for his school in the intercollegiate rowing regatta, under the astute coaching direction of brother Taddy. 

At the outbreak of the First World War, Taddy returned to England to serve with his university regiment, an artillery unit in the British army.  John, at the age of nineteen was working on a farming property “Woodside” owned by relatives at York.  Keen to enlist, he joined up in 1915 and was posted to the 10^th Light Horse Regiment.   He left Fremantle with the 11^th Reinforcements later that year, bound for Egypt.  Not about to let army training get in the way of enjoyable sporting pursuits, John fractured his hand in a game of hockey, effectively removing any likelihood of him serving on Gallipoli.

Rejoining his unit in December 1915, John was transferred to the 4^th Division Artillery Column as a gunner, with subsequent postings to various trench mortar batteries and a promotion to bombardier.  He served in France with the artillery for the duration of the war.

 When John became critically ill with pneumonia in 1919 he was transferred to England, convalescing there until his return to Australia later that year.  He was discharged in December 1919.  Suffering chronic respiratory problems, John sought a warmer climate on medical advice, moving to Broome to establish a pearling operation.  The talented John crafted buttons, combs and brushes from pearl and turtle shell until his business fell into decline, reflecting that of the industry at the time.

Moving to Bunbury, John entered a business partnership establishing a General Motors dealership in the town, but the onset of the Depression and matters of misfortune left him insolvent.  Never one to be beaten, he purchased a truck and secured a contract to cart cream for South West Co-operative Dairy Farmers [Sunnywest].  The highly successful venture saw the business grow to a fleet of four trucks, meeting the ever increasing demands of an expanding dairy industry.  In 1933 he met and married Gwendoline Clarke, daughter of well known and respected pioneers of the district. The couple had three children, Geoffrey, Donald and Primrose.  The irascible but lovable John was held in high esteem by all those who knew him, from the contacts he established through business to those associated with sport, as a player and as a coach.  John Davy died at his home in Bunbury in 1945.  He was 49.

Serving in France with the British army, Taddy Davy rose to the rank of captain.  On leave in England, he married his Australian sweetheart Penelope Scholl.  He resumed his legal practice on his return to Australia, entering politics in 1924, winning the state seat of West Perth.  He was appointed attorney general in 1930 and Minister for Education the following year, positions he held until his sudden and untimely death in 1933.

Lieut Edgar Charles FOSTER, MC, 2 FAB

1387, Lieut Edgar Charles FOSTER, MC, 2 FAB

 

If leadership, organisational ability and personal character are attributes sought for officer training, then Lieutenant Edgar FOSTER, MC, 1387 was destined for a commission during his military service in the First World War.  Young, enterprising and displaying an abundance of energy and community minded attributes, Edgar was working in his own business in the rural community of Derrinallum, Victoria when he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force [AIF] in 1914.

Born in Drysdale, Edgar was posted to 2 FAB [Field Artillery Brigade] as a gunner, embarking at Melbourne on 20^th October 1914 on HMAT Shropshire, one of thirty six transports to leave from Albany on the 1^st November 1914.  He had previously spent three years training with the Australian Field Artillery at Queenscliff.  

A talented sportsman, Edgar played cricket, football and golf and was an active member of the Derrinallum Rifle Club.   He was also an accomplished singer, actor and musician, regularly performing in concerts and dramatic productions which were often held as fundraising concerts.  A popular member of the local community, he held office bearing positions in many of the organisations in which he was involved.  Volunteering for the war necessitated these positions being assumed by others, with members of the local community clearly feeling his absence.

After training in Egypt for four months, Edgar proceeded to Gallipoli.  Diary entries detail the preparation for and participation in the event.    On 25^th April 1915 Edgar records “Saw my first action.  At 4.30 am the warships opened fire on the enemy and the fire was returned.  It was a grand sight in the semi-darkness.  About 5 am the enemy’s fire slackened and our infantry landed and cleared the hills of the enemy’s trenches where their infantry was doing plenty of rifle and machine-gun shooting.  9 am.  Good landing effected by our infantry and three Krupp guns taken.  Heavy bombardment proceeding.  Eleven heavy shells dropped amongst the transports but without hitting any.  ‘Triumph’ struck by a shell in control tower.  Large battery of Turkish guns, unable to shift them.  Aeroplanes and balloons observing fire.  Infantry suffering very heavily.  Landed at 2 am Monday”. 

A member of the Brigade Ammunition Column, Edgar had the unenviable task of carting ammunition to the gun emplacements on the firing line, digging communications trenches for the battery, relocating artillery, manning observation posts and providing relief to gun crews, all conducted under heavy artillery fire.   He remained on the peninsula until September when wounded by shrapnel, a bullet becoming lodged in his leg.  Evacuated to Malta for surgery, Edgar proceeded to England for recovery.

Returning to Egypt in January 1916, Edgar was posted to 46^th Battery, 4^th Division Artillery.  Rejoining his unit he proceeded to France where he was promoted to corporal then sergeant in June 1916.  In September he joined the Royal Artillery School for training in view of an appointment for his first commission.  In December 1916, Edgar qualified as an officer in the field artillery returning to France in January 1917 as a 2^nd Lieutenant with 12^th Brigade.

In June 1917 Edgar was awarded the Military Cross [MC] “for conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty.  He showed the greatest coolness and determination on maintaining ammunition supply under circumstances of the greatest possible danger from a dump of shrapnel and gas shell which was burning fiercely and exploding in all directions.  He reorganised a party and successfully carried out the work”.

Promoted to lieutenant in September 1917, Edgar served in Belgium then France, until July 1918.  He returned to Australia in 1919, marrying his sweetheart and steadfast correspondent throughout the war, Rita Harvey.  Living in Derrinallum, Edgar continued his involvement in local organisations and activities, with musical performances often consisting of Rita playing the piano and Edgar conducting!   Holding positions of office, he was president of the Derrinallum Progress Association, overseeing major developments in the town such as the introduction of the electric light and was vice president of the Derrinallum Mechanics Institute. He was involved in discussions surrounding the construction of a war memorial in Derrinallum in 1931 and was instrumental in the formation of a volunteer cadet corps for the boys and youths of the district in 1940.  He and Rita had three children, Mollie, Max and Helen.

At 51 years of age and with the outbreak of the Second World War, Edgar again volunteered to serve in the army.  Having sold his grocery business in Derrinallum he was posted to the 17^th Garrison Battalion at Tatura West and promoted to the rank of captain.  In 1941 he became the adjutant and brigade major at Number 3 Internment Camp and in 1942, officer in charge of A Company and camp commandant of No 1 Internment Camp, the latter being the site of some intrigue.  Norwegian sailor and internee Haakon Nilson had secretly built and operated a short-wave radio in a cellar below Hut 23, the space just big enough to accommodate two men, the radio, its batteries, a desk and two packing cases for chairs.  The ‘friendly alien’ was brought before Major Foster in a court martial, just shy of the commandant’s departure given his period of tenure had drawn to a close.  Edgar was discharged in 1944, moving to Melbourne to work in repatriation until his retirement. 

Two of Edgar’s children served in the Second World War, Mollie as a lieutenant in the AWAS [Australian Womens Army Service] working in signals and Max, a flight sergeant with 166 Squadron in the RAAF, his plane going down over Germany in 1944.

Edgar Foster epitomised the country way of doing things where commitment to community and making your own entertainment were essential to the dynamics of small rural communities.  In retirement he derived much pleasure tending to his garden and involving himself in local church activities.  Edgar Foster died in Melbourne in 1968 aged 80.  He is buried in Springvale Cemetery alongside Rita.

     

Pte George Elwyn FURNESS, MM 16 Bn

7232, Pte George Elwyn FURNESS, MM 16 Bn

 

One can only guess what ran through the mind of young George Elwyn Furness when he disembarked with his family at Fremantle late in November 1907.  His father Percy, a poulterer from England had purchased a virgin block Pretty Creek, twenty odd miles west of Cranbrook.  Wasting little time, Percy procured a horse and cart in Perth, immediately setting off with his wife Annie and children Nellie, George, Florence, Mabel, Norah and Percy jnr to make their new home in the Great Southern. Taking eight days to arrive at their selection, the family set about establishing their farm and securing their livelihood using basic tools and a great deal of enterprise and human endeavour, factors which most certainly would have shaped the character of a young man soon to see war in Europe.

Private George Elwyn Furness, 7232, MM was born in Lancashire, England in 1893. He was educated at Leyland Grammar School and at fourteen years of age arrived in Western Australia.  With little or no immediate income, he provided a living for himself blade shearing and at eighteen had secured Agricultural Bank assistance to acquire and develop his own property Grassy Banks.  In 1915 he married Julia Haynes, daughter of district pioneers George and Alice Haynes and together they continued to clear, fence and stock the property.  Julia was expecting their first child when Elwyn left for the war. 

Elwyn enlisted in the AIF [Australian Imperial Force] at Albany in 1916 and was posted to the 16^th Battalion.  With other members of the 24^th Reinforcements, he trained at Blackboy Hill before leaving from Fremantle on HMAT Miltiades in January 1917, bound for England.  He joined the 4^th Training Battalion at Codford in preparation to be taken on strength with his unit.  By August 1917, Elwyn was on the Western Front serving in the Messines sector in Belgium. Wounded by shrapnel near Zonnebeke he was evacuated, rejoining his unit two months later in France as it moved south towards Peronne.  He returned to Belgium in January 1918 serving near Ypres.

Rejoining his unit from leave, Elwyn was involved in operations at Villers-Bretonneux and Hamel, but it was the effective allied counter offensive near Ameins in August 1918 that he distinguished himself, awarded the Military Medal for his conduct.  The award recognised “his conspicuously gallant and useful actions during the last stages of the advance in the operations of 8^th August 1918, between Morcourt and Meri-Court-Sur-Somme. (E of Corbie) when approaching the final objective, his company was held up by an enemy machine gun from the front, and the advance from this point was very much threatened.  Furness, on his own initiative, rushed up on the left flank with a Lewis gun and opened enfilade fire on the enemy post.  He killed most of the crew, and put the gun out of action, and thus enabled his company to continue the advance.  At this time his company was also being subjected to fire from an enemy field gun battery, firing over open sights.  From the advanced position which he had attained by the act set out above, he was able to get a good view of the battery.  He turned his Lewis gun on to it and was instrumental in forcing the battery personnel to hurriedly retire.  His gallant actions on these occasions undoubtedly saved many casualties, and he is strongly recommended for high distinction”.

His leadership qualities earned promotions of lance corporal in September and following a brief detachment to the United States army, a promotion to corporal.  Elwyn returned to Australia in 1919 and following his discharge, returned to farm at Grassy Banks, further developing and substantially expanding the landholding.  His family too had grown, with six children Dulcie, Dorothy, Muriel, Kathleen, Thelma and William.  He successfully farmed there as a woolgrower before diversifying into dairy, regularly selling cream to the Albany butter factory.  Recognised for progressive farming practices, he was one of the first to introduce subterranean clover to the district.  Elwyn held positions on the Cranbrook Roads Board, the land settlement committee of the Frankland Returned Services League and was secretary of Frankland Primary Producers Association. 

Elwyn and Julia sold the property in 1945, moving to another property west of Narrogin.  He actively campaigned to form a branch of the Farmers’ Union in the district, elected secretary in 1948.  His commitment to the organisation was recognised with the award of a Certificate of Merit in 1965.  He’d held the position of secretary for seventeen years and had not missed an annual conference, zone council or branch meeting of the Farmers’ Union in that time.

In 1960, Elwyn and Julia moved into the town of Narrogin leaving their son on the farm.  Elwyn passed away in 1976 and is buried with Julia in the Narrogin cemetery.   He is remembered as gentle, kind and honourable, a man of enterprise, determination and resourcefulness, considered by many as a true gentleman.

 

BQMS Harry Falby GOMM, 3 DAC

24526, BQMS Harry Falby GOMM, 3 DAC

When Harry Gomm arrived in Albany around 1898, his sporting ability and musical talents were attributes which would serve him well.  Raised in a family with a strong sense of community, Harry continued the tradition, involving himself in social activities, team sports, the local militia and activities at the Kalgan. 

Harry Falby Gomm was born at Frankston, Victoria in 1873 to Margaret Monk and Henry Gomm.  One of eleven children, his family had settled in the area south-east of Melbourne around 1866, establishing themselves as market gardeners and orchardists.  While little is known of Harry’s early years in Frankston, his involvement in sport there remains certain.   A talented cricketer, he won trophies in the game and held positions of office, voted chairman of the Somerville Railway Cricket Club in 1894. 

Travelling to Western Australia, Harry initially took up work driving a mail coach at Yalgoo and Cue.  Settling in Albany, he was stationed at the forts, serving three years with the permanent artillery and four years as a volunteer.  He was a member of the Albany Volunteer Artillery Band and played cricket and football with the Forts teams.  A willing contributor to fundraising activities, it wasn’t long before he was on the concert circuit, delivering popular solo performances on stage.  When troops gathered in Albany preparing to depart for the Transvaal in 1899, Gunner Gomm was one of the permanent force providing musical entertainment for local counterparts about to embark with the Western Australian contingent.

In 1900, Harry married registered nurse and midwife, Catherine [Katie] Rogers.  An experienced nurse, Katie established a nursing home at Brackenhurst in Brunswick Road, with four of the couple’s seven children born there. 

Leaving the garrison, Harry was employed in the loco shops, later becoming a well known contractor building roads in the district.  Taking up a landholding at the Kalgan of two adjoining blocks on the western side of Mount Mason, he established an orchard.  A timber residence he had built on the property was lost to fire in 1909, the family’s home, furnishings and personal belongings destroyed.  A stone residence was constructed on the property, familiarly known as Gomm Cottage.  He continued to be involved in sport, playing cricket for Kalgan River, football for Rovers and lawn bowls at the Albany club.  Contributing to community activities at the Kalgan, he provided the music at the opening of the Kalgan Hall in 1912.  Moving to Manjimup for eighteen months, Harry was contracted to cart timber, the family returning to Albany at the outbreak of war.  

Enlisting in the Australian Imperial Force in March 1916, Gunner Harry Gomm, 24526 was posted to the 3^rd Divisional Ammunition Column, embarking from Melbourne almost three months later.  He was 43.  Encamped at Larkhill, Harry remained in England until November when he proceeded overseas to France.  Arriving at Steenwerck near the Belgian border, the section went into billets, the winter weather conditions and copious amounts of mud proving challenging for troops and horses alike.  

Serving in France for the duration of the war the constant exposure to shelling took its toll.  In a letter written to his daughter Kit in November 1918, Harry is clearly buoyed by the prospect of an early return home, “expecting to hear that peace has been proclaimed at any moment”.   His upbeat manner is somewhat tempered however with “We have had a hard and strenuous time for some months now living mostly in a hole dug in the ground with a cover over it and of late it has been very wet, never stopped raining for 3 days so you can imagine the predicament we have been in”.  “I am afraid all my old friends have gone, we have been parted for so long now and I never see anything of them.  New faces appear in their places but still I remain as one of the old Brigade . . . tho peace is in sight we still go on”. 

 

After a brief period of leave in England following the signing of the armistice, Harry returned to France and was promoted to temporary battery quartermaster sergeant.  He remained there until demobilisation in May 1919.

Returning to the Kalgan, Harry found it difficult settling back into civilian life, shellshock rendering him unsettled and disorientated.  He found work at Gnowangerup as a foreman, farmed at Hyden on a block secured through repatriation and purchased property on the river at Lower King where Katie established tea rooms. 

When the Depression hit, the family moved to Norseman, Harry turning his hand to prospecting.  He remained at Norseman in his retirement, passed away in 1962 aged 89 years.  He is buried in Kalgoorlie with Katie. 

Of Harry and Katie’s five sons, three were to enlist in the 2^nd Australian Imperial Force.  Cpl Henry [Bob] Gomm and Spr Francis [Frank] Gomm were attached to Field Survey Companies and Cpl Jack Gomm was posted to the 2/2 Australian Field Workshop. 

A King River resident, Frank was prominent in the local community as a member of the Albany Road Board from 1939-1943, captain of the Lower Kalgan Bush Fire Brigade, chairman of the Candyup Hall committee and president of the Returned Services League.  His commitment to the cause of veterans and legacy saw him a worthy recipient of the Order of the British Empire - Medal (Civil) / British Empire Medal (Civil) in 1979 “for services to veterans”.

      

Sgt Reuben Lucius HAMPTON, 5 Bn

640, Sgt Reuben Lucius HAMPTON, 5 Bn

 

While official and recorded histories of a military conflict can provide valuable information about the event and its intricacies, it is the personal diaries of soldiers which give us a deeper understanding of the environment associated with war.  Diary entries are the first-hand accounts of a serviceman’s observations, perceptions and interpretations, understandings shaped by life experience.

The diary of Reuben Hampton is no exception.  Regularly recorded entries of his day to day activities afford us an insight into the life of an Australian infantryman in the First World War. Sergeant Reuben Lucius HAMPTON, 640 enlisted in Victoria on 18^th August, 1914.  Born in South Melbourne in 1891, Reuben was the second son of Dinah Chester and Robert James Burton Hampton, a mariner.  Robert Hampton had served as a Leading Seaman in the Victorian Naval Contingent to the Boxer Rebellion 1900-1901, an uprising of anti European sentiment in response to perceived western influence in China. 

Educated at Albert Park State School in Melbourne, Reuben was a talented sportsman and scholar.  He was considered one of the best athletes in Victoria, a runner, swimmer, cricketer, footballer and a skilled marksman.  Leaving school, Reuben trained as a chemist, assayer and metallurgist at Melbourne Working Men’s College, now the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.  He worked at Temple Court in Melbourne for five years, a location associated with businesses of professional occupations of the time.  He participated in volunteer defence from the age of thirteen, serving seven years with 5 Australian Infantry Regiment [AIR] and the Army Medical Corps [AMC].

In 1914 he was posted to the 5^th Battalion, embarking at Melbourne on HMAT Orvieto, one of the thirty six transports comprising the first convoy assembled at Albany.  His diary records his arrival on Monday 26^th October where “King George’s Sound was filled with transports – 24 in all”.  The following day the Orvieto “moved in from outer harbour to inner before breakfast; took on fresh water and coal”.  The formation of the convoy on its departure is detailed with “left Albany 6.30 am.  Orvieto leading central line with Shropshire on port beam leading her string and Euripides in the lead on the starboard beam”.

The importance of maintaining a connection to normal everyday life is realised with mention of “patiently awaiting news of the Melbourne Cup” and “celebrated birthday by becoming mess orderly”.   The longed for arrival of mail and news from home is a recurrent theme with letters and parcels providing a welcome relief to the psychological pressures of war. 

His love of sport is reflected throughout the diary with frequent references to activities on the troopship such as “played the Engineers cricket, while most of the rest were hard at it playing bowls, quoits and bayonet fighting”. Similarly his knowledge of science is clearly evident with a detailed description given of the respirators issued to troops and the chemical composition of poisonous gases.

The 5^th Battalion was one of the earliest infantry units raised at the outbreak of war, being one of four Victorian battalions comprising the 2^nd Brigade.  Taking part in the second wave of Gallipoli landings on Sunday 25^th April 1915, Reuben records his observation of the event in some detail with “the men-of-war started bombarding the forts, whilst the troops did a rapid journey to the shore”.

Reuben saw action at Gallipoli, in Belgium and on the Somme.  Wounded at Anzac he was invalided to England, returning to his battalion in Egypt in January 1916.  Undertaking the monotonous task of trench building at Suez, the surrounding landscape brings him to comment, “there is something weird about this immense desert.  To see the masts and funnels of big ships passing through the sand seems peculiar”. 

In France Reuben was again injured, transferred to a casualty clearing station then shipped back to England to convalesce.  Returning to the front, the strains of war began taking their toll with frequent references to tiredness and exhaustion, although the common ailments of war are not dwelt upon.  Rising through the ranks, Reuben was promoted to Corporal in 1916.  He received his third stripe in 1917, attaining the rank of Sergeant. 

Sgt Hampton returned to Australia in 1918 debilitated by the effects of tuberculosis.  He died in the Heidelberg Hospital in 1919 at the age of 26 and is buried in Melbourne.

Cpl Donald Humfray HASSELL, 10 LHR

 112, Cpl Oscar Donald Humfray  HASSELL, 10 LHR 

Local stockman Humfray Hassell enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on 5th October 1914.  He was 23 years old.  Humfray was the seventh son and one of nine children of Albert Young Hassell and Ethel Clifton, both prominent pioneering families associated with the pastoral industry, maritime and shipping.

Humfray was born in 1891, quite possibly in the family home Hillside where his brother Harold was born.  With rural landholdings some way from Albany, the family built the home on its town property which comprised around 50 to 60 acres on the slopes of Mount Melville. The stately residence still stands today. 

In his early years, Humfray attended ‘Camfield’, a school run by the Christian Brothers on Serpentine Road.  His secondary education was undertaken at Geelong Grammar School together with his brother Harold, to whom he was particularly close.  They would return to Albany annually during vacation.  A sea chest used by the two boys on their voyages from Albany remains with the family to this day. 

After completing his education in Victoria, Humfray returned to Albany, working on the Hassell family farm ‘Jarramungup’ with Harold.  The landholding of around 24,000 acres was originally taken up by their grandfather John, opening the area up around 1850. It was named for its abundance of yate trees, with its spelling derived from local aboriginal pronunciation.  The property would eventually be sold to the Commonwealth for the soldier settlement scheme around 1950, establishing the area of Jerramungup.

The Hassells were respected pastoralists and well known for the horses they bred on the Jarramungup property.  It was from this stock that Humfray is said to have taken his horse to the front.  Humfray embarked at Fremantle with the 10th Light Horse Regiment aboard HMAT Mashobra on 8th February, 1915.   The transport carried 408 men and 333 horses bound for the training camps of Egypt. 

A keen correspondent, Humfray’s letters home form a diarised account of his experiences. His strong connection to the Australian bush is regularly reflected in his vividly detailed descriptions of the harsh environment in which he finds himself and the comparisons he draws to that of his home.

The 10LHR of spirited West Australians was raised early in October 1914. Humfray was part of its foundation unit, ‘A’ squadron and amongst the many to volunteer for dismounted service in the trenches at Gallipoli.  During the infamous charge at the Nek on 7th August 1915, Cpl Hassell was killed in action at Walker’s Ridge.  Trooper Hassell is memorialised at Lone Pine and on the headstone of his family’s gravesite in the pioneer cemetery on Middleton Road in Albany.

Not only was the war unforgiving on the family in claiming the life of Humfray, two Clifton cousins also were killed in action, at Gallipoli and in France.  Another connection to the Hassel family was indigenous serviceman Pte Michael CONNOR, 4258 who was raised by the family at their Warriup property near Green Range.  Michael served with in 48th Battalion and died of illness in France in 1916, less than six months after leaving Australia.  He rests in Levallois-Perret Cemetery, Paris.

       

Lieut Thomas HETHERINGTON, 11 Bn

1870, Lieut Thomas HETHERINGTON, 11 Bn

The quiet demeanour but stern manner of Lieutenant Thomas Hetherington, 1870, were attributes duly recognised and respected by family, peers and superiors, personal qualities which saw him directed into leadership roles and positions of trust and responsibility throughout his life.

Tom Hetherington was the youngest child of coal miner John Hetherington and Mary Jane Hutton.  Born in Newcastle in 1895, Tom arrived in Western Australia with his parents and older siblings Percy, Leslie and Isabella.  Travelling to the eastern goldfields, John took up work on the goldmines, living on the Royal Mint lease in Trafalgar before moving to Gosnells around 1905 when Tom was ten.

At fifteen, Tom took up a five year printer’s apprenticeship at Muhling Printers, 570 Hay Street, Perth.  Master printer “Honest John” Mulhing, was well known and greatly respected in the industry with connections to early Western Australian newspapers and publications the Morning Herald, The West Australian and the Mining Journal of Western Australia.

Enlisting in the Australian Imperial Force [AIF] in 1915, Tom was posted to the 11^th Battalion, amongst the 4^th Reinforcements embarking at Fremantle on HMAT Argyllshire.  It would be the same ship to return him safely home, arriving in Albany in January 1919, the troops disembarking at the quarantine station.

When older brother Lance Corporal Leslie Hetherington, 2924, enlisted in the AIF in 1916, he also left Fremantle aboard the Argyllshire.  Leslie, a linotype operator, was posted to the 51^st Battalion. 

On Gallipoli by June 1915, Tom rose quickly through the ranks.  Returning from illness he was appointed Lance Corporal at Serapeum, receiving further battlefield promotions in France before being granted a commission in 1917.  At a British army camp in France, Tom commanded a platoon of Australian army personnel convicted of offences by court martial, preparing them for reintegration to their military units.   Leslie Hetherington also served in France, being appointed lance corporal in 1917.  Sustaining a gunshot wound to his right wrist, Leslie was evacuated, returning to Australia in 1918.

On his return from the war, Tom took up a block of land at Dalwallinu, turning his hand to farming.  With little experience in the industry and ensuing hardships associated with a lack of plant and equipment, exacerbated by the onset of the Depression, Tom was forced to relinquish the landholding.  Drawn by the isolation of the bush, Tom took up work with Jack Money on ‘Weebo’ station north east of Leonora, then Duncan Robinson and family managing ‘Yerilla’, north east of Kalgoorlie at Kookynie.  On ‘Yerilla’ he met his future wife, Sophie Henriette Louise Demmink, a governess on the station. 

Sonja, as she was known, was the daughter of well to do Dutch engineer, Ernst Demmink.  The Demmink family had left Holland to live in Java before the outbreak of the Second World War, Ernst being employed to build the electric tramway on the island.  When war broke out, the family were placed under house arrest, their home being on the site of a zoo.  Under occupation, the animals were destroyed and residents, separated by gender, interned in prisoner of war camps.  While older stepsister Lucy had married a British pilot on Java and left the country after the fall of Singapore to come to Australia, Sonja and her mother had been advised by Ernst, via a message conveyed by the family chauffeur, to remain in the POW camp for their own safety when hostilities ended.  In November 1945, Sonja, a qualified teacher, arrived at Fremantle.

After their marriage, Tom and Sonja continued to work in the pastoral industry, Tom managing ‘Mt Remarkable’, neighbouring Yerilla, for the Lowe family before moving south to the Hassell property ‘Jarramungup’ north east of Albany.  Farming at Yandanooka, south of Mingenew, Sonja immersed herself in community activities becoming president of the local Country Women’s Association branch.  Their only child Robert was born in Perth in 1952 during their time at Yandanooka.  

Around 1955, Tom and Sonja relocated to Perth, purchasing a delicatessen and postal agency in Broadway, Nedlands.  They expanded the business to include a newsagency, library and bulk foods outlet.  Licensed to operate an official post office agency at Swanbourne which allowed a banking service to be offered, Tom moved for the last time in the late 1960s.  Continuing to work in the business at the age of 76, Tom chose not to go into work one morning because he was feeling unwell.  Passing away from a heart attack, Tom was found sitting in his lounge chair at home.  His ashes were scattered over the gardens at Karrakatta cemetery, Perth.  

Sonja later married Bruce Bosworth, a pastoral inspector with the Lands Department of WA.  She died in Albany in 2011 aged 89.

 

Pte Edward Thomas HILL, 51 Bn

2182, Pte Edward Thomas HILL, 51 Bn

 

Brought up in a family with strong connections to the bush, Private Edward Thomas Hill, 2182 was sure to return to the land on his discharge from the Australian Imperial Force in 1919.  Well equipped to take up a farm of his own after the war, the transition from army service to life on the land was difficult for Tom, haunted by demons of his wartime experience.

One of seven children, Tom was born in 1888 at Willunga, South Australia to Richard Hill and Elizabeth Keenor Loud.  Tom’s grandfather, Richard had arrived in the area just south of Adelaide in 1839, becoming one of the earliest settlers to take up land there.  Establishing the property Forest Farm, Richard was known for his involvement in local horse ploughing competitions, being keeper of the public pound and his commitment to church activities, making available two acres of land for the construction of the local Willunga church, St Stephen, consecrated with an attached burial ground in 1849.

At the turn of the century, several of the family ventured to Western Australia.  Tom’s older sister Mary with her husband George Swiney a horticulturalist, settled in Katanning in 1901, George in charge of Frederick Henry Piesse’s sixty acre orchard at Kobeelya.   The subsequent arrival of Tom, his parents and siblings in 1903 saw mother, Elizabeth settle in Katanning with daughters Annie and Florence and sons George and Tom, the boys attending school in the town.  There she established a boarding house, capably assisted by Annie, 26 and Florence, 18.  Tom’s father Richard, meanwhile set about establishing the family farm Yarralena near Cranbrook, clearing the virgin block with his two older sons William and Harold.  With the completion of a house on the property, Elizabeth left Katanning with the two younger boys, moving to Cranbrook in 1907.

Tom was working on the family farm at Cranbrook when he enlisted in the AIF at the end of March, 1916.  He was posted to the 51^st Battalion, an infantry unit raised in Egypt just weeks earlier.  Half the 51^st were Gallipoli veterans from the 11^th Battalion, the other half were fresh reinforcements recruited in the main, from Western Australia.  As part of the doubling of the AIF, sixteen veteran battalions of the first and second divisions were supplemented with reinforcements, absorbing thousands of troops still in Egypt after the evacuation of Gallipoli as well as those pledged by Australia who were about to follow.  The restructure resulted in the formation of two new Australian divisions, effectively doubling the size of the AIF.  Leaving from Fremantle with the 4^th Reinforcements aboard HMAT Miltiades, Tom made his way to the battlefields of France.

Carrying his personal effects in a small calico bag Elizabeth had thoughtfully embroidered with the farm name Yarralena, the name derived from two loyal working horses used at Willunga, Tom kept with him a comforting reminder of home for the duration of the war.  Writing from the trenches, he was careful to protect his parents from the travails of war, preferring to maintain the sharp sense of humour for which he was known.    Suffering many of the common ailments associated with life in the trenches, Tom was relieved from duty with a blighty, a sniper’s bullet piercing his cheek.  He returned to Australia, and Yarralena, in 1919.   Tormented by dreams of being swallowed by mud and suffocated by gas, Tom would share his innermost fears with younger brother George, the only family member with whom he spoke about the horrendous conditions on the Western Front.

In 1920, Tom married local Katanning girl and nurse, Florence Edith May Thomson in Mount Barker, travelling by horse and cart to Gnowangerup where Florence’s brother Alex owned property.  Making Gnowangerup their home Tom, ably assisted by Flo, farmed at Jakitup, taking up additional work trapping and dogging in the district. With five children Jack, Jean, Marge, Nancy and Jessie born in the old cottage hospital in the town, the couple involved themselves in many community activities.  An accomplished pianist, Flo played at many charitable events and celebratory occasions.  Both were members of the local rifle club, Tom winning awards for his marksmanship and Flo, equally capable with a firearm, known to be a crack shot.  Both were involved in establishing an RSL sub-branch in the town with a hall built in honour of those in the district who had served in the war.  

In 1944 Tom applied for a position with the vermin board.  Moving north to Meekatharra, the couple worked on stations in the area, prospecting in the mining belt at Nullagine in 1949.  They remained there for many years.  With his health failing, Tom moved south to live with family in Kalgoorlie, obtaining a miner’s right in January 1960.  He passed away in August that year, aged 72. 

    

Pte John HOST, 16 BN

7016, Pte John HOST, 16 Bn

The discovery of an old tin trunk was the catalyst which brought a young granddaughter to know an aspect of her grandfather’s life she could not have imagined.  Its contents of letters, diaries, postcards and photos were the means by which a greater understanding of an unspoken history was developed and a familial bond strengthened.

When Jack Host died in 1971, the family set about preparing his Northam property for sale.  In the course of tidying up, the tin trunk proved to be a constant source of fascination for his young granddaughter. With persistent pleas for safekeeping acceded to, a soldier’s wartime experiences began to unfold.

Private John Host, 7016 was thirty when he enlisted with the Australian Imperial Force [AIF] in 1916.  Married and with a young family living at Seabrook near Northam, he sailed from Fremantle with the 16th Battalion two days before Christmas 1916, leaving behind his wife and two young daughters to care for the family farm.

A fitter and turner by trade, Jack had left his home town of Adelaide to head west.  Arriving in Fremantle in 1910 he ventured to the eastern goldfields, settling in Boulder where he met and married Emma [Dot] Pybus McKnight a year later.  Jack worked at the Golden Horseshoe gold mine for seven years, a mine considered to have one of the richest and most significant deposits of telluride in Kalgoorlie.  Joining the local militia unit in Boulder, he spent four years with C Company of the Goldfields Infantry Regiment. 

From the moment of embarkation, Jack was astute in maintaining a detailed diary of his journey overseas, recording his experiences along the way.  Keenly perceptive, a valuable insight is given into the life of a soldier.  Whilst accounts of the journey are personal and honest expressions of the feelings and emotions he experiences with all the elements of excitement and wonder attached to the adventure of a lifetime, an equally graphic account is given of the horrors of war, of what is unimaginable to most of us.    

The 16th Battalion, comprised mostly of West Australians, took part in many of the major battles and bloody trench warfare of the Western Front, sustaining heavy casualties in this most decisive theatre of the war.
In 1917 the 16th was in Belgium, advancing to the Hindenburg Line.  On the evening of 21st October 1917, Jack was taking up a position near Passchendaele Ridge.  Experiencing a night of relentless shelling and high explosive shrapnel, Jack and his mate found themselves buried with bricks when two shells hit a wall three feet from their position. With only his head exposed and the arm of his mate, the two were rescued.  With a crushed knee, and mangled arm and shoulder, Jack was evacuated to the Poperinghe Casualty Clearing Station.  Repatriated to England, he took no further part in the war. 

Demobilised in 1919, Jack returned to the farm at Seabrook, developing the property into a market garden.  He remained there until retirement, when he moved into Northam. 

Jack is remembered by his family as having an affinity with the land and a great respect for nature.  He was one who loved life and all it had to offer with a wonderful sense of community and helping those in need.  He was committed member of the Returned Services League until his death.

Like so many, Jack never spoke of the war but in placing aside his correspondence, diaries and photographs he effected an enduring legacy.

Jack’s younger brother Pte Frank Host, 2059 also enlisted with the AIF, serving with the 11th Battalion on Gallipoli.  Jack’s eldest son Edward served with the 2/11 Battalion on Crete in the Second World War.

     

Pte George Davies JOHN, 10 LHR

Sgt James Thomas MAGEE MM, 1FAB

Pte Archibald Carmichael NEWMAN, 9 LHR & Pte Harold Clive NEWMAN, 9 LHR

Pte Willie WOOLDRIDGE, 11BN & Pte Harry WOOLDRIDGE, 51BN

5232, Pte Willie WOOLDRIDGE, 11 Bn
3752, Pte Harry WOOLDRIDGE, 51 Bn

Pte Willie WOOLDRIDGE 5232 enlisted with the AIF early in 1916 and served with the 16th Reinforcements of the 11th Bn.  His younger brother Harry 3752, requiring his father’s consent, joined up a year later.  Both boys were working on the family farm “Hollinup” about 8 miles north of Kojonup at their time of enlistment.

Bill, Harry and younger brother Joe set out for Australia in 1911 with their father Caleb, arriving in Fremantle on board the Ophir.  Caleb was a miner in England and raising the three boys on his own, saw Australia to offer greater opportunities for his sons.  The family headed south to Kojonup, taking up land which they cleared and developed into a viable farming enterprise.

 
Bill’s introduction to army training was at Blackboy Hill spending ten days there before being drafted to Bunbury for a further eight weeks.  Four days leave were granted before embarkation, his contingent bound for Tel-el Kebir, the largest training camp for Australian troops in Egypt at that time.  About 40,000 troops were said to have been stationed there.  The intense heat dictated that drill took place in the mornings between 6 and 8am and again in the evenings from 4 to 7pm.

In recollections of his service, Bill comments on his first experiences of war in the trenches near Ypres.  Working mostly at night and with the noise of exploding shells around him, his biggest fear was common to many, not of the incessant bombardment but of making a fool of himself by doing a ‘gel’, panicking during those first days on the front line.  He spent almost three years on active service.

Harry served with the 51st Bn before being taken on strength with 44th, a battalion recognised for its part in breaking the defences of the Hindenburg Line in the final stages of the war.
He married in England and was amongst the last to be demobilised in 1919.  Two of Harry’s four sons enlisted in the army in the Second World War.  Gilbert served in the Middle East with the 2/16th Bn and Gordon in the Middle East, New Guinea and Borneo with the 2/32nd.

When Bill and Harry returned from the war they both went back to the land, with varying degrees of success!  Bill ventured out on his own purchasing a property “Lonsdale” just north Kojonup, close to where the airstrip is today.  Using suitable clay from the property he made mud batts which he used in the construction of his home.  He married local Albany girl Dorothy Murray, the daughter of dairy farmers at Robinson. 

Bill supplemented his income from the farm with other work, such as dam sinking and blade shearing with his brother Joe.  In 1942 he enlisted with Joe in the 6th Bn Volunteer Defence Corps.  He continued farming until retirement, moving into aged care in Narrogin in the late seventies.

Bill is remembered for his jovial disposition and preparedness to chat openly with family about his wartime experiences.  He became progressively reclusive as he got older however, feeling a strong sense of injustice at the lack of government support offered to returning servicemen.  He died in 1981 aged 85 years.