tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-655291994795004232024-03-06T11:59:14.404-08:00The Road to War and BackUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger29125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-65529199479500423.post-64955917510506337892016-07-13T21:43:00.001-07:002016-07-13T21:43:10.726-07:00From Boom to Bust: AHA Conference 2016- Day 1Last week I attended my first Australian Historical Association conference, held this year in the historic Victorian goldfields town of Ballarat.<br />
<br />
In my previous work I've been to many archaeology conferences, but this was my first time joining the crowd as an outright historian. Ultimately, a fabulous experience in every way. The four-day conference was jam packed from beginning to end, with almost a dozen concurrent streams in some sessions, plus a plenary each day.<br />
<br />
While this breadth of material was initially a little bit hard to navigate, there was always something fascinating to choose from. As a result, I came home with a whole range of new ideas and a great surge of enthusiasm for my own work. I met so many lovely people with so many great projects- there's just nothing like being surrounded by a whole lot of similar minds, occupied with similar topics. A great festival of history.<br />
<br />
I attended papers in all but a couple of sessions, so I'll split my record across a few posts to save it from becoming too overwhelming.<br />
<br />
Ballarat welcomed us with some stubbornly cold, grey and drizzly
weather that would persist for the whole week. The temperature did not
go beyond 9C most days, and the sky barely stopped spitting for five
minutes at a stretch. Given that the conference was spread across three
separate venues up and down Lydiard Street, requiring a bit of a hike between each, this was not
the ideal weather. Nonetheless, suitably rugged up and umbrella-fortified, everyone took
to the streets with a cheerful attitude. <br />
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The coffee and hot chocolate
sector in Ballarat must have experienced quite the surge in business! Appropriate for the theme of the conference- From Boom to Bust, which was interpreted in many different ways across many different topics.<br />
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<u><b>Day One- Tuesday 5th July</b></u><br />
<b> </b> <br />
After a welcome reception at the Ballarat Art Gallery the previous
evening, the conference kicked off at the beautiful 1859 Ballaarat Mechanics' Institute building on Tuesday morning with a plenary
lecture by <b>Adam Wilkinson</b>.<br />
<br />
Adam had travelled across the globe from Edinburgh
to talk about urban conservation, and the importance of recognising the
present, lived value of heritage places as much as we recognise their past value. He had
many fascinating examples of the way Edinburgh has revitalised the use
of historic locations within the city in innovative ways, thereby
increasing their value to the community now, and ensuring a greater
level of ongoing protection.<br />
<br />
It was a lively and interesting plenary
that set a great tone for the whole week, and a perfect subject for a place like Ballarat, where heritage is on display on every corner. There are some great initiatives in town to help people explore the history of the place, including the <a href="http://www.hulballarat.org.au/cb_pages/ballarat_revealed.php">Ballarat Revealed app</a>, which can be used as a sort of walking tour through your smartphone.<br />
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Most tea breaks and lunches took place in the Hummfray Room of the Mechanics' Institute, which was a bit squishy for (so I hear) close to 400 delegates, particularly when book launches were<b> </b>also held at those times. However, it certainly did lend itself to meeting new people- I really enjoyed all the chats I had with others from universities and institutions across Australia.<br />
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<u><b>Day 1- Session 2</b></u><br />
<br />
After morning tea, I walked up to the School of Mines to attend the session on <b><i>Vietnam, Uncle Sam and the Peace Movement</i>.</b> This is not an area of history I've worked on much myself, but I'm growing interested in it for several reasons. First, because I have relatives who were closely involved in the Vietnam protest movement. Second, because I now have family connections to Vietnam itself. And third, because working on First World War history over the last few years, I've been a keen observer of the trends in Anzac attention, and I have perceived a very interesting shift toward the Vietnam War as an area of historical focus into the future. <br />
<br />
The three papers were all fascinating, particularly given the presence in the room of several people who had been directly involved in the events discussed, who were able to give great insight into the time.<br />
<br />
In discussing the anti-Vietnam War protests, <b>Lisa Milner</b> talked first about the role of women's organisations, and in particular the work of Freda Brown, a fascinating figure who has been a little sidelined in this area of history. You can read some of Lisa's work on <a href="http://mediadrive.net.au/2014/08/27/adventures-asio-writing-activist-freda-browns-biography">Freda Brown here</a>- her story is very worthy of being heard.<br />
<br />
<b>Nicholas Butler</b> spoke next, detailing how anger over the 1967 execution of Ronald Ryan, the last man hanged in Melbourne, rolled into subsequent radical protests against the Vietnam War. <a href="https://griffithreview.com/remember-ronald-ryan-jeff-sparrow/">This review</a> of the play <i>Remember Ronald Ryan</i> details some of the same historical background, explaining how the two events came to be related in a time of major social upheaval for Melbourne's youth.<br />
<br />
Both papers gave a unique angle on the tensions of the time, and reminded that Australia has a strong history of people standing up to protest when necessary.<br />
<br />
The final paper in the session was given by <b>Holly Wilson</b>, who spoke about protests that took place in Sicily in 1997 after many jobs were cut at the NATO/ American military base at Sigonella. This was quite a different geographic and cultural context, particularly given that the protesters were arguing not against war, but against the loss of work. A very interesting counterpoint.<br />
<u><b><br /></b></u>
<u><b>Day 1- Session 3</b></u><br />
<br />
After lunch, I wandered back to the other end of town to attend a session at the Camp Street building on <b><i>Photographic Histories</i></b>. Not only have I done a lot of work with historic photographs in my years of cultural information management, but I have a large collection of my own family's material that I'm still working through.<br />
<br />
The first paper was presented by <b>Fiona Kinsey</b> and <b>Hannah Perkins</b> from Museum Victoria, talking about a true boom and bust tale- the 120-year rise and fall of Kodak Australasia, as seen through oral and visual records. Starting as a local company before merging with the larger international brand, Kodak Australasia experienced great growth and success through the middle part of the 20th century- only to decline and fall just as quickly as the digital era swept into photography in the 21st century. The visual record provides such an interesting illustration of the story.<br />
<br />
The second paper was given by <b>Heatheranne Bullen</b> in what had to be the most heroic performance of the conference. Just at the end of the previous paper, the AV system dropped out- and could not be revived. Presenting in a tightly-framed session, giving a paper that relied almost entirely on the visual elements, it was enough to make anyone shudder. But Heatheranne soldiered on like a champion while the venue staff scurried to get the screen working again, presenting probably half her paper before the technical issue was fixed. Despite the lack of visuals she did a stellar job of describing the unseen photographs she was discussing, and I know we were all relieved for her when at last the problem was fixed.<br />
<br />
Her paper discussed a collection of family photographs taken around Oodnadatta in South Australia in the 1920s, exploring what could be learned from the visual record. It was easily one of my favourite presentations of the conference, looking not only at the obvious, but also at the importance of the context we cannot gain without talking to other people. There have been many additions to the understanding of these photographs through Heatheranne talking to people who still live in the area, or who do similar work today. Heatheranne also overlaid modern and past photographs to demonstrate landscapes that had changed or had not, and looked at the importance of perspective in photography and interpretation. Just great.<br />
<br />
The final paper was an emotional hard-hitter, with <b>Jacqueline Wilson</b> talking about the visual representation of boat people over the past decade, and the political uses of those images. I find some of those photographs very hard to look at, but it was a very timely and important topic, and well covered.<br />
<br />
<u><b>Day 1- Session 4</b></u><br />
<br />
The final session of Day 1 was one of the most interesting I attended. The topic was, <b><i>The Fortunes of Women? Life, death, and loss in reproduction in Australia, 1850- 1970</i>. </b><br />
<br />
<b>Madonna Grehan </b>spoke first with a searing and insightful view of childbirth at home gone terribly wrong between 1850 and 1880. As a midwife and nurse herself (as well as an historian), Madonna takes an unflinchingly political view of the history, intending to use it to eliminate some of the romantic ideals she believes are held by many modern home birth advocates. In the cases she discussed, there was nothing romantic about the desperate ends met by many women delivering their babies at home. The comprehensive stories of death by haemorrhage in particular were truly horrifying. The paper sparked some lively debate between presenter and audience, and I'm sure everyone was left with much to think about.<br />
<br />
The next speaker was <b>Dot Wickham</b>, talking about the Ballarat Female Refuge, where unmarried mothers were 'incarcerated' in the late 19th and early 20th century. It was another fascinating piece of history, though I did find myself questioning some of the conclusions, in particular the interpretation of tone (terse vs compassionate) in the comments of the doctors on official records. I'm sure a shift in tone is evident if you read through many years of records, but in the examples given, I saw the same kind of comment that is evident in the daily records many of the other institutions I've studied, such as police and lock-up records, native welfare, and the military. There are certainly subtle hints of tone there (exasperation being high on the list!), but a definite interpretation of that seems a tricky prospect in the absence of other evidence to support particular attitudes. Which of course, may exist- I would be interested to learn more about this, because it was a great subject, and one that, as Dot explained, comes with a lot of silence around those female perspectives. I love that so many projects are working to find some noise amidst all the quiet, and to fill in gaps that have long existed in the historical record.<br />
<br />
The final speaker was <b>Judith Godden</b>, talking about the Crown Street hospital in Sydney, and the forced adoptions of the 1960s and 1970s. This is a topic that has directly affected a family friend, and the details of women being coerced into giving up their babies were pretty harrowing in places. Also very interesting to see the adoption bust that occurred as social change accelerated (post-birth control) and more support was made available for single mothers.<br />
<br />
It really was a fascinating session, with the topic of motherhood always so fraught with emotion, particularly in relation to past troubles around maternal mortality, moral judgement of single mothers, and adoption, particularly forced removal of children. I thought all the speakers navigated their topics with sensitivity, and the passion in the room was a good thing in collective total.<br />
<br />
Worn out from a long day of listening and learning, I didn't attend the evening events, but rather went back to my hotel to prepare for giving my paper the next day. I'll add a detailed post about that, too, and I'll continue to blog about each day of the conference, updating with links below as I go.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-65529199479500423.post-21880694579808275462015-10-30T22:45:00.000-07:002016-03-24T03:23:15.858-07:002014 Centenary Events: Blackboy Hill and Fremantle Troop DeparturesWhile all eyes were on Albany in October 2014 for the centenary of the Australian troop departure, there were some smaller scale commemorative events in Perth to recognise an oft-forgotten element: the fact that almost all Western Australian troops departed from the Blackboy Hill Training Camp and on through the port of Fremantle.<br />
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These troops, most of them with the 11th and 12th Battalions, marched out of Blackboy Hill on October 31 1914, and made their way down to Fremantle by train. There, they boarded the ships <i>Ascanius</i> and <i>Medic</i>, and these did not go down to Albany to meet the rest of the fleet that had gathered there- rather, after pulling up anchor from on October 31st, they waited off the coast until the rest of the convoy caught up with them on November 2nd. <br />
<br />
Far too often, it is either stated or assumed that all troops left through Albany. The great irony is, even Albany soldiers travelled up to Perth for training before departing from Fremantle.<br />
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The City of Fremantle (and other partners) acknowledged this fact with a series of events over October 30th and 31st, beginning at Blackboy Hill and ending in Fremantle. I attended the Blackboy Hill events, but as I was on my way to the Albany events the next day, I'll turn the reporting over to a friend who attended the Fremantle side of things.<br />
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<b>Blackboy Hill- 30th October 2014</b><br />
<br />
The evening at Blackboy Hill was a great family event, featuring many groups who are working on Western Australia's military history. From the 10th Light Horse to historians and archaeologists from Notre Dame University, from re-enactors to pipe bands, from antique vehicles to the Katharine Susannah Prichard Writers' Centre group writing the <i>Blackboy Hill is Calling</i> history, there were presentations, demonstrations and displays of interest to all.<b><br /></b><br />
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10th Light Horse display</div>
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Era-appropriate tents set up for the kids who were camping overnight</div>
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Military vehicle display</div>
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A/Prof Deborah Gare and Dr. Shane Burke of Notre Dame discuss their work</div>
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The student pipe band did a fabulous job</div>
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Representing the original enlistees who marched away from the camp</div>
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<b>Fremantle- 31st October 2014</b><br />
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While I was busy driving down to Albany the next day to join the events there, the commemoration of Western Australia's troops continued in the harbour town of Fremantle. The following photographs and experiences come courtesy of a friend, Michael Gregg, who was there to see the troop march arrive.<br />
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Following the same general route as the troops did in 1914, a representative group made their way from Blackboy Hill down to Fremantle via railway, with the Hotham Valley steam train fitted out to match the original.<br />
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Michael was waiting at Fremantle harbour to watch them arrive, and gives a very evocative description of his experience. <br />
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#<br />
<br />
It’s the drums that hit me.<br />
<br />
A
minute ago, I was a rowdy bystander at yet another street parade, a
festive spectator gawking and bored, waiting for the action to start.<br />
<br />
And
it does. A quiet paradiddle on the snare drum, and suddenly we are in a
different world.<br />
<br />
The
skirl of the bagpipes cuts in, slashing across the present like a
knife. In front of me a horse kicks reflexively, and the khaki rider
steps her forward, leading the column where?<br />
<br />
Flags
lift and droop, and behind them, boots lift and step. Khaki uniforms
pass me, stepping in time, slouch hats hiding in shadow the identity of
the wearer. No matter – I know you, the hope and glory of our young
nation, striding into the world.<br />
<br />
Past
the Customs House, the column curls, stepping out now onto alien
territory, a first no-mans land, a place of embarkation and separation.
The flag waving spectators run to catch up, to be part of the transition
and the tradition. A curt official orders me away. “You can’t come in
here”. It blurs past me, but how cutting to the loved one whose very
heart is stumbling up a flimsy gangway, burdened by a bulging pack of
official requirements and a desperate sense of separation.<br />
<br />
Quietly we
gather together. Flashes
flash, and cameras film. Voices speak, extolling great glories. But one
quiet voice cuts through - a reflection of one man’s life, legacy and
suffering. Lest we forget what war meant to the very real participants.
We hang in silence, caught in a moment of awareness. And
then the impossibly polished bugle sounds. It is The Last Post. We
stand, remember and respect. And then the “Rouse” lifts us, jolts us put
of our reverie. The jaunty scale tells us we are alive, and grateful to
be so. Politicians ease off for their scheduled “photo ops”, but the
crowd remain, standing, remembering, marvelling.<br />
<br />
Eventually I stop
crying.<br />
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#<br />
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Some of Michael's photographs from the event are below.<br />
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The train coming in </div>
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Arriving at the station with the band all ready to greet it. The next few photographs show parts of the march to the docks, with various units represented.</div>
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And below is the end point at the Maritime Museum on Victoria Quay, just beside the spot where the ships were tied up back in 1914.</div>
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A big thank you to Michael for sharing his experience and photographs.<br />
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Next up: Anzac Albany.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-65529199479500423.post-37127060092161280922015-07-14T21:37:00.001-07:002016-03-24T03:23:38.412-07:00Arthur Tyrrell Williams and The Gallant Light HorseSeveral Olive Street soldiers returned from the war and became closely involved in the work of the RSSILA (Returned Sailors' and Soldiers' Imperial League of Australia, later to become the RSL (Returned and Services League)).<br />
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They were strong advocates for their fellow returned servicemen, and one of the most passionate was Arthur Tyrrell Williams, who lived at 139 Barker Road on the corner of Olive Street in Subiaco. Before, during and after the war, he was quite a remarkable man in many different ways.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">(<a href="http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/page/3489350">Western Mail, 25th June 1915</a>)</span></div>
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Before the war, Dublin-born Williams had been a civil servant working in the Lands Department. In 1908, he married Nellie Lalage Stacy, and in 1910, he became a land agent in partnership with his father-in-law, George Stacy. Over the next thirty years, Williams would involve himself in any number of land and mining ventures around Western Australia, always ambitious, though not always successful.<br />
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Nellie Williams was an interesting individual in her own right; before marriage, she was a piano teacher, and at 18 had become the <a href="http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/33514551">youngest musician in the Commonwealth to obtain the L.A.B degree</a> in Music (Licentiate of the Associated Board of the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal College of Music, London, in conjunction with the University of Adelaide). <br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Nellie Lalage Stacy </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">(<a href="http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/33514786">Western Mail, 19th August 1905</a>) </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><u><b>Arthur Tyrrell Williams at war</b></u> </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">Williams was 38 years of age when the Great War began in 1914, and he had a long military history of his own, having served during the Rhodesian Rebellion in 1896-97, and in the Boer War between 1899- 1902 as a Lieutenant Senior Cadet. He was amongst the first to enlist in August 1914, and with his prior experience, he applied for a commission in the 10th Light Horse Regiment. He was appointed a 2nd Lieutenant, and sailed for Gallipoli.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/26949757">Writing home on 31 May 1915</a>, Williams recounted a lucky escape from death that would, though he didn't yet realise it, change the course of his war experience:</span></div>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Am still safe and sound although slightly wounded. At a
point in our line of fire trenches, only eight or nine yards
from the enemy, I was on duty in command of supports to a
sortie made by 60 of our regiment. This party was led by two
of our lieutenants, and whilst busy filling up the
fire-trench two bombs fell into our supports trench. I saw
them fizzling about two paces behind me, and I knew I was
too late to pitch them back again or 'duck' for cover; so I
just turned my face away and waited.<br />
<br />
Both went off, and at
each bang I felt a corresponding bang on my back, but after
the dust, smoke, and fumes had cleared away (not being
conscious of anything more than a bruised feeling in my back)
I carried on with my work, which was so lively and absorbing
that I had no time to think of anything else.<br />
<br />
In a lull
in the awful inferno of the at tack I felt a sensation of
wetness on my back. I reported to the nearest dressing station
and had a field dressing put on four punctures from
fragments. Afterwards I walked down to the beach and had the
pieces picked out and am now as well as ever. On making an
examination of my equipment, I find that all the large
pieces of bomb which came my way struck my revolver belt,
haversack, and great coat. My emergency ration tin has a good
sized hole in it. I was very lucky to get off so lightly
considering that nearly all the men hit by bombs are terribly
mutilated.</blockquote>
<span style="font-size: small;">The same letter, published to <i>The West Australian</i> in July of that year, also provides colourful detail of the dangers of bathing at Gallipoli, and is well worth a read at the link above. He ends by stating, "</span><span style="font-size: small;">I have quite recovered now and feel no ill effects from my slight injury." </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">But within a few weeks, greater physical problems began to emerge. In the end, although he had managed to keep fighting after the initial injury, Williams had to be removed to Malta for further treatment, and from there to Italy. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">Over the course of several months, his long list of maladies would grow to include </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">dental caries and pyorrhoea (inflammation of the gums), ptomaine poisoning (food poisoning), plus </span>sciatica, lumbago, rheumatism, myalgia, and fibrositis (fibromyalgia). Williams believed that the concussion of the bomb blasts was responsible for his aches and pains; another contributing factor was a fall from scaffolding whilst supervising building works in Malta. </span><br />
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Williams describes his illnesses and injuries</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">(Source: <a href="http://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Gallery151/dist/JGalleryViewer.aspx?B=1805604&S=3&N=70#/SearchNRetrieve/NAAMedia/ShowImage.aspx?B=1805604&T=P&S=32">NAA</a>) </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">As an artist across many different modes of expression, Williams used some of his convalescent time to set down his impressions of Gallipoli. He drew a scene of Anzac looking north from Walker's Ridge, which was published in the newspapers:</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">While at Gallipoli, he also <a href="http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/37442640">collected seeds from the Gallipoli rock-rose (Cistus canastens)</a>. He sent these home to his father-in-law George, who became one of the first to propagate the plants in Australia.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMK4GMsxgIQTFWRWTW_tEUHDhcyzbnUqmexrcap_o5fh_mR3jTPDTg8_e6lDCNr_7obuOcokY6bHKT3aEP50h9H_FZL1cL91zXmy9dvI7PXkUjNKUFq1qcbx5PTFD8AEt0Lq8eYrR26r4/s1600/Screen+Shot+2015-07-13+at+1.46.28+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="234" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMK4GMsxgIQTFWRWTW_tEUHDhcyzbnUqmexrcap_o5fh_mR3jTPDTg8_e6lDCNr_7obuOcokY6bHKT3aEP50h9H_FZL1cL91zXmy9dvI7PXkUjNKUFq1qcbx5PTFD8AEt0Lq8eYrR26r4/s320/Screen+Shot+2015-07-13+at+1.46.28+PM.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">An ANZAC wildflower, propagated by George Stacy from seeds sent home by A. T. Williams</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">(Source: <a href="http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/page/3492769">Western Mail</a>) </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">After several months moving through the hospital system into Egypt and England, it was clear he would not return to fighting fitness, and he was sent back to Australia for change. For someone so passionately committed to the war effort, this was not a happy circumstance, and he was determined to get back to the fight. He did manage to return Egypt by mid-1916. But he fared no better the second time around, adding neuritis and neurasthenia to his list of ills, suggesting that there may have been an ongoing psychological element to his trouble. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">He returned to Australia again in 1917, and was permanently back on home soil from that point forward.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><u><b>Recruitment</b></u> </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Lacking the ability to fight, Williams instead worked as an instructor at the Blackboy Hill camp, and became an active recruiter. He spoke at public gatherings, wrote impassioned letters, and sent poetry to the newspapers.</span><br />
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<i>Hark to the cry from the trenches, </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Think of our men over
there! </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Hardship or war never quenches </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Their dash and courage
to dare. </i></div>
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<i> What are we? Neutrals or aliens? </i></div>
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<i>Hearing their cry, and afraid — </i></div>
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<i>"Send reinforcements,
Australians, </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Send out another brigade. </i></div>
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<i>Reg'ments that won fame
and glory, </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i> Reg'ments that never will die, </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Living in legend and
story, </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Crooned in the child's lullaby. </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Glory and fame must
not perish, </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Famous battalions must live. </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Shades of dead
heroes we cherish, </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Call to Australia to give. </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Australia, gem
of the ocean, </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Home of the brave and the free, </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Name that
inspires emotion — </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Synonym of liberty. </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>List, Parliamentary
benches, </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Will you her fair name besmirch? </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Hark to the cry
from the trenches, </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Don't leave us here in the lurch."</i></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
From <a href="http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/81061398"><i>The Daily News</i></a>, 22 February 1917</div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">He was not the only family member appealing to the public through verse. Father-in-law George Stacy, who was a former journalist and was involved in theatre productions locally, was a supporter of the "Yes" vote in the divisive conscription referenda. He was as prone to dramatic expression as his son-in-law, and after W. R. Winspear's famous work <i>The Blood Verse</i> circulated as an anti-conscription message, Stacy responded in kind.</span><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>"Why is your face so white, mother? Why do you choke for
breath?"<br />"Oh, I have dreamt in the night, my son, <br />That
I doomed a man to death." <br /><br />"I dreamt, my son, that I left a man<br />To perish for want
of aid,<br /> Though he fought to guard your mother, my son, <br /> For
of death he was not afraid.<br /><br />"He had sweated and bled and
starved for us,<br />Who were nothing of kin to him;<br /> But he
fought and wrought till his muscle sagged <br />And his once
clear eye grew dim.<br /><br />"And though he hoarsely called, "Send
help!"<br />No heed I took of his cry;<br />When 'Yes' would have
saved him I answered 'No,'<br />And I left him there to die.<br /><br />"As
I saw him sink, by numbers slain,<br /> I woke with a frightened
scream.<br />Oh! God, be thanked for His mercy great, <br />What I
saw was only a dream.<br /><br />"O, little son! O my son!<br />That dream
was a message sent:<br />To guide my feet in the path aright,<br />That vision was surely meant.<br /><br />"To-day I will answer that
dream-man's call,<br />And thousands will LIVE to bless<br />Her who
for country and country's sons<br />Had courage to answer 'Yes!'' </i></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
A VISION- AND AND ANSWER</div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
GEORGE STACY, St. George's Terrace, Perth. Without apology to
W. R. Winspear, Sydney.</div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<a href="http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/81728491"><i>The Daily News</i></a>, 27 October 1916 </div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSMbl8SF9focUK2m75BiDEk-6sTz7qUzQ_tgWy3QgpLSmaUn0L8OlANXKD0AOP8b-cFq8Jq7CCJyezSwjs527_rOFyfMDTd24ty6fsGKg6VV-PyGugFtIkvbBh31-oJjX3Xr3CCGtTnnI/s1600/483093_Large.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSMbl8SF9focUK2m75BiDEk-6sTz7qUzQ_tgWy3QgpLSmaUn0L8OlANXKD0AOP8b-cFq8Jq7CCJyezSwjs527_rOFyfMDTd24ty6fsGKg6VV-PyGugFtIkvbBh31-oJjX3Xr3CCGtTnnI/s400/483093_Large.jpg" width="303" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">W. R. Winspear's original <i>The Blood Vote</i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">(Source: <a href="http://museumvictoria.com.au/collections/items/1769518/leaflet-the-blood-vote-anti-conscription-campaign-world-war-i-australia-1917">Museum Victoria</a>) </span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Arthur Tyrrell Williams took his recruitment approach a step further again. With pianist wife Nellie, he composed a piece of music titled <i>The Gallant Light Horse</i>, aimed at encouraging others to join the fight.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The sheet music is held by the <a href="http://www.slwa.wa.gov.au/wammo/gallant/gallantth.html">State Library of Western Australia</a>, and when I first came across it, I put out a call to see if anyone would be able to assist by recording it. The request was answered by the wonderful Tim Chapman, Director of Music at Perth's St Hilda's Anglican School for Girls, who was not only able to play the piano but also provided the vocals. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Unheard for many decades, I'm now able to present to you <i>The Gallant Light Horse</i>, by Lt Arthur Tyrrell Williams and Nellie Lalage Williams, very much as it would have sounded in 1917.</span></div>
<iframe frameborder="no" height="450" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/203531970&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true" width="100%"></iframe>
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><u><b>Advocacy, Innovation, and the RSSILA debate</b></u> </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Williams did not only encourage others to go to war without a thought for what they would face. He was also and early and active advocate for Western Australia's returned soldiers. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">In 1917, guided by his extensive experience in the Lands Department, he </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">proposed a new repatriation settlement in the Riverton area. The idea was
somewhat controversial, as the sandy conditions were ill-suited to the
planned purpose of group farming. After much negative publicity, the project did not end up going ahead, and Williams himself quietly gave up his allotment of land in 1921. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span>In
vocal letters to the newspaper written by himself and his opponents,
Williams often gave the impression of a man of strong opinions and
ambition, and it is plain that he was not always popular.</span><br />
<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZNHndxDBz_XZZuBewF46xfN0FarYDcADOyM7f8GV0xPlL66Bn9pbpWL0OYIjwiGjwuhx0CS3zr25FX14SL1Zej7X-WkLsSBv3FwphCi-bm-Khc2Ip2l0li21p40L-E8CUokuZW9RiGsc/s1600/Screen+Shot+2015-07-13+at+2.45.58+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZNHndxDBz_XZZuBewF46xfN0FarYDcADOyM7f8GV0xPlL66Bn9pbpWL0OYIjwiGjwuhx0CS3zr25FX14SL1Zej7X-WkLsSBv3FwphCi-bm-Khc2Ip2l0li21p40L-E8CUokuZW9RiGsc/s320/Screen+Shot+2015-07-13+at+2.45.58+PM.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">A public joke at Williams' expense in 1919</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">(Source: <a href="http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/58000777">The Sunday Times</a>)</span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">In 1918, he was <a href="http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/27473633">embroiled in controversy</a>
after signing himself as the state secretary for the Western Australian
branch of the Returned Sailors' and Soldiers' League, implying that
this organisation was the official Western Australian branch of the
national RSSILA (later to become the RSL). At the time, the A.I.F.
Returned Soldiers' and Sailors' Association (the RSA) was also active in
Western Australia, and the general secretary of that group, Charles
Taylor, <a href="http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/27473493">objected strenuously</a> to Williams claiming to represent the state to the nation. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Deep divisions existed between the groups, and there was much shifting, changing and blending between they and the RSSILA over time, but from 1919, Williams appears to have bowed out of the ongoing power struggles amongst those at the highest levels of action.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;">He did, however, continue his fight to improve conditions, particularly for those who had been wounded in battle and were unable to return to their former occupations. Undaunted by the failure of his Riverton scheme and the bitter politics of the returned soldiers' world, <a href="http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/37609528">he launched a new venture</a> in which wounded veterans would make and deliver sandwiches to businesses in the Perth Central Business District.</span><br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbuBPbp27tH-YouN1p0erjY0tI8O776S7E1pXalEs4jPjoUbwq2xFiGV7j-3kTCnlmnC2swZHHPxAYEezxMnrdnoq1dhFgRm0YveefMjD5julNyfPXW-CqwHWyhgOJCLbV1WTovIRCgpk/s1600/Screen+Shot+2015-07-13+at+3.12.39+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="218" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbuBPbp27tH-YouN1p0erjY0tI8O776S7E1pXalEs4jPjoUbwq2xFiGV7j-3kTCnlmnC2swZHHPxAYEezxMnrdnoq1dhFgRm0YveefMjD5julNyfPXW-CqwHWyhgOJCLbV1WTovIRCgpk/s320/Screen+Shot+2015-07-13+at+3.12.39+PM.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5S6WqoZoDyxu9g5Z75rGjqKtlrCktGHYNCu1vMNn_mjkuTuTb2FJ1vX8mr5Jf5w-OchZr1UkR9ZAzBNum_Ulri_bqmCIytd76jKA2RY6sB4JbDgTVl5DDyvppHvpRKDiuNASRpq9NpKg/s1600/Screen+Shot+2015-07-13+at+3.13.00+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="219" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5S6WqoZoDyxu9g5Z75rGjqKtlrCktGHYNCu1vMNn_mjkuTuTb2FJ1vX8mr5Jf5w-OchZr1UkR9ZAzBNum_Ulri_bqmCIytd76jKA2RY6sB4JbDgTVl5DDyvppHvpRKDiuNASRpq9NpKg/s320/Screen+Shot+2015-07-13+at+3.13.00+PM.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">The workers of the Returned Soldiers' Sandwich Supply in 1919</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">(Source: <a href="http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/37611433"><i>Western Mail</i></a>)</span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Although the Returned Soldiers' Sandwich Supply was operated by others through the 1920s, such as the unfortunate <a href="http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/93884747">Fred Johnson</a>, Williams was still described as a caterer in electoral rolls through to the 1930s, later describing himself as a mining investor. After that point, his public life became a lot quieter, with mentions only of various mining ventures appearing in the newspapers, and the publication of a handful of plays.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">But war was not done with the Williams family yet. On 18 September 1943, <a href="http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/78456715"><i>The Daily News</i> published an article</a> about the Williams' son Jack, who was an air observer with the RAAF in England, training to become a night fighter.<br /><br />The former Hale School boy and gold assayer, who had been just three years of age when his father first went to war, had survived a close shave in the air when his out-of-control plane pulled out of a dive with only 150 feet to spare. The article also mentioned that he had married an English girl, Hazel, two weeks previously.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: small;">The very day after the article appeared, Jack was killed in a flying accident.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: small;">Arthur himself died in 1951, aged 75. He may have faded from public view over the years, but when it counted most immediately after the war, he was an influential figure in the lives of returned servicemen in Perth.</span><br />
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-65529199479500423.post-89382105475743868862015-04-24T00:54:00.002-07:002016-04-13T00:36:28.531-07:00Olive Street in the NewsSince releasing the Olive Street results, the project has been travelling far and wide! Here are some of the places it will appear- to be updated with links as each is complete.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>City of Subiaco- Subiaco Museum exhibit, <i>When the Great War Came to Subiaco</i></b><br />
<br />
The City of Subiaco has an exhibit running at the moment, featuring great work by museum coordinator Erica Boyne, Gallipoli Dead from Western Australia coordinator Shannon Lovelady, and many others. It also features a large panel that details some of the early work on the Olive Street story, and the exhibit gives great additional context to the research.<br />
<br />
Well worth a visit, and free. See <a href="http://www.subiaco.wa.gov.au/Things-to-do-in-Subi/History,-heritage-and-art/Subiaco-Museum/Museum-exhibitions.aspx">here</a> for more details, including opening hours.<i><br /></i><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCusGpqJpLPulPCAKXgLatOa4dbl3fGZmkLeXw5BTVUyH8QDVZsyIDaABWNfXQ73M8ZASEM2deHq-4Y1kkhmjzVpb548joJEWjJbH_KDRJxKKHS_kx553rcLkNWcjlBBPKpiIOueBF2zc/s1600/DSCN6746.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="162" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCusGpqJpLPulPCAKXgLatOa4dbl3fGZmkLeXw5BTVUyH8QDVZsyIDaABWNfXQ73M8ZASEM2deHq-4Y1kkhmjzVpb548joJEWjJbH_KDRJxKKHS_kx553rcLkNWcjlBBPKpiIOueBF2zc/s1600/DSCN6746.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<b>City of Subiaco- Lunchtime Talk in the Library</b><br />
<br />
I went along to the Subiaco Library on Friday 17th April to talk about the Olive Street research, and we had around 50 people in attendance. A very nice afternoon, and good to see many community members interested in the project. We'll be aiming to do more of these at different times in coming months.<b> </b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Interview with Nathan, Nat and Shaun on Nova 937- April 24th</b><br />
<br />
Leading into the centenary of the ANZAC landings on April 25th, I chatted to breakfast radio crew Nathan, Nat and Shaun on Nova 937. They are an absolute delight to speak with, and it was a much appreciated opportunity to tell the wider world about the Landscape of Loss project and the Olive Street outcomes. Below, the two interview segments are embedded, with kind permission of Nova.<br />
<br />
Part 1: <br />
<br />
<iframe frameborder="no" height="450" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/202296015&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true" width="100%"></iframe>
<br />
<br />
Part 2:<br />
<br />
<iframe frameborder="no" height="450" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/202296450&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true" width="100%"></iframe>
<br />
<br />
<b>Coverage in <i>The West Australian</i>, Saturday 25th April 2015</b><br />
<br />
Journalist Katherine Fleming wrote a beautiful piece about Olive Street for The West Australian's ANZAC Day Centenary issue, which also resulted in me getting to meet Murray Kerrigan, the grandson of Olive Street soldier (and Military Medal nominee) Tom Kerrigan. Both the online and print editions go into a great level of detail, including a graphic that shows the toll suffered by Olive Street residents. Having the added information about Tom Kerrigan's life from his direct descendants is a great addition to the overall Olive Street story, and I really appreciate Katherine's fantastic work in bringing it all together.<br />
<br />
Check out the full story <a href="https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/full-coverage/anzac-centenary/a/27325298/subiaco-street-paid-a-heavy-price/">here</a>.<br />
<br />
<b>State Records Office Family History Discovery Day</b><br />
<br />
On Sunday 26th April, I'm one of several local historians presenting our work at the State Records Office First World War Family History Discovery Day in Perth's Cultural Centre. We'll be at the State Theatre complex from 10am to 4pm, and I'm speaking at 2pm about the Landscape of Loss, and how you can find your own family's place in it.<br />
<br />
More information <a href="http://www.sro.wa.gov.au/news-events/events/first-world-war-family-history-discovery-day">here</a>.<br />
<br />
<i><b>Blackboy Hill is Calling</b></i><br />
<br />
On May 3rd at 3pm, the social history of the Blackboy Hill training camp, titled <i>Blackboy Hill is Calling</i>, will be launched by the Katharine Susannah Prichard Writers' Centre group up at Greenmount. I've contributed a chapter on brothers who trained at Blackboy Hill.<br />
<br />
There's also an earlier launch and a talk at the State Library on Monday 27th April at 11am.<br />
<br />
See the details of both <a href="http://kspf.iinet.net.au/blackboybook.php">here</a>.<br />
<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-65529199479500423.post-52345615951978276512015-04-07T18:51:00.000-07:002016-11-28T20:46:47.363-08:00Landscape of Loss: Olive Street StoriesThis is the third of three posts about Olive Street in Subiaco, Western Australia. The introduction can be found <a href="http://roadtowarandback.blogspot.com.au/2015/04/landscape-of-loss-olive-street.html">here</a>, some statistics and examples <a href="http://roadtowarandback.blogspot.com.au/2015/04/landscape-of-loss-olive-street_7.html">here</a>, and a map <a href="https://mapsengine.google.com/map/u/0/edit?hl=en&authuser=0&mid=zdt5mOU9x0Ew.kgQ6kEZ_rxtw">here</a>.<br />
<br />
# <br />
<br />
Throughout the fifty houses on Olive Street, there were an untold number of stories about how the war was felt in Subiaco. For every person who went to war, there were several left at home to wait, worry, and mourn if they did not return. For every person who came home, there was a lifetime of reckoning their First World War experience, and some found it considerably harder than others to get back to life as they had known it.<br />
<br />
Picture the entire street from the records available, and you will see neighbours of every variety. Professional and working class, Church of England and Roman Catholic, born overseas or interstate or locally, and working all across Western Australia in a range of jobs. Some were married with families, and some still lived with their parents. There were larger than life characters scattered up and down Olive Street, and the war affected them in many different ways.<br />
<br />
<u><b>Fathers and Sons: The Durkin Family of 22 Olive Street</b></u><br />
<br />
Nicholas Durkin was one of the tallest men to enlist from Olive Street, standing over 6’ in height. He was a prospector and miner who worked in some of Western Australia’s most remote outposts, and he was accordingly as rough and ready as you might expect. <br />
<br />
In the earlier years of the 20th century, wife Mary Ann had raised their six children, including sons Vincent and Bernard, in the Goldfields centre of Kalgoorlie. During the same time, Nicholas had worked in places as remote as Roebourne and Carnarvon, and his behaviour raised the occasional eyebrow.<br />
<br />
In 1910, after the success of a prospecting venture at Bullfinch, Nicholas commenced a six-week celebration comprising “one continual drinking bout”. During this time, Nicholas declared to many fellow guests at the Oddfellows’ Hotel in Fremantle that he and the married proprietor Mrs. Purcell had spent some time in the bedroom together. Mrs. Purcell denied this, and with many witnesses on her side, Nicholas was charged with defamation, and was convicted. The details of the case were widely reported in newspapers around the state.<br />
<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisq_wQ2omINokEN0_bbgBRNinXwcJ9W1YSLxifDiZnWLWoMj4hcFXsmE1Cylqa_UTD964JLlCiTaENVsdoks8NWLyEgqbt3Xsdu4Qq-WlvBMp8kLN8oy-754t1YZov9Fv6r32owGISEhw/s1600/1911_Kalgoorlie+Miner_Durkin+slander+case.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisq_wQ2omINokEN0_bbgBRNinXwcJ9W1YSLxifDiZnWLWoMj4hcFXsmE1Cylqa_UTD964JLlCiTaENVsdoks8NWLyEgqbt3Xsdu4Qq-WlvBMp8kLN8oy-754t1YZov9Fv6r32owGISEhw/s1600/1911_Kalgoorlie+Miner_Durkin+slander+case.jpg" width="139" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">(<a href="http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/91038271"><i>Kalgoorlie Miner</i>, 15th March 1911</a>)</span></div>
<br />
Mary Ann remained loyal, and the family moved away from the Goldfields and into Olive Street in 1914. When war was declared, Vincent was the first to enlist in 1915, followed shortly after by Bernard. Never one to shy away from adventure, Nicholas wasn’t going to be left behind- he reduced his age by ten years, from 52 to 42, and put his own name down as well. <br />
<br />
After many charges of being Absent Without Leave before even departing Australian shores, it must have been clear that military discipline and Nicholas Durkin were not an ideal combination. But it was on arrival in England that Nicholas wasn’t able to complete the basic drills and marches due to his age, and at that, he was discovered, sent home, and discharged. Vincent and Bernard fought out the remainder of the war, and returned home in 1919.<br />
<br />
Nicholas died in 1930, aged 67. Bernard married and had a child, but was only 54 when he passed away in 1942. Vincent would later go on to serve in the Second World War, and acted as Secretary of the North-East Fremantle Sub-Branch of the RSL. He is pictured on the left at the 1920 wedding of his sister Fayne (far right), with his future wife Florence Hollins standing behind him.<br />
<br />
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<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">(Courtesy: Flo Montgomery)</span></div>
<br />
The family’s relationship with housemate George Hunter is unclear. He was a contractor working on a farm in the country town of Wagin, and his wife Ada Allison Myrtle Hunter gave 22 Olive Street as her next of kin address when George enlisted, one day after Vincent Durkin. George was injured a number of times, including one occasion where he slipped off a duckboard and landed on a concealed, upright bayonet, which pierced his foot. Like the other residents of number 22, he survived the fighting and returned home in 1919.<br />
<br />
<u><b>Brothers in Arms: The Rogers Family of 23 Olive Street </b></u><br />
<br />
Directly across the road from the Durkin home, at 23 Olive Street, the four soldier sons of George and Annie
Rogers all enlisted between November 1915 and April 1916. In short order, they
were off to the Western Front, ready to do their bit for the war effort. The
oldest, miner George, was 24- the youngest, labourer William, only 18.<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiupANKTAATbC7v65_1-rnUQkZvL3-yRwyVYiwPEKgpg3KFRPky0U2kR1g82J3MRiF-XglJFQYCGhIJeueLtRNuSFsXQFmEjdv8o6EHY_CrD0S265AbyiS1UW7LZZFX_wnWH8QQIEyvmfE/s1600/Olive+Street_23_ROGERS_1916_Western+Mail_Four+Soldier+Sons+of+Olive+Street.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiupANKTAATbC7v65_1-rnUQkZvL3-yRwyVYiwPEKgpg3KFRPky0U2kR1g82J3MRiF-XglJFQYCGhIJeueLtRNuSFsXQFmEjdv8o6EHY_CrD0S265AbyiS1UW7LZZFX_wnWH8QQIEyvmfE/s1600/Olive+Street_23_ROGERS_1916_Western+Mail_Four+Soldier+Sons+of+Olive+Street.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">(<a href="http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/37437296"><i>Western Mail</i>, 29th September 1916</a>) </span></div>
<br />
After enlisting, George married Stella Adella North. Their son, also
named George, would be born in his father’s absence- and they would never get
to meet. George was killed in action at Passchendaele in 1917, leaving Stella a
widow at just 21 years of age.<br />
<br />
David Rogers also died a few months later, killed during fierce fighting at Dernancourt. Witnesses said he had gone to the aid of a fallen soldier, only to be struck by a bullet, grenade or shell in the stomach. He was seriously wounded and would not allow anyone to touch him, so had to be left where he was in a position where the German Army would shortly overtake the ground. Many assumed he must have become a prisoner of war, but there was no record of that- he was eventually listed as killed in action after an inquiry.<br />
<br />
James
Rogers returned home early with gunshot injuries to his hand, while William was also
shot in the hand and head, but fought on to the end of the war.<br />
<br />
There were many sets of Olive Street brothers who enlisted and fought together, including the three Rankin brothers who lived at 27 Olive Street, a couple of houses up from the Rogers family. Most lost at least one sibling to the fighting. <br />
<br />
<u><b>Luck and Lack Thereof</b></u><br />
<br />
Wally D'raine was a well-known character around Perth, having been born in the north of England and having come to Western Australia via the United States. He was a successful butcher with several stores, and he approached his work with a salesman's enthusiasm and flair. No publicity was bad publicity for D'raine, who fell out with both his brother and his wife in very public ways.<br />
<br />
He was living at 74 Olive Street in 1915 when he enlisted for war, initially becoming a sergeant in the 10th Light Horse Regiment.<br />
<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Wally D'Raine </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">(<a href="http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/58679218"><i>Sunday Times</i>, 30th April 1933</a>)</span></div>
<br />
Wally also had a combination of luck that was at once terrible and fortunate. He was being treated for bronchitis at the 53rd Casualty Clearing Station near Bailleul in 1917 when an enemy plane dropped a bomb, resulting in serious injuries from shrapnel. After six months of treatment for wounds to his shoulder, chest, face and leg, he was invalided back to Australia and took no further part in the war. <br />
<br />
A similar piece of terrible luck befell Ernest Lyndon Menagh, whose brother John Wilson Menagh had lived at 31 Olive Street. A corporal with the 4th Divisional Ammunition Column, he was billeted in a three-storey house near Peronne, and was asleep when an air raid scored a direct hit. He received serious wounds to the legs and abdomen, and died three days later at the 35th Casualty Clearing Station.<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjacZqihbsLOZ_UnZZKqwL9zW6Gol6dEEGYI6yjLF0GZ6cmbsE5awFbXxelT6X6zwoafh7iyPwuMfucuozvHKzbDPalhvMEWqjjuPLrR8msSWY_X3eU9tQtT6NNKEj-LFatbPYBiD0ROaE/s1600/Screen+Shot+2015-04-08+at+9.13.33+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjacZqihbsLOZ_UnZZKqwL9zW6Gol6dEEGYI6yjLF0GZ6cmbsE5awFbXxelT6X6zwoafh7iyPwuMfucuozvHKzbDPalhvMEWqjjuPLrR8msSWY_X3eU9tQtT6NNKEj-LFatbPYBiD0ROaE/s1600/Screen+Shot+2015-04-08+at+9.13.33+AM.png" width="223" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">(<a href="http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/page/3489473"><i>Western Mail</i>, 2nd July 1915</a>)</span></div>
<br />
<u><b>Above and Beyond the Call</b></u><br />
<br />
Three residents of Olive Street were recommended for or awarded medals for bravery during the First World War.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>KERRIGAN, Thomas Michael (74 Olive Street)- Military Medal</b><br />
<br />
The Kerrigan
family were well-known in the Kulin area, where father John was a local
publican. After their son Tom enlisted in 1915, they moved into Olive Street
for the remainder of the war years.<br />
<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">(<a href="http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/37436610"><i>Western Mail</i>, 1st September 1916</a>)</span></div>
<br />
At the infamous
battle of Pozieres in July 1916, where numerous other Olive Street soldiers
were wounded or killed, Tom’s efforts under fire earned him a recommendation for the Military Medal.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>At Pozieres from 22nd to 26th July 1916, Pte
Claude Tasman JACK and Pte Thomas Michael KERRIGAN continuously carried
despatches from Bde Hqs to firing line over country which was continuously
swept by heavy machine gun and shrapnel fire. Both men were seriously wounded
but sent the despatches which they were carrying at the time back to the Bde
Depot Office thus ensuring their ultimate delivery.</i> </blockquote>
Tom was wounded during the battle, and much more seriously the
following year, when he was shot in the neck. He recovered and returned to
Western Australia, where in 1920, John Kerrigan bought the new Kulin Hotel. Tom
took over the Billiard Table and Wayside House licenses from his father in
1921, and married Florence Robinson in 1923. He was active in the local RSL in
the district, and raised five children with his
wife. He died in 1974, aged 80. <br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>GWYTHER, Edward McKinnon (87 Olive Street)</b>- <b>Distinguished Conduct Medal and Military Medal</b><br />
<br />
Edward McKinnon Gwyther was
a 19-year-old clerk who had lived in Olive Street and worked in Kalgoorlie, and
he was amongst the first to enlist in August 1914. After several bouts of
serious illness during the fighting at Gallipoli, he rose through the ranks to
become a sergeant. He was awarded the Military Medal
for gallantry and devotion to duty at Jeancourt in September 1918, and also recommended for the Distinguished Conduct Medal:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>On the night 17th/
18th September 1918 and throughout the operation on 18th
Sept. 1918 at JEANCOURT Sgt. GWYTHER and Cpl. JONES were in charge of Brigade
and Group Artillery communications and showed great gallantry and devotion to
duty in laying and maintaining communications throughout the night previous to
the advance and throughout the advance.</i><br />
<i>
</i><br />
<i>
When our barrage opened the
enemy put his barrage down on Group Headquarters, cutting all the artillery and
infantry lines. These N.C.Os went out under this barrage and worked for 8 hours
mending broken lines, thereby making it possible for communication being kept
with the advance, enabling orders to be given to the Artillery and information
sent back.</i></blockquote>
On his return, he married twice and had children, largely living in
the Shenton Park area until his death in 1972.<br />
<br />
<b>HENDERSON, William John (86 Bagot Road)- Distinguished Conduct Medal</b><br />
<br />
William Henderson was an accountant and legal manager who lived at
86 Bagot Road, on the corner of Olive Street, with his wife Annie. His brother
George, a 21-year-old labourer, gave the same address when he enlisted in 1914,
and also listed William as his next of kin. <br />
<br />
William was an experienced soldier, having previously fought in the
Boer War for two years, and his application for a commission with the 10th
Light Horse Regiment in 1914 saw him given the rank of Sergeant. He fought at
Gallipoli, where in August at the infamous battle of Hill 60, his extraordinary
efforts would see him Mentioned in Despatches and awarded the Distinguished Conduct
Medal. <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>For conspicuous bravery and
devotion to duty on the 29th and 30th August, 1915, at Hill 60 (Dardanelles).
During the operations Sergeant Henderson rendered most valuable assistance to
his Commanding Officer, and when the latter was wounded and ordered away he
remained, with one other man only, and successfully held an important section.
Finally, when relief arrived, he volunteered to remain, and was in the trench
for thirty-seven hours, during which period there was almost incessant hand-to-hand
fighting. He proved untiring, and displayed a courage and devotion to duty
beyond praise.</i></blockquote>
The Commanding Officer referred to in the citation was Captain Hugo Vivian Throssell, <a href="https://www.awm.gov.au/people/P10675770/">who was awarded the Victoria Cross</a> for his part in the same action. <br />
<br />
The story of Henderson's 37-hour hand-to-hand fight to hold a trench is
inspiring enough, but his service record reveals that his actions
required double the effort. From the moment he arrived in Egypt, he was
suffering a recurrence of long-term health problems with his digestive system
that saw him taken out of the line multiple times. He had only been back in the
line for a brief time from his latest illness when called on to fight at Hill
60. No longer able to digest the field diet, he returned to Australia for
change in 1917. But unwilling to remain at home, he went back to Egypt at the
end of that year. He saw no further fighting, and returned to Australia again
within the month.<br />
<br />
William was an active advocate for returned soldiers, and after
moving back to his home state of Victoria, became the General/ Federal
Secretary of the RSSILA (Returned Sailors and Soldiers Imperial League of
Australia, later to become the RSL). In 1921, after years of battling the same
problems, he was finally too tired to fight on. He died in the No 11 Australian
General Hospital in Melbourne in March that year, with his cause of death given
as intestinal obstruction and exhaustion.<br />
<br />
His brother George, also resident at 86 Bagot Road, was killed in
action at Messines in 1917.<br />
<br />
<u><b>A World of Grief at Number 90: the McKinnons and the Sampfords</b></u><br />
<br />
Though many
houses in Olive Street suffered losses, the home at number 90 received a much
larger share of bad news than most.<br />
<br />
Two different
families were associated with the house throughout the war years- first, the
McKinnons from 1915- 1916, and then the Sampfords from 1917- 1918.<br />
<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">David Stanley McKinnon in 1915</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">(<a href="https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/P08210.001/">Courtesy: Australian War Memorial</a>)</span></div>
<br />
Annie Catherine “Kit” Fitzgerald married husband David McKinnon, a
well-known soccer player for the Caledonian team, after he enlisted in 1915. By
the time he departed for war with his brother Daniel, she was expecting their
first child.<br />
<br />
Tragedy struck early at number 90. Baby David Joseph McKinnon was
born in January 1916, and died within a few days. Kit was left to mourn the
loss of her baby alone, and her grief would expand in July that year, when
David was killed in action at Pozieres. His brother Daniel died one day later
in a German Prisoner of War camp of wounds received at Fromelles. The following year,
Kit’s closest brother Frank Fitzgerald was also killed in action<span style="font-size: x-small;">.</span> On the second anniversary of her husband's death, Kit (by then living around the corner at 82 Bagot Road) placed
a newspaper notice mourning all three.<br />
<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">(<a href="http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/27484985"><i>The West Australia</i>n, 29th July 1918</a>)</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
She never remarried, and upon her death in 1962, she was reunited
with her son, buried in the same grave at Karrakatta cemetery.<br />
<br />
Like the Durkin family at the other end of Olive Street, the
Sampfords had a lot of character. Ernest Sampford was a father of seven
children between the ages of 9 and 27, and he enlisted with three of his sons
to fight. <br />
<br />
Arthur was the first son to enlist at the outbreak of war in 1914,
and he landed at Gallipoli with the rest of the 11th Battalion. He
was seriously wounded within days, with a gunshot wound to the face and an
un-united compound fracture of his arm resulting in his return home.<br />
<br />
Not long before Arthur arrived back on Australian shores,
21-year-old Charles and 23-year-old Billy enlisted on the same day in July
1915. They fought with the 48th Battalion at Pozieres, where Billy
was killed in action. Charles survived the fight, but ran into trouble not long
after. While on active duty, he left his post contrary to orders, and at his
subsequent court martial was sentenced to ten years of penal servitude. This
was commuted to two years of imprisonment with hard labour, but after a year in
prison, Charles was released early and returned to the Front. Within weeks, he
too was killed in action at Jeancourt.<br />
<br />
44-year-old carpenter Ernest was the last to enlist in November
1915, following his sons across to the Western Front. He spent just six days in
the field before being urgently removed to hospital with bronchitis and
pleurisy. With old age listed as the reason, he was discharged from the AIF and
returned to Australia. He later returned to London as a munitions worker for a
brief period, before coming back to Australia. He died at the Edward Millen
Home in Victoria Park in 1925.<br />
<br />
<u><b>On the Home Front</b></u><br />
<br />
From 139 Barker
Road, enthusiastic volunteer Arthur Tyrrell Williams went to Gallipoli with the 10th Light
Horse Regiment. But in 1915, he was wounded in action and forced to return to Australia. On the home front, he
became a fervent campaigner for recruitment in Western Australia, speaking at
rallies and even writing a patriotic song, The
Gallant Light Horse, with his pianist wife Nellie.<br />
<br />
<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>The Gallant Light Horse</i>, by Williams and Williams</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">(<a href="http://www.slwa.wa.gov.au/wammo/gallant/gallantth.html">Courtesy: State Library of WA</a>)</span></div>
<br />
Arthur was not
just a man of words. He was also prominent in working to assist returned
servicemen, becoming Western Australia’s secretary of the RSSILA (RSL), and
proposing a settlement scheme for the Riverton area. When that failed, he
commenced a business in which wounded soldiers made and distributed sandwiches
to offices in central Perth.<br />
<u><b><br /></b></u>
<u><b>Beyond the War</b></u><br />
<br />
Many Olive Street soldiers had a difficult time after their return from war. Some were arrested for public drunkenness, abusive language, and running betting operations. Others were divorced or separated, or charged with the maintenance of illegitimate children. Many of those who made it home died far too young, within a decade of their return.<br />
<br />
Amidst the difficulties, there was also hope. Widows like Stella Rogers remarried and began new families. New careers began for many whose physical capacity had been altered by their war experiences, and some achieved great success.<br />
<br />
The Landscape of Loss study seeks to examine the long-term social change that resulted from the First World War, and over time will bring together as many stories as possible of life after the war. Most of those who had been resident in Olive Street during the war years had moved elsewhere by 1920, but during those years, the residents had suffered together and pulled through. For many, their challenges were just beginning.<br />
<br />
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</div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Welcome Home to Returned Subiaco Servicemen</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">(Courtesy: City of Subiaco)</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-65529199479500423.post-25905144896110122552015-04-07T09:07:00.002-07:002016-03-24T03:24:19.723-07:00Landscape of Loss: Olive Street StatisticsThis is the second of three posts about Olive Street, in Subiaco, Western Australia. The introduction can be found <a href="http://roadtowarandback.blogspot.com.au/2015/04/landscape-of-loss-olive-street.html">here</a>, additional stories are <a href="http://roadtowarandback.blogspot.com.au/2015/04/landscape-of-loss-olive-street-stories.html">here</a>, and the map is <a href="https://mapsengine.google.com/map/u/0/edit?hl=en&authuser=0&mid=zdt5mOU9x0Ew.kgQ6kEZ_rxtw">here</a>. This post discusses the statistics about enlisted men associated with Olive Street, and provides the stories behind the numbers.<br />
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The 49 men who successfully enlisted from Olive Street are but drop in the bucket of the total Australians who went to war between 1914 and 1919. <a href="https://www.awm.gov.au/encyclopedia/enlistment/ww1/">Official statistics</a> state that around 420,000 people enlisted from a nation of 4.9 million; around 38.7% of all men aged between 18 and 44 at the time. From Western Australia, more than 32,000 men went to war.</div>
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Olive Street represents only 0.01% of the national total, just 0.15% of the state total, and around 2.5% of the 2000+ Subiaco men I predict will feature in the Landscape of Loss study over the next three years. So, the statistical data gathered through this study is of little immediate relevance to the national context, or even the wider local context, taken as it is. The sample is too small to draw any strong conclusions of relevance to anywhere but Olive Street itself.</div>
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And therein lies the value of the study. While it may be a small portion of the overall whole, the numbers here represent as many Olive Street soldiers as possible. The representation for the street itself should be somewhere near 100%, which provides quite a comprehensive picture of the war experience of these residents. In time, as additional streets are investigated, a picture will begin to build of the impact of war on one complete suburb of Perth.</div>
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The information used to generate the statistics below has been collected from a wide range of primary resources, including WWI service records, Births Deaths and Marriages records, cemetery records, newspaper family notices, and so on.</div>
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<u><b>Age at Enlistment</b></u></div>
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The average age of enlistment for Olive Street soldiers was 27.5 years of age, and recruits in the street ranged from 18 through to 52 years of age.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgQu11mjZw_e8iSr1aC8mKESkOwytd9lU_aBH9I95xZstbA0jKPa-nysu3oM1TdlEq4rTyDcZD4twwNcT-QQwf5jFTfoYrNiuZWCFDWTR3929Ym5dFEXkExYEr2QR76On5orVsCGX_x7g/s1600/Olive+Street-+Age+at+Enlistment.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgQu11mjZw_e8iSr1aC8mKESkOwytd9lU_aBH9I95xZstbA0jKPa-nysu3oM1TdlEq4rTyDcZD4twwNcT-QQwf5jFTfoYrNiuZWCFDWTR3929Ym5dFEXkExYEr2QR76On5orVsCGX_x7g/s1600/Olive+Street-+Age+at+Enlistment.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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A number of people over the years have investigated and detailed the age
ranges of recruits to the First Australian Imperial Force, including
Bean, <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10314617308595502#.VSNzRWZlE7A">Robson</a> and <a href="https://www.awm.gov.au/encyclopedia/enlistment/ww1/">McQuilton</a>.
McQuilton provides a clear table of the statistical analysis of age
ranges in Robson's work, and the Olive Street percentages (shown also in
the chart below) are provided for comparison:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEEoYJzknlf-dpGsim0mlnF8O23pQW4CK2PBENOTptq82zS3W6FBKqJxBZxin7VC9S3vWzZovvue8H9b4zZQ3J5nN-vTB4hfj9W_ISe9CDXUgjMsn9uO6bxOBAeUir4Ef6Q0aW-np0NsI/s1600/Screen+Shot+2015-04-07+at+2.18.57+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="174" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEEoYJzknlf-dpGsim0mlnF8O23pQW4CK2PBENOTptq82zS3W6FBKqJxBZxin7VC9S3vWzZovvue8H9b4zZQ3J5nN-vTB4hfj9W_ISe9CDXUgjMsn9uO6bxOBAeUir4Ef6Q0aW-np0NsI/s1600/Screen+Shot+2015-04-07+at+2.18.57+PM.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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Most of the numbers match the standard seen across Australia during that time period. The major point of interest in Olive Street is the comparatively high enlistment (double the usual statistic) of men over the age of 40. </div>
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Seven different men aged 40 and above went to war from this road, including the oldest- 52 year old Nicholas Durkin- who lied about his age to enlist. That represents 14% of total enlistments from the street.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_lBscnVLFgTJoXp3TUJc_pVwCUxCX22am42RjiCwIJTDTvJ7jG_v12XPIO6Cux15-1ZoFPOgcZzs-0oFcasdK2d61M1jDzq61kpAdb7H29XPwjIFGnJCz3KkQMa4s7rkZEN1eqTDsruk/s1600/Olive+Street-+Age+Ranges+(value).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_lBscnVLFgTJoXp3TUJc_pVwCUxCX22am42RjiCwIJTDTvJ7jG_v12XPIO6Cux15-1ZoFPOgcZzs-0oFcasdK2d61M1jDzq61kpAdb7H29XPwjIFGnJCz3KkQMa4s7rkZEN1eqTDsruk/s1600/Olive+Street-+Age+Ranges+(value).jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Of those seven men, one enlisted early enough in 1915 to see service at Gallipoli; as might be expected, all of the others enlisted after June 1915, the point at which <a href="https://www.awm.gov.au/encyclopedia/enlistment/">enlistment standards were relaxed</a> to allow an upper age of 45 (rather than the 35 it had initially been from August 1914).<br />
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In terms of family situation, five of the seven men were married, most with children, which is a significantly different proportion to any other age group in the study. Five (including one unmarried) enlisted after close relatives- sons or sons-in-law, younger brothers, or nephews- went to war. One of the men, John Christian Monson, was the only man in the street listed as legally separated from his wife, and a great deal of public conflict had occurred within the family in the years before he enlisted (see Marital Status, below). Others, such as Nicholas Durkin and John Mackie, had also been in the news for marital problems prior to enlisting.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCKhnr4PHPN4exABcnfZtJx8KIxIhIvhi06E70e-pqoP2eZ-oAtCAWR6du-FYbC4_zxURiQnAZrDpxOoMeJZwE05-l9wnCuVoI3YfQqy1cpMXse5tk02BWS-rdskXKIXazN7mkMXJzvGo/s1600/Screen+Shot+2015-04-07+at+9.56.44+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="63" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCKhnr4PHPN4exABcnfZtJx8KIxIhIvhi06E70e-pqoP2eZ-oAtCAWR6du-FYbC4_zxURiQnAZrDpxOoMeJZwE05-l9wnCuVoI3YfQqy1cpMXse5tk02BWS-rdskXKIXazN7mkMXJzvGo/s1600/Screen+Shot+2015-04-07+at+9.56.44+PM.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/26978608"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>(The West Australian</i>, 5th May 1916</span></a><span style="font-size: x-small;">)</span></div>
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Six of the seven men were engaged in heavy physical work at home, including mining, railway construction and carpentry, and no doubt felt their experience and physical capacity would be as valued on the front as it was in their regular occupation.<br />
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Two were declared unfit (due to advanced age) before they saw any service. Two were killed, and the other three all returned to Australia wounded or ill. One, Ernest Sampford, died only a few years after the war in the <a href="http://purl.slwa.wa.gov.au/slwa_b2102890_2">Edward Millen Home in Victoria Park</a>, which treated soldiers who suffered, as he did, from ongoing respiratory problems.<br />
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The youngest man to successfully enlist on Olive Street was Eric Armstrong Simons, of number 84. In February 1917, his parents signed permission for him to go to war, swearing that he was 18 years and 4 months of age. However, Eric was actually only 17 years and 10 months of age. He'd been a keen cadet in the 87th Infantry Citizen Forces for four years, and was well-known around camp, so he didn't get away with it.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj29Fh3B-MCoeCHM4P3cSHbiQFczFRK78_m2sMhF1f8Sx1G_KxVAeoUQhIWPf1w1oNX5fUM8ALq0JO-0GXSTCFengYc-b1wvnMmLv6sS9k4ruYa6tzG56eItseO-w4erjaeuysKZwWrBYk/s1600/84+Olive+Street_1918_SIMONS+Eric+Armstrong+character+reference.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="289" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj29Fh3B-MCoeCHM4P3cSHbiQFczFRK78_m2sMhF1f8Sx1G_KxVAeoUQhIWPf1w1oNX5fUM8ALq0JO-0GXSTCFengYc-b1wvnMmLv6sS9k4ruYa6tzG56eItseO-w4erjaeuysKZwWrBYk/s1600/84+Olive+Street_1918_SIMONS+Eric+Armstrong+character+reference.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">(<a href="http://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/DetailsReports/ItemDetail.aspx?Barcode=8085059&isAv=N">NAA: B2455, SIMONS Eric Armstrong</a>)</span></div>
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He was, though, allowed to join the 5th District Guard for home duty at Karrakatta, and in April 1918 finally achieved his goal of embarking with the 28th Battalion. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1cBk2pcXStdNddbZvofXLdhAWup3PAbxlJOs7Jv6HkEECUTNinbgpwMJXCttWCYqMD7BqbnsFKtUd81kyrk56tJzms7bBLKic3QW_qqpVjZH2RlrnhbnQyd6AnAZOf1PeAJTwQP4SC6Q/s1600/Screen+Shot+2015-04-07+at+10.12.18+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="157" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1cBk2pcXStdNddbZvofXLdhAWup3PAbxlJOs7Jv6HkEECUTNinbgpwMJXCttWCYqMD7BqbnsFKtUd81kyrk56tJzms7bBLKic3QW_qqpVjZH2RlrnhbnQyd6AnAZOf1PeAJTwQP4SC6Q/s1600/Screen+Shot+2015-04-07+at+10.12.18+PM.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">(<a href="http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/165082759"><i>Camp Chronicle</i>, 11th April 1918</a>)</span></div>
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By the time he arrived in England to join the training camp, the war was coming to a close, and he saw no active service, instead being attached to the AIF Headquarters in London until late 1919. Simons presents as a fiercely motivated individual, who started as a junior clerk in the Lands and Surveys department at 16 years of age. After the war, he and his wife Kathleen, who he married when he was still only 18, moved out to Serpentine to become settlers on the land. By the 1930s, they had returned to Victoria Park, where Simons worked again as a clerk.<br />
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When the Second World War began, he was 40 years of age and a father of nine, and <a href="http://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/DetailsReports/ItemDetail.aspx?Barcode=5871888&isAv=N">he was straight in line to participate</a>, joining the 10th Garrison Battalion on 9th October 1939. He served as the quartermaster and adjutant of the Northam training camp in 1940 before transferring to Perth Headquarters, rising to the rank of Captain by 1945. After some time working to oversee prisoners-of-war, he travelled overseas again in 1946 as a guard transferring released Italians back to their homeland. <br />
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<u><b>Marital Status</b></u><br />
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Around 63% of Olive Street soldiers were single, and 33% were married.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2O4XvYHS2VwpokXv0NaKbjBZ6uyZMtfZBGEaBLpiKV0LHg8Y5ou3MoLQ7yGamKZ_B5wWQlWHFUYwylkVrVAkkHr3MxY2vlSMmS0ZWZsret-H-MgcRoNAu55PlR2Yjp720FK2SCPo5B-0/s1600/Olive+Street-+Marital+Status.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2O4XvYHS2VwpokXv0NaKbjBZ6uyZMtfZBGEaBLpiKV0LHg8Y5ou3MoLQ7yGamKZ_B5wWQlWHFUYwylkVrVAkkHr3MxY2vlSMmS0ZWZsret-H-MgcRoNAu55PlR2Yjp720FK2SCPo5B-0/s1600/Olive+Street-+Marital+Status.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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One soldier, John Monson, had legally separated from his wife Laura after a tumultuous few years that included bankruptcy and the loss of a child. Monson listed his eldest son Kelvin as his next of kin at the family's Barker Road home. Kelvin was aged just 13 in 1916 when he received the news that his father had died of wounds received at Pozieres.<br />
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Over the following years, Laura worked independently as a typist to support herself and her four younger children, eventually reaching a stage where she was able to buy her own property in what is now Perth's London Court. They stayed in the house on Olive Street until 1922, becoming some of the longest remaining residents from the First World War years. There was a large movement of people in the years following the war, with very few Olive Street residents remaining in the same homes beyond 1920.<br />
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Kelvin Monson fell in with a bad crowd and turned to a life of crime, becoming something of a celebrated burglar in Perth, known not only for his crimes but for his good looks and smart wardrobe. His notoriety grew to <a href="http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/34401364">nation-wide status in 1926</a> after he escaped the famous Pentridge Gaol in Melbourne, managing to evade searchers for several weeks by stowing away on a ship to Fremantle, where he was eventually re-captured. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1F9CaoFf6Qxuv0arfmvgAx6vprXRjzGRVy5xPj-OJc76cjPXmAIY4wTG9Sx1GBdYguRfdjFEdd6yUxCeOBx8Qft4Esfd8ZC_orFNLIx6Gh6SwAwiSA_HlKCxFSjbCyFileruDusQF2Kg/s1600/Screen+Shot+2015-04-07+at+10.36.05+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1F9CaoFf6Qxuv0arfmvgAx6vprXRjzGRVy5xPj-OJc76cjPXmAIY4wTG9Sx1GBdYguRfdjFEdd6yUxCeOBx8Qft4Esfd8ZC_orFNLIx6Gh6SwAwiSA_HlKCxFSjbCyFileruDusQF2Kg/s1600/Screen+Shot+2015-04-07+at+10.36.05+PM.png" width="188" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">(<a href="http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/84157224"><i>The Daily News</i>, 6th July 1926</a>)</span></div>
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Another soldier, Samuel Edward Byrne Grimwood, was a widower- his wife Mabel had died tragically from an accidental poisoning at Cottesloe's Ocean Beach Hotel in 1912, mistaking his Lysol-laden hair tonic for her headache preparation. In 1918, after a period of time commanding the 10th Light Horse regiment in the Middle East, Grimwood married Florence Mary Duder in Egypt, and they returned home and settled down to new life in Western Australia.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqs0ZSO4bvumt7Sc_Oc8HpDvH9Rnqvi0roA6IOL-qdeVvvHLbIbtpMx1Lqk49xp6sruP2mSqOJLT92lAsc0d2gJCuDCr0GuPXLAbOgQ7l4Cx0fU9eF4bjrZhdHSKciAk5nn5ARRaqNDsM/s1600/1912_Kalgoorlie+Miner_Death+of+Mrs+Sam+Grimwood.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqs0ZSO4bvumt7Sc_Oc8HpDvH9Rnqvi0roA6IOL-qdeVvvHLbIbtpMx1Lqk49xp6sruP2mSqOJLT92lAsc0d2gJCuDCr0GuPXLAbOgQ7l4Cx0fU9eF4bjrZhdHSKciAk5nn5ARRaqNDsM/s1600/1912_Kalgoorlie+Miner_Death+of+Mrs+Sam+Grimwood.jpg" width="165" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">(<a href="http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/91553899"><i>Kalgoorlie Miner</i>, 15th October 1912</a>)</span></div>
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<u><b>Occupations</b></u><br />
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Olive Street residents were employed in a wide range of occupations, some of them very manual in nature, and others more professional.<b> </b>While a range of occupations was evident all throughout the street, there was a higher proportion of professional workers living at the southern/ Bagot Road end, and a larger number of manual workers at the northern/ Hay Street end. This accords with impressions of Subiaco at the time, in which those homes in the south of the suburb were "characteristically larger and more expensive." (Spillman (1985), pg. 177). Spillman goes on to note that:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>By 1911, the contrast between the residential areas south and north of Bagot Road was perceptible enough for 'Vindex', the aggrieved letter writer of the time presumably resident in the north, to write:</i></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>The upper portion of Subiaco - mostly occupied by villas... is well cared for, but the lower thoroughfares - those from Bagot Road to the railway station - are in a state that beggars all description.</i></blockquote>
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The most common professions were Clerks (almost 20%) and Labourers (16%). The street also included three miners, three people working in tailoring, four people working in farming or on stations (and others with country associations), and two carpenters. Representing government workers, there was a postal official, a telegraphist, a policeman, and a civil servant from the Lands Department. On the professional side of things, the street included an accountant, a sharebroker and a bank officer, as well as a dentist. A saddler, a harnessmaker and a horse driver showed the continued importance of horse-drawn transport in Perth at the time.<br />
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Several of the labourers worked in the Goldfields, or on the <a href="http://purl.slwa.wa.gov.au/slwa_b1917752_2">Trans-Australian railway construction </a>that was taking place at the time. Many of them listed Olive Street as their permanent residence while working many hundreds of kilometres away, perhaps indicating an early version of the Fly-In, Fly-Out work so common in Western Australia's resources industry today. In most cases, a parent or other relative continued to live at the Olive Street address, creating a home base to which they could always return. This would continue to be the case for many who went to war.<br />
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<u><b>Place of Birth</b></u><br />
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Spillman (1985, pg. 87) writes that,<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>A typical Subiaco family during this period [c. 1898]... probably hailed from Victoria and very likely consisted of a youngish couple and several small children.</i></blockquote>
Some fifteen to twenty years later, many of those small children had grown into men, and they were amongst those to enlist in the First World War.<br />
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Statistics around the place of birth of Olive Street soldiers show that Victoria was overwhelmingly the largest single origin point of men enlisting in this street- some 40% had been born in that state, with a large number of others also coming from New South Wales, and others from even farther afield in England and Ireland.<br />
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Only 12 had been born in Western Australia, and just one single Olive Street soldier identified as having been born in Subiaco itself- John Wilson Menagh (Jnr), whose father (who also enlisted) had been Victorian-born.<br />
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</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwoaRrEVKu7JC2rtgUrzOmMEb1wPZr3fuRTe1JrLxFhT_2jOLd05Uj1rGtp9-7Lpqgt2bGKOHD4rBwbZzcVCrfdN0MgnMGzhBL4-0XNBTSRz_oWoJwh-4pGPfdBEgbBXcJvCKQvWrC8to/s1600/Olive+Street-+Place+of+Birth.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="270" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwoaRrEVKu7JC2rtgUrzOmMEb1wPZr3fuRTe1JrLxFhT_2jOLd05Uj1rGtp9-7Lpqgt2bGKOHD4rBwbZzcVCrfdN0MgnMGzhBL4-0XNBTSRz_oWoJwh-4pGPfdBEgbBXcJvCKQvWrC8to/s1600/Olive+Street-+Place+of+Birth.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<u><b>Religion</b></u> <br />
<br />
The majority of Olive Street soldiers identified as followers of the Church of England, with large numbers also following the Presbyterian and Roman Catholic faiths. Single soldiers were Methodist, Wesleyan, Congregational, Church of Christ, and Jewish.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4PdQXq1WZEU9Idittm-9xOP4Te11SdGGmCi2HzZUsYJN72A4OPVGQb_wBu30bHQwGdlbMXyj-tLc-byLqNWFti_eykU6nr2D52wAE2g2txRKGPWhMfF4QN0l7kJEgo3Ri5Zi5g8MYfCU/s1600/Olive+Street-+Religion.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="288" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4PdQXq1WZEU9Idittm-9xOP4Te11SdGGmCi2HzZUsYJN72A4OPVGQb_wBu30bHQwGdlbMXyj-tLc-byLqNWFti_eykU6nr2D52wAE2g2txRKGPWhMfF4QN0l7kJEgo3Ri5Zi5g8MYfCU/s1600/Olive+Street-+Religion.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
The only Jewish soldier on Olive Street, Leopold Gluck, was the eldest son of Harriet and Albert Gluck, and the family had lived at the house called "Mirrojen" on the corner of Barker Road and Olive Street since 1910.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxJ4mKSY79lOvSHv14jWU2qnvtVEL4GUPA3DrVyiTyQJRxTkgyQbdvEyQHVBusflguRAcASxozV_xG-CFZe2xAuMnYGoDmU3QrruYOP3eoDtxzO6WvyDwByvsj4YCXa21AxOX4eY3GqQ4/s1600/Screen+Shot+2015-04-07+at+10.52.29+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxJ4mKSY79lOvSHv14jWU2qnvtVEL4GUPA3DrVyiTyQJRxTkgyQbdvEyQHVBusflguRAcASxozV_xG-CFZe2xAuMnYGoDmU3QrruYOP3eoDtxzO6WvyDwByvsj4YCXa21AxOX4eY3GqQ4/s1600/Screen+Shot+2015-04-07+at+10.52.29+PM.png" width="151" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Leopold Joel Gluck (11Bn)</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">(<a href="http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/81000150"><i>The Daily News</i>, 4th July 1915</a>)</span></div>
<br />
<br />
In 1911, Albert Gluck passed away, and over the following years the other children of the family moved out to make their own homes. When Leopold enlisted in 1914, it was just he and Harriet still living on the corner of Olive Street, and after he departed with the 11th Battalion, she moved in with another brother in Mt. Lawley.<br />
<br />
Leopold Gluck was killed at Gallipoli on May 2nd 1915, in particularly harsh circumstances described by a friend:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span data-reactid=".4c.1:3:1:$comment1633956496823810_1633968116822648:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1"><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" data-reactid=".4c.1:3:1:$comment1633956496823810_1633968116822648:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body"><span class="UFICommentBody" data-reactid=".4c.1:3:1:$comment1633956496823810_1633968116822648:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0"><span data-reactid=".4c.1:3:1:$comment1633956496823810_1633968116822648:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0.0"><span data-reactid=".4c.1:3:1:$comment1633956496823810_1633968116822648:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0.0.$end:0:$4:0">"<span class="highlightNode">Gluck</span> went to sleep one day having a rest, and while in that position he was shot through the head. He never woke again."</span></span><span data-reactid=".4c.1:3:1:$comment1633956496823810_1633968116822648:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0.3"><span data-reactid=".4c.1:3:1:$comment1633956496823810_1633968116822648:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0.3.0"></span></span></span></span></span> </blockquote>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span data-reactid=".4c.1:3:1:$comment1633956496823810_1633968116822648:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1"><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" data-reactid=".4c.1:3:1:$comment1633956496823810_1633968116822648:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body"><span class="UFICommentBody" data-reactid=".4c.1:3:1:$comment1633956496823810_1633968116822648:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0"><span data-reactid=".4c.1:3:1:$comment1633956496823810_1633968116822648:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0.3"><span data-reactid=".4c.1:3:1:$comment1633956496823810_1633968116822648:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0.3.0">(Private Myslis in <a href="http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/57828061"><i>The Sunday Times, </i>31st October 1915</a>)</span></span></span></span></span><span data-reactid=".4c.1:3:1:$comment1633956496823810_1633968116822648:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1"><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" data-reactid=".4c.1:3:1:$comment1633956496823810_1633968116822648:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body"><span class="UFICommentBody" data-reactid=".4c.1:3:1:$comment1633956496823810_1633968116822648:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0"><span data-reactid=".4c.1:3:1:$comment1633956496823810_1633968116822648:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0.3"><span data-reactid=".4c.1:3:1:$comment1633956496823810_1633968116822648:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0.3.0"></span></span></span></span></span></blockquote>
</div>
He had been a talented violinist and yachtsman, a tailor's cutter, and a much loved son. He is commemorated today on the Jewish War Memorial in Perth's Kings Park.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizOi7McVp6698G5Hh4aVDFAC6t32GTWxZ9369G6CFb56ZByjZZfWwh-FTA7FyeOQtlWcvNpKRpuvj-Q__bQWYtJPIThCc7eoC4gUNE3vEEeHwoOQjb9EzAQWNyjJXnuck0mS-Fvdc8_Kg/s1600/DSCN6780.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizOi7McVp6698G5Hh4aVDFAC6t32GTWxZ9369G6CFb56ZByjZZfWwh-FTA7FyeOQtlWcvNpKRpuvj-Q__bQWYtJPIThCc7eoC4gUNE3vEEeHwoOQjb9EzAQWNyjJXnuck0mS-Fvdc8_Kg/s1600/DSCN6780.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
<u><b><br /></b></u>
<u><b>Height and Weight</b></u><br />
<br />
There was a wide range of physical stature evident up and down Olive Street, with heights ranging from 5'4.25" (163.2cm) to 6'2" (187.96cm), and weights ranging from 49kg (108lb) to 92kg (203lb). The average height of Olive Street soldiers was 5'8" (172.7cm), and the average weight was 65kg (143lb).<br />
<br />
The shortest man on the street was James Rogers, of number 23, who was a 20-year-old horse driver. He was not the lightest, though- that dubious honour belonged to 18-year-old tailor's cutter Robert Hutchinson, of number 85, who made it through the enlistment process only to be discharged for "poor physique".<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9ElIUa3ZwZ2a2hqLc1WbZhldXEfINxUXalMnKd93aFE5zdxNWlBRC3LfO3IPcdBziK-uxt0wosw5Y6mWpZuCYu4tS51T8uyDYn3iOB4i0lfT6BKXAtc9JPg7sZPdIc5fgdFmfTqZxnJg/s1600/Olive+Street_23_ROGERS+James+(close).png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9ElIUa3ZwZ2a2hqLc1WbZhldXEfINxUXalMnKd93aFE5zdxNWlBRC3LfO3IPcdBziK-uxt0wosw5Y6mWpZuCYu4tS51T8uyDYn3iOB4i0lfT6BKXAtc9JPg7sZPdIc5fgdFmfTqZxnJg/s1600/Olive+Street_23_ROGERS+James+(close).png" width="221" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> James Rogers, the shortest man on Olive Street</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">(<a href="http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/37437296">Western Mail, 29th September 1916</a>)</span></div>
<br />
The tallest man associated with the street was Charles William Grimwood at 6'2", and the heaviest man was his brother, Samuel Edward Byrne Grimwood, who was just a shade shorter at 6'1 1/2", and weighed in at 203lb (92kg). <a href="http://catalogue.slwa.wa.gov.au/record=b2504062~S2#.VSPxb2ZlE7A">Sam Grimwood was a large person in all respects</a>- his resting chest measurement of 41.5" was 1.5" greater than the
fully expanded chest measurement of the next nearest man.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIRC1dZz3l_PN89tiqIMiHVgyX57IN6aOqANNaH1YZXbWGEQGAbrgzmKDx5TmySrK_uTT_RfWYhHNqV3jwLTqYmhOctKHTIfwG51ToWf1cqoA-mwAIDSGekbLeq4RtdyHnKzA8xbkmTwU/s1600/Portrait+of+Grimwood_DAX0505.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="246" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIRC1dZz3l_PN89tiqIMiHVgyX57IN6aOqANNaH1YZXbWGEQGAbrgzmKDx5TmySrK_uTT_RfWYhHNqV3jwLTqYmhOctKHTIfwG51ToWf1cqoA-mwAIDSGekbLeq4RtdyHnKzA8xbkmTwU/s1600/Portrait+of+Grimwood_DAX0505.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Portrait of Grimwood (may be Sam or Charlie), 7th May 1917</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">(<a href="https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/DAX0505/">Courtesy: Australian War Memorial</a>)</span></div>
<br />
Sam Grimwood was also a character who, like his father before him, was well-known in Perth's sporting circles. Grimwood had spent his entire life around horses, with his father having been a Melbourne Cup jockey in the early years of the race. At the time of his enlistment in 1914, he was a sharebroker and a partner in a finance firm, and also Stipendiary Steward in charge of the WA Turf Club's races. He rose rapidly from 2nd Lieutenant in the 10th Light Horse to become a Captain, and then a Major, and in 1917 was for two months Lieutenant-Colonel in command of the entire regiment.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBNgd-zbUXWMACdLlhZ9PI_3rqh8Kks7ptYpm3oRWsD-ViCM4MqRyrq37yNWtgDyx46ffroztri8wgP4BO9vLJlGH2NBAsDSui2GGuGFLi0cSq3kkdiTFV_mIGAxULpeMhQg6qntQDFbo/s1600/Major+Grimwood_1917_10LHR_P01531.027.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="193" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBNgd-zbUXWMACdLlhZ9PI_3rqh8Kks7ptYpm3oRWsD-ViCM4MqRyrq37yNWtgDyx46ffroztri8wgP4BO9vLJlGH2NBAsDSui2GGuGFLi0cSq3kkdiTFV_mIGAxULpeMhQg6qntQDFbo/s1600/Major+Grimwood_1917_10LHR_P01531.027.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Lt-Col Todd addresses the 10th Light Horse (Sam Grimwood on far left) in Egypt in 1917</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">(<a href="https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/P01531.027/">Courtesy: Australian War Memorial</a>)</span></div>
<br />
Grimwood was seriously wounded on numerous occasions, suffering gunshot and shrapnel wounds to each knee in separate incidents at Gallipoli, and he was ill many times, including a bout of appendicitis that required surgery. His large stature and physical strength seem to have been an advantage throughout, and he must have been quite a formidable person.<br />
<br />
Interestingly, in addition to the Grimwood brothers, there were four other men in Olive Street who served with the legendary 10th Light Horse regiment. Combined, their average height was closer to 5'10". This is going to be an interesting statistic to watch as additional information is gathered about the full cohort of Subiaco soldiers- were 10th Light Horse soldiers physically different to the rest of the Western Australian battalions? Were there any other patterns across battalions? How did changes in the enlistment standards affect the averages in different years?<br />
<u><b><br /></b></u>
<b><u>Outcomes</u></b><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.theage.com.au/comment/why-the-numbers-of-our-wwi-dead-are-wrong-20140430-zr0v5.html">New studies</a> have recently suggested that the official casualty numbers for Australian troops in the First World War are not quite accurate, recording far too few injuries and falling short on deaths.<br />
<br />
Nonetheless, the numbers provided by <a href="https://www.awm.gov.au/encyclopedia/enlistment/ww1/">official sources</a> show that of those Australians who went to war, around 60,000 died, and a further 155,000 were wounded in action. From 420,000 enlistments, over 430,000 instances of illness were recorded, demonstrating the tough time that Australian troops had with disease.<br />
<br />
The official percentages equate to 14% loss of life, or 3 in every 20. 35%, or an additional seven in every twenty, were wounded. This gives a casualty rate of around 50%, or one in five, not including illness and non-battle injury.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjM96qcdlaaq0A1WHZluLqpxK9ZIn9J4-3G41GWsdAhcSo-4tKTwQNT0VinLiJ9On05NZ34FQ0DJzydtLZ4QWVlCdhIHYMXJsBzheQu9PdQY5fcZurgX2H0eU-XdlFjalXoelS5HtaXTM/s1600/Olive+Street-+Outcomes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="261" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjM96qcdlaaq0A1WHZluLqpxK9ZIn9J4-3G41GWsdAhcSo-4tKTwQNT0VinLiJ9On05NZ34FQ0DJzydtLZ4QWVlCdhIHYMXJsBzheQu9PdQY5fcZurgX2H0eU-XdlFjalXoelS5HtaXTM/s1600/Olive+Street-+Outcomes.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
In Olive Street, the war losses were significantly higher than average. 37%, or almost four in ten (a total of 18 people), died during the war, with several others passing away within a few years of their return. 39%, another four in ten (19 people), were invalided or discharged early, which includes wounding, illness and general lack of fitness for service (poor physique and advanced age being two of the many reasons given). Only two in every ten men returned home after 1919 in relatively fair health.<br />
<br />
Examining the service records, though, shows that only four of 49 men who embarked for war were never ill, injured, or died. Two of those were discharged and returned early because of age. Two were seconded immediately into work in London, and never saw active service. All of those who made it as far as the frontlines were therefore injured, ill, or died at some point in their service.<br />
<u><b><br /></b></u>
<u><b>The Gallipoli Dead- and the rest</b></u><br />
<br />
One aim of this study is to look at the bigger picture of the impact of war in Subiaco, and that includes understanding which parts of the war most affected the population.<br />
<br />
Today's commemorations centre heavily on Gallipoli, and as the first moment of conflict for many young Australians, there is no doubting the significance, nor the lasting effect it had. Many of the subsequent impacts of the Western Front were likely still tied to Gallipoli for those who enlisted after hearing of family or friends wounded or killed in Turkey, or for those who had served and survived.<br />
<br />
However, in examining these records, it has become quite clear that other moments in time had an even greater impact on Olive Street than the first year of Australia's war.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9nmuC2OQASDwcTBwbOwZhsj4P0IlrINY2tJsgox5o6KA4R6NU_Kvq-nt8-KkEzdB93tcJCC-bdZAA8SXEUc82kbikghewQiJP_SJGBdwQ8D7qMizlz0swuyUSMoP_bfy0rmyFIyqvvqM/s1600/Olive+Street-+Deaths+by+Year.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9nmuC2OQASDwcTBwbOwZhsj4P0IlrINY2tJsgox5o6KA4R6NU_Kvq-nt8-KkEzdB93tcJCC-bdZAA8SXEUc82kbikghewQiJP_SJGBdwQ8D7qMizlz0swuyUSMoP_bfy0rmyFIyqvvqM/s1600/Olive+Street-+Deaths+by+Year.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<u><b></b></u> <br />
Statistically speaking, of the 49 soldiers who enlisted from Olive Street:<br />
<br />
11 (20%, or 1 in 5) fought at Gallipoli<br />
Only 2 (4%) were killed there- Leopold Joel Gluck, and Thomas Edward Byrne<br />
Of the 9 who survived, 3 more were subsequently killed in action on the Western Front.<br />
<br />
By contrast, 16 (32%, or 1 in 3) were killed in action or died of wounds received in France and Belgium. More soldiers died on the Western Front than the total number of those who served at Gallipoli, and the death toll was eight times greater over the subsequent three years.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdrjxdrBkojDxwIpVVvdQsZmfl7p3b9LaWo1tWDRChhp9YG68y2VWPqrGzefXtjpuNQ882IzzmewMxdmGWZhJrENcCkNpplGbCtr5436wq61qAcAqv_d6sl58rzzM_OjyT20W0BiguW4c/s1600/Olive+Street-+Places+of+Death.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="346" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdrjxdrBkojDxwIpVVvdQsZmfl7p3b9LaWo1tWDRChhp9YG68y2VWPqrGzefXtjpuNQ882IzzmewMxdmGWZhJrENcCkNpplGbCtr5436wq61qAcAqv_d6sl58rzzM_OjyT20W0BiguW4c/s1600/Olive+Street-+Places+of+Death.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<u><b></b></u><br />
<u><b><br /></b></u>
<u><b>Olive Street's Darkest Days</b></u> <br />
<br />
By far the greatest impact was seen in the three months from July to September 1916.<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US">The battles at
Fromelles and Pozieres were Australia’s first experience of the Western Front.
Between 19- 20 July 1916, an estimated 5,500 Australians were killed or wounded
at Fromelles, described as <a href="https://www.awm.gov.au/wartime/36/article.asp">"the worst 24 hours in Australian history"</a>. A few days later the Battle of Pozieres began, extending through
to the Battle of Mouquet Farm. Between 23 July and 26 September, over <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Pozi%C3%A8res">23,000 Australian men were killed or wounded</a>.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US">During those
terrible months, five Olive Street soldiers were killed in action, and five
were seriously wounded. Those ten casualties represented 20% of enlisted
soldiers for the street.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXCJS_Yr7sn287CrTiybTv9osskT0BFAon5tCjoHmb3FK40yrBlSjQbq9d-7a_oTqt5XYeLVB5OvH22QuwM6CP2-tJyODR7CQo8OlraLQYdzFqqVBXhVOA-GObmngRjPgEQlKOEMCTB70/s1600/Shattered+trees+at+Pozieres+1916+EZ0097.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="249" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXCJS_Yr7sn287CrTiybTv9osskT0BFAon5tCjoHmb3FK40yrBlSjQbq9d-7a_oTqt5XYeLVB5OvH22QuwM6CP2-tJyODR7CQo8OlraLQYdzFqqVBXhVOA-GObmngRjPgEQlKOEMCTB70/s1600/Shattered+trees+at+Pozieres+1916+EZ0097.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Pozieres after artillery bombardment, August 1916</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">(<a href="https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/EZ0097/">Courtesy: Australian War Memorial</a>) </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Long after the evacuation at Gallipoli was complete, Olive Street soldiers and their next-of-kin continued to suffer losses. More detail on some of their stories is provided in the next post, <a href="http://roadtowarandback.blogspot.com/2015/04/landscape-of-loss-olive-street-stories.html">Olive Street Stories</a>.</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-65529199479500423.post-72438786586774613162015-04-07T08:47:00.000-07:002016-03-24T03:24:34.453-07:00Landscape of Loss: Olive Street Introduction<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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For 2014, the <a href="http://roadtowarandback.blogspot.com.au/p/landscape-of-loss.html">Landscape of Loss project</a> looked at a larger and more comprehensive sample of the Perth suburb of Subiaco than last year, in the form of an entire street.<br />
<br />
This is the first post of three.<br />
The second post, on statistics, is <a href="http://roadtowarandback.blogspot.com.au/2015/04/landscape-of-loss-olive-street_7.html">here</a>.<br />
The third, on stories, is <a href="http://roadtowarandback.blogspot.com.au/2015/04/landscape-of-loss-olive-street-stories.html">here</a>.<br />
<br />
This year, the outcomes of the Olive Street study are also viewable on a detailed electronic map with a number of information layers, linked <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?hl=en&authuser=0&mid=zdt5mOU9x0Ew.kgQ6kEZ_rxtw">here</a> and embedded below.<br />
<br />
<u><b>Introduction</b></u> <br />
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Olive Street is a relatively short thoroughfare that runs north-south between the larger arteries of Hay Street and Bagot Road, also crossed by Barker Road and Park Street in between.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQN5x05CBHyvSKtykRB4daJTikYxYvZWmlnVjUJAAPDfYXFvKNZ_GyuAogPL0JMB-F0R_JeN9_gPiChdY7Eg7Enz_GtbtbItTHpaArgowSYx0xxXvWbIovOk1bmJ7YDtgjyQFdor-cAKM/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-10-24+at+10.45.57+PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="313" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQN5x05CBHyvSKtykRB4daJTikYxYvZWmlnVjUJAAPDfYXFvKNZ_GyuAogPL0JMB-F0R_JeN9_gPiChdY7Eg7Enz_GtbtbItTHpaArgowSYx0xxXvWbIovOk1bmJ7YDtgjyQFdor-cAKM/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-10-24+at+10.45.57+PM.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Cancelled townsite plan of Subiaco, c. 1910<br />(Courtesy: State Records Office of Western Australia)</span></div>
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Since the mid-1920s, the end nearest Hay Street has also been bisected by Churchill Avenue (formerly Perth Street), and most of the buildings have been replaced by modern structures.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2dqrUDHqL2bS2NtQeqeK7g0bMB9lGtTOj3g8L5Ur92DrTokYpXBP87clpAfogTSZc5aO-NWM71FRNGxnlgMFpeBY-sczLzOWL6PkpJJT4MVShqO0KG86Xz29kbUxN1QVVOMIVfY-wnBw/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-10-25+at+5.56.05+PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2dqrUDHqL2bS2NtQeqeK7g0bMB9lGtTOj3g8L5Ur92DrTokYpXBP87clpAfogTSZc5aO-NWM71FRNGxnlgMFpeBY-sczLzOWL6PkpJJT4MVShqO0KG86Xz29kbUxN1QVVOMIVfY-wnBw/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-10-25+at+5.56.05+PM.png" width="190" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Olive Street from above- 1965 and today</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">(Google Maps) </span></div>
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The end nearest Bagot Road, though, retains many of the houses that were present in 1914. The street itself holds an extraordinary quantity of First World War stories. From around 50 houses that existed at the time, there were at least 49 associated enlistments.<br />
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Of those men, 18 never returned. 19 returned ill, injured, or were discharged early, unfit for further service. Only 12 remained overseas to the end of the war, and almost all of those had at some point been wounded or ill themselves in the previous four years. Olive Street was represented in every arena of the war, from the first day at Gallipoli through to the Middle East and the Western Front.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAoT2CzvyIuzlc2v-z_QPcY6wHOhaa3FD4vbFbhlIZI0JFsP5V6i5x-w0jOfEvSmReXzLMrU7xCq0mGRj47E1G9opd8euQLKHAvFyu3SgKIPuv-cHk7judF2bYwwXrTferDGGYjul96Qo/s1600/DSCN0409.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="76" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAoT2CzvyIuzlc2v-z_QPcY6wHOhaa3FD4vbFbhlIZI0JFsP5V6i5x-w0jOfEvSmReXzLMrU7xCq0mGRj47E1G9opd8euQLKHAvFyu3SgKIPuv-cHk7judF2bYwwXrTferDGGYjul96Qo/s1600/DSCN0409.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Olive Street looking south near Park Street, toward Bagot Road</span></div>
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<u><b>Methodology</b></u><br />
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This year's study differs from last year's in several ways.<br />
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Last year, I searched embarkation rolls for Subiaco enlistees, and used only the stories I found there. This year, recognising the limitations of that method, I decided to use a more detailed approach.<br />
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From my original search of the Western Australian battalion embarkation rolls, I already had a number of Olive Street residents listed. To expand the final study, I began with the Western Australian Post Office Directories, available in digitised format through the State Library of Western Australia. I took each house in Olive Street and built a table of listed residents between 1914 and 1919.<br />
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I then used the names obtained from that source to search locations such as:<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.aif.adfa.edu.au/index.html">AIF Project database</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.naa.gov.au/collection/explore/defence/service-records/army-wwi.aspx">National Archives B2455 service records</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.awm.gov.au/people/roll-search/roll_of_honour/">Roll of Honour listings </a></li>
</ul>
for both enlistments and next of kin details. The <a href="http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper?q=">Trove digitised newspaper archives</a> also yielded a great deal of information about Olive Street and the lives of those who lived there, as did the electoral roll and census records available through <a href="https://www.blogger.com/">Ancestry</a>. Ken Spillman's definitive history of Subiaco, <i>Identity Prized</i> (1985- UWA Press), is another important source.<br />
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Further detail will be drawn in the future from sources such as rate books and honour rolls. As with all of my Subiaco research, this is a work in constant progress, and may be amended and updated as time goes by. So, if you have any additional information you'd like to add or changes you'd like to see made to any story- please let me know! And, please bear in mind that statistics may shift and change slightly with the addition of new data.<br />
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I accessed each potential service record and looked for a mention of Olive Street, either as the residence of the soldier, or as that of their next of kin. A confirmed Olive Street address for either, at any point immediately before, during or after the period of 1914 to 1919, led to inclusion in the study.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifQhkXsJrqJx6rzVGiK1VEmu8uOV4gKAHzmTplrto-KHZH3HNUiOFpAENy_a_GZf9z-o1IQIgvVb8QulMJpdXslko3tNbAZpVv-1TSDeAb7I9QDfJToNap259Gn4yGsUCRPitLAnIL2FA/s1600/DSCN1509.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifQhkXsJrqJx6rzVGiK1VEmu8uOV4gKAHzmTplrto-KHZH3HNUiOFpAENy_a_GZf9z-o1IQIgvVb8QulMJpdXslko3tNbAZpVv-1TSDeAb7I9QDfJToNap259Gn4yGsUCRPitLAnIL2FA/s1600/DSCN1509.JPG" width="283" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"> The Roll of Honour- Subiaco Residents- World War One</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">(Courtesy: City of Subiaco)</span></div>
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Other studies and Honour Rolls generally only include those households where a soldier was resident before or during the war years. I'm interested in the social change occasioned by the war, particularly on the home front, and therefore I intend to track the movements of anyone who had a war connection in the street during the time period. To that end, once I identified a connection in the street, I also extended to further links- siblings who may also have been enlisted, and parents and spouses who were affected.<br />
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As Spillman (1985, pg. 203) wrote,<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>The blood of war did not spatter Subiaco sand, but few were the homes in which tears were not shed, nor anguished cries heard, for the blood of loved ones spilt elsewhere.</i> </blockquote>
<u><b>Limitations</b></u> <br />
<br />
The limitations of the study have been reduced, but some remain. Post Office Directory listings only provide a single name, when some households had numerous families living in them. Where a property was rented, it is not always consistent as to whether the owner or the tenant was listed. War records don't always provide a permanent address for the person enlisting, making it difficult to confirm absolutely their association. Men with the same common name sometimes enlisted from similar areas, and any who could not be definitively identified have been excluded from the study to ensure no incorrect data appears. This, however, runs the risk of missing out data.<br />
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Next of kin were immediately struck with the grief of loss, but it doesn't begin to encompass how many lives were affected. A wife who lost her husband might appear in Olive Street, but his parents, siblings, friends, and extended family may have been scattered in many other locations.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLm4Qc-1AT1N62xGNFyOV9LZe34UgbJ0v4IQ2DoizwgRcNLBywRnTCo5tyCTds0SQ63Cr0ctLdyw4oOctwesZ0VYHE8LzgIE3wjF380-p-l1Zb5Xx0isAa0ENL5dd6j2Yrr9uJvAjiRDE/s1600/DSCN1500.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLm4Qc-1AT1N62xGNFyOV9LZe34UgbJ0v4IQ2DoizwgRcNLBywRnTCo5tyCTds0SQ63Cr0ctLdyw4oOctwesZ0VYHE8LzgIE3wjF380-p-l1Zb5Xx0isAa0ENL5dd6j2Yrr9uJvAjiRDE/s1600/DSCN1500.JPG" width="220" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">The Subiaco Fallen Soldiers Memorial drawing</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">(Courtesy: City of Subiaco)</span></div>
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Life events reported in the newspapers are generally the most dramatic- arrests, deaths, misfortunes- with less detail given on happier events such as weddings, births and notable successes.<br />
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Overall, though, the details gained through this research method provide a high quantity of information, and whether or not comprehensive, give an excellent insight into life on Olive Street during the First World War. <br />
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<u><b>A General History of Olive Street</b></u><br />
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Olive Street
runs between Hay Street (formerly Broome Road) and Bagot Road, intersected by
Churchill Avenue (since 1924), Barker Road, and Park Street. <br />
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Subiaco’s growth
as a suburban area began in the 1880s, increasing over the next two decades.
The <a href="http://www.subiaco.wa.gov.au/CityofSubiaco/media/City-of-Subiaco/Your-council/History-of-Subiaco/City-of-Subiaco-street-names-report.pdf">City of Subiaco's Street Names report</a> doesn't have specific
information on how Olive Street came to be named, but olives have a specific importance in the suburb due to
their association with the original Benedictine monks who moved there from Italy. The <a href="http://www.subiaco.wa.gov.au/Your-council/About-Subiaco/History-of-Subiaco">City's Coat of Arms</a> includes an olive branch for the same reason.<br />
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By 1895, newspapers listed blocks for sale in Olive Street, and the first ten residents were recorded in Wise’s Post Office
Directories in 1901, all living between Broome Road and Barker Road. In 1903, the E.S. Wigg and Sons Tram and Railway Map of Perth showed that the section of Olive Street between Barker and Bagot Roads was originally named Ivy Street. By 1905, though, the entire length was named Olive Street, and additional houses were listed in the Post Office Directories on the land between Barker and Bagot
Roads.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFfaezQH-0Kd5aKRPxIJyLLTfK-z71Bb20uTFJgKzjCczUFtuqj9rOmE4a1XMDYaT5BVG89ygOwSmc_dSOHbTgzP5FKIubmz-8URRZG35U0d2OqMHgAyv5j-EVMOWgGASh4d_TfUnEg7E/s1600/DSCN3642+-+Version+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="191" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFfaezQH-0Kd5aKRPxIJyLLTfK-z71Bb20uTFJgKzjCczUFtuqj9rOmE4a1XMDYaT5BVG89ygOwSmc_dSOHbTgzP5FKIubmz-8URRZG35U0d2OqMHgAyv5j-EVMOWgGASh4d_TfUnEg7E/s1600/DSCN3642+-+Version+2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Olive Street and Ivy Street on the 1903 E.S. Wigg and Sons Tram and Railway Map</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">(Courtesy: City of Subiaco)</span></div>
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Improvements to the street were made gradually. In 1907, footpaths were
approved for Olive Street. In 1910, the Lighting Committee for the
Municipality requested that an electrician provide a quote for lighting.
In 1913, it was recommended that a gas main be installed. The same
year, the construction of a stormwater drain was approved. The street changed little from that point through to 1924, when the extension of Churchill Avenue was approved and the street was intersected at the northern end.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi97ZvdpHl6R1-q5BJBJ8dGEtCRSjd3tReIroDjXikUOv9g-zfIEOBDaSHQUqcIFQtwSHygPHogWKDuDSIzLTaZWAqR-97BbnTP4qSo0piUPur7xB46AVd_gmFocNGJU7l2fai8CdCFEK0/s1600/DSCN3663.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi97ZvdpHl6R1-q5BJBJ8dGEtCRSjd3tReIroDjXikUOv9g-zfIEOBDaSHQUqcIFQtwSHygPHogWKDuDSIzLTaZWAqR-97BbnTP4qSo0piUPur7xB46AVd_gmFocNGJU7l2fai8CdCFEK0/s1600/DSCN3663.JPG" width="193" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Olive Street on the 1905 Plan of Subiaco (Compiled from Government Records)</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">(Courtesy: City of Subiaco)</span></div>
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By the time the
First World War was declared in 1914, there were 34 houses on Olive Street and
16 more on the corners of intersecting roads, for a total of 50 houses.
Associated with 25 of these houses, 55 men applied to enlist in the Australian
Imperial Forces, and though 6 of those were found to be unfit for service, 49 marched
away to war.<br />
<b><br />Mapping</b><br />
<b></b><br />
For the first time this year, I've used Google Maps to plot out the information gained through this study. The map is embedded below, but also linked <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=zdt5mOU9x0Ew.kgQ6kEZ_rxtw">here</a>.<br />
<br />
I've been able to map layers of information onto the map itself, and you can tick a box at the left-hand side (if viewing the embedded map, click the three parallel lines at the top right to open the box) to remove and add each layer for easier viewing. You can click on each individual outlined house and each marker to view more information.<br />
<br />
This year's layers are currently limited to:<br />
<ul>
<li>Year of earliest enlistment</li>
<li>Outcome (died, early discharge through wounding/ illness/ unfit, or returned to Australia post-1919)</li>
</ul>
Other statistics are discussed in the individual posts linked in the next section.<br />
<br />
I've also plotted the places of death of all the Olive Street soldiers who lost their lives in battle, so you can zoom right out, then skip over to the other side of the world to see where they fell. Viewing the distance between their origin and their end is a stark illustration of how far away these events must have seemed to those left at home- and how difficult it must have been to understand that sons, brothers, fathers and husbands were never coming back.<br />
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The mapping software makes it difficult to include a key, so please refer back to this guide if you need some help working out what it all means:<br />
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<iframe height="480" src="https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/embed?mid=zdt5mOU9x0Ew.kgQ6kEZ_rxtw" width="640"></iframe>
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<u><b>Stories</b></u><br />
<br />
Due to the high volume of information gained through this study, I'll be splitting the details out across two additional blog posts, which are linked below:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://roadtowarandback.blogspot.com.au/2015/04/landscape-of-loss-olive-street_7.html">Olive Street Statistics</a> <br />
<a href="http://roadtowarandback.blogspot.com/2015/04/landscape-of-loss-olive-street-stories.html">Olive Street Stories</a><br />
<br />
Some stories, I haven't covered in a great deal of detail. For many of those, I still hold a fair amount of information, so if you're interested to know more about a particular soldier, please get in touch and I'll assist however I can.<br />
<br />
<u><b>An Olive Street Honour Roll</b></u><br />
<br />
Please see the links above to navigate to the detailed stories of Olive Street soldiers. The list below (which mirrors the embedded and linked map) includes all of those 49 serving soldiers currently identified as having an Olive Street connection, whether as resident or next-of-kin.<b> </b><br />
<br />
Those highlighted in red lost their lives during the war. Those in orange returned home before the war concluded, ill, wounded or unfit. Those in green returned after 1919, and almost all had suffered injury or serious illness during their war service. RTA is short for Returned to Australia.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #6aa84f;">21 Olive Street- <span style="color: black;">LANGRIDGE, Frank Albert- Resident- RTA 1919</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #6aa84f;">22 Olive Street- <span style="color: black;">DURKIN, Vincent Nicholas- Resident- RTA 1919</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #6aa84f;">22 Olive Street- <span style="color: black;">DURKIN, Bernard- Resident- RTA 1919</span></span><span style="color: #e69138;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="color: #e69138;">22 Olive Street- <span style="color: black;">DURKIN, Nicholas- Resident- Discharged 1917- Unfit (emphysema, advanced age)</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #6aa84f;">22 Olive Street-</span> HUNTER, George- NOK only- RTA 1919<br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;">23 Olive Street-</span> ROGERS, David Owen- Resident- Killed in action at Dernancourt 6/4/1918<br />
<span style="color: #e69138;">23 Olive Street-</span> ROGERS, James- Resident- RTA 1916- wounded<br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;">23 Olive Street</span>- ROGERS, George- Resident- Killed in action at Passchendaele 12/10/1917<br />
<span style="color: #6aa84f;">23 Olive Street</span>- ROGERS, William- Resident- RTA 1919<br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;">26 Olive Street</span>- BURNS, John Victor- NOK only- Killed in action at Strazeele 8/5/1918<br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;">27 Olive Street</span>- RANKIN, William Harper- Resident- Killed in action near Messines 7/8/1917<br />
<span style="color: #6aa84f;">27 Olive Street</span>- RANKIN, Stanley David- Resident- RTA 1920<br />
<span style="color: #6aa84f;">27 Olive Street</span>- RANKIN, John "Jack" Gordon- Resident- RTA 1919<br />
<span style="color: #e69138;">30 Olive Street</span>- GREEN, Albert Victor Thomas- NOK only- RTA 1917- wounded<br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;">31 Olive Street</span>- WILSON, Horace Claude- Undetermined residency- Killed in action Bullecourt 6/5/1917<br />
<span style="color: #e69138;">31 Olive Street</span>- MENAGH, John Wilson (snr)- Resident- RTA 1917- wounded (loss of eye)<br />
<span style="color: #6aa84f;">31 Olive Street</span>- MENAGH, John Wilson (jnr)- Resident- RTA 1919<br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;">31 Olive Street</span>- MENAGH, Ernest Lyndon- NOK only- Died of wounds near Peronne 9/1/1918<br />
<span style="color: #6aa84f;">36 Olive Street</span>- WRIGHT, Alfred James- Resident- RTA 1919<br />
<span style="color: #e69138;">39 Olive Street</span>- THOMPSON, Robert Arthur- NOK only- RTA 1918- illness<br />
<span style="color: #e69138;">39 Olive Street</span>- BEBEE, John Bamford- NOK (family connection)- RTA 1918- wounded<br />
<span style="color: #6aa84f;">71 Olive Street</span>- ANDERSON, Hugh Lionel- Resident- RTA 1919<br />
<span style="color: #6aa84f;">74 Olive Street</span>- KERRIGAN, Thomas Michael- Resident- RTA 1919<br />
<span style="color: #e69138;">74 Olive Street</span>- D'RAINE, Walter- Resident- RTA 1917- wounded<br />
<span style="color: #6aa84f;">84 Olive Street</span>- SIMONS, Eric Armstrong- Resident- RTA 1919- saw no frontline service<br />
<span style="color: #6aa84f;">85 Olive Street</span>- GRIMWOOD, Samuel Edward Byrne- NOK only- RTA 1919<br />
<span style="color: #e69138;">85 Olive Street</span>- GRIMWOOD, Charles William- NOK (family connection)- RTA 1919, but ill<br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;">85 Olive Street</span>- BYRNE, Thomas Edward- NOK only- Killed in action at Gallipoli 9/5/1915<br />
<span style="color: #e69138;">85 Olive Street</span>- HUTCHINSON, Robert- Resident- RTA 1917- poor physique/ unfit for further service<br />
<span style="color: #e69138;">87 Olive Street</span>- GWYTHER, Edward McKinnon- Resident- RTA 1918- illness<br />
<span style="color: #e69138;">87 Olive Street</span>- MACKIE, John Charles- Resident- Discharge before embarkation- unfit<br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;">89 Olive Street</span>- CROUCHER, Joseph Edward- NOK (family connection)- Killed in action at Flers/ Gueudecourt, 3-6/11/1916<br />
<span style="color: #e69138;">89 Olive Street</span>- PYKE, Henry Bertram- Resident- RTA 1917- wounded (fractured spine)<br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;">89 Olive Street</span>- PYKE, Victor Gerard- NOK (family connection)- Killed in action at Broodseinde Ridge 4/10/1917<br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;">90 Olive Street</span>- McKINNON, David Stanley- Resident- Killed in action at Pozieres 29/7/1916<br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;">90 Olive Street</span>- McKINNON, Daniel- NOK (family connection)- Died of wounds at Fromelles 28/7/1916<br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;">90 Olive Street</span>- FITZGERALD, Robert Francis- NOK (family connection)- Killed in action at Louverval 15/4/1917<br />
<span style="color: #e69138;">90 Olive Street</span>- SAMPFORD, Arthur Ernest- Resident- RTA 1915- Wounded<br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;">90 Olive Street</span>- SAMPFORD, William Miles- NOK only- Killed in action at Pozieres 6/8/1916<br />
<span style="color: #e69138;">90 Olive Street</span>- SAMPFORD, Ernest Miles- NOK only- RTA 1916- illness/ unfit<br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;">90 Olive Street</span>- SAMPFORD, Charles Raymond- NOK only- Killed in action at Jeancourt 18/9/1918<br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;">93 Olive Street</span>- WESTCOTT, Joseph William- Resident- Killed in action at Pozieres 15/8/1916<br />
<span style="color: #e69138;">139 Barker Road</span>- WILLIAMS, Arthur Tyrrell- Resident- RTA 1916 + 1917- wounded/ ill<br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;">145 Barker Road</span>- GLUCK, Leopold Joel- Resident- Killed in action at Gallipoli 2/5/1915<br />
<span style="color: #e69138;">148 Barker Road</span>- BULLEN, Harold- Resident- RTA 1916- wounded<br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;">154 Barker Road</span>- MONSON, John Christian- NOK only- Died of wounds at Pozieres 15/9/1916<br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;">86 Bagot Road</span>- HENDERSON, George Robert- Resident- Killed in action at Messines 6/5/1917<br />
<span style="color: #e69138;">86 Bagot Road</span>- HENDERSON, William John- Resident- RTA 1917- illness<br />
<span style="color: #e69138;">92 Bagot Road</span>- WATTS, Martin Henry- Resident- Discharged early 1916 (home service)<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-65529199479500423.post-74323753550045214392015-01-03T02:09:00.002-08:002015-01-03T02:09:33.376-08:00Perth at the Outbreak of WarAcross the weekend of October 18- 19 in 2014, <a href="http://heritageperth.com.au/make-history/about-us/projects/heritage-perth-heritage-days/">Heritage Perth</a> staged a broad and varied program of events with the theme of Perth at the Outbreak of War.<br />
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The program is an annual occurrence, all about raising awareness and inspiring interest in our local heritage, and this year commemorated both the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the First World War, and the 75th anniversary of the outbreak of the Second World War.<br />
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I've written before about what Perth was like when news of war arrived in 1914, and I was pleased to be able to help out the Heritage Perth crew to a small degree, brainstorming a few early ideas for the weekend's events. I also enjoyed getting to go along to some of the happenings on Sunday 19 October, and it was great to see so many different groups working together to celebrate our heritage and remember our history. Though I've lived in Perth for twenty years, am a local historical archaeologist, and have been researching our war history for a good while now, I still saw some places I hadn't visited before.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh327R7y_EQr4jdu4364PrpTObPazfspmJUlRiJhUTbaR-4vN2spZ2kjsgh8wrfcc1hfJU8d_LNi2MrA3YXEkpXAtNQbvmu8ZpLp4Jmy8mDqXw9k7gEGarAWH2ttjNnjXzurPnBSP9Dh3w/s1600/DSCN1587.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh327R7y_EQr4jdu4364PrpTObPazfspmJUlRiJhUTbaR-4vN2spZ2kjsgh8wrfcc1hfJU8d_LNi2MrA3YXEkpXAtNQbvmu8ZpLp4Jmy8mDqXw9k7gEGarAWH2ttjNnjXzurPnBSP9Dh3w/s1600/DSCN1587.JPG" height="258" width="320" /></a></div>
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Inclement weather and sold out events prevented me from attending
anything until Sunday 19 October, but my first stop was at Western
Australia's Parliament House, where the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Westralian-Great-War-Living-History-Association-WAGWLHA/197394943638801">Westralian Great War Living History Association</a> and the 10th Light Horse Regiment re-enactors put on a re-enactment parade. Parliament House itself was then open for inspection, and it was full of great information displays about Western Australia's government during the war. It's a fascinating building and well worth a look inside our political processes if you get the chance.<br />
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<br />A quick march of my own down the hill to St George's Terrace took me to my next event, which was a walking tour of Perth locations with relevance to the War years. Pictured below is our excellent guide Rusty, from <a href="http://www.twofeet.com.au/tours-booking/perth/all">Two Feet and a Heartbeat</a> tours, talking at the statue of <a href="http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/hobbs-sir-joseph-john-talbot-6690">Sir Joseph John Talbot Hobbs</a>. This statue is currently located at the Supreme Court Gardens, on Barrack Street (having been moved from the original location due to the Esplanade redevelopment). Talbot Hobbs was an architect and a significant figure in Australian military history, and after the war was responsible for designing Western Australia's main war memorial in Kings Park.<br />
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Rusty was a great tour guide with enthusiasm for the topic and extensive knowledge of Perth's history. We wandered around a number of known and not-so-well known locations before heading into the spectacular St George's Cathedral. I haven't been inside the cathedral before, and it was great to see the truly lovely features of the place.<br />
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There's a small chapel that includes the 51st Battalion cross, originally erected on the battlefield of Villers-Bretonneux in 1918.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">(Source: <a href="http://purl.slwa.wa.gov.au/slwa_b3599639_1">State Library of Western Australia</a>)</span> </div>
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The cross was transferred originally to St Anne's Church in Ryde, New South Wales, but in <a href="http://monumentaustralia.org.au/themes/conflict/ww1/display/60963-51st-battalion-memorial-cross">1956 was moved across to St George's</a>, as the 51st Battalion were largely from Western Australia. The cross reads:<br />
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<i>Erected to the memory of the officers, NCOs and men of the 51st
Battalion who fell in the counter attack in Villers Brettonneaux 24-25/4/18</i></blockquote>
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<br /><br />The chapel is a peaceful little place full of reflection and memory, and was one of several hidden treasures I'd never known existed before the tour. Rusty and the <a href="http://www.twofeet.com.au/tours-booking/perth/all">Two Feet and a Heartbeat team</a> do regular walking tours of Perth and Fremantle along a variety of themes, and I'd recommend checking them out if you happen to be visiting (or, if you'd like to see some other sides to your own city!).<br />
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After finishing up the walking tour, I ended my afternoon with a visit to the Post Office building in the centre of town, where a number of different groups had displays on communications through the ages, and the work of the Red Cross. I didn't get any pictures, but Keith and Susan at Somewhere Else have a few up of the <a href="https://somewhere42.wordpress.com/2014/10/20/heritage-fest-phonographs/">phonographs</a> and the <a href="https://somewhere42.wordpress.com/2014/10/19/heritage-fest-radios/">radios</a>. </div>
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There were some great interactive activities at the Post Office, including being able to write out a message and watch it being transmitted via morse code to the other end of the room. There was also a display of the inner workings of an old telephone exchange, which was completely fascinating.</div>
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All in all, I managed to see just a fraction of the events that were offered, but I still had a great weekend. Heritage Perth and their volunteers did a fantastic job of putting together a program of informative and entertaining events, and I'm sure that many Western Australians finished the weekend with much greater awareness of what Perth was like at the beginning of the war..</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-65529199479500423.post-90609861307629804352014-12-22T06:54:00.005-08:002014-12-22T06:54:56.378-08:00Exciting news!This blogging project has had many points of origin, some of them related to my professional background, some of them related to my pastime of fiction writing.<br />
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Over time, researching the lives of Western Australia's First World War soldiers has become a central passion in my life, and it's been frustrating to have it sitting on the sidelines, awaiting the rare moments I have time to work on it around my day job and family commitments. As an illustration of that, I have no less than *five* draft blog posts lined up, just waiting for final words to complete them.<br />
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I decided earlier this year that I wanted to give this work the importance it deserved, and take my own skills to the next level while I was at it. So, I proposed the <a href="http://roadtowarandback.blogspot.com.au/p/landscape-of-loss.html">Landscape of Loss project</a> as a PhD thesis, and applied for the scholarship I would need to make that possible.<br />
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I've been lucky enough to succeed in my application, so beginning in March next year, this work will become my full-time job until 2018, with a particular focus on the social impact on the home front in the Perth suburb of Subiaco. I'm so excited to have this opportunity, and I can't wait to share the journey here.<br />
<br />A particular thanks to anyone reading along. This year I've been very privileged to hear from many descendants of the men I've researched, and I appreciate that hugely- please do leave a comment or drop me a line at the listed email address if you have any thoughts to share.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-65529199479500423.post-45845252842812718712014-10-21T07:14:00.002-07:002014-10-21T07:14:42.112-07:00Kalgoorlie Centenary Reenactment March<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">(<a href="http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/28564822">Source</a>)</span></div>
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On August 17th 1914, the Goldfields town of Kalgoorlie was abuzz with excitement. A couple of weeks earlier, the news had arrived that Australia was at war, and that day, 187 eager men gathered to make their way by train to the capital city of Perth. They were the first to enlist from the Goldfields, and they left behind lives, families, and occupations like mining and railway work.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6jnU9bLSI6iiGTIN_aKq13wzxUaaNnphIxiSkfT6Kv_65zklYe07vqrYDbRlggq2XdQ6oNFg_RPReSqiXtxSJX8lOzi1dmQXYl75RmviNW_bxyJzyM2ffVMt5CQuEJmRC_h8bUTulb4M/s1600/IMG_1589.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6jnU9bLSI6iiGTIN_aKq13wzxUaaNnphIxiSkfT6Kv_65zklYe07vqrYDbRlggq2XdQ6oNFg_RPReSqiXtxSJX8lOzi1dmQXYl75RmviNW_bxyJzyM2ffVMt5CQuEJmRC_h8bUTulb4M/s1600/IMG_1589.JPG" height="239" width="320" /></a>Of those 187 men, around 50 would never return.<br /><br />Exactly one hundred years later, the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Goldfields-First-Troops-Memorial-March/545593255566500?fref=ts">Goldfields First Troops Memorial March</a> group staged a moving reenactment on a beautifully clear morning. 187 local men and women marched down Wilson Street to the tune of a pipe band, with a police escort in front and behind, while locals (and visitors like me) cheered them on.<br />
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<br />I've been to a few centenary events so far, but none have brought the times to life quite so effectively as this one. Most of the marchers were not in costume, but that only emphasised the fact that the same men one hundred years ago were also ordinary members of the community, leaving behind their homes and families.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4i7pw7-IDXMRa8H8nhsFq7BF7wVxC31j04iXn7DYWz7MZmhkGU_s4v2tSVv_AxFxc38WG9QbLjTh3icdn0XzGmvWwMOP3Jze9e7RluO0vAi542y45FI4ZeUEkJ9hKkCQ0X7k1z7ESTgk/s1600/IMG_1600.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4i7pw7-IDXMRa8H8nhsFq7BF7wVxC31j04iXn7DYWz7MZmhkGU_s4v2tSVv_AxFxc38WG9QbLjTh3icdn0XzGmvWwMOP3Jze9e7RluO0vAi542y45FI4ZeUEkJ9hKkCQ0X7k1z7ESTgk/s1600/IMG_1600.jpg" height="320" width="239" /></a><br />Once the marchers were standing to attention outside the train station, the names of the fifty who were killed were read out. As each name was called, the person representing them stepped out of the group and lined up. And when the last name was read, they marched away, off through the station gates. Their absence made an immediate, noticeable difference, and the subsequent playing of the Last Post, the minute's silence, and the singing of Auld Lang Syne was as sad as it must have been jubilant back then.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAbFfFjpL8CxERIC4CzM853sEweKRV255w6k0uocShotPJ3BMBo7ZMz0YA__hoNchAHVLBqtmwKE1jBEvTCBK6r8WM9OVsow8xaEjtOTpFMi0MnN5n7tFOiTNLmhVgWljV5Pp0tIj5bWU/s1600/IMG_1603.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAbFfFjpL8CxERIC4CzM853sEweKRV255w6k0uocShotPJ3BMBo7ZMz0YA__hoNchAHVLBqtmwKE1jBEvTCBK6r8WM9OVsow8xaEjtOTpFMi0MnN5n7tFOiTNLmhVgWljV5Pp0tIj5bWU/s1600/IMG_1603.JPG" height="239" width="320" /></a><br />
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All in all, the whole reenactment was beautifully done, and very effective. I was only in Kalgoorlie by chance on the day, and I'm so glad I got to go along. I've studied a few of the first 187, and seeing this gave their experience so much more dimension. A bravo to all involved.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRACa_HfoCIsqbAD88RrQn9TyLH83MA8L0K3IyMsvgcm9SbWGTYpXTuoERwKupLVy5-u7jAsy4fbI-lkDWXnnMfpx16xOevZudPN9pFVIPouDbu50j_wQhWoDjU9T_mX4MZIAcYyVaPKE/s1600/IMG_1609.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRACa_HfoCIsqbAD88RrQn9TyLH83MA8L0K3IyMsvgcm9SbWGTYpXTuoERwKupLVy5-u7jAsy4fbI-lkDWXnnMfpx16xOevZudPN9pFVIPouDbu50j_wQhWoDjU9T_mX4MZIAcYyVaPKE/s1600/IMG_1609.jpg" height="320" width="239" /></a></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-65529199479500423.post-70491277652546565402014-10-21T05:39:00.003-07:002014-10-21T05:39:56.397-07:00Anzac Connections at the Australian War Memorial[Kicking off a few overdue updates with a guest post kindly written by an old friend, Daniel McGlinchey- Assistant Curator at the Australian War Memorial- giving some great insights into what it's like to work with the primary records of the First World War].<br />
<br />
#<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>“...it is simply rotten here in the bad weather up to our knees in mud and water and no chance of getting dry ...”</i></blockquote>
The man who endured these conditions, Private John Collingwood Angus, 28th Battalion, was writing to his sister Nance, from France in May 1916. By 6 July he was killed, but the letters he wrote were donated to the Australian War Memorial, and his words now reverberate through time because of modern technology. <br /><br />My name is Daniel McGlinchey and I am an Assistant Curator at the Australian War Memorial (AWM), working on the Anzac Connections project as part of the AWM’s centenary commemorations. <br /><br />Members of the project team have been working for the last couple of years to digitize collections of Australians that served in the First World War. Digitization of the AWM’s paper collections means they are more accessible and prolongs the life of the originals due to less manual handling. The Anzac Connections project has already released 150 First World War private record collections online. <br /><br />The process of digitizing private collections starts months before their release online. The process starts with nomination, evaluation and selection. Collections are nominated for various reasons. For example, collections are nominated because they are unique and iconic and portray life at war in a particularly descriptive manner. Some collections are nominated to support the opening of new galleries or displays and TV programs, which might generate interest in the collection material used in them. <br /><br />Once we have collated the nominated collections, the fun starts with the evaluation of each one. This means we get to read collections, my favourite part, noting themes, people, and places and how they will complement the collections already online and match the AWM’s objectives. It is all too easy to be sucked into a diary that takes you back to 1915; you can sense the excitement and apprehension of a young person going off to war, as though you are in Egypt yourself swatting the flies. This is why I like my job. <br /><br />Once the collections are evaluated, we hold a selection meeting to discuss each collection and its merits. Each of our small team will have a favourite collection that touches us in some way, but through rigorous debate the nominations are reduced down to a manageable “batch”, an in-house reference to the selected collections, of around 7000 images that can be scanned. <br /><br />The next process involves physically going through each collection and placing it in a recognizable order ready for scanning. The individual pages are scanned and then hours spent on describing each part of the collection and adding links and descriptors. This is essential work to enhance user experience for the public. <br /><br />This stage of the project includes identifying the correct copyright holders of the material. This can be a bit like “who do you think you are” trying to track relatives of long past Anzac’s by searching the many databases of information now available to us. I must admit though I enjoy this part. It is highly rewarding when you track a family member down and the reaction is a mix of surprise and pride. <br /><br />There are other steps that contribute to placing the collections online and I apologize to my colleagues that I have not listed them all. Once, however, we are ready to go live with an Anzac Connections batch, we begin the promotion of the project. This entails blogging stories from the batch of collections that are being released, using social media and work networks to highlight the new collections that are available under Anzac Connections. I enjoy talking and writing about my work and it is a good way to alert a wider section of the community of what is available to help with family history research. <br /><br />At the end of this month we are aiming to upload more collections in Batch Five for Anzac Connections and work has already begun on Batch Six, which includes some of my favorite letters and diaries so far. I hope you have enjoyed this glimpse into the work of the AWM, and here is the link to the project to see which collections are online: <br /><br />http://www.awm.gov.au/1914-1918/anzac-connections/Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-65529199479500423.post-21900926885658208102014-08-04T08:32:00.003-07:002014-08-04T23:50:20.804-07:00The Day the World Changed<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRgIFw5EZlxnAkWj3ae2jo6uyHTwL97IFCAd3ujYdHGDYb6858y2rNW4tagOprgGk4pVLSMfYtaUfPVNOGGTBx6XCAQivF2oMgxsDWRRfPNwrXCl8nGbqgXlc6tjsE80WwBhl73G3e-PU/s1600/Troops+marching+Horseshoe+Bridge+c+1914+H16164.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRgIFw5EZlxnAkWj3ae2jo6uyHTwL97IFCAd3ujYdHGDYb6858y2rNW4tagOprgGk4pVLSMfYtaUfPVNOGGTBx6XCAQivF2oMgxsDWRRfPNwrXCl8nGbqgXlc6tjsE80WwBhl73G3e-PU/s1600/Troops+marching+Horseshoe+Bridge+c+1914+H16164.JPG" height="313" width="400" /></a></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>New troops march through Perth</i><br />(<a href="https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/H16164/">Source</a>)</span></div>
<br />
Wednesday 5th August, 1914, was a day
like no other in Perth, Western Australia.<br />
<br />
The winter sun beamed down on the city,
unseasonably warm, and an anxious crowd was gathering outside the offices of <i>The
West Australian</i> on St Georges Terrace.<br />
<br />
There were no other outward signs of change around
the Sandgroper state. In the wide streets in town, the clerks and the salesmen
carried on their business as usual. Out on the land, our sheep-and-wheat
farmers lamented another day of no rain in a drought that had dragged on for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1911%E2%80%9316_Australian_drought">three years</a>. On
the harbour at Fremantle, in the mines of the Goldfields, and on the rails of
the Transcontinental Railway project, the workers laboured on, steady and
strong. In the parlours of Subiaco and Mount Lawley, society talk bounced
between the serious matter of the double dissolution Federal election that was
underway, and the frivolity of the latest productions at His Majesty’s Theatre.<br />
<br />
The future was bright for the state. Just a couple
of weeks ago, the first ever class graduated with pomp and ceremony from the
new University of Western Australia. Around the footy grounds, consistently
strong performances from the Bulldogs and the Sharks saw a Fremantle derby
shaping up as the big finish to the sporting year. Families frolicked at
Cottesloe Beach, strolled the grounds of the zoo, and relaxed by the Swan.<br />
<br />
For weeks, news had been trickling through about
the growing tensions in Europe after the assassination of Archduke Franz
Ferdinand in Sarajevo, and the people of Perth had been watching it all unfold.
For the last week, the newspaper billboards had indicated something big was
coming. Each day, more people turned out to the Terrace to see what would
happen next.<br />
<br />
Around 12:30pm, a new update arrived, and a cheer rose
up from the crowd.<br />
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The wait was over.<br />
<br />
War had been declared.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEdF5L_WbU4RzQNbfSmCpLo2zM06-_cgEm-gezrIo_Z4ekOO_nz-kZSl0qmVEZpmCET3N93kIlxnHL93zYQW65hvBNwXkRaZD32Beq8llIkWOTQBTonnMd92EVnR_Ino1bYQyu93nlzvw/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-08-04+at+11.21.31+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEdF5L_WbU4RzQNbfSmCpLo2zM06-_cgEm-gezrIo_Z4ekOO_nz-kZSl0qmVEZpmCET3N93kIlxnHL93zYQW65hvBNwXkRaZD32Beq8llIkWOTQBTonnMd92EVnR_Ino1bYQyu93nlzvw/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-08-04+at+11.21.31+PM.png" height="267" width="320" /></a></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/26912819"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>The West Australian, August 6th 1914 </i></span></a></div>
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By the evening, spirits were running high, and youth were lobbing stones at the Austrian embassy. By the next day, the rush to enlist was already beginning, and the march to war was very much underway. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6vFMFQkr9ggpv0joTo3Puiv-kY3GcukrKO7O_NuH87ra4_HR2uciBF1y2c3RafY4nZZY47rXsyH5Xtz-H7gRSzxdSy2u4IZgzlHSbBS6PzTOehf7iyHKKyw4PchCt1fd-oTne8l98y5M/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-08-04+at+11.07.59+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6vFMFQkr9ggpv0joTo3Puiv-kY3GcukrKO7O_NuH87ra4_HR2uciBF1y2c3RafY4nZZY47rXsyH5Xtz-H7gRSzxdSy2u4IZgzlHSbBS6PzTOehf7iyHKKyw4PchCt1fd-oTne8l98y5M/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-08-04+at+11.07.59+PM.png" height="136" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/75503329"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Mirror, 5th August 1933</i></span></a></div>
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Today marks the 100th anniversary of the declaration of the First World War, and tomorrow the centenary of the day the news officially arrived.<br />
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There are many differences between the lives we lead today, and those of one hundred years ago. Perth itself has changed considerably- the centre of town is unrecognisable, except for a few preserved buildings. At the same time, we still have plenty in common with the ancestors who walked these streets on those fateful days, and we can still understand them.<br />
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We are now entering the full swing of the centenary commemorations, remembering the events that occurred from this date forwards. Considering what existed before the conflict gives crucial perspective to what was lost. The people who heard the news of war that day, and those who acted on it, hurrying to enlist, are very recognisable to us now. What war did to their world is the entire reason we still feel the impact today.<br />
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For the people of Western Australia, from this day forward, change was coming. Life
would never be quite the same again, and the conflict and the loss on the other side of the world would play a part in shaping who we are today.<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-65529199479500423.post-85444479362087862852014-03-07T04:42:00.002-08:002014-03-07T04:42:27.664-08:00Podcast: Episode 2- Every Walk of LifeEpisode 2 of the Road to War and Back podcast can be found <a href="http://clairegregory.podbean.com/2014/03/07/the-road-to-war-and-back-episode-2-every-walk-of-life/">here</a>. <br />
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Below, you'll find the text and all the extras.<br />
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At the declaration of the Great War in August 1914, people from all over Australia mobilised to the cause within days. The initial pledge was to send <a href="http://www.insidehistory.com.au/2014/02/anzacs-the-empire-robyn-van-dyk-on-the-awms-anzac-voices/">20,000 men across</a>, but those numbers were quickly exceeded, and the fleet that ultimately gathered in the Indian Ocean, heading across to Gallipoli, <a href="http://www.navy.gov.au/history/feature-histories/australian-sea-transport-1914">carried almost 30,000</a>. <br />
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People from every walk of life put their hats in the ring, and not only those signing up to fight. In addition to the men coming forward to join the military effort, there were nurses, doctors, chaplains, and many others who stood up to assist, providing important care to those who went across the sea to the battlefront.<br />
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In 1914, the population of the state of Western Australia was a lot smaller than it is now, with <a href="http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/33532037">320,000 people</a> living here, or around one seventh of the current population of <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/3101.0">two and a half million</a>. Western Australia is one of the largest states in the world, and the capital city of Perth is one of the most isolated, being further from Sydney than it is from Indonesia. Perth is now one of the most spread-out cities in the world, sprawling along the Indian Ocean coastline for more than 120 kilometres, but in 1914, it was far more compact.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj_mUFWh99FtIWn2vvIMeVFli7YwVNTpyeE9XxBIfpxEQNXuvfrE6KAnPscNmTWKNoaHwnxzlUv_YvYhbLPx8WsH056qLG0bpPXA5XgvWhRX8Bfzno3n6LIZeYw1Hihg5pNlvvTAXmjzY/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-03-04+at+2.02.54+PM.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj_mUFWh99FtIWn2vvIMeVFli7YwVNTpyeE9XxBIfpxEQNXuvfrE6KAnPscNmTWKNoaHwnxzlUv_YvYhbLPx8WsH056qLG0bpPXA5XgvWhRX8Bfzno3n6LIZeYw1Hihg5pNlvvTAXmjzY/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-03-04+at+2.02.54+PM.png" height="299" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Perth, to the west of everything</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Much of Perth’s population was centred <a href="http://www.vintage-maps-prints.com/products/old-map-of-perth-western-australia-1897-1900">near the Swan River</a>, in suburbs like Maylands, Subiaco, Nedlands, Fremantle, and South Perth. The city itself was, and still is, overlooked by the lovely Kings Park, and the main street of St Georges Terrace was lined with grand hotels and stately sandstone buildings, some of which remain today, and some of which are now beneath the towering steel and glass buildings that distinguish the Perth skyline.<br />
<br />
The embarkation rolls held by the Australian War Memorial provide a great picture of what life in Perth was like at the outbreak of the war, showing us the places people lived, and the original occupations of those who enlisted.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.anzacday.org.au/history/ww1/anecdotes/stats01.html">Statistics tell us</a> that the most common category of people joining up to fight was tradespeople, followed by labourers. Next were farmers, then clerical workers, and then professionals. The miscellaneous category captured many other occupations. While the numbers give us the bigger picture, looking at individuals gives us the finer detail, and brings these characters to life.<br />
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David Derrick, for example, was a 30-year-old bushman who worked in the southern forests, felling trees for timber. Aboard a troopship off the Greek island of Lemnos in March 1915, David stole a boat, and according to his charge sheet, rowed it across to an out-of-bounds village. He returned by two in the morning, but he was caught, and sentenced to jail time for the seriousness of his crime. His sentence was commuted, though, to a few weeks of hard labour, finishing just in time for him to land with the rest of his battalion on the beaches of Gallipoli in April.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNuv27t71_6yP1WNOUUXSMEQETAUxxXspgL4R_Ap5mthyMXqz9lr3B_WJlVGLNDGeilu8sBMb3OoBrmD6922la4RjHKaXw0QxBAep7i7iwVw3fpT5or5lBnm49LdOwBE6ctZalsX9KZvo/s1600/David+Derrick+court+martial.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNuv27t71_6yP1WNOUUXSMEQETAUxxXspgL4R_Ap5mthyMXqz9lr3B_WJlVGLNDGeilu8sBMb3OoBrmD6922la4RjHKaXw0QxBAep7i7iwVw3fpT5or5lBnm49LdOwBE6ctZalsX9KZvo/s1600/David+Derrick+court+martial.png" height="153" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>David Derrick's charge sheet (Source: NAA)</i></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
David was wounded, but recovered. He went on to fight on the Western Front, and after a bit more disciplinary trouble and a serious round of mumps, returned to Australia in 1918.<br />
<br />
Or Jack Richards, a journalist, and the publisher of the Northam Courier newspaper. At the age of 29, Jack was one of the first to enlist at Blackboy Hill when war was declared in 1914, joining Western Australia's famed 11th Battalion. He landed at Gallipoli, too, and after making it through six months of fighting, he was invalided out with influenza and typhoid. While recovering in Cairo, he wrote a letter in which his adventurous spirit and his knack for telling a story shone through.<br />
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">It
is exactly twelve months to night since I, and many other Australians, first
trod the streets and viewed the strange sights of a city on the "Near
East," and now, after an absence of nine months, my acquaintance with the
pretentious buildings, the dingy alley ways, and the multi-coloured street
scenes of Egypt's capital is renewed. To the average Australian swaddy who has
but a fleeting, superficial knowledge of the city and its environs, the Cairo
of to-day does not muchly differ from the Cairo of a year ago. But there is a
difference to be noted by anyone who cares to observe carefully. To the soldier
who visits the city bent upon a few hours' enjoyment, the garish lights of the
cafes, the raucous cries of the street hawkers, the jingle jingle of the many
tiny bells on the trappings of the gaily bedecked donkeys, the bright
blue kaftans of the male labourers, the sombre black robed veiled women, and in
the "cafes chantants" the gaudily dressed and bedizened girls, with
their hennah stained fingers and khol darkened eyes, are exactly the same as
when the Australians first invaded Egypt.</span></i></div>
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<a href="http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/66706474"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><i>Geraldton Guardian</i>, 13<sup>th</sup> January 1916</span></a></div>
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Jack was eventually sent home, judged permanently unfit for further service, but that didn't sit well with him. In 1916, he tried to re-enlist in the Australian Imperial Forces, but they wouldn't have him back. So, in 1917, he applied instead to the Australian Flying Corps, and was accepted. He made it back to the war, flying as a pilot on the Western Front, and survived that, too.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Lt Edward John "Jack" Richards, bottom centre (Source: AWM)</i></td></tr>
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He went on to have a long career in newspapers, and an association with the RAAF that continued through the Second World War. He died in his 80s after a full life.<br />
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Women played important roles both before and during the war, too. Like Sister Caroline Allen, who had been operating her own private hospital in the Goldfields town of Kalgoorlie for several years by 1914. Nothing had stopped her in that time, and in between delivering babies and easing people through their dying days, she was often sent in to nurse infectious patients in isolation, when others wouldn't dare. As a result, she weathered a diptheria outbreak in Menzies in 1909 that killed many and saw her hospitalised herself.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Nurse Allen's close shave with diptheria (Source: NLA)</i></td></tr>
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Nurse Allen reads as a formidable person in the pages of history, and it's no surprise that in 1915, she enlisted, and went across to Gallipoli to assist the war effort there. While nursing on the island of Lemnos, she ran across her future brother-in-law Royce Baesjou, whose story has been told <a href="http://roadtowarandback.blogspot.com.au/2013/02/royce-c-baesjou.html">here</a>, and will be updated with more detail soon, thanks to his descendants.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Caroline Allen (right) with future brother-in-law Royce Baesjou at Lemnos, 1915 (Source: Bev Taylor)</i></td></tr>
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Once the evacuation was complete at the end of 1915, she went over to England, where she spent the remainder of the war and some time afterward nursing Australian soldiers, before returning home to retirement, and a quieter life on an orange and lemon orchard with her widowed sister Helen. She was quickly bored with that, though, and newspaper reports show that she continued nursing on the side for a good long while after that.<br />
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These are just a few of the unique people of Western Australia who left their mark on history. Next time, I'll tell you more about the day that changed them forever- April 25th, 1915.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-65529199479500423.post-49623528660130014242014-02-06T22:12:00.002-08:002016-03-24T03:27:49.325-07:00Lives of the First World WarCentenary commemorations are rolling out all over the world in 2014, and the incredible volume of information, the sheer number of projects underway, and the massive quantity of time, emotion and research being contributed is just overwhelming.<br />
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I'd love to list off all the many things that are going on, but I can hardly keep up with them. If you're not already on Twitter, I'd strongly recommend joining up there and jumping into the conversation, because it's all happening. Here are just a few of the things I've been involved in recently, big and small.<br />
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<u><i><b>Postcards from the past</b></i> </u><br />
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On the smallest level of commemoration, I'm sharing some of my own family's most striking First World War mementoes on Twitter over the next few weeks, using the hashtag <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23GreatWarPostcard&src=hash">#GreatWarPostcard</a>, with more than fifty beautiful examples like these held in scrapbooks that my great-great aunts kept during the war.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_WPeEDYV11OxAdcjT2zyyK89fCIY_Qgt7To9mUAEz1mqn3XzAbI92nnLzuunBiXqjdpskjZH4SuG7xcaaa923R0kVbNYVeQuyiG8Vi5OptX9pzowDG45dlj5xqUws31OOnnrpcK-9aFY/s1600/DSCN7060.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_WPeEDYV11OxAdcjT2zyyK89fCIY_Qgt7To9mUAEz1mqn3XzAbI92nnLzuunBiXqjdpskjZH4SuG7xcaaa923R0kVbNYVeQuyiG8Vi5OptX9pzowDG45dlj5xqUws31OOnnrpcK-9aFY/s1600/DSCN7060.JPG" width="195" /></a></div>
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Several family members went away to fight in the Great War, and <a href="http://roadtowarandback.blogspot.com.au/2012/04/thomas-j-lockyer.html">the death of my great-great aunt Vena's fiance Tom</a> has inspired everything I do. These postcards are a poignant reminder of the turmoil felt by those who were left at home to wait for news of their loved ones at the Front.<u></u><br />
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<u><i><b>Imperial War Museum's Lives of the First World War project</b></i></u> <br />
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On the other end of the spectrum, one of the largest and most exciting projects coming up this year is the Imperial War Museum's <a href="http://www.livesofthefirstworldwar.org/">Lives of the First World War</a>.<br />
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Much like Australia's own <a href="http://mappingouranzacs.naa.gov.au/">Mapping Our Anzacs</a> website (soon to be reinvented as <a href="http://discoveringanzacs.naa.gov.au/">Discovering Anzacs</a>), the Lives of the First World War is essentially a crowd-sourced information gathering project, in which individuals across the globe will contribute data about soldiers who fought for Britain and the Commonwealth.<br />
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Anyone can get involved, and the project will be launched later this month. So, go check out the <a href="http://www.livesofthefirstworldwar.org/frequent-questions.php">FAQ</a> to learn more about the project, and sign up to the mailing list to receive updates.<br />
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There's been a bit of noise in the media this year about a <a href="http://www.news.com.au/world/british-plan-anzac-whitewash/story-fndir2ev-1226797568086">lack of adequate recognition for Anzac contributions</a> to the British war effort, but this is one way for Australians to ensure their stories are heard in the wider context of the Great War, and the organisers have been hugely enthusiastic and engaging about that inclusion. Check them out on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/LivesOfWW1">here</a>.<br />
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<u><i><b>Uncovering the everyday- excavations at Blackboy Hill</b></i></u><br />
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Closer to home, I had the amazing opportunity to take part in <a href="http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/wa/a/21313824/was-anzac-legacy-unearthed/">further archaeological excavations at the Blackboy Hill campsite</a>. For a bit of background, you can read about the <a href="http://roadtowarandback.blogspot.com.au/2013/08/blackboy-hill-is-calling.html">history of Blackboy Hill here</a>, and check out my <a href="http://roadtowarandback.blogspot.com.au/2013/11/revisiting-past-archaeology-of-blackboy.html">interview with the University of Notre Dame's Senior Lecturer in archaeology, Dr. Shane Burke</a>.<br />
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I am an archaeologist myself, and it was my great privilege to attend and assist in the excavation in recent weeks. I'm hugely grateful to Dr. Burke and the university for giving me that chance, and for letting me share some pictures of the work with you.<br />
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As someone who lives and breathes the fact and fiction of war in Western Australia, I've visited Blackboy Hill before, and I've mentally walked that ground in the shoes of real historical figures and fictional characters alike. Though the place has changed, the significance of it has never faded.<br />
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Despite that, I can safely say that I have never been closer to the Great War than in being able to place my hand on the soil horizon of 1914, and uncover artefacts that were used and discarded by some of the 32,000 men who went through the camp on their way to war.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCjqTLykSj-1b5wLWZQ4KYO5mj9WRNBuKCHMQE429PVc1Yy8SlJgG9U0dcj1uKJGsTli4IXa0Qw7CNTUDLgMAwIL_trFco9bBHGSui8r31wyZZxUoc-dT7GWA6_9N-QiQc-N0iW3luvxU/s1600/DSCN6987.JPG" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCjqTLykSj-1b5wLWZQ4KYO5mj9WRNBuKCHMQE429PVc1Yy8SlJgG9U0dcj1uKJGsTli4IXa0Qw7CNTUDLgMAwIL_trFco9bBHGSui8r31wyZZxUoc-dT7GWA6_9N-QiQc-N0iW3luvxU/s1600/DSCN6987.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The volunteer crew hard at work</td></tr>
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There's something almost indescribable about knowing that the button, fastener or buckle you just pulled from the soil was worn by a man who lived and died, whose name may have passed before you in historical research. On a more general level, you can see <a href="http://purl.slwa.wa.gov.au/slwa_b1986128_3">all the photographs you like</a>, and hear many jokes about the quality of the stew, but when you hold a fork in your hand that was used to eat that stew, it's very real and you are suddenly very present in that other time and place.<br />
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As the article linked above describes, the site is incredibly rich in material, as you'd expect from an area that was part of the camp's rubbish dump. Excavating in an area like this gives the ability to see a very broad cross-section of what life at the camp was like on a day-to-day basis. Rubbish dumps are not fussy- they take whatever comes their way, valuable or ordinary, average or extraordinary, and they do so in great volume.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbUt2oUjfmVyoxxWEGoNvWaO77MZqMytK4DaiHrJM96fJCjY-kejghUDR-d_iTyMzxlaTkHv8XWrRfQmVVNPd-ZtiMXS40-VPFaip27SbyVwl0eTBsg4Mz4T-5IBVOHrL9LbZYcCJ6ogs/s1600/DSCN7005.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="281" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbUt2oUjfmVyoxxWEGoNvWaO77MZqMytK4DaiHrJM96fJCjY-kejghUDR-d_iTyMzxlaTkHv8XWrRfQmVVNPd-ZtiMXS40-VPFaip27SbyVwl0eTBsg4Mz4T-5IBVOHrL9LbZYcCJ6ogs/s1600/DSCN7005.JPG" width="320" /></a>Here are some photographs from the excavation, showing the work and some of the material we uncovered. Students from the University of Notre Dame will continue to study this material and interpret it, and I look forward to seeing those results in the future.<br />
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On the left, a collection of artefacts representing some of the types found during the dig, including (clockwise from bottom left) ceramics, bone, charcoal, metal scraps, wire, screws and nails, eyelets, buttons, and miscellaneous small items (a wooden checker piece in the centre).<br />
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Sieves set up, ready to sift through the dirt removed by excavators, in search of small artefacts. <br />
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Excavation in action- reaching the end of the first level in the large 2m x 2m square. An excavation is undertaken with great care, as soil builds up in layers over time. Carefully peeled back with trowels in layers (or spits) of a few centimetres at a time, the soil itself can reveal much about the phases of use of a site, and can be very useful in deciding how old a particular artefact is. If you have a distinctive item that you know comes from 1914, and all the other items around it are found in the same layer of soil, then you can reasonably hypothesise that there is a similar age for those artefacts (or at least, that they were deposited no earlier than the time that artefact was made).<br />
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In this case, there was not much definition within the soil, and artefacts from the relevant time period were found in great volume close to the surface. Not too surprising given that there has been limited use of this particular part of the site since the original camp was disbanded.<br />
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Here, volunteers screen excavated dirt through the sieves. Artefacts were found in such volume that it took a considerable amount of time, three sieves, and most of the people at the site to sift through it all.<br />
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Some of the artefacts in-situ- as I excavated, I found this many pieces with each scrape of the trowel. I've never seen such a high-density site before. Pieces visible here include a button, ceramic, glass, and part of an old fuse. <br />
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One of the most exciting finds- a leather boot! In addition to parts of the upper, we also found many eyelets and nails from the sole in the same area. <br />
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Sorting and bagging the artefacts- dividing the objects by type (glass, ceramic, bone, metal, etc) allows the researchers to consider different kinds of analysis when they return the material to the lab. Research questions might focus on a particular category of artefact, or consider the whole assemblage. Keeping it all separated also ensures that more fragile items, such as charcoal or lead, are not damaged by denser items, like brick or bulk metal.<br />
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Another exciting find- a complete fork. Somehow this came out of a square that two of us were excavating, without either of us noticing it until it appeared in the sieves. One of the most striking items to give a personal angle to the place- somebody held that fork and ate with it. These rubbish areas were close to the kitchens, so unsurprisingly there was a lot of material related to cooking and food, including glass, ceramic and bone. <br />
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And lastly, a button. There were several small objects found during the excavation, including parts from a watch (a cog, a dial, a chain), part of a harmonica, and a wooden game piece (like a checker). These and articles of clothing (also found were many other buttons, belt buckles and fasteners) are further reminders that it was individual men making their way through this very large camp. The smallest details of their lives show us all over again that they were ordinary people caught up in an extraordinary time.<br />
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Every time I wrote '14 on an artefact bag, I was struck all over again by the fact that this year is exactly one hundred years from the time when life began to change for so many. It is a momentous year, and there is much more commemoration to come. <br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-65529199479500423.post-76223596698712023502013-12-27T00:06:00.000-08:002013-12-27T00:06:08.050-08:00Podcast: Episode 1- A Brief History of Western Australia in 19142014 is going to be a huge year around here with the centenary of the Great War coming up. I have a number of different ventures going on, including the completion of my novel <i>Between the Lines</i>, a series of monthly podcasts, and the big one- a television series along the same lines as this blog, called <i>Diggers From The West</i>.<br />
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You'll hear more about all of those in the months to come, but for now, I give you <a href="http://clairegregory.podbean.com/2013/12/27/the-road-to-war-and-back-episode-1-a-brief-history-of-western-australia-in-1914/">the first episode of the podcast series</a>- a brief history of Western Australia leading into the Great War, and a war story that will be familiar to regular readers of the blog.<br />
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As promised in the podcast, the transcript of the episode follows, with added links and photographs.<br />
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Please feel free to share, and I look forward to talking more about our Great War soldiers in the year to come.<br />
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# <br />
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Welcome to Episode 1 of <i>The Road to War and Back</i>.<br /><br />I’m Claire Gregory, Western Australian author of the First World War novel Between the Lines. Writing fiction is my pastime, but in my day job, I’m an archaeologist and historical researcher, and I combine those skills to investigate local stories from the Great War at my blog: <a href="http://roadtowarandback.blogspot.com/">roadtowarandback.blogspot.com</a>. <br /><br />Please visit the blog to see the text of these podcasts, plus the associated photographs and documents that tell the story.<br /><br />In this series of monthly podcasts, as the centenary of the Great War approaches, I’ll talk once a month about what Western Australia was like a hundred years ago in 1914, and I’ll hunt through the archives to reveal the hidden tales of individuals who went away to fight. As we walk in the footsteps of those who went before us, we’ll see the impact the war had on this state, and understand why we remember the ANZACs so many years later.<br /><br />So, without further ado, this is <b>Episode 1: A Brief History of Western Australia in 1914</b><br />More than 40,000 years ago, Western Australia was inhabited by the Aboriginal people of various language groups, who lived on this land, belonged to it, and cared for it, as they still do.<br /><br />But from the 17th century onwards, people of other countries began to take notice. Most of their impressions were not favourable; Dutch travellers passing by on their way to the East Indies could only hope to keep going, lest they end up shipwrecked and stranded, as happened to many, and nobody wanted to take a chance on what looked like such desolate and dry land.<br /><br />It wasn’t until the 1820s that the British government decided to make Western Australia a colony, some forty years after the first European settlement of Australia in New South Wales. The town we now know as Albany came first, in 1826. Three years later in 1829, Captain James Stirling arrived to establish the Swan River Colony, and the city that would eventually become the capital- Perth.<br /><br />Over the next century, Western Australians of all walks of life did it tough, from the Aboriginal people who struggled to hold onto what was rightfully theirs, to those who built the cities from the ground up, to those who went out on the land to make a go of sheep and wheat farming. Perth grew steadily, as did the harbour city of Fremantle and the suburbs between the two, and everything really took off from the 1880s, when gold was discovered around the state.<br /><br />In 1901, the six separate colonies in Australia became a Federation of States, and our national identity was born. In Westralia, as we called our state, we were sometimes known as Sandgropers to people from t’Otherside, and we had a reputation that hasn’t changed much with time. We’re tough, sometimes rough, and always hard-working, with a sense of humour to see us through the hard times.<br /><br />By 1914, this was a prosperous place to live for most of the 320,000 inhabitants, with graceful city streets on the edge of the wide Swan River, and all manner of industry contributing to a thriving economy. <br /><br />On August 5th that year, it was an unusually warm day in the city of Perth. Outside the offices of the West Australian newspaper on St Georges Terrace, a crowd was beginning to gather. For weeks, news of the conflict in Europe had been trickling through. Since the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand in June, the world had been slowly tipping towards an unavoidable war, and today it had all reached a peak. Around midday, the paper boys brought out a new broadsheet, and the crowd began to cheer.<br /><br />The British Empire had declared war on Germany, and Australia was ready to fight.<br /><br />One of those who answered the call as soon as he could was <a href="http://roadtowarandback.blogspot.com.au/2013/08/blackboy-hill-is-calling.html">Frank Seccombe</a>, listed in the Embarkation Rolls as a piano expert. Frank, it turns out, was a musician of some renown, known around the state for his piano skills and his basso-baritone voice. The <i>Sunday Times</i> in July 1915 described Frank like this:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>More than once down in the jarrah country, when a mill hand or sleeper-cutter had allowed his tonicked tongue to outrun common decency, it was Seccombe who warned him to desist, and it was the same Seccombe who, when the lout repeated the obnoxious epithet or expression, put him to sleep for half an hour with one of the piston punches he kept handy for such occasions. Apart from such affairs, F. D. was a breezy, good-natured Bohemian, and was splendid company at a private festivity or smoke social. </i></blockquote>
Frank enlisted at the <a href="http://roadtowarandback.blogspot.com.au/2013/08/blackboy-hill-is-calling.html">Blackboy Hill camp</a> up at Greenmount- the place where most of Western Australia’s 32,000 Great War soldiers passed through for training on their way to war. Sadly, his story is a short one. He landed on the beaches of Gallipoli on ANZAC Day, April 25th 1915, and was one of the first to fall, shot dead in seconds. He left behind a wife and step-daughter, and his memory has faded with time.<br /><br />But we see Frank in the records if we look closely enough, just as we see his fellow ANZAC soldiers. Their names may rest on memorials, but they live on in history. Join me next month for Episode 2, and uncover more memories of Western Australia at war.<br /><br /><br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-65529199479500423.post-61946625444766066222013-11-09T21:42:00.003-08:002015-04-20T02:33:40.956-07:00RememberingThe Great War changed this nation in so many ways- it's no surprise that the losses are commemorated everywhere.<br />
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Researching for my novel recently, I wanted to check what people at home knew about Australian casualties as of July 1915, three months into the Gallipoli campaign. I checked out the <i>The West Australian</i> newspaper from the time, and what I found there was a stunning statistic that brought home exactly the reason those days still echo down the through the years with such resonance.<br />
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On July 19th 1915, 85 days after the ANZAC landing and the start of Australia's war, the newspapers published the <a href="http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/26949290">Fifty-Third Casualty List</a>. And the totals at that point in the war, just three months in, were as follows:<br />
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That is:<br />
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2307 Australians killed</div>
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8418 Australians wounded</div>
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746 missing in action.</div>
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A total of 11,471 casualties in just three months. Eight-five days to take a whole nation from innocence, to utter devastation.<br />
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It's a stunning impact on a population of only <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/2071.0main+features952012-2013">4.9 million, which included 2.58 million males.</a> What it means, when you break it down into cold, hard numbers, is that nearly <b>five</b> in every <b>one thousand</b> Australian men had been killed, injured or lost in just three months.<br />
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<b>One</b> in every <b>two hundred</b> men in this nation, <i>in three months</i>.<br />
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It is a mind-boggling number, and the war was only just beginning. There would be another three-and-a-half devastating years to come, over the course of which close to 40% of the men of this country would enlist to fight, and of whom more than one in ten would never come home. <br />
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It's why we can't, and won't, forget. The sacrifice belonged to everyone in this country, and it still does today. Nobody was left unaffected.<br />
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Wherever I travel within the state of Western Australia or in the rest of the country, I make a point of stopping to see the local memorials. With Remembrance Day marking another point to pause and remember tomorrow, here are just a few of those.<br />
<b><br />Albany, Western Australia</b><br />
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The <a href="http://www.msk.id.au/memorials2/pages/60090.htm">Desert Mounted Corps memorial</a> (top left) in Albany sits at the top of Mount Clarence, and the Avenue of Honour leads up to it, lined with trees and plaques that commemorate local lives lost. The hill offers a view out across King George Sound, where many of the ships gathered before departing as the first Australian Imperial Force on November 1st, 1914, on their way to war. Most of Western Australia's troops departed from the port city of Fremantle to join the convoy, but Albany will always have a special place in our war history, and I plan to be there for the centenary of the departure next year.<b> </b><br />
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<b>Perth, Western Australia</b><br />
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There are multiple memorials to many different conflicts at Perth's <a href="http://www.bgpa.wa.gov.au/kings-park/history/memorials/state-war-memorial">Kings Park</a>, which sits above the city centre.<b> </b>This is the principal state First World War memorial, with the Cenotaph at the far end, overlooking the Swan River, and the Court of Contemplation, the Flame of Remembrance, and the pool of reflection in the foreground. The largest ANZAC Day dawn service is held here every year; this year the numbers were some of the largest ever, with more than 40,000 people coming along to remember.<br />
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<b>Blackboy Hill Commemorative Site, Greenmount, Western Australia</b><br />
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As a couple of previous posts have discussed, the great majority of Western Australia's 32,000 troops passed through the training camp at <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboy_Hill,_Western_Australia">Blackboy Hill</a> (now Greenmount) in the Perth hills over the course of the First World War. There's little left at the site now, but the <a href="http://www.warmemorials.net/memorials/perth/blkboy/blkboy.htm">memorial</a> is very special- on the eve of ANZAC Day each year, the setting sun aligns with all parts of the memorial to create a unified shadow representing the spirit of the ANZAC soldiers whose legacy was born here. <b><br /></b><br />
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<b>Mingenew, Western Australia</b><br />
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Most country towns in Australia have a memorial to the Great War, and this one in the small mid-west town of Mingenew is one example. There was a high enlistment rate from the local population, and the losses are remembered today, there as in so many other small towns that lost sons, brothers and fathers.<br />
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<b>Geraldton, Western Australia </b><br />
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The regional city of Geraldton on Australia's west coast has one of the most glorious memorials I've ever seen. It commemorates an event of the Second World War, not the First, but I include it here because it represents the fact that the Great War was far from the only arena in which Australians died in battle. The memorial here is for <a href="http://www.geraldtonvisitorcentre.com.au/content.asp?documentid=46">the loss of the HMAS Sydney</a>, an Australian battleship that was sunk by a German raider not far off the coast, with the loss of all hands. The location of the lost ship was a mystery for many years, until it was finally rediscovered through some <a href="http://www.findingsydney.com/">fantastic maritime archaeology work in 2008</a>. The dome you see in the picture below is made of seagull silhouettes- 645 of them, each one representing a lost life from the Sydney. As they take flight into the sky, the statue of a woman waits nearby, looking out to sea. There's a stele representing the ship's bow, and a pool with a final seagull marking the now-known location of the ship on a map.<br />
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<b>Alice Springs, Northern Territory</b><br />
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This <a href="http://www.msk.id.au/memorials2/pages/80001.htm">simple memorial</a> sits at the top of ANZAC Hill in the central desert town of Alice Springs, commemorating the fallen from all wars.<b> </b><br />
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<b>Adelaide, South Australia</b><br />
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I just visited the Adelaide memorials last week, and there are several. The central memorial, known as the National War Memorial, is a stunning and imposing structure on the city's North Terrace, with two sides showing the before and after of war. The front side shows the before, with the youth of Adelaide- girl, student and farmer- laying down the tools of their everyday lives to reach for the Spirit of Duty. The reverse shows the aftermath, in which a fallen youth is lifted by the Spirit of Compassion.<br />
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This dramatic picture of the front side of the memorial was taken by the talented <a href="https://twitter.com/auntydick">Melanie Michaels</a>, a fellow war historian and author.<b> </b><br />
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<br />
<br />
<b>Sydney, New South Wales</b><br />
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One of the most dramatic and awe-inspiring war memorials in the nation is the <a href="http://www.anzacmemorial.nsw.gov.au/">ANZAC Memorial in Sydney's Hyde Park</a>. The building and the sculptures it contains are extraordinary, and the museum housed within is also well worth a visit. The central sculpture, Sacrifice, is the most perfectly heart-breaking encapsulation of what the Great War meant to this country, depicting a fallen soldier borne aloft by his mother, sister, wife and child. From the <a href="http://www.anzacmemorial.nsw.gov.au/about-us/memorial-features/sacrifice/">memorial's website</a>, where you can also see a picture of it:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>'Thousands of women, although not directly engaged in war activities,
lost all that was dear them - sons they has borne and reared,
husbands, fathers of their children, friends, lovers.</i><br />
<br />
<i>
</i><i>There was no acknowledgement of them in casualty lists of wounded, maimed and killed. They endured all men's sacrifice quietly'.</i><br />
<i>
</i>
<i>'In this spirit I have shown them, carrying their load, the sacrifice of their menfolk.'</i></blockquote>
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In modern times, we've seen that load passed down to us, and we carry it still.<br />
<br />
This Remembrance Day and all others, we remember them.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-65529199479500423.post-72297905156553064552013-11-01T23:44:00.001-07:002013-11-01T23:44:31.335-07:00Gallipoli Dead from Western AustraliaEarlier this year, a group of Western Australian historians and genealogists came together to answer what should have been a simple question: how many Western Australian men were killed at Gallipoli during the First World War?<br />
<br />
The answer, as it turned out, was not so simple. Though we have the figures of how many men signed up in each state throughout the war, it appears there has been no previous calculation of exactly how many died from each state in the various arenas.<br />
<br />
Part of the complication comes from how to work out who could be considered Western Australian in the first place. Plenty of men signed up here who just happened to be in the state at the time and had no other connection, so the embarkation rolls do not provide a perfect answer. The project set criteria for Western Australian identity, and volunteers then tracked down all kinds of records to verify connections and come up with a final answer.<br />
<br />Project coordinator Shannon Lovelady <a href="http://blogs.abc.net.au/wa/2013/10/an-answer-to-a-100-year-old-question.html?site=perth&program=720_afternoons">gave a great interview on ABC Radio</a> last week to talk about the project and the final outcome, which is worth a listen.<br />
<br />
I came in on the tail end of the project and assisted in tracking down a few of the trickier cases. Their stories and many others can be found on the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/650009228360173/">Facebook page for the Gallipoli Dead of Western Australia</a>, where Shannon hopes the process of sharing information will continue as we approach the centenary of the ANZAC landing in 2015. <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-65529199479500423.post-73435225694739476502013-11-01T21:13:00.004-07:002016-03-24T03:25:56.198-07:00Revisiting the Past- the Archaeology of Blackboy Hill In my <a href="http://roadtowarandback.blogspot.com.au/2013/08/blackboy-hill-is-calling.html">previous post</a>, I mentioned that I'd be expanding on the Blackboy Hill story with a little detail on the archaeology work currently being done in the area. As an archaeologist myself, I tend to see landscapes in many layers- present and past- and Blackboy Hill is no exception, though there's not a great deal left to see above the ground.<br />
<br />
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<br />
Beneath the ground, there's not a great deal left either, but there is enough to provide some new information. Historical archaeologist Dr. Shane Burke, Senior Lecturer in Archaeology at the University of Notre Dame, was kind enough to answer some questions for me about the results of his investigations in the wider area.<br />
<br />
<b>1. Can you tell me a little about your work at Blackboy Hill? What are your aims for the project?</b><br />
<br />
The project has
many aims – the first to determine if any archaeology of the 1914 to
1918 camp exists. Today it is mostly a school and residential area, but
careful survey discovered a few areas containing artefacts
with distinct early 20th century characteristics. The main
aim is to test the identity of the Australia soldier portrayed in
numerous sources with the archaeological record.<br />
<b><br />
2. What was the extent of the original site, and how much of
it remains today? Were there any significant features in the preserved
area?</b><br />
<br />
The
project is on-going. The original site was large but larger than the
original maps and photographs show. Areas now occupied by houses had
trenches as late as the 1980s; the site
of the hospital is now fancy homes built in the 1990s. When I went to
school in the area during the 1970s, mates of mine who lived nearby
often brought objects to school like rising sun hat badges. The ‘site’
is extensive if one includes the Helena Vale racecourse
grandstand where troops practised rappelling down the structure’s wall.<br />
<br />
However, for the project, we are keeping to the map from the
Commonwealth showing tents, parade ground and hospital. Much of this
area is under the nearby school, but the area of excavation provided
an extensive range of artefacts. Maps showed buildings, but they often
do not show the rubbish pits, and it is these features we discovered
during the excavations in 2011. Nearby are most likely brick hearths for
the kitchen, but we intend testing this hypothesis
in the near future. <br />
<br />
The area near the memorial has a row of trees planted in 1914.<br />
<br />
<b>3. How has the landscape changed, and how has it stayed the
same? What, if anything, would be familiar now to the soldiers who first
marched into camp in 1914?
</b><br />
<br />
The general feel
of the place is unaltered, while the topography of the Darling Range has
remained the same. The railway line has gone, but the highway retains a
similar route. The hills are the hills, whether
1914 or 2014.<br />
<br />
<b>4. What kind of results have you seen from your excavations? What
types of material culture are you finding? Have you encountered any
surprises?</b><br />
<br />
Much of the
material unearthed has passed through cultural and natural filters. Beer
bottles of bottle green colour were very common, which was surprising
because the camp went through both ‘wet’ and ‘dry’ phases
– but we did not expect to find so much. There were a number of
personal objects, like harmonica reed bases. The soles of army issue
boots, with their distinct copper studding, were also found. Very
surprising was the discovery of a few French perfume bottles.
Blank .303 ammunition was also common.<br />
<br />
<b>5. What conclusions have you drawn from your results so far? </b><br />
<br />
The
interpretation of life at the camp is altering as more material
comes to hand. The perfume bottles could mean women at the camp contrary
to army regulations, or it could mean that the men were attempting
to overcome body odour. This was the first time many of the men at
the camp had ‘roughed it’, and some may not have appreciated certain
aspects of army life. The alcohol could be a site-specific find, for
officers were permitted to drink while general ranks
were not, but it could also mean an obvious flouting of camp
regulations.<br />
<br />
The ammunition is contrary to secondary sources that state that firearm’s practice was never done at the site.<br />
<br />
One must remember that
the camp was used in the 1930s during the depression and the 1940s
during the second war. However, the green beer bottle glass dates to
pre-1922 when the king-brown was introduced, while
the .303 cartridges are date stamped to 1908.<br />
<br />
#<br />
<br />
A huge thank you to Shane for taking time out from his busy research schedule to share those fascinating details.<br />
<br />
And to finish, a sadly necessary reminder: to anyone who goes out to have a look at
the Commemoration Site at Greenmount, please remember that Western Australia's
heritage laws forbid the removal of culturally significant material from
sites like Blackboy Hill. Not to mention, the story can only be told if
the material remains where it fell. So, as I tell my kids- look with your
eyes, not with your hands, and please respect our ANZAC history. <br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-65529199479500423.post-18366350342433908112013-08-19T19:02:00.000-07:002016-03-24T03:26:10.282-07:00Blackboy Hill is Calling<div class="S8">
</div>
<div class="S8">
</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP1Cc4cuQ0eD1ByMFl4cJa6DnmK-r8Lx66rqBwtsG3VKh3_1261NetJBbn31LLCLiOG2WJ0KSBgLe84IPTrd6toIAPo0Glw0lAb8mJ-dDMhEb1qpC08WwA-lzvzR_X5JhuOqgB7-38ANU/s1600/P08644.002.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP1Cc4cuQ0eD1ByMFl4cJa6DnmK-r8Lx66rqBwtsG3VKh3_1261NetJBbn31LLCLiOG2WJ0KSBgLe84IPTrd6toIAPo0Glw0lAb8mJ-dDMhEb1qpC08WwA-lzvzR_X5JhuOqgB7-38ANU/s400/P08644.002.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i><a href="http://www.awm.gov.au/collection/P08644.002">11th Battalion marching out of Blackboy Hill</a></i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="S8">
</div>
<br />
<i>Can you with calm, unruffled mien<br />Peruse the war news daily, <br />And go about, on business keen,<br />And take your pleasures gaily? </i><br />
<i><br />Your countrymen in hundreds fall<br /> Before Great Britain's foemen,<br /> Will you not answer to the call,<br /> You stout Australian yeomen?<br /><br /> For Blackboy Hill is calling, ever calling,<br />At Gallipoli our boys are falling, falling;<br />But we'll soon drive out the Turk,<br />If your duty you don't shirk,<br /> So come and lend a hand, for Blackboy's calling.</i><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span class="displayFix" id="lc16">A RECRUITING SONG</span></div>
<div class="S8" style="text-align: right;">
<a href="http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/37431797"><span class="displayFix" id="lc16">From</span><i><span class="displayFix" id="lc16"> </span></i><span class="displayFix" id="lc16">the</span><i><span class="displayFix" id="lc16"> Western Mail,</span></i><span class="displayFix" id="lc16"> 17th September 1915</span></a></div>
<div class="S8" style="text-align: right;">
<br /></div>
<div class="S8" style="text-align: left;">
<span class="displayFix" id="lc16">During the course of the First World War, some 32,000 Western Australian men marched away to fight. The majority had one thing in common- their initial training took place at Blackboy Hill Camp, in the Perth hills. </span></div>
<div class="S8" style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="S8" style="text-align: left;">
<span class="displayFix" id="lc16">The first troops marched into Blackboy Hill on 17th August 1914, twelve days after the declaration of war. Western Australia’s 11th Battalion was the first raised in this state, and such was the enthusiasm that there were far more volunteers than were initially needed. As a result, the first 1400 chosen were considered particularly fine specimens of Australian manhood, as were those recruited immediately into the reinforcements, and the beginnings of the 12th and 16th Battalions.</span><span class="displayFix" id="lc16"> </span><br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXRVAVbY-IhWY9772jUqxsUebZKkKhU3d-PG4R90xmVv_B09MaHYhnMzmq_VBSFStofPaQ3kQrHv7ik6y2e-H3KuIZRYonif0LBNtMd5hCePdYx4p3JlKYXYli1UpjrqDgEo_Oy2Y7aP8/s1600/P02077.002.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="245" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXRVAVbY-IhWY9772jUqxsUebZKkKhU3d-PG4R90xmVv_B09MaHYhnMzmq_VBSFStofPaQ3kQrHv7ik6y2e-H3KuIZRYonif0LBNtMd5hCePdYx4p3JlKYXYli1UpjrqDgEo_Oy2Y7aP8/s400/P02077.002.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/P02077.002"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>AIF recruits peeling potatoes at Blackboy Hill camp</i></span></a></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
<i>They were the boys from the Western State<br />Brave Battalion Eleven; <br />They did not tarry, they did not wait, <br />When the call was given.<br />First to respond to their country's need<br />Nothing they feared, nor death did they heed<br />Brave Battalion Eleven</i><br />
<i><br /></i></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span class="displayFix" id="lc16">By S. M. Harris<br /><a href="http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/37844095">From the <i>Western Mail</i>, 9th December 1937</a></span></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="S8" style="text-align: left;">
<span class="displayFix" id="lc16"></span></div>
<div class="S8" style="text-align: left;">
<br />
<span class="displayFix" id="lc16">The location of the camp had been
chosen in part for the train-line that ran nearby, allowing easy
movement of the troops from around the state, to and from the city, and eventually, to the
harbour at Fremantle, where they would board the HMAT <i>Ascanius</i> on the 31st October to depart for the other side of the world.</span> <br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN97WM8WfI8dub3fV5_EX-wPvJ1r1RQYJncHgT8uxCzFhWV2jnZqdtFN9ih_IBbH5cJ6ddKe06GMkS8Oq_0r_Rht_ltwFFUiaNabc30DU3QwEqVyG3iY-vHxWGWej0QRiOhsbv3-w3KrM/s1600/Screen+Shot+2013-08-20+at+6.14.58+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN97WM8WfI8dub3fV5_EX-wPvJ1r1RQYJncHgT8uxCzFhWV2jnZqdtFN9ih_IBbH5cJ6ddKe06GMkS8Oq_0r_Rht_ltwFFUiaNabc30DU3QwEqVyG3iY-vHxWGWej0QRiOhsbv3-w3KrM/s320/Screen+Shot+2013-08-20+at+6.14.58+PM.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>The 11th Battalion Unit Diary records the commencement of training on August 17th</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">(Source: <a href="http://www.awm.gov.au/collection/records/awm4/subclass.asp?levelID=1785">AWM</a><span style="font-size: x-small;">)</span><i> </i></span></div>
<br />
The land had originally been part of the
estate granted to Captain James Stirling, who established the Swan River
Colony in 1829, but from August 17th 1914, the site was host to a swarming mass of activity as the camp was established and the enthusiastic volunteers arrived from around the state. Amongst the first to arrive were a group of navvies and labourers who had been working on the Trans-Continental Railway Line in the goldfields, but on hearing that the call for volunteers had been made, downed tools on the 14th of August to get on board. They were passed as medically fit and duly signed up in Kalgoorlie on the 16th, and hopped straight on a train to Perth, where they would assist in establishing the camp.<br />
<span class="displayFix" id="lc16"> </span></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.awm.gov.au/collection/A02874/"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>The camp at Blackboy Hill</i></span></a></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><span class="displayFix" id="lc16">It
says a great deal for this draft that the men were able to tumble out of
the train at Bellevue Station and fall in under Captain R. L. Leane,
who marched them off to Blackboy Hill. There was no camp there at that
time, and the first thing the boys had to do was to draw tents for
shelters and start to pitch camp. Cooks and other details were allotted.
The cooks were so only in name, and, after trying their effort, nearly
all the boys cleared off to Perth for a feed. At least, that was the
excuse given.</span></i></blockquote>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<a href="http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/37844095"><span class="displayFix" id="lc16">From the <i>Western Mail</i>, 9th December 1937 (pg. 9)</span></a></div>
<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.awm.gov.au/collection/P02077.001"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Anyone for stew?</i></span></a></div>
<br />
Eight companies of men were formed from those who came from Perth and all over Western Australia, with many having served in the civilian reserves under the compulsory Universal Service Scheme that began in 1911. When they first arrived, though, fine physiques or no, the men were for the most part totally untested as soldiers.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>The men had been passed as medically fit. The minimum height
was 5ft. 6in., but otherwise they were a mixed bag-- clerks,
sleeper-cutters, miners, prospectors, tradesmen-in straw hats,
"boxers" and felts, serge suits and dungarees, with shining
suitcases and dilapidated swags. </i></blockquote>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<a href="http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/47865318">From <i>The West Australian</i>, 27th May 1950</a></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
</div>
<br />
Blackboy Hill was to be the making of a battalion that has gone down in legend as one of the strongest, toughest, and most highly respected of the entire Australian Imperial Force. Their initial training was limited, focussing heavily on marching, drilling, musketry practice, and other basic military tasks. In his <a href="http://trove.nla.gov.au/list?id=32665">serialised history of the 11th Battalion</a><i></i>, first published in the <i>Western Mail</i> in 1937, Belford shared a letter that described a soldier's average day at Blackboy Hill:<br />
<blockquote>
<i>As the battalion took shape, and became accustomed to its
routine, the training became more intense, and few of the
succeeding units were given more work than the original 11th
Battalion. From a letter dated September 24, 1914, the
following extract is taken: </i></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<i>
"Last night we were aroused at 9.30 o'clock for roll call,
dismissed, aroused again at 11 p.m. for an alarm; had to
dress, fall in, and march to the parade ground without lights
or talking; were dismissed again, and then aroused at 1.30
this morning for a march; each time without previous warning.
We marched seven or eight miles out to where 'H' Company was
bivouacing, and attacked their lines at daybreak, taking them
completely by surprise. They were mostly asleep, and, of
course, were all made prisoners. On our return we fought an
action with 'G' Company. This was a draw. When we reached
home it was just 2.30 p.m."</i></blockquote>
Which makes the slightly bitter little camp ditty quite understandable, really:<br />
<span class="displayFix" id="lc401"></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="S8">
<span class="displayFix" id="lc402"> <i>"I'd love to live in Blackboy for a week</i></span><i><span class="displayFix" id="lc403"> or two,</span>
</i></div>
<div class="S8">
<i><span class="displayFix" id="lc404"> And work all day, and get no pay,</span><span class="displayFix" id="lc405"> </span></i></div>
<div class="S8">
<i><span class="displayFix" id="lc405">And live on Irish stew."</span></i></div>
</blockquote>
</div>
<div class="S8" style="text-align: right;">
<span class="displayFix" id="lc405"><a href="http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/37844577">The <i>Western Mail</i>, 16th December 1937 (pg. 9)</a> </span></div>
<br />
<div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQfq1xFo3Vg7UXgUj6s0awkQcSPZCTBSGPHLsh7FyubCjfJAxNDAhSDo_RR_8GxkMBXEDEGxc7NMqmJDjRTylILguyaoExyKnlmJhj8y7rkD_YBtKOk7tCiuzSztc-wYMvEm7A00bpVqc/s1600/P00802.001.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQfq1xFo3Vg7UXgUj6s0awkQcSPZCTBSGPHLsh7FyubCjfJAxNDAhSDo_RR_8GxkMBXEDEGxc7NMqmJDjRTylILguyaoExyKnlmJhj8y7rkD_YBtKOk7tCiuzSztc-wYMvEm7A00bpVqc/s320/P00802.001.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i><a href="http://www.awm.gov.au/collection/P00802.001">Members of the 16th Battalion <span style="font-size: xx-small;">drilling</span></a></i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span class="displayFix hovered" id="lc3"><i>The weeks had never gone
on so long, or at the same time, flown so fast. From the moment the
uniforms arrived, it all changed. No more games, no more mucking around
like lads gone wild- it was as real as could be, without an enemy to face. They suited up in khaki, and all of a sudden the days went racing by in a blur of
drills and gun cleaning</i></span><i>, f</i><span class="displayFix hovered" id="lc3"><i><span class="displayFix hovered" id="lc3"><i>ixing bayonets and jamming
them into sandbags</i></span>, and </i></span><span class="displayFix hovered" id="lc3"><i><span class="displayFix hovered" id="lc3"><i><span class="displayFix hovered" id="lc3"><i>marching practice</i></span></i></span>- the endless bloody marching practice. He could have walked down from the farm and he'd only have travelled half as far.</i></span><br />
<br />
<span class="displayFix hovered" id="lc3"><i>Sun up to sunset, it was work, and work, and more work.
Enough that he hardly had to think at all, from the minute his eyes popped
open at the call of the bugle, to the moment he fell into a boneless
sleep as the colour washed out of the sky and the darkness
came down. </i></span><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span class="displayFix hovered" id="lc3">From BETWEEN THE LINES<br />Claire Gregory (2013)</span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjncClP_QsAb5Rgr6JrRQQvzDjawBN0VWKrMi85xbJfei3flVtfdlnKUD4XOWlv-sLUWVRtI8vtv1w09T_4MJVUArzS5xybl1EkT2gIXOsZVXtdkrY16W0UTb6Ye56vC8ob3Ua0-gJz54/s1600/A03353.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjncClP_QsAb5Rgr6JrRQQvzDjawBN0VWKrMi85xbJfei3flVtfdlnKUD4XOWlv-sLUWVRtI8vtv1w09T_4MJVUArzS5xybl1EkT2gIXOsZVXtdkrY16W0UTb6Ye56vC8ob3Ua0-gJz54/s320/A03353.jpg" width="250" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><a href="http://www.awm.gov.au/collection/A03353/">P<span style="font-size: x-small;">te</span>s Darcy and Pratley entertaini<span style="font-size: x-small;">ng t<span style="font-size: x-small;">hems<span style="font-size: x-small;">elves</span></span></span></a></i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Despite it all, the soldiers maintained their larrikin sense of humour, with all manner of hijinks and good-natured misbehaviour reported in the historical sources, as in this account of the rough-and-tough Kalgoorlie railway recruits, who came to be known as The Shovellers. </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span class="displayFix" id="lc100"></span> <i><br /></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i>Their three abiding passions were beer, biff, and bad language, and they indulged in all liberally. Was a soldier awakened out of his beauty sleep by the sole
of a No. 10 brogan imprinted firmly upon his countenance
he knew without asking that it was a Shoveller. Did an Indian file of lurching forms-- each hilariously
brandishing a beer bottle-- swim into a sentry's ken he
merely sighed, and said, "Pass, Shovellers." </i><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
<a href="http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/58768918">From the <i>Sunday Times</i>, 16th August 1936</a></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
And if they couldn't entertain themselves in camp, the men were not shy about wandering off to greener pastures for an evening. In Wes Olson's excellent history <i>Gallipoli: The Western Australian Story</i>, he mentions (pg. 13) that as many as two or three hundred men were rounded up at one point, having broken camp in search of relief from their boredom.<br />
<br />
In an effort to avoid these situations as the numbers increased and the weeks of arduous training wore on, entertainment was put on in the form of musical performances and other shows, and visits were allowed from family, friends, and the general public.<br />
<br />
But by October, the troops were thoroughly restless. The endless marching practice was taking a toll, and patience was being taxed by repeated false alarms that embarkation was imminent. By the time the call really did come on the last day of the month, the boys were more than ready to leave Blackboy Hill behind.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfB6GybXsagz2GBa-ono3S2D0wCyrfbjbDp2BPU8CFIEnuLGsTjalmBPHLWFsietmS_qMUEMMmkuQeBkpJnc9pYzjm-xd7Fsn85hXYqNxhv59XhyjXLzLvmX7Ef52fGtpF8Qf8DUKJ7g0/s1600/H16152.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="208" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfB6GybXsagz2GBa-ono3S2D0wCyrfbjbDp2BPU8CFIEnuLGsTjalmBPHLWFsietmS_qMUEMMmkuQeBkpJnc9pYzjm-xd7Fsn85hXYqNxhv59XhyjXLzLvmX7Ef52fGtpF8Qf8DUKJ7g0/s320/H16152.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.awm.gov.au/collection/H16152/"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>AIF trainees being inoculated at Blackboy Hill camp</i></span></a></div>
<br />
One of the soldiers who marched into Blackboy Hill camp in the first week, and out with the rest of the 11th Battalion on October 31st, was Frank Seccombe.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span class="displayFix hovered" id="lc3"><b>SECCOMBE, Frank William (Sgt)</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span class="displayFix hovered" id="lc3">SERN: 497</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span class="displayFix hovered" id="lc3">Age: 32</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span class="displayFix hovered" id="lc3">Occupation: Piano Expert</span></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7se76ykk7lvFoZ8UhWSOyorFrzESbF2cROwoTiLIrjyTq5NKzj3MeFU9v9peWbJvn364YinUIMNu0AI6fLzQfT_OXmoVGqjctUAEzFmxoS4dohxJsfCyQg8dALgSkZxvfUZD7PEUby4s/s1600/Screen+Shot+2013-08-16+at+10.36.45+PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7se76ykk7lvFoZ8UhWSOyorFrzESbF2cROwoTiLIrjyTq5NKzj3MeFU9v9peWbJvn364YinUIMNu0AI6fLzQfT_OXmoVGqjctUAEzFmxoS4dohxJsfCyQg8dALgSkZxvfUZD7PEUby4s/s320/Screen+Shot+2013-08-16+at+10.36.45+PM.png" width="214" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">(Source: <a href="http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/57801817?searchTerm=Frank%20Seccombe&searchLimits=">NLA</a>)</span><br />
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
</div>
<div class="S8" style="text-align: left;">
Frank
Seccombe has to be one of the most interesting characters I've come
across in researching individual stories of the First World War. When I
first noticed his record, listing him as having joined up on 17th August
1914, I wondered just what a "piano expert" did for a living. I half
expected him to be a piano maker or tuner.<br />
<br />
But
he was in fact quite a renowned musician around Western Australia,
<a href="http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/69957367">described during a tour in 1907</a> as "one of the most gifted vocalists
Albany has possessed for many a year". He
both played the piano, and sang basso-baritone in innumerable individual
and group performances all over the state, and was to be a bandmaster
for the 11th Battalion. Besides his reputation for musical talent, he
was also well-regarded for his willingness to roll up his sleeves and
jump into the fray when the occasion warranted action. Just the kind of
man you'd
expect to be first to front up for a war, and there's no doubt he would
have been one of the great characters of Blackboy Hill in those early
days.</div>
<div class="S8" style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="S8" style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div class="S8" style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHvCXz4ti9t-aY5N7jDHEU7pVcl2a7H1qp5kHtT0q8zFP7Q8bo818f_LfHGz-6COJvw5lxY6qyToXJ8UzBTGOXzGP2IYIaZq_kx8vR6id194LfcXoktfzGsbRuYwLFuE7SY_2StQvHh50/s1600/Screen+Shot+2013-08-20+at+11.38.16+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="157" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHvCXz4ti9t-aY5N7jDHEU7pVcl2a7H1qp5kHtT0q8zFP7Q8bo818f_LfHGz-6COJvw5lxY6qyToXJ8UzBTGOXzGP2IYIaZq_kx8vR6id194LfcXoktfzGsbRuYwLFuE7SY_2StQvHh50/s320/Screen+Shot+2013-08-20+at+11.38.16+PM.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="S8" style="text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Frank Seccombe <span style="font-size: x-small;">is officially attached to D Coy, 11Bn- signed by commanding officer Lt-Col Lyon Johnston</span></span></i><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">(Source: <a href="http://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/NameSearch/Interface/ItemDetail.aspx?Barcode=8076762">NAA</a><span style="font-size: x-small;">)</span></span></span><i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></i></div>
<br />
Just
the kind of man you'd imagine would make it through to tell the tall
tales, too. But
Frank Seccombe was, instead, one of the first killed during the
Gallipoli landing on April 25th, 1915. His official record gives his
date of death as the
2nd of May, but other sources say he was killed on the beach on the
first day, including fellow D Company soldier Albert Facey, who would
later
write the well-known autobiography <i>A Fortunate Life</i>. Facey stumbled across Frank's body as he landed on the beach.<br />
<div class="S8" style="text-align: left;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span class="displayFix hovered" id="lc3"><i>Facey
recalled, 'Bodies.. were lying all along the beach and wounded men were
screaming for help. We couldn't stop for them-- the Turkish fire was
terrible and mowing into us.'</i></span></blockquote>
<div style="text-align: right;">
Olson (2006) <i>Gallipoli: The Western Australian Story</i><br />
Pg. 48, quoting Facey's <i>A Fortunate Life </i>(pg. 256)<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
</div>
Frank's obituary in the Sunday Times reveals a glimpse of an extraordinary man. </div>
<div class="S8" style="text-align: left;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>The
late Frank Seccombe, killed on the field of honour at the Dardanelles,
will be remembered by numerous amusement seekers in Perth. [He] Was born
in South Australia, and from an early age was a musical enthusiast,
being in after-years the possessor of a magnificent bass voice ... More
than once down in the jarrah country, when a mill hand or sleeper-cutter
had allowed his tonicked tongue to outrun common decency, it was
Seccombe who warned him to desist, and it was the same Seccombe who,
when the lout repeated the obnoxious epithet or expression, put him to
sleep for half an hour with one of the piston punches he kept handy for
such occasions. Apart from such affairs, F. D. was a breezy,
good-natured Bohemian, and was splendid company at a private festivity
or smoke social. The present war gave him not his first baptism of fire.
Frank acquitted himself well in the Boer War, having sustained a slight
injury to one of his eyes through a small splint from a shrapnel shell.
</i></blockquote>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<a href="http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/57801763"><i>Sunday Times</i>, 4th July 1915</a></div>
<br />
Frank left behind wife Sarah, who he'd just married in 1914, and step-daughter May. His wife had remarried by 1921, and with no children of his own, the memory of him has faded from public view. <br />
<br />
<span class="displayFix hovered" id="lc3">His fate was shared by many of the others who called Blackboy Hill home. By 1st May 1915, the Unit Diary records that the 11th Battalion commanders were only able to gather together some 450 of their troops, with the rest of that incomparable first 1400 having been killed, injured, or otherwise lost in the madness that was the first week after the Gallipoli landing.</span><br />
<span class="displayFix hovered" id="lc3"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBO3NRJaG5FiC_tduHLN6szN8Xf99t8lw2YqaYqV7ak59EVWZ5nl81EvWSAvUPCF9yvHdbTz5YBKo37J0pRGft4iriUddnQy4Os73sxu9fzJd3Nk6wA0oV4WSaW5LPwZguApLQMvR0gqM/s1600/Screen+Shot+2013-08-20+at+11.45.38+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBO3NRJaG5FiC_tduHLN6szN8Xf99t8lw2YqaYqV7ak59EVWZ5nl81EvWSAvUPCF9yvHdbTz5YBKo37J0pRGft4iriUddnQy4Os73sxu9fzJd3Nk6wA0oV4WSaW5LPwZguApLQMvR0gqM/s320/Screen+Shot+2013-08-20+at+11.45.38+PM.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">The sad fate of the 11th Battalion at Gallipoli</span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></i><span style="font-size: x-small;">(Source: <a href="http://www.awm.gov.au/collection/records/awm4/subclass.asp?levelID=1785">AWM</a><span style="font-size: x-small;">)</span></span><br />
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="S8" style="text-align: left;">
After those original soldiers sailed away to their fate, Blackboy Hill was home to the reinforcements, as well as the originals and reinforcements of many other battalions, including the 12th, the 16th, and the 28th, in which the majority of other Western Australian soldiers were to serve. In the decades after the war, it also saw service as a camp for the unemployed.</div>
<div class="S8" style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<span class="displayFix" id="lc16"><span class="displayFix" id="lc16">Today, most of the site has been overtaken by suburban housing, schools and industry, and t</span></span><span class="displayFix" id="lc16"><span class="displayFix" id="lc16">here's only a small portion remaining intact, where a Commemorative Site and War Memorial now exist. </span>But even
amidst the modern world, with all the changes that have taken place
here, there are aspects of the site that remain familiar.</span><span class="displayFix" id="lc16"> The photographs below juxtapose images of Blackboy Hill from 1914 against the current site. They're not the same locations, but you can still see the similarities.<br /> </span><br />
<div class="S8" style="text-align: left;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoiBYgzVX0vrXV4msD088Mv7ZD8BcfpAH0gmJr-d91l-ulkt9DT2Xpen2XkC-c68-IwsmooXTWVt0mGwUDyQllILRYlkp9Q6i1lxrW1R8X3Tc26LTwsvL_shJPCxJqzAkCMEhne96Y8VI/s1600/Screen+Shot+2013-08-04+at+10.41.15+PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="127" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoiBYgzVX0vrXV4msD088Mv7ZD8BcfpAH0gmJr-d91l-ulkt9DT2Xpen2XkC-c68-IwsmooXTWVt0mGwUDyQllILRYlkp9Q6i1lxrW1R8X3Tc26LTwsvL_shJPCxJqzAkCMEhne96Y8VI/s400/Screen+Shot+2013-08-04+at+10.41.15+PM.png" width="400" /></a></div>
</div>
<div class="S8" style="text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://catalogue.slwa.wa.gov.au/record=b2637805~S2#.UhQYeOiN07A"><i>Doing <span style="font-size: x-small;">well at Blackbo<span style="font-size: x-small;">y Hill (SLWA)</span></span></i></a></span></div>
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLQyHSjntqPNCLaxwqVa56XM8SZKpPcEG0fwO1s8xRh99EVdZD_Ov8h8nH5G-fM7U6raiWPZh6u3v1Cno55mH1pN5DlxTsygCG-FXBwdiX6PmZTe4U-slyinkSkjMYKA2FdK3LnVBCX60/s1600/Screen+Shot+2013-08-04+at+10.48.34+PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLQyHSjntqPNCLaxwqVa56XM8SZKpPcEG0fwO1s8xRh99EVdZD_Ov8h8nH5G-fM7U6raiWPZh6u3v1Cno55mH1pN5DlxTsygCG-FXBwdiX6PmZTe4U-slyinkSkjMYKA2FdK3LnVBCX60/s400/Screen+Shot+2013-08-04+at+10.48.34+PM.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><a href="https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/H16099/">Mor<span style="font-size: x-small;">e inoculations at Blackboy Hill (AWM) </span></a></i></span></div>
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6DSYqp9TEwJYXJoPyiKqTNMmL9_nDucQSmohJeeXukCJ6XXIv61JXiEqLBhG9zjE4XM6__yPsoo3pmL7pbTDjstfBGbhLI_Jra1NRTAId_QJtEX_2V3oxvLoDoHz86V8gHwVO5QKW6Cs/s1600/Screen+Shot+2013-08-04+at+10.44.04+PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="146" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6DSYqp9TEwJYXJoPyiKqTNMmL9_nDucQSmohJeeXukCJ6XXIv61JXiEqLBhG9zjE4XM6__yPsoo3pmL7pbTDjstfBGbhLI_Jra1NRTAId_QJtEX_2V3oxvLoDoHz86V8gHwVO5QKW6Cs/s400/Screen+Shot+2013-08-04+at+10.44.04+PM.png" width="400" /></a></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://catalogue.slwa.wa.gov.au/record=b1981440~S2#.UhQZUeiN07A"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Original 16th Battalion Machine Gun Section in 1914 (SLWA)</i></span></a></div>
<br />
<span class="displayFix hovered" id="lc3">Perth
archaeologists continue to study the area to learn more about the lives
of the men who lived at Blackboy Hill, and in a future follow-up blog
post, we'll hear more from one of the experts who's involved.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="displayFix" id="lc16">On the eve of Anzac Day each year, the setting sun aligns with all elements of the monument, which includes a sculpture representing the Australian Imperial Forces' rising sun emblem, and a pine tree transported from Gallipoli in Turkey. It's a simple but beautifully symbolic memorial.</span><br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBJYPTPQST_sCrwMvXStxybVnt0PV5qcYZhxkmNGyR90f7dblOh2CszdjhirhYrleVrEy6-Xe5y4zFyKfI3qhzU_of3ZvFbXOr34w3rlvJbWx93qvaXLCS160b_sVfz4JkgY6GVkZfvR4/s1600/DSC09988.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBJYPTPQST_sCrwMvXStxybVnt0PV5qcYZhxkmNGyR90f7dblOh2CszdjhirhYrleVrEy6-Xe5y4zFyKfI3qhzU_of3ZvFbXOr34w3rlvJbWx93qvaXLCS160b_sVfz4JkgY6GVkZfvR4/s320/DSC09988.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
<br />
In the 1950s, when the site was first slated for a new housing development, <a href="http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/47865318">there was a bit of an outcry</a>, and the push was made to preserve this little piece of the land in memory of those who trained here. And it is small, and there's not a great deal to see, but for me, it was well worth the trip out to the hills to stand on the same soil.<br />
<br />
If you're a Western Australian with an interest in the First World War, there are no more significant places in the metropolitan area than this little sliver of history, where men from all walks of life passed through on their way to meet their fate.<br />
<div class="S8" style="text-align: left;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>They come from the distant stations,</i><br />
<i> bushmen bold and free, </i><br />
<i>The silent men of our silent land, knights</i><br />
<i> of the saddle tree.</i><br />
<i>They come from the rush of the gold</i><br />
<i> mines, steady and strong and true--</i><br />
<i>Sons of the Southland, one and all, ready</i><br />
<i> to see it through.</i><br />
<br />
<i>They leave the desk in the city, they come</i><br />
<i> from the survey camp,</i><br />
<i>The pearling boat on the north coast, the</i><br />
<i> garden by the swamp.</i><br />
<i>From every part of the country, from</i><br />
<i> every sphere of life, </i><br />
<i>Eager they come to the training camps,</i><br />
<i> longing to join the strife.</i></blockquote>
<div style="text-align: right;">
By Winifred May <br />
<a href="http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/37844095?">From the <i>Western Mail</i>, 9th December 1937</a></div>
</div>
<br />
<b><u>Further reading:</u></b><br />
<br />
Olson, W. (2006). <i>Gallipoli: The Western Australian Story. </i>University of WA Press: Crawley, Western Australia.<br />
<br />
Belford, W. C. (1940). <i>"Legs-Eleven": Being the Story of the 11th Battalion A.I.F in the Great War of 1914- 1918. </i>Imperial Printing Company Limited: Perth, Western Australia.<br />
<br />
Facey, A. (1981). <i>A Fortunate Life.</i> Fremantle Arts Centre Press: Fremantle, Western Australia. <br />
<br />
Also, Bedford's original serialised printing of the 11th Battalion history can be found in the <i>Western Mail</i>, with links to all parts in the series <a href="http://trove.nla.gov.au/list?id=32665">here on the Trove digitised newspaper archive</a>.</div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-65529199479500423.post-47030598330256524572013-04-27T07:52:00.000-07:002016-03-24T03:26:33.014-07:00ANZAC Day 2013: The Road that Went to WarTo commemorate ANZAC Day this year, I decided on a project that is far more ambitious than anything I've attempted before. I look all the time at the impact of war on individual families, and by association, all those around them. But so far, I haven't looked at it in reverse- the impact of war on whole communities.<br />
<br />
This is part of a bigger, longer-term project, but what I'm looking at is<b> a landscape of loss</b>.<br />
<br />
Check out all the details of the project under the tab at the top right, <a href="http://roadtowarandback.blogspot.com.au/p/landscape-of-loss.html">or here</a>.<br />
<br />
A brief recap: I'm hunting down the addresses, details and outcomes of every man who signed up for the First World War and either lived, or had next of kin, in the suburb of Subiaco in Perth, Western Australia. My aim is to look at how the war impacted a whole community, down to individual streets.<br />
<br />
For this post, I've focussed my attention on a single block of a single street that saw a lot of men march away to war- and saw far too few march back.<b><br /></b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>The Road that Went to War: Barker Road</b><br />
<br />
In my research, I've found that one of the highest concentrations of homes where people enlisted in Subiaco
was between 198 and 224 Barker Road, between Axon Street and Townshend
Road.<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin312Ih0DjUDn7Iv7IlVKkOHhBCP2itPiIsmfU5eygkdgKZqpmAqcKlGz-98Gjpq-F3wxPDsIZ4EOtP9SZM7x4kFDLl7fPB_2ypOn9vFQMDfVwX-H6VridNd3XxXd-XF0m-6X18pKwDeA/s1600/Screen+Shot+2013-04-27+at+11.25.22+AM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="177" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin312Ih0DjUDn7Iv7IlVKkOHhBCP2itPiIsmfU5eygkdgKZqpmAqcKlGz-98Gjpq-F3wxPDsIZ4EOtP9SZM7x4kFDLl7fPB_2ypOn9vFQMDfVwX-H6VridNd3XxXd-XF0m-6X18pKwDeA/s320/Screen+Shot+2013-04-27+at+11.25.22+AM.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Present<span style="font-size: x-small;">-day </span>Barker Road, Subiaco, looking west from <span style="font-size: x-small;">Townshend Road</span></span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">(Source: Google StreetView)</span></div>
<br />
Six of about sixteen houses on the street had people go to war,
including one that, over the duration of the conflict, housed two different families that sent four soldiers overseas. I also included one house on Townshend Road and one that backed onto a Barker Road property from Park Street, given their proximity to the other homes.<br />
<br />
Overall,
I've located 430 addresses of individuals, or their next of kin, who were
listed in the embarkation rolls as Subiaco residents at the time of enlistment. Of these, 28 lived on Barker Road- around 6% of the total, and the highest number of individuals from any single street
in the area.<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKbFLEGk7ZI_S9QqI3nbDT6bRE4Qisyme62yWiODeNmmbV2V7ppIU8gCjBk7Vkci5CuUIsouDwMVL2mqL4oBkfJSqv9AIxbFUOHSX0nTKzRD-BGQB8UqtMMMAPhxN5FgfKjqfH0E0Tk5U/s1600/Screen+Shot+2013-04-27+at+9.54.19+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="158" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKbFLEGk7ZI_S9QqI3nbDT6bRE4Qisyme62yWiODeNmmbV2V7ppIU8gCjBk7Vkci5CuUIsouDwMVL2mqL4oBkfJSqv9AIxbFUOHSX0nTKzRD-BGQB8UqtMMMAPhxN5FgfKjqfH0E0Tk5U/s320/Screen+Shot+2013-04-27+at+9.54.19+PM.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">A page from the 1914 11th Battalion Embarkation Roll, including soldier addresses at the time of enlistment</span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">(<a href="http://www.awm.gov.au/collection/records/awm8/subclass.asp?levelID=67006">Source: AWM</a>)</span><i><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></i></div>
<br />
Barker Road runs from 1 to 446,
stretching the whole width of the suburb of Subiaco from east to west,
and notable residents of the street include the King Edward Memorial
Hospital for Women. These days there are many historic homes remaining
on the street, but new development has also changed the face of many
other properties, including the small stretch from 198 to 224.<br />
<br />
These are the men of Barker Road (Axon Street to Townshend Road), and their outcomes.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
199 Barker Road (1915)- FERRIS, David<br />
199 Barker Road (1917)- STUART-SINCLAIR, John Francis<br />
STUART-SINCLAIR, Edward<br />
STUART-SINCLAIR, Stanley<br />
200 Barker Road- NELTHORPE, John<br />
211 Barker Road- THRUM, Norman<br />
216 Barker Road- MATSON, Glanville<br />
218 Barker Road- ANGOVE, John<br />
219 Barker Road- PATTERSON, Samuel <br />
152 Park Street- MORRIS, Arthur <br />
91 Townshend Road- GREEN, William<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEothZ9FiZO-rxb3pnXpbBcmYHAps-K8GNhxfVcuHoSFK_QfRNyyoS_reQvWwuxJI3Qyvbcy3H_72DCF4uPJwUIJ8JE4vZl_a9BCUxKXrps35chQY9kLH00Qvs5j9_u4CzG0y_TQsnmis/s1600/DSC09351.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEothZ9FiZO-rxb3pnXpbBcmYHAps-K8GNhxfVcuHoSFK_QfRNyyoS_reQvWwuxJI3Qyvbcy3H_72DCF4uPJwUIJ8JE4vZl_a9BCUxKXrps35chQY9kLH00Qvs5j9_u4CzG0y_TQsnmis/s400/DSC09351.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Map of Barker Road (Axon St to Townshend Rd)- houses related to WWI soldiers are <span style="font-size: x-small;">shaded</span></i></span></div>
<br />
<u><b>199 Barker Road</b></u><br />
<br />
The very first house I looked at turned out to have the most
tragic story of all, farewelling four men to war from two different
families, and welcoming back none. Today, the original home is long gone, and an apartment hotel has replaced it.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQo35C15_Iy55c-yY7jo99spD0cQRTBG5TDAbLgwRYivmYSZLJvs9db4T-OSCbYgV1RAtaGWW_QLq-UCpJjH3eu9-ttXjVH-HBIJHvvOkOmdGkQpMeVGHHuGzym9gi37pMXSe-LUoomrA/s1600/Screen+Shot+2013-04-27+at+5.20.04+PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="55" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQo35C15_Iy55c-yY7jo99spD0cQRTBG5TDAbLgwRYivmYSZLJvs9db4T-OSCbYgV1RAtaGWW_QLq-UCpJjH3eu9-ttXjVH-HBIJHvvOkOmdGkQpMeVGHHuGzym9gi37pMXSe-LUoomrA/s320/Screen+Shot+2013-04-27+at+5.20.04+PM.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br />
<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">1913 advertisement for the four-roomed villa To Let <span style="font-size: x-small;">at 199 Barker Road,</span> Subiaco</span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">(<a href="http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/26893340">Source)</a> </span></div>
<br />
<b>David Ferris </b><br />
<span style="color: red;">Killed in action in 1916</span><b><br /></b><br />
<br />
David
Ferris was a shipwright, born and raised in Northern Ireland. Through the 1890s, young David did his industry apprenticeship at Belfast's Harland and Wolff shipyards, where the <i>Titanic </i>would later be built.<b> </b>By 1905, he was in Western Australia, working in the pearling industry in the northern outpost of Broome.<br />
<br />
It seems everything changed for David in 1915. He enlisted in the AIF in February, aged 38, and sometime between February and his departure in June, he married wife Bertha, who lived at 199 Barker Road, a property rented through the Farmilo family.<br />
<br />
David arrived in Gallipoli in September, just as the campaign was winding down to the evacuation
which began in December. With the rest of the 28th Battalion, David next moved into France in March 1916, heading toward one of the most vicious
battles of the First World War- <a href="http://www.awm.gov.au/units/event_72.asp">Pozieres, on the Somme</a>.<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSw3uKYn3eiw7jN7OgrGwImX-ZZ6LopSuyqgIAdGGkDuwUS-f_-wV0fzMv3Rj8AGErKZZ67sqgt18cx3R1YhXMa2_QTIQFYvWfC09s2qJgq2msOzz0A5nbyQBHNPuybPG3LTZcR6AownA/s1600/796px-Gibraltar_bunker_Pozieres_(AWM_EZ0098).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSw3uKYn3eiw7jN7OgrGwImX-ZZ6LopSuyqgIAdGGkDuwUS-f_-wV0fzMv3Rj8AGErKZZ67sqgt18cx3R1YhXMa2_QTIQFYvWfC09s2qJgq2msOzz0A5nbyQBHNPuybPG3LTZcR6AownA/s320/796px-Gibraltar_bunker_Pozieres_(AWM_EZ0098).jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Australian troops near Pozieres in 1916</span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">(<a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gibraltar_bunker_Pozieres_%28AWM_EZ0098%29.jpg">Source</a>)</span></div>
<br />
It was there on July 29th 1916, in the thick of the infamous battle, that he was declared missing in action.<br />
<br />
What
followed for Bertha was two years of heartbreak, all based on rumour
and incorrect information. Shortly after being declared missing in
action, the Australian military advised Bertha that her husband had been
located, and was a prisoner of war in Germany at Dulmen. But from that
point onward, nothing was heard from David. Bertha and her sister Hilda
wrote repeatedly to the Army and the Red Cross, desperately seeking more
information.<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZZsHhyphenhyphen-Oqv-_CuhS7NePwroLwKbbnhvl_9GD1KwMpj0behjoZ4jUx38LN2SalyJcujzZjo3FqL3GeItDViDT6CLUDslnveeCyJ9P4OXNKYukceMO0imNHvZmsm8SavKscu1f3oDMunLg/s1600/Screen+Shot+2013-04-27+at+11.45.55+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="295" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZZsHhyphenhyphen-Oqv-_CuhS7NePwroLwKbbnhvl_9GD1KwMpj0behjoZ4jUx38LN2SalyJcujzZjo3FqL3GeItDViDT6CLUDslnveeCyJ9P4OXNKYukceMO0imNHvZmsm8SavKscu1f3oDMunLg/s320/Screen+Shot+2013-04-27+at+11.45.55+PM.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Letter from Bertha Ferris to the AIF</i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">(Source: National Archives of Australia)</span></div>
<br />
With her growing desperation evident, Bertha's letter in May 1917 says:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Would you let me know if he was wounded and where he is? Is he suffering from shell shock or has he lost his memory, as I have not heard anything or received any letter since he was captured. Would be glad if you could give me any reason why I never hear from him. </i></blockquote>
Sadly, it wasn't until 1918 that a court of inquiry determined
the answer- he had in fact been killed in action on the day he was declared
missing back in 1916, and had never been a prisoner of war at any point.
The original source of the prisoner of war information was David's own
sister, who said she'd received a letter in his own handwriting stating
the name of the prison camp at which he was interned. Given that he was
never present at that camp, it appears the sister must have been gravely
mistaken, perhaps even deluded, about her brother's fate. The Army took
her information and made it part of the official record, thus
creating a chain of misinformation that took two years to unravel.<br />
<br />
In
1917, Bertha left number 199 and moved to another Subiaco address. In 1920, after news of her husband's death was confirmed, she returned to England to be with her family.<br />
<br />
Which brings me to the next family to live at 199 Barker Road- the Stuart-Sinclairs. <br />
<br />
<b>John Francis (Jack) Stuart-Sinclair</b><br />
<span style="color: red;">Died of wounds- 29 October 191<b>7</b></span><b><br /></b><br />
<br />
<b>Stanley (Stan) Stuart-Sinclair</b><br />
<span style="color: red;">Killed in action- 17 August 1918</span><br />
<br />
<b>Edward (Ted) Stuart-Sinclair</b><br />
<span style="color: red;">Died of wounds- 29 November 1917</span><br />
<br />
By 1917, the Stuart-Sinclair clan had moved in. The family had three sons,
and two daughters, Gladys and Dolly. Father Edward Burrows Stuart-Sinclair, who was the son of Sir Edward Burrows Sinclair, King's Professor of Midwifery at Dublin's Trinity College, was a Sergeant-Major in the British Army in his early life, so perhaps a
military destiny was inevitable for Jack (born 1888), Stan (born c. 1892) and Ted (born c. 1898).<br />
<br />
Their fate, however,
could not have been expected.<br />
<br />
Before the war, eldest son Jack was working in the small Western Australian town of Collie as an accountant for the Collie Co-operative Collieries, an amalgamation of local coal miners. Youngest son Ted worked for the same company as a clerk.<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCwrDgPNaroV8SWAiABPg2k6Zd4MoxPxN1RXYUhP38M4EYxJsKDWxFsZ7kuhnx6Ob0lqdt88dzsIivcm4pkD9-D8eo8g7hnyn4FYVDQilpY9CIl4AVtNkVsG-pAbCpsB_wTDZbtue_6YA/s1600/003536d.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCwrDgPNaroV8SWAiABPg2k6Zd4MoxPxN1RXYUhP38M4EYxJsKDWxFsZ7kuhnx6Ob0lqdt88dzsIivcm4pkD9-D8eo8g7hnyn4FYVDQilpY9CIl4AVtNkVsG-pAbCpsB_wTDZbtue_6YA/s320/003536d.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Workers at the Collie Co-operative Collieries coal mines, c. 1920</span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">(<a href="http://innopac.slwa.wa.gov.au/record=b1959964~S2#.UXuCMeiN07A">Source</a>)</span></div>
<br />
Middle son Stan, a stockman/ station hand, was the first to sign up for
war in November 1914, aged 22. At the time, his parents were living in
the coastal town of Geraldton, and the family did not yet have a Subiaco
association. Jack signed up to the 28th Battalion in September 1915,
aged 26, and after undertaking officer training, he married Winifred
Bedlington in Collie in March 1916, before shipping out in July. And Ted, fairly
hopping with enthusiasm, put his name on the papers to be part of the
11th Battalion in February 1916, just one month after he turned 18, and
was gone before his eldest brother, by April 1916.<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOISKhoWJilgLY6QKN8bxN36aeb7iCvCidkI-0COMJMjUz07wec8D6cdbQzbRI-lqVLrU6xg9UrtZeh5whpriGQtuPKAlz6A4uDYYm-QCnvrR15WLN4tQ6u09AUivDeHhPbhG9xfR7LHc/s1600/Screen+Shot+2013-04-27+at+3.49.13+PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="288" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOISKhoWJilgLY6QKN8bxN36aeb7iCvCidkI-0COMJMjUz07wec8D6cdbQzbRI-lqVLrU6xg9UrtZeh5whpriGQtuPKAlz6A4uDYYm-QCnvrR15WLN4tQ6u09AUivDeHhPbhG9xfR7LHc/s320/Screen+Shot+2013-04-27+at+3.49.13+PM.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Details from the wedding of Jack Stuart-Sinclair to Winifred Bedlington, March 1916</span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/80897319"><span style="font-size: x-small;">(Source)</span></a></div>
<br />
Stan arrived in Egypt in early 1915, and was amongst the first Australian troops to land on the shores of Gallipoli on ANZAC Day, April 25th 1915. He wrote to his father from the Dardanelles with great enthusiasm for the momentous battle that had been the first engagement of Australian troops in the Great War:<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>The landing of our guns came then, and this was no easy matter, as it was impossible to land horses under such fire, and the work of getting them into position was done by hand. Anyway it was not long before the Turks were receiving postcards from Australia through their muzzles. It's wonderful how quickly one gets used to being under fire. After a little while you don't take any notice, although the shrapnel is very thick at times, and the "ping ping" of the sniper's bullets make you feel uncomfortable, but altogether it's not too bad.</i></blockquote>
</div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
From the <i>Geraldton Guardian</i> (22 June 1915)</div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
The Dardanelles Landing- "Australian Postcards" </div>
<br />
In March 1916, Stan reached France to enter the lines of the Western Front. His initial time there was short. His earlier brief stay in Egypt had left him, possibly as the all-too-common result of too much of a good time, with a debilitating personal health concern that took him out of the lines for a full 57 days, from May through to July. <br />
<br />
Fortunately for Stan, his health improved, and he was able to rejoin his unit, the 3rd Australian Field Artillery, in his rank of Gunner. Unfortunately, his return put him back in the firing line. In February of 1917, he was admitted to hospital briefly suffering shell shock, but was back in the lines quickly.<br />
<br />
At home, the Stuart-Sinclair parents moved to Onslow Street in Subiaco in 1916, thus entering the neighbourhood, and this study.<br />
<br />
In the meantime, both Jack and Ted arrived in France with their units and went to war. By 1917, Jack had been promoted to Lieutenant and had taken on the duties of Quartermaster, a role that required him to distribute supplies and provisions to the troops. His parents had moved to the house on Barker Road.<br />
<br />
And by the middle of that year, things started to go wrong for the Stuart-Sinclair clan in all kinds of ways.<br />
<br />
The first bad news of the year came in May 1917, when Ted received a gunshot wound to the head. The injury was mild, requiring only three stitches, but it still removed him from the fighting for three months, transported to England for rest. In June, Stan received a severe gunshot wound to his
leg and genital area, and was likewise transported to England for
treatment. <br />
<br />
On July 13th 1917, the most unexpected news of all reached the brothers from Jack's father-in-law: their own father Edward had suddenly and unexpectedly died, at home at number 199.<br />
<br />
The timing of it, coming so close to two frightening pieces of injury news, is interesting. It seems the elder Stuart-Sinclair was under a great deal of stress with all three sons away at war, in peril on the battlefield, and perhaps his own health suffered for it.<br />
<br />
Mother Jessie was left a widow. In the space of a year, she'd be a mother with no living sons, too.<br />
<br />
It was Jack whose luck ran out first. According to the Red Cross investigation into his death, he was in the pillbox (reinforced bunker) known as Ideal House, the Brigade Headquarters of the Australian troops at Broodseinde Ridge during the bitter fighting near Zonnebeke, Polygon Wood, and Passchendaele, when an enemy shell struck, injury him in the thigh and hand. The same day, October 29th 1917, he died at the 17th Casualty Clearing Station. He was buried at Lijssenthoek Military Ceremony, and his brother Stan was able to place a cross on his grave.<br />
<br />
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Ideal House <span style="font-size: x-small;">p</span>illbox at Broodseinde Ridge in October 1917, the same month Jack was killed there</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://www.awm.gov.au/collection/E01213/">(Source)</a></span></div>
<br />
Devastated by his brother's death, Ted was pulled from the nearby frontlines where his own battalion was fighting, and put on temporary assignment transporting rations by mule between Ypres and Zonnebeke. Just three days later on November 2nd, not during an actual battle, an enemy shell burst over the ration party, and Ted, too, was seriously wounded, in the chest, stomach and thigh. Those who were with him at the time of his injury thought he looked okay as he was taken away by ambulance, with horrible irony to the same Casualty Clearing Station where his brother had died only days before.<br />
<br />
But Ted's injuries were in fact critical, and like the great majority of those who received a shrapnel wound to the abdomen, infection eventually overtook him, and he died on November 29th. He was buried in the same cemetery as Jack, but in a separate section- just a month apart, but the space between them had already been filled by dozens upon dozens of other dead soldiers.<br />
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Lijssenthoek Cemetery shortly after the end of the war</span></i></div>
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<a href="http://www.ww1battlefields.co.uk/flanders/behlines.html"><span style="font-size: x-small;">(Source)</span></a></div>
<br />
Stan carried on the fight, and was admitted to hospital a third time in June of 1918 after being gassed. He was back in the lines a week later, and in August 1918, he joined his brothers in the great beyond, also killed in action after receiving shell wounds in France.<br />
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">A memorial notice for Ted Stuart-Sinclair</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">(Source: Bunbury Herald, 1917)</span></div>
<br />
I assumed that a story like this would already be out there on the Internet, but I could find nothing on it, and little to tell me the fate of the surviving Stuart-Sinclairs. Jack's wife Winnie remarried in 1920, around the same time the boys' mother Jessie moved to Victoria. I couldn't find anything further on Gladys or Dolly in the Western Australian record, so I can only guess they may likewise have moved interstate.<br />
<br />
I got chills to realise, though, that one of the main reasons there's nothing out there, is that there were no further descendants of these three men to carry on their story. The male line of the family, the Stuart-Sinclair name, ended right there. And what an awful, awful waste of young potential it was.<br />
<br />
As to their neighbours, some of the other houses in the same street fared better, and some just as badly.<br />
<br />
<u><b>200 Barker Road</b></u><br />
<br />
<b>John Nelthorpe </b><span style="color: #38761d;"><b></b><br /></span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;">Returned to Australia in 1919, no injuries</span><br />
<br />
Born in London, England, John was an 18-year-old clerk at the time of enlistment in 1916, and being under 21 required the permission of his parents Edgar and Laura to join the Army. He spent more than a year in the local Depot with the 11th Battalion reinforcements before embarking for France, where he arrived in December 1917. But by January 1918, he was in hospital with the first of a string of illnesses, including influenza and German measles. In total, he saw no more than a few months of actual service in France before being returned home in 1919 after the conclusion of the war. His illnesses may well have kept him from harm's way, because he was one of the lucky few to get back without any injuries.<u><br /></u><br />
<u><br /></u>
<u><b>211 Barker Road</b></u><br />
<br />
<b>Norman Thrum </b><span style="color: blue;"><b></b><br /></span><br />
<span style="color: orange;">Discharged in 1915- permanently unfit for service</span><br />
<br />
Norman was a 21-year-old seaman at the time of his enlistment in the original 11th Battalion at the outbreak of war in 1914. He landed at Gallipoli with the rest of the troops on ANZAC Day, and received a wound to his foot early in May 1915. But he had a bigger problem looming- an existing diagnosis of rheumatism, which was worsened by exposure to the elements in the trenches, to the point where he was completely incapacitated and judged unfit for further service. He returned home in July 1915.<br />
<br />
<u><b>216 Barker Road</b></u><br />
<br />
<b>Glanville Matson </b><span style="color: blue;"><b></b><br /></span><br />
<span style="color: orange;">Discharged 1916- unfit for service</span><br />
<br />
Glanville enlisted in the 16th Battalion in early 1915, and embarked on <i>HMAT Ascanius</i> in April that year. But almost as soon as he arrived in Egypt, he was placed back on the <i>Ascanius</i> and returned home by October. It transpired the 20-year-old labourer had existing deafness that had been missed in the medical assessments, rendering him unfit for service. Quite amazing that he got all that way before it was noticed, and that the response was to send him straight home! That's a first- I haven't seen it in the records before.<br />
<br />
<u><b>218 Barker Road</b></u><br />
<br />
<b>John Angove </b><span style="color: red;"><b></b><br /></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">Died of wounds in 1917</span><br />
<br />
John Angove was a chemist, 29 years of age when he joined the 28th Battalion Reinforcements and went to war in 1916, eventually joining the same unit as Jack Stuart-Sinclair. He received 21 days of Field Punishment No. 2 (see Arthur Morris, below) for being absent while on duty, and subsequently moved to a role with the 22nd Machine Gun Company. He received a gunshot wound to the back on the 20th of September 1917 in Belgium, dying two days later at the Casualty Clearing Station, and he was buried in the same cemetery at Lijssenthoek that the Stuart-Sinclair brothers would be a month and two months later. He left behind wife Jessie, who subsequently moved to New South Wales to begin a new life.<br />
<br />
<u><b>219 Barker Road</b></u><br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;"><a href="http://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/NameSearch/Interface/ItemDetail.aspx?Barcode=8007607"><b><span style="color: black;">Samuel Patterson</span></b></a> </span><br />
<span style="color: red;">Died of wounds in 1916</span><br />
<br />
Samuel Patterson was an engine driver who enlisted in the 16th Battalion and departed for war in September 1915. After a bout of diptheria on the way, he arrived in France in June 1916. Two months later, on the 11th of August, he (like David Ferris only two weeks earlier) died of wounds received near Pozieres. He left behind a daughter, Viva, and a widow, Jane, who remarried not long afterward. Jane's new husband left her after a year of marriage, and she appealed to the military for financial assistance in the form of an increased pension, but this was, unsurprisingly, denied.<br />
<br />
<u><b>152 Park Street</b></u><br />
<br />
<b>Arthur Morris</b><br />
<span style="color: blue;">Discharged in 1919 for medical reasons</span> <br />
<br />
Like Norman Thrum, 26-year-old teamster Arthur Morris suffered from debilitating rheumatism that had been dormant for many years, but flared up again in the trenches of France upon his arrival in 1916. Arthur had a great many hospital admissions for arthritis, rheumatism and rheumatic fever through the course of the war, and also had a number of run-ins with authority, at one point going AWOL. For his transgression, he received 21 days of Field Punishment No. 2, and was docked 22 days of pay.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.awm.gov.au/encyclopedia/field_punishment/">Field Punishment No. 2</a> was the equivalent of hard labour, undertaken while shackled, bound or handcuffed, so Arthur did not have an easy time. Nonetheless, despite illnesses and ill-judged behaviour, he remained with the Army until the war was over, and on his return to Australia in 1919 was discharged from service for medical reasons.<br />
<br />
<u><b>91 Townshend Road</b></u><br />
<br />
<b>William Green</b><br />
<span style="color: blue;">Discharged in 1917 for medical reasons</span><br />
<br />
33-year-old labourer William Green joined the 28th Battalion Reinforcements in 1915, and ultimately arrived in France in June 1916. Less than a month later, he had the bad or perhaps good fortune to slip while marching along slippery wooden duckboards in a communications trench, and broke his leg. The leg did not heal well, and combined with a dose of influenza that left him with an enlarged heart and shortness of breath, he was judged no longer fit for service, and returned to Australia in 1917.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>In conclusion</b><br />
<br />
This little stretch of Barker Road farewelled eleven men to war. Of those, only one returned unharmed, that being John Nelthorpe. Glanville Matson, of course, returned home with an existing condition, but one that had not been affected by the war. Six men died, and the remaining three were incapacitated to varying degrees by their war experience.<br />
<br />
It caught my eye that every married man who enlisted on this stretch of street died. Terrible. A street full of widows. Some of the single men died too, but more of them survived. <br />
<br />
Nonetheless, in a war where 10% of soldiers were killed and 40% injured, this part of Barker Road was hit far harder than most. More than 50% of enlistees were killed, and 40% injured in one respect or another.<br />
<br />
It will be interesting to see how this pattern shifts and changes across the rest of the suburb. For now, though, I think it can only be a good thing that the terribly sad house at number 199 is no longer in existence, because I imagine the walls would have altogether too much to say.<br />
<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-65529199479500423.post-20580529957930465592013-03-02T00:38:00.003-08:002015-07-28T19:05:58.747-07:00Soldier Pay in WWIThe Australian men who signed up to fight in the Great War had many reasons. Patriotism, a sense of adventure, a sense of duty to King, country and family- and pay.<br />
<br />
My novel hinges on one critical point of believability- that one of my farming brothers, Bill, despite having moral objections to the war, nonetheless signs up.<br />
<br />
Why? There are other factors at play, including the need to chase down his brother, who's done the family a terrible wrong. But he could just as easily wait for his brother's return to have their reckoning. For Bill to make such a big shift, it has to be a matter of money- not the option of bringing home pay, but the absolute necessity, and the impossibility of getting the same pay anywhere else. Without it, the family will lose everything they've worked for.<br />
<br />
As I run through the final draft of the story, I'm pinning down details that have for a long time been left blank. One of those was the assumption that serving in the Australian Infantry Forces would be an attractive source of income for a family whose farm was on the brink of disaster due to years of drought. But to prove that, I needed to find out first what the income was like for a soldier in the Great War, and second, to determine whether men had indeed sent their pay on to family, or whether it had all remained with them (or with the Army).<br />
<br />
I'm willing to guess that anyone who knows their Australian First World War research might have been ahead of me on this, because I found the answers fast.<br />
<br />
<b>Australian soldier pay rates in WWI </b><br />
<br />
Australian troops were known to their Commonwealth counterparts as "six bob a day tourists", which tells you almost all you need to know right there- the men, at Private rank, were paid six shillings a day, which is apparently nearly three times as much as their UK counterparts. One shilling was held over as "deferred" pay, to be paid out at the end of their service. Soldiers higher in rank were paid more.<br />
<br />
Of the 5s they received each day after their deferred pay, the men could choose how much was allocated to Australia and their family, and how much they received on the Front.<br />
<br />
The answer had indeed been in front of me for years, on the Embarkation Roll of soldiers departing for war. I've been using the 11th Battalion's embarkation roll to choose soldiers to research for a long time now, and sure enough, there are multiple columns on the right of every page listing the pay in detail.<br />
<br />
My character needs to be particularly desperate to warrant a complete reversal of everything he stands for, and I have all the reasons why- I just needed to know how realistic it would be for him to allocate nearly every pence of his pay back to his family.<br />
<br />
So, I hunted down the list until I found a man in the ranks who did just that.<br />
<br />
<b>Edward Lindsey </b><br />
<br />
Private Edward James Lindsey was a 21 year old mechanic when he signed up for war in 1914. He shipped out with the 11th Battalion in November, leaving behind wife Hilda, who he'd married on August 22nd, just two and half months earlier- and 18 days after war was declared. In his pay, he allocated nearly everything to be sent home to his family- 4 shillings and 6 pence a week, leaving him just sixpence for his needs overseas.<br />
<br />
There's something about that allocation that makes me think Edward must have been a determined and selfless young man- and I could only hope like hell, as I scrambled to dig up his record, that he had made it home to his wife.<br />
<br />
I'm happy to say, he did. He was invalided out of Gallipoli with influenza, and went into an administrative role for the rest of the war, first in England and then in France. He rose up the ranks, and his pay increased. Hilda moved to London. And in 1919, she gave birth to their first child. Edward, Hilda and their baby returned to Australia together in 1919, and in the decades after, Edward's military correspondence lists him as a successful small businessman with a service station in the Western Australian country town of Lake Yealering.<br />
<br />
I plan to look more closely at Edward Lindsey's service and life in a later post, but for now he was exactly the example I needed of a young soldier living for his family.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-65529199479500423.post-80881951439860191642013-02-14T19:14:00.000-08:002015-05-12T00:59:31.031-07:00Royce Constantine Baesjou<br />
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Enlisted: Kalgoorlie, Western Australia- March 1915<br />
Age at enlistment: 26<br />
Occupation: Bank clerk</div>
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Unit: 28th Battalion, "C" Company</div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Royce Baesjou in his militia uniform, c. 1915</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">(Courtesy: <a href="https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/P08953.001/">Australian War Memorial</a>)</span><b><br /></b><br />
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<b>Introduction</b></div>
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<b><br /></b></div>
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Developments since this post was first made in 2013 have prompted me to add a bit more explanation at the beginning of this tale, and some additional content throughout.<br />
<br />
As you'll read below, Royce Baesjou was a First World War soldier from Albany, Western Australia. I started researching him after choosing his memorial plaque at random whilst visiting the Great Southern region. In short order, I discovered that two other Western Australian military researchers were likewise chasing his story. Sandra Playle (<a href="http://visionresearchservices.webs.com/aboutme.htm">Vision Research Services</a>) had encountered Royce while investigating Albany's WWI soldiers, and Shannon Lovelady (coordinator of the <a href="http://membership.wags.org.au/membership-mainmenu-44/wags-sub-sites/gallipoli-project/gallipoli-dead-the-list">Gallipoli Dead from Western Australia project</a>) was researching him as one of those who died at or as a result of service at Gallipoli.<br />
<br />
All three of us had slightly different angles on his story, and slightly different reasons for looking into his tale. Combined, we were able to take our investigations to the next level, and after accessing previously unseen medical files, convening a medical panel to discuss the case, publishing a newspaper article (in Shannon's case), and tracking down one very important descendant of the Baesjou family, we came to know him very well indeed. <br />
<br />
Royce's story begins with my original search for details, and expands into what we learned collectively.<br />
<br />
<b>The War in Albany</b> <br />
<br />
We recently took a trip back to the town of Albany in Western Australia, where we lived for several years, and where our hearts still lie. Albany is also the last place in Western Australia that many First World War soldiers saw, as King George Sound was where most of the fleet gathered in 1914 before departing for Egypt, and from there, to Gallipoli.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>King George Sound, where much of the AN<span style="font-size: x-small;">ZAC </span>fleet gathered in 1914</i></span></div>
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Albany has a remembrance walk along Apex Drive, which leads up to Mt Clarence and the striking Desert Mounted Corps Memorial. The plaques remembering local heroes were once along Middleton Road, but were moved up the hill when the grove of trees was planted in 1955/56.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i> The Remembrance Walk, Apex Drive, Albany</i></span></div>
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As I've done at other memorials around Western Australia, I chose a few plaques at random and photographed them so I could come home and track their stories.<br />
<br />
I was particularly intrigued by this one, which says that Private Royce Baesjou died of shell shock, but in Fremantle, Western Australia, in 1918, far from the battlefields, and from a malady that has largely come to be seen as psychiatric in nature, not physical. </div>
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I am fascinated by the neurological and psychiatric effects of battle on soldiers in the First World War, but I don't recall having seen any previous cases where shell shock was listed as the ultimate cause of death. So, with an idea in my head of what I might find, I tracked down Private Baesjou's story- and I didn't get what I expected.<br />
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<b>Before the War</b> </div>
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Royce Baesjou was born in Albany in 1887 to a prominent local family. He was the eldest of three children for parents Constantine and Jessie, and by marriage and blood, his relatives extended all over the Great Southern region. <br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Royce Baesjou as a baby with parents Jessie and Constantine</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">(WA Museum Collection, courtesy Amelia Moir) </span></div>
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His father was a shipping agent who had been born to the first
resident medical officer in Albany, and a mother who was born in Albany
in 1836, making this one of the oldest families in the Great Southern.<br />
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Royce and his sisters Gwendoline (Gwen) and Petronella (Nella) were a close set of siblings with lively intelligence and wit, and all grew up with a great appreciation for music, literature, and art. For their mother's birthday in 1908, they presented her with a scrapbook to which they all contributed little items for many years. Poems, essays, strong opinions and family photographs all found their way into the book, which none of them knew would become a memorial for one of their own some ten years later.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Gwen and Nella Baesjou</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">(Baesjou Family Journal)</span></div>
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After leaving school, Royce became a bank clerk, and moved out to the Goldfields
region for work. Sister Gwen, by then a nurse, followed him across. They were working in Kalgoorlie when the war broke
out, and Royce signed up in March 1915. Not without some effort, either- upon first applying, he was rejected, purportedly for being slightly too short.
Undeterred, he went along to the next enlistment point, and there was passed. <br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Newspaper clipping from the Baesjou family journal</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">(Unknown origin) </span></div>
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Youngest sister Nella, then 14 years of age, was delighted that her brother had answered the call to go to war, and not a moment too soon. She inscribed a poem in the family journal titled "To My Brother", which read in part:<br />
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<i>We would not have you scoffed at<br />
Or called a stay-at-home<br />
When peace, all crowned with laurels<br />
Sits once more on the throne<br />
<br />
We pray He will keep you safely<br />
And guide you thro’ your work<br />
We can say then, when war is over<br />
You were not one to shirk.</i></blockquote>
After basic training at Blackboy Hill, Royce shipped out on HMAT<i> Ascanius</i> in June 1915, headed for the battlefields of Turkey and France with the 28th Battalion. He would leave behind a fiancee, Helen, but he would soon see familiar faces on the other side of the world- sister Gwen sailed to London to join the British Army as a nurse, and his future sister-in-law, Helen's sister Caroline Allen, would join other Australian nurses at Lemnos.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Royce Baesjou (marked X in each) aboard the <i>Ascanius-</i> his own signature above.<i><br /></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">(Baesjou Family Journal)</span></div>
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<b>Gallipoli: No Description is Adequate</b><br />
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At Gallipoli in November of 1915, Royce had his first field hospital admission, for debility, or general weakness- a symptom often associated with shell shock or neurasthenia, but also often seen after bouts of dysentery and any number of other illnesses. He was released after three days, but was readmitted a month later, this time specifically for shell shock.<br />
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The 28th Battalion was fighting in Gallipoli, in the dying days of the battle winding down to Australia's evacuation of all troops at the end of December 1915. Royce's unit was involved in fighting at Russell's Top, where the Australian forces were under continual heavy fire from artillery. On the day Royce was taken to hospital suffering shock, the battalion diary states:<br />
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<i>The enemy shell us rather heavily in the afternoon with both "Seventy-Fives" and Howitzers. One man killed and several wounded.</i></blockquote>
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In a <a href="http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/70122069">letter home to his uncle</a>, Royce gave further details of what he had endured, and though he had sustained some physical damage, his enthusiasm for war was undented:<br />
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<i>Bill Bateman was smashed to pieces right at my side and I never got as
much as a scratch, although I was smothered with his blood. Some people
call this luck, but I prefer to call it providence. The shell that got
Bateman wounded two others, and knocked two others out, with shock to
myself included. That is the closest I ever wish to be to a bursting
high-explosive shell. Withal there is something fascinating about the
business, something that command a man's whole attention. The very
noise after a while gets as familiar as the pulsation of one's heart and
one begins to wonder what is the matter when there is a temporary
cessation.</i> <i>The whole thing is an education and no description is adequate, for you
must feel as well as see and every moment is a new sensation.</i></blockquote>
In discussing Royce's case in many places, such as the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/650009228360173/">Gallipoli Dead from Western Australia Facebook page</a> or the <a href="https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/ww1-stories/steps/31720">Monash University 100 Stories course via FutureLearn</a>, people often question why he was returned to fighting after suffering that initial shell shock. Partly, the question arises because we assume from a modern perspective that Royce was mentally or psychiatrically affected by shell shock. From the above letter and other evidence, it's clear that he was both ready and willing to get back to the business of war after his recovery from the first blast. <br />
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<b>The Western Front: Nothing Serious</b><br />
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As the 28th Battalion moved out to France and the trenches of the Western Front in 1916, Royce was fairly quickly admitted to hospital with bronchitis and pneumonia. Upon his return to the battlefields, he was again evacuated with a shell shock diagnosis in June 1916, and this marked his final departure from the fight.<br />
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Royce himself sounded unaffected by his injuries in <a href="http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/70124333">a letter written to his mother</a>
from his hospital bed at the Australian Hospital in Wimereux, France,
in June 1916, during the time he was being treated for his second round
of shell shock. The letter was later published in the local Albany
newspaper, and in it Royce was matter-of-fact about his shaky nerves,
and went on to talk with great enthusiasm about the politics behind the
war, and his belief that the fight was nearly over.<br />
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="displayFix" id="lc11">"You will see by this let</span><span class="displayFix" id="lc12">ter I have found hospital suffering</span><span class="displayFix" id="lc13"> from shell shock; nothing serious. </span><span class="displayFix" id="lc14">For the second time I have been blown</span><span class="displayFix" id="lc15"> up but never a scratch to show for</span><span class="displayFix hovered" id="lc16"> it."</span></span> </i></blockquote>
But his personal battle was just beginning. His medical records show that he suffered from that point forward with a number of different issues, including neurasthenia (often used to describe the more psychiatric symptoms of shell shock, and sometimes described as nervous exhaustion), myalgia, rheumatism and periostitis. The latter would be the final reason given for his return to Australia at the end of 1916- a swelling of joints in the foot.<br />
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As one small consolation, descendants confirmed that Royce and his sister Gwen were able to see one another whilst he was convalescing in England, and she was nursing there. It would be their last opportunity.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Sister Gwen Baesjou (nicknamed Hiddie by sister Nella) nursing in England</span></div>
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<b>After the War</b></div>
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The mystery of how Royce died from shell shock two years later appeared to thicken at this point. His discharge papers in his service record suggest that, despite frequent treatment for neurasthenic symptoms, his major ongoing concern was a physical one that, while limiting his mobility, was hardly a threat to his health.<br />
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In fact, in the two years between his discharge and death, Royce was able to go back to his former work as a bank clerk, moving back out to the country, this time to the south-west mining town of Greenbushes. Moreover, he married Helen Allen in 1917, and together they had a son.</div>
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But the war ultimately caught up with Royce, and his lucky escapes came to an end. He was admitted to hospital, and on 19th May 1918, died of a cerebral haemorrhage.</div>
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It appears that his death from shell shock was in the most literal sense. Having twice survived being the strike of a heavy artillery shell at close range, which in his own words blew him "yards away", there may have been a latent weakness in his brain caused by the percussion of the impact. Two years down the line, it appears that weakness gave way.<br />
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Royce's shell shock was of the variety termed concussion or commotional shock, in other words literally impacted by the concussive force of the explosion of the shell. <a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/The-Shock-of-War.html?c=y&page=1">This fascinating article in the Smithsonian Magazine</a> quotes the the Official Report of the War Office Committee of Enquiry Into "Shell-Shock" (pg. 3) as stating that only 5-10% of shell shock cases were of this literal variety, with the rest being the more familiar emotional shock that has come to be associated with the term.<br />
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From the same article, quoted on the first page, an account of the impact of a shell blast:<br />
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<i>“There was a sound like the roar of an express train, coming nearer at
tremendous speed with a loud singing, wailing noise,” recalled a young
American Red Cross volunteer in 1916, describing an incoming artillery
round. “It kept coming and coming and I wondered when it would ever
burst. Then when it seemed right on top of us, it did, with a shattering
crash that made the earth tremble. It was terrible. The concussion felt
like a blow in the face, the stomach and all over; it was like being
struck unexpectedly by a huge wave in the ocean.” Exploding at a distant
200 yards, the shell had gouged a hole in the earth "as big as a small room"."</i> </blockquote>
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For all Royce Baesjou believed his apparent lack of significant physical injury in 1916 was "nothing serious", it was in fact a ticking time-bomb that would end his life.<br />
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Royce Baesjou was well mourned at his funeral. He had been closely involved in his local communities, committed to the church, to the Army, and to his family. There's a small amount of grace in the fact that he was able to return home for a brief period of normalcy, and that in that time he was able to start a family and have a child of his own. Tragically, his son was to grow up without a father, who died on home soil when he should have been safe- seemingly mentally unaffected by a condition that damaged so many minds, but physically affected instead.<br />
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<b>Gallipoli Dead from Western Australia investigations</b><br />
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There's a post-script to this case, as mentioned earlier, that adds a little bit more detail. In 2013, Gallipoli Dead from Western Australia coordinator Shannon Lovelady put out a call to her volunteer researchers to see if anyone could shed greater light on the Royce Baesjou case- a call that was answered immediately by myself and Sandra Playle.<br />
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Shannon's not-so-simple question: could Royce's untimely death in 1918 be attributed to his service at Gallipoli in 1915?<br />
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As a bit of background, the Gallipoli Dead project sought to quantify the number of Western Australian men killed at (or dying as a result of) action at Gallipoli. Having concluded, the project now has an answer: 1023, subject to possible change if any new information comes to hand. To be eligible for the project, an individual had to have a Western Australian connection (born here, enlisted here, or lived here for a significant period). Royce met all of those criteria.<br />
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He also needed to have died before August 1921 from wounds or illness received at Gallipoli. Royce had died in 1918, but he had also suffered a second instance of shell shock in France. Could we state with confidence that the first injury at Gallipoli contributed to his death?<br />
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My initial instinct was to say no. It was clear from the records and from Royce's own words that he had been physically able to return to the fighting in France after his initial injury.<br />
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However, after accessing his detailed medical files, consulting a number of medical experts, and debating it intensively for weeks on end, our final conclusion was that we could not definitively rule out the contribution of his Gallipoli injury, and therefore we could not rule him out as one of the Gallipoli dead.<br />
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All the evidence points to a gradually compounding set of physical problems that most likely began at Gallipoli, and was fully triggered in France, leading to a cascade of events that ultimately resulted in his death.<br />
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<b>Royce Baesjou's medical file</b> </div>
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In our quest to unravel Royce's story, we accessed a previously unopened file held by the National Archives of Australia- his medical file from the time after his repatriation to Australia.<br />
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His official cause of death was given as cerebral haemorrhage, and his memorial plaque states that he died from shell-shock. But was this as sudden and unexpected as it seemed? Or were there clues from the beginning that Royce was living on borrowed time?<br />
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His medical file makes it clear that the latter is the case. In the following photographs from the Baesjou family journal, taken just after Royce's return from war, the physical impact is clear. These were taken no more than two years after the photograph at the top of this post, and we're seeing a completely different man. He has aged well beyond his years, and holds his left side stiffly. In the seated photograph, he was unable to bend his left leg at all.<br />
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Royce's medical file gives us the following detail of how his symptoms progressed on his return to Australia.<br />
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When assessed in February 1917, he was initially assessed as being relatively well. The rheumatism and periostitis for which he'd been returned to Australia had settled, though he still had some tenderness. His incapacity for work was assessed as a quarter, and he was able to return to his pre-war occupation, working in the bank. He married Helen Allen in 1917, and their son John was born on 30th March 1918.<br />
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<br />
What is not mentioned until slightly later in Royce's record is that in addition to his rheumatism, he had been paralysed down the left side whilst in London, and on his return to Australia was still suffering weakness in that left side. His ongoing treatment in Australia included not only the rheumatism, but continued neurasthenic symptoms. After his discharge, the symptoms only increased. In May 1918, when his son was seven weeks old, he returned to the No. 8 General Hospital in Fremantle for help, with a note stating he had "self reported neurasthenic". His file detailed some of what he'd been suffering during the previous year. <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>After leaving the No. 8 A. G. H. had two months holiday during which time he had 2 or 3 fainting attacks. On 1-5-17 he returned to Bank. No trace of paralysis, slight limp, otherwise well. No rheumatism. About Sept 1917 suddenly lost use of left arm, which recovered in 4 hours except for some stiffness. That did not interfere with his work. About November a rupture (right inguinal) which he had since childhood began to give trouble- painful and getting larger- this has increased lately. End of March 1918 caught chill, this recovered. Almost beginning of May he fainted 3 times, fell by unconscious and lost use of rt arm and leg. This not improving he was readmitted to No. [8] A.G.H. May 17th. At present headaches, bronchitis, paralysis rt arm, leg and rt side of face. Speech affected.</i></blockquote>
On the same day this note was made in his file, 19th May 1918, another brief comment was added:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Died 6:10 p.m.</i><b><br /></b></blockquote>
It appears to all of us that Royce had suffered a series of strokes leading ultimately into his death. Our medical panel were curious about a number of small extra details, such as that persistent rheumatism (was it more like gout? Could he have had a blood clot from limited movement of that leg?) and the swelling of the inguinal hernia. In the end, though, all agreed- his death from cerebral haemorrhage had been inevitable from the time he was subjected to concussion from those shells. <b><br /></b><br />
<br />
It was impossible to say how much responsibility lay with the first or the second blast, but it didn't matter. Royce's borrowed time had run out.<br />
<br />
<b>The Baesjou Family Journal: All the Little Ghosts of Me</b> <br />
<br />
With our research into Royce's story complete, Shannon wrote a story about the overall project for the Post Newspapers, and mentioned the effort we'd made to unravel the mystery of Royce's death.<br />
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Gallipoli Dead article in the Post Newspaper </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">(Courtesy Shannon Lovelady)</span></div>
<br />
Very shortly after, we experienced what Royce himself might have called providence. His great-niece Beverley happened to see the article in this small local newspaper, and not only did she know his story well- she was also in possession of the family journal in which the Baesjou siblings wrote to each other and their mother.<br />
<br />
With immense gratitude, Shannon and I met with Beverley and took copies of all the material held within the pages. Not only that, but speaking with her, we came to understand the long-term impact of Royce's death within the family- he was a much loved brother to his two remarkable sisters, and in as Bev said, as a child she grew up thinking that the First World War revolved centred around him, as he was spoken of with such reverence.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> Royce on his return from war, with his mother, uncle, and sister Nella</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">(Baesjou Family Journal)</span></div>
<br />
Reading the journal in conjunction with a descendant was an incredibly valuable lesson in the fact that historical documents don't always tell the whole story. There were emotions within the family that did not make it to the page, and situations that were far more complex in reality than they appeared in hindsight.<br />
<br />
One of the things it showed quite clearly was that Royce was not the nervous wreck one might assume from reading what he went through. He certainly showed neurasthenic symptoms, but the impact on him was in large part physical.<br />
<br />
Just before his departure to war, Royce wrote a brief piece of prose that gloried in the natural beauty of an Albany morning.<br />
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<br />
On his return from war in 1916, he wrote another piece in the same steady, elegant hand, praising the war effort and lauding the valiant dead.<br />
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<br />
Reading this, we see a man who had been seriously affected by his war service, physically and certainly mentally as well. His medical record shows that he was putting a brave face on an increasingly difficult situation. But the fact that he could write like this, work in the bank, marry, and conceive a child, are all testaments to the fact that his incapacity was far from complete, no matter how much fortitude was required to get through the day.<br />
<br />
Nonetheless, not much further through the journal from this last piece of Royce's writing are pages of photographs of his grave at Fremantle Cemetery, including one particularly poignant image of a grieving female relative in black, arranging some of the many flowers that decorate his resting place.<br />
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<br />
Though gone, Royce was never forgotten by his family. His epitaph, <i>Died of Shell Shock</i>, was written to reflect the most literal sense of the words. His case is a fascinating example of the way war continued to reach beyond the battlefields to affect people at home, with many others dying not long after their return.</div>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
We're lucky that Royce somehow captured so many different streams of attention, so that we were able to understand the full breadth, depth and impact of that loss.<br />
<br />
In 1990, an elderly Nella wrote a letter reflecting on her life, and all the fortune she'd had to be part of such a loving family, of which she was the last one left. She described her memories as, "all the little ghosts of me" (after poet Alice Meynell). Those of us who have researched Royce find that his little ghosts flutter all around, and we see him popping up with remarkable frequency.<br />
<br />
His is certainly a story that demands not to be forgotten.</div>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<br />
<b>Acknowledgements</b></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
The investigation into Royce's story has very much been a team effort with a lot of different contributors. Shannon Lovelady and Sandra Playle have provided equal input into researching this case, with the assistance of other members of the Gallipoli Dead from Western Australia research team (particularly Andrew Pittaway), plus the panel of medical experts who donated their time to assist. Michael Gregg of the WA Museum located the photograph of Royce as a baby (which was also present in the family album). Marjorie Bly of the National Archives of Australia made it possible for us to view the previously unopened medical record.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Beverley Taylor provided not only access to the family journal, but also spent hours talking about her great-uncle and her equally remarkable great-aunt and grandmother. She provided us with wonderful insight and has been extremely generous in allowing us to share the details.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-65529199479500423.post-43001209089277569332013-01-28T05:45:00.004-08:002013-08-05T01:30:06.676-07:001914 Australian Kitchen: DamperIn addition to researching individual soldiers, I'm going to start posting a little about the other research I'm doing into the First World War era for my novel<i> Between the Lines</i>. You can check out my Pinterest boards <a href="http://pinterest.com/clairegregoryau/">here</a>, for an extra perspective.<br />
<br />
One of the extra things I'll be doing is looking at food that came out of the Australian kitchens of 1914, both at home and away on the front. My novel is set in rural Western Australia, so the food of the farms was a little more rustic than one would have eaten in the cities. Overall, there's a lot to explore, with recipes available in old cookbooks passed down through the family, in the pages of the digitised historical newspapers of the time, and in many other places.<br />
<br />
My kitchen isn't all that authentic to 1914, thank goodness. I'm lucky enough to enjoy a fast-cooking gas stove in place of one fired by wood, and a refrigerator to keep my food cool. And I do have this awesome dresser passed down from my mother, but my Ikea jars, plastic packaging and random vitamins eliminate me from any kind of authenticity. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJnP0Mmv_dSLj6_ZxlVbFA6S5i-p-xonQRn1N5hEO5qfT5jSuF59DHb_9Lre3hfxwmlrGAYKqaWehHk5HXL3fJbLR0G7tu0BI_tuEScrhnd3f2-p_87RBaxwQ1IV3gdc43YbWc2JB7M5k/s1600/DSC07772.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJnP0Mmv_dSLj6_ZxlVbFA6S5i-p-xonQRn1N5hEO5qfT5jSuF59DHb_9Lre3hfxwmlrGAYKqaWehHk5HXL3fJbLR0G7tu0BI_tuEScrhnd3f2-p_87RBaxwQ1IV3gdc43YbWc2JB7M5k/s320/DSC07772.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
Here's an
example of a well preserved large communal kitchen from that time, at the old military barracks in
Albany, Western Australia, with the stove on the left: <br />
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<br />
So, now and again I'll share some classic Aussie recipes that would have been eaten in 1914.<br />
<br />
First up, probably the simplest food of the time, and something that is still eaten today in exactly the same way:<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><br />Damper</b></span><br />
<br />
Damper is a very simple bread, made (at its most basic) with flour and water, and cooked on the coals of the campfire. Long before the first white settlers came to Australia in the 1700s, the Aboriginal people of this country made damper using seeds that were ground into flour between flat stones. Once there were stockmen making a living out in the deserts and plains, damper became something that was easy to make and filling, the perfect accompaniment to a simple kangaroo stew or a tin of ham. And as time progressed and ingredients became more readily available for those living out on the land, variations to damper began to include things like butter, leavening agents and sugar.<br />
<br />
From <i>Between the Lines</i>:<br />
<br />
<i>The bread was in a round, domed and golden, still dusted with flour and imprinted by her fingertips. He cut it awkwardly, first in half, then into wedges. </i><br />
<i>"Thank you." She took the offered piece along with the knife, and spread melting butter and glistening syrup over tender, crumbling dough. </i><br />
<br />
<i>She leaned back on one hand and closed her eyes as she chewed. Perfection, to be out here in the bush surrounded by the lemon-scent of the leaves and the singing insects, wrapped in the warm arms of the day, enjoying a full belly and good company.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<br />
There's nothing quite like damper straight out of the coals, but you can
make it at home in your oven, and it's as easy as can be.<br />
<br />
<b>Basic Damper Recipe (adapted from <a href="http://www.bestrecipes.com.au/recipe/damper-L10655.html">Best Recipes</a>)</b><br />
<br />
3 cups flour<br />
1 tsp salt<br />
1 cup beer (or lemonade, water, milk)<br />
80g (1/3 cup) butter <br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1P8rWfRHLgfSY6_Q4vDp4aipAMYa9MCVAkFxt7GLVZ234obsTZzn58rjzoA_Lq7nkBanyGaZzzdnnfeXSCNvrm_qFRTFEN0iWVe-Bqm7yNXdgdnfvCnF4g7cF5H52i8Y5Ty8BPGuzExI/s1600/DSC07763.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1P8rWfRHLgfSY6_Q4vDp4aipAMYa9MCVAkFxt7GLVZ234obsTZzn58rjzoA_Lq7nkBanyGaZzzdnnfeXSCNvrm_qFRTFEN0iWVe-Bqm7yNXdgdnfvCnF4g7cF5H52i8Y5Ty8BPGuzExI/s320/DSC07763.JPG" width="320" /></a> </div>
<br />
Preheat oven to 210 degrees C (410F).<br />
<br />
Combine flour and salt in a bowl. I used 2 cups of plain flour and 1 cup of wholemeal, for personal preference. And while Pyrex bowls were first released for sale in 1915, you'll have to imagine mine is something more time-appropriate, like Mavis Cutler's dependable stoneware.<br />
<br />
Make a well in the centre, and pour in melted butter, followed by beer (or other liquid). Beer or lemonade, for what it's worth, give the final product a bit of lift/ rise because of the bubbles. If using milk or water, you can add a little baking soda to the dry ingredients for the same effect.<br />
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<br />
Mix until just combined, and then knead until it all comes together. I left mine pretty rustic- you can make it neater than this by kneading longer, but try not to overmix, or your damper may end up a bit tough. <br />
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<br />
Place damper on a lightly floured tray or baking stone. I love my pizza stone. If you happen to be camping, you can put it in the cast iron camp stove and hang it over the fire, or you can dig a little hole in the coals of your fire and put in in there. Wrapped in foil or straight up- you can eat the inside and leave the charcoaled outer crust.<br />
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Pat your damper into a flat round. You can score it into eighths if you like, or leave it unmarked.<br />
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If using an oven, bake at 210 degrees C (410F) for ten minutes, then reduce heat to 180 degrees C (350F) and bake for a further 15-20 minutes, until damper is golden and sounds hollow when tapped. My convenient gas oven is temperamental, so my damper took closer to 40 minutes to cook.<br />
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Butter is the perfect accompaniment to damper, and if you've made it with beer, it does well with cheese, ham, or on the side of a beef stew. If you've made it with lemonade, it's great with golden syrup, or for those who tragically live in places where golden syrup is not readily available, honey or jam. If you've made it with milk or water, you can cut the middle ground and use it for either!</div>
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A very simple Australian food to make and enjoy.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-65529199479500423.post-44473991099059347012012-11-10T18:09:00.000-08:002012-11-10T18:36:54.858-08:00A bucketful of water poured into a riverToday marks 94 years since the end of the First World War, and all around the world people will pause to think about those who have served in conflicts past and present, and those who never came home.<br />
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In honour of Remembrance Day, I wanted to share with you a news article I came cross while researching my WWI novel Between the Lines. In October 1914, Australian troops were massing around the country, preparing to march out to war in Europe.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">The 16th Battalion (WA and SA) marching through Melbourne in 1914</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://www.anzacsite.gov.au/1landing/s_sixteenth.html">Source</a></span></div>
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After weeks of training at the Blackboy Hill camp in Perth's hills, the Western Australian 11th Battalion was transported into the city centre for a military parade to show off their strength and good order. Military parades were a long-standing tradition, but since the Boer War over a decade before, in which over 600 Australians died, the sense of celebration surrounding war had dimmed somewhat. This parade, coming on the heels of two months of news from the raging and deadly conflict in their eventual destination, Europe, was a sombre affair.<br />
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The report itself, viewed through the lens of history, is sadly prophetic. The flower of this state's manhood did indeed suffer heavily, first at Gallipoli, and then for years on the Western Front, exactly as it was feared they would- and yet they marched out anyway, and their families waved them farewell, knowing full well that they would be, as predicted, no more than a bucketful of water poured into a river. Those knowing sacrifices are the reason we still grieve so keenly so many years down the line.<br />
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Read on for the transcribed article below.<br />
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<b>The Western Mail</b><br />
<b>Friday 2nd October 1914 </b><br />
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<b>THE WEST AUSTRALIAN TROOPS</b><br />
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<b>-</b><br />
<b><br />PARADE IN PERTH</b><br />
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<b>- </b><br />
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<b>AN EFFECTIVE DEMONSTRATION</b><br />
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The life of a city is as the life of a man; it passes through many strange phases, through many stirring emotions. Its streets, day and night, resound to the tread of thousands who walk in spirit care-free, or broken. But it is given to few cities often to hear the relentless, purposeful tread of companies of men drilled, organised, and disciplined to kill, and when the hour does come, when that sound must in the name of national honour and courage be heard, the heart of every British city is nobly steeled to the natural grain of the thing. <br />
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The thought evoked by a contemplation of the fact of such a march can in its final analysis be nothing less than horrifying, but the innate courage of man or woman ever meets the call. Still a military procession is not as once it was, and when from Blackboy Hill on Saturday there descended upon Perth an army of battle-equipped soldiery, who with significant earnestness, ease, and swiftness swept through the city for an hour and then disappeared as suddenly as they had come, the impression was fostered that military parades nowadays are viewed by soldiers and populace alike in manner far different to that of the days gone past. <br />
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The years pass and the people grow in understanding; their imagination quickens and their conceptions are saner, sobered by the facts of knowledge. Time was when the mention of a military parade conjured up by its associations the spectacle of brilliant uniforms and the blare of music; when the martial ardour was violently stimulated into a passion that divorced reason but made the task of the recruiting sergeant the easier. On battle eve or in pacific hour it excited a cheering multitude; it turned a city of earnest men and women into cheering jingoists. <br />
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Today the colour, the brilliancy, and the playing of martial bands are becoming memories, as was brought home forcibly on Saturday. Then our soldiers, clad in earth-soiled khaki, with arms bared and brown, marched in a grim procession, resolute of purpose, through crowding rows of an almost silent people. The appanage and paraphernalia of the "death or glory" days was not there, but the nerves of the soldiers were at as healthy a tension as ever, and the hearts of no thronging crowd that ever was could have throbbed with truer or deeper emotion. <br />
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Outward manifestation was checked- restrained by the depth of feeling and the touch of understanding. The atmosphere was surcharged with the intangible quality of intelligence. Both those in the ranks and those who looked on knew of the goal whither the marching trended, and the spirit that permeated the sidewalks told its own eloquent story, that when the hour called each, now held back by some circumstance, would be ready to don the khaki. <br />
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For those who so soldierly marched the streets the call had come, and, they being ready and able, had responded at the bound. The circumstances of their lives had plainly been, largely, a preparation for the sudden emergency of war, and physically they represented the flower of the State's manhood. Folk of every calling, of every estate in life, looked down from crowded balcony upon the brown amorphous stream of men, who, whether born to wealth or poverty, had now but one common calling- that of risking and that of meting out death, and to do so unflinchingly with the carnage of warfare; to do so, not as they would, will, but in the way they were told and on a battlefield where they and their strength would be but as a bucketful of water poured into a river.<br />
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In the embarkation and disembarkation lay a revelation of the effectiveness of military operations. At the head of his command- a field battery of artillery equipped and ready for instant battle- Major Bessell Browne reached the capital by road, and, with the Army Service Corps and the Army Medical Corps, took up a position at the due time in the barrier-enclosed space before the railway station. The march was timed to leave that point at 3 p.m. To the hour, in fact a minute or so before, the infantry commenced to pour into the city in train loads. <br />
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Along the route of the march at that moment surged a silent, expectant crowd. As the first train ran swiftly beneath Beaufort-street Bridge those posted there raised a cry of welcome which pursued a quivering course right through the city as one whispered it to another. <br />
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The train drew up at the far platform. Quietly, swiftly, the men stepped forth, fell into line, uttering the while scarcely a word, and as, on the word of command they formed fours and wheeled to-the left over the spanning bridges, the train drew out and another ran into its place without a minute's delay. So it went on until the last company to disembark fell into the rear of a continuous stream that stretched far up Wellington-street. <br />
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Then began the march to the step of the kettledrum and the rally of an occasional bugle. From a window or shop front here and there fluttered a patriotic banner. With an athletic swing and to the rythmic swish of a thousand feet marching in step the men passed, swiftly through the city and back to the station where the entraining was just as noiseless and speedy as had been the disembarkation. <br />
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Now and again a cheer, deep-throated and emotional, would burst forth, more often a sentiment-inspired cooee would pass along the route, but, in the main, the people watched in understanding silence.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-65529199479500423.post-44006662597546801702012-11-03T18:25:00.000-07:002016-01-08T22:43:06.072-08:00Vernon C. King<div style="font-weight: bold; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">Pte Vernon Charles King</span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: normal;">Enlisted: Boulder, Western Australia- August 1914</span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;">Age at enlistment: 26</span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;">Occupation: Miner</span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;">Unit: 11th Battalion (WA), "F" Company</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYKpiOUjxBHzYdi-BURcz-hQkuI5JjMTQwZtGaKUh-XGnlmEJuyEoRE1hTO5dqhMM3hFGJqA24Sp7I1B_9rqs3gcsG_BQwV2ftVvgCSeSkGCXHmczPJRol1xADM0yrAlqK4UenRMK7oFM/s1600/Screen+shot+2011-12-27+at+6.01.40+PM.png" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5692292787293949122" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYKpiOUjxBHzYdi-BURcz-hQkuI5JjMTQwZtGaKUh-XGnlmEJuyEoRE1hTO5dqhMM3hFGJqA24Sp7I1B_9rqs3gcsG_BQwV2ftVvgCSeSkGCXHmczPJRol1xADM0yrAlqK4UenRMK7oFM/s320/Screen+shot+2011-12-27+at+6.01.40+PM.png" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 320px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 226px;" /></a><br />
Vernon King began the First World War like many other Western Australian men. As a fit and healthy miner on the WA goldfields, he signed up to join the first Western Australian battalion, the 11th, within a couple of weeks of the declaration of war by Britain on August 4th, 1914.<br />
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But Vernon's war was short-lived. He shipped out with his battalion and landed on the beaches of Gallipoli on the 25th April, 1915- the day that became known as ANZAC Day, Australia's first true taste of war as a nation. Vernon was physically injured immediately, but it was his mental injuries that defined the rest of the war for him, and ultimately occasioned his early return home.<br />
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In his absence, life on the home front was anything but easy for his wife and mother, and by the time he returned, things had changed significantly not only in himself, but in the world he left behind.<br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Before the war</span><br />
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Vernon was born to parents Lillian and James King in the Melbourne suburb of Windsor, Victoria. His father had several other children by a previous marriage. At some point in the early 1900s, the family moved west to settle in the gold rush mining town of Kalgoorlie- a town that even today is know for its duality of good times and hard luck, as well as for having one pub for every 1200 people in town. Yes, that's 25 pubs for around 30,000 inhabitants, which pales a little in comparison to the number of drinking holes available for around the same level of population in the early 1900s- over 90 hotels and 8 breweries, or one hotel for every 300 people. The number of brothels was probably not far behind.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpntJbwjrDO3dZvOXm2L3wCN3ggfDJ8bNpY0hof7p7Mfj847rTVYkBfWlJFKn-Qz0h24Be-_Y28sIyQYBFc_-peTQPvSQafPlhueMnxJnXU0ed7mnEfngvwvARGS5_hm4LVaPJ2wjYejI/s1600/Kalgoorlie+c+1902+to+1909"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5692663308839422210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpntJbwjrDO3dZvOXm2L3wCN3ggfDJ8bNpY0hof7p7Mfj847rTVYkBfWlJFKn-Qz0h24Be-_Y28sIyQYBFc_-peTQPvSQafPlhueMnxJnXU0ed7mnEfngvwvARGS5_hm4LVaPJ2wjYejI/s320/Kalgoorlie+c+1902+to+1909" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 266px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 320px;" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://catalogue.slwa.wa.gov.au/search%7ES7?/c019063PD/c019063pd/-3%2C-1%2C0%2CE/frameset&FF=c019063pd&1%2C1%2C"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Gold rush Kalgoorlie in the first decade of the 20th century</span></a></div>
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Vernon probably did his share of carousing as a young man. In 1907 at the age of 19, he was arrested with several others at the goldfields mining town of Gwalia for playing the illegal gambling game <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-up">Two-Up</a>, in which punters bet on the outcome of a coin toss. Though he was charged, there was not enough evidence to convict, and so Vernon was allowed to go free. He stayed out of publically-visible trouble after that, working on the mines and making no further appearances in the crime reports, and married Louisa Johnson in 1910. Their only child Ethel was born in 1911.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtfW8mMdtHMvdVxWxIueJa6nvWEW1iDWTjdKrHevjATgrYoppJBlvPHJe8odFZQ-rYlJoHbUDBdp9iI9U-nkKKfooGJtApVcyO7n_YT0TptuXhQN_HEw5MFlvk_42tUDv6amY566O-ClM/s1600/G_TowerStreet1905.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5692658964028068002" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtfW8mMdtHMvdVxWxIueJa6nvWEW1iDWTjdKrHevjATgrYoppJBlvPHJe8odFZQ-rYlJoHbUDBdp9iI9U-nkKKfooGJtApVcyO7n_YT0TptuXhQN_HEw5MFlvk_42tUDv6amY566O-ClM/s320/G_TowerStreet1905.jpg" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 161px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 320px;" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.gwalia.org.au/gallery.html"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The mining town of Gwalia in 1905</span></a></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">During the war</span><br />
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When war was declared on August 4th, 1914, there was great enthusiasm in Western Australia. Australia had only been a federated nation since 1901, and since 1911 under the <a href="http://www.awm.gov.au/encyclopedia/conscription/universal_service.asp">Universal Service Scheme,</a> the young men of the state had been enlisted in compulsory military training. As a man aged between 18 and 26, Vernon would have been required to serve in a militia or military unit, and his enlistment record shows that he had been part of one of the Army's Infantry Regiments for five years.<br />
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No surprise, then, that Vernon signed his official papers almost as early as possible at Boulder on August 18th 1914, declaring his intent to fight in the war. He was placed into F Company, which was comprised mostly of men from the same area. By September, he was at the central training camp of Blackboy Hill in Perth, and on November 2nd he departed on the HMAT <span style="font-style: italic;">Ascanius</span> with the rest of the <a href="http://www.awm.gov.au/units/unit_11198.asp">11th Battalion</a>, bound for further training in Egypt, and from there, the real show in Turkey.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQUqRSyOVr5sAXws5R81EjN_f0QP0BCCxdDrOPMom1OhrXbf5Ri1mxKvpwDQHRjGvYxatNiE22fAQczmNQ4KPvH0cF7KnwGvuOd7eUfreMRIDluxiUkPj8_5d5IckTI_FA5wNj0DhL4qE/s1600/Ascanius+at+Freo+1914.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5692671249287589794" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQUqRSyOVr5sAXws5R81EjN_f0QP0BCCxdDrOPMom1OhrXbf5Ri1mxKvpwDQHRjGvYxatNiE22fAQczmNQ4KPvH0cF7KnwGvuOd7eUfreMRIDluxiUkPj8_5d5IckTI_FA5wNj0DhL4qE/s320/Ascanius+at+Freo+1914.jpg" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 245px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 320px;" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://cas.awm.gov.au/item/H16157">HMAT Ascanius at Fremantle Harbour in 1914, waiting to transport Vernon and the 11th to war</a></span></div>
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The men of Vernon's battalion were amongst the first to land on the beaches beneath Ari Burnu Point at 4:30am on April 25th, and were immediately met by heavy fire from Turkish troops. Around 20000 Australian soldiers landed on the beaches that day, and by the time the sun set again that evening, over 2000 men- or 10% of the total force- <a href="http://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=casualties%20first%20day%20gallipoli&source=web&cd=4&ved=0CDcQFjAD&url=%2Furl%3Fsa%3Dt%26rct%3Dj%26q%3Dcasualties%2520first%2520day%2520gallipoli%26source%3Dweb%26cd%3D4%26ved%3D0CDcQFjAD%26url%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.dva.gov.au%252Fnews_archive%252FDocuments%252F090327_GallipoliCampaign.pdf%26ei%3DanAAT7XDB6WQiQe_moDVAQ%26usg%3DAFQjCNGIsLiue5U6dRTpNdz80p06VWIg8A&ei=anAAT7XDB6WQiQe_moDVAQ&usg=AFQjCNGIsLiue5U6dRTpNdz80p06VWIg8A&cad=rja">had already been killed</a>. From that point onward, the Australian troops faced relentless and chaotic battle that would last for eight months, resulting in the deaths of over <a href="http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/FWWgallipoli.htm">10,000 Australian men, and injuries to a further 20,000</a>. With a national population of just over 3 million people at the time, it's easy to understand why Gallipoli is a campaign remembered every year on ANZAC Day.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAwAwC8AdlFDobw6MjEGyQABtNiGS6MS6wcoGC1RW6j724o_ugl8pi69KInJjxNVZukHx933uWdrQR5svL5Cf6AfQ2R1KAqsbexUk6UC308vVsxSKbLpcs8W5tX_t-YY1MNEvPzvesU1U/s1600/11th+Battalion+preparing+to+land+night+before+ANZAC+Day"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5692677528320229090" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAwAwC8AdlFDobw6MjEGyQABtNiGS6MS6wcoGC1RW6j724o_ugl8pi69KInJjxNVZukHx933uWdrQR5svL5Cf6AfQ2R1KAqsbexUk6UC308vVsxSKbLpcs8W5tX_t-YY1MNEvPzvesU1U/s320/11th+Battalion+preparing+to+land+night+before+ANZAC+Day" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 188px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 320px;" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.anzacsite.gov.au/1landing/nbeach1.html"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Soldiers of the 11th Bn and 1st Field Coy on 24th April 1915, heading toward the beach landing at Gallipoli</span></a></div>
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Vernon King didn't last long on the battlefront. On the very first day of fighting, he was removed to the hospital ships with a serious injury to his back. He was transferred to hospital in Malta to convalesce, and it took nearly two full months before he was healthy enough to return to war in June.<br />
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But Vernon fought for only eight more days before a new injury sent him back to hospital- this time, one that was to become the silent suffering of many: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neurasthenia">neurasthenia</a>, also described as nervous debility, or, as it was more commonly known at the time, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combat_stress_reaction">shell-shock</a>.<br />
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Each of these terms had a subtly different definition. Neurasthenia and nervous debility were terms essentially used to describe a nervous breakdown, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwone/shellshock_01.shtml">characterised by any or all</a> of fatigue, agitation, anxiety, fear, insomnia, nightmares and hallucinations, shaking, and numerous other mental and physical symptoms such as headaches and phantom pains. Shell-shock was the same, but while the other conditions were considered to originate from within the sufferer, shell-shock was considered to originate from the physical effect of sound waves on the body, as encountered on the war front under the never-ending barrage of detonating shells.<br />
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Collectively, the symptoms describing these illnesses are today known as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combat_stress_reaction">Combat Stress Reaction</a>. The rapid increase in cases during the First World War initially took the Armies by surprise, and it wasn't long before neurological conditions began to get a lot of attention, if not a lot of sympathy. <a href="http://catalogue.wellcome.ac.uk/record=b1667864%7ES8">This somewhat disturbing film from 1918</a> shows the very wide range of war neuroses of a number of soldiers, and is a good indicator of why the problem could not be ignored.<br />
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However, in the earliest days of the war, shell-shock was not always given a great deal of credibility, and Vernon King was returned to the front after just one day of respite. This time, he lasted six days before he was removed again to hospital suffering nervous debility. From that point on, Vernon never set foot again on the battlefield.<br />
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He was transferred from hospital to hospital before finally being sent across to England to the 5th London General Hospital at St. Thomas, where he would remain a neurological patient for almost a full year.<br />
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It appears that removal to a hospital in the United Kingdom was considered something of a last resort in the treatment of shell-shock cases, reserved only for those who were given little hope of recovery in the short to middle term. Vernon's removal to London, his year in hospital there, and his discharge from the Army as unfit for further service, suggest that his case was of the most serious kind; however, despite repeated requests from family, the Army provided no further details of his symptoms or treatment.<br />
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He was discharged from hospital in London in May 1916, and arrived back in Western Australia in June of the same year, discharged from the Army in October to face life forever changed.<br />
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For a further look at neurasthenia and shell-shock in World War I, by the way, I highly recommend Pat Barker's mostly-fictional <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Barker#Regeneration_Trilogy">Regeneration trilogy</a>, which follows a number of mental patients recovering under the care of the <a href="http://www.firstworldwar.com/features/rivers1.htm">psychologist W. H. Rivers</a>, who became something of a world expert on the condition through his wartime work.<br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">On the home front</span><br />
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While Vernon was away at war, life on the home front appeared to be unravelling a little. His wife Louisa was listed as his next of kin, but in June of 1915, his mother Lillian sent a letter to the Minister of Defense complaining that she had only learned of his April injury upon receiving a letter from him, sent from the hospital in Malta. She was very unhappy that she had received no previous word from the Army.<br />
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The person who replied was surprised, because a telegram had indeed been sent advising Vernon's next of kin, L. King, that he was injured. And here was L. King telling them she hadn't received the telegram. It took a couple of back and forth pieces of correspondence before Lillian admitted that she was not actually Louisa, and therefore not actually entitled to receive the telegrams that should have been reaching her son's wife.<br />
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Her reply was interesting, and says a lot about the stresses the family were facing. She detailed a story of considerable woe, in which Louisa had not been seen or heard from in a long while, and seemed to have left Vernon while he was away. The relationship with her daughter-in-law seemed full of animosity on both sides, so whether this was true or not isn't clear. But as a result of the breakdown in communication between the women, his family were not aware of what was happening to him overseas, and it concerned his mother greatly that she should know if any further harm befell him.<br />
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After further correspondence, the Army agreed to include both Louisa and Lillian in all future correspondence regarding Vernon. But Lillian never had her greatest concern answered before Vernon arrived home- she was desperate to know what injury he had suffered, to prepare herself for looking after him upon his return.<br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">After the war</span><br />
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Vernon arrived home in June 1916, to a home situation that isn't fully clear from the records. His wife may have been absent, and his mother was preparing for the worst. From the available records, she seemed concerned that Vernon would come home disfigured and broken physically. I'm not sure what she would have expected, or for that matter what she got, when he arrived back physically unharmed, but seriously mentally damaged.<br />
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Once Vernon arrived home, he didn't appear often in the records. But contrary to what his medical assessments might have suggested, what does appear in the newspapers seems to show that he lived a life far more productive and, in a sense, normal, than his injuries otherwise have allowed. Time, it seems, was a healer.<br />
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How much his shell shock continued to affect him is something we can't know from what appears in the public eye- the struggle he may have had behind closed doors will remain private.<br />
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But I do think it's really interesting that one of the places he's listed is in records for shooting competitions. So many of those affected by shell shock were unable to handle the sounds and sights that had been associated with war, and yet it seems that Vernon became quite a champion shooter for the Albany district, where he moved in the mid-1920s to become a shopkeeper.<br />
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Vernon lived until 1964, and died at the age of 76. His wife Louisa had been buried in the same area at Albany Cemetery upon her death in 1962.<br />
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Edited to add (9/1/16): Vernon's grand-daughter Beryl recently contacted me to chat about her grandfather, his war history and his life both before and after the war. She holds a great amount of additional detail about his life that is quite fascinating, from sources including letters and a diary. She tells me that Dylan's restaurant in Albany, one of my favourite eateries anywhere, was owned by Vernon for many years, and that they have a memorial to him there. I much appreciate Beryl taking the time to get in touch to confirm many of the details above, and correct some minor errors.<br />
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