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Essendon 1914: local impact of WW1
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John Goldsworthy, Mayor of Essendon, 1914
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| The Colours and Emblems of the 58 Infantry (Essendon Rifles) Regiment, designed by Councillor John Goldsworthy, the Mayor of Essendon, featured on a Patriotic Concert Program from 1914. |
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St George's Anglican Church, Travancore WW1 commemoration
I saw this on the Flemington-Kensington News Facebook:
"In commemoration of the centenary of the First World War, St George's Anglican Church, Travancore will read the Roll of Honour of the parish participants in the conflicts of 1914 - 1918 during the 9.30am service on 3 August 2014. Family members of combatants whose names appear on the Honour Roll are invited to attend and stay for morning tea after the service".The original St George's Church, at the time of the war, was located in Manningham St, Parkville, so the parishioners on the Roll of Honour include men (and one woman) from Carlton, Parkville, Flemington, Kensington, and North Melbourne.
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WAR NEWS IN THE CITY.
Crowds outside The Argus newspaper office, waiting for a Special
Supplement Melbourne, 5 August 1914. Australian War Memorial
Collection H11612.
WAR NEWS IN THE CITY.PATRIOTIC DEMONSTRATION.RUSH FOR NEWS.Whatever the statement of Britain's intentions made by Sir Edward Grey in the House of Commons may mean- whether it may be regarded as an ultimatum or a polite hint- the general feeling in the city yesterday was that it was tantamount to a declaration of war. The news of the speech was upon the streets at a quarter past 7 o'clock, when a special edition of "The Argus" gave the text of the Cabinet's decision. The papers were eagerly bought up by the business people as they came into town. And after the news was out no body spoke of anything else. Strategists examined how the German fleet, bottled up in the Baltic, would never dare to come out into the Channel to face the might of England. The general opinion was that Britain had inevitably cast in her lot with France and Russia.As the day wore on excitement grew. At about 1 o'clock the crowds began to gather in front of "The Argus" office, where a second special edition was announced to be in the press. The printers were besieged by hundreds of boys who fought each other for places and by the citizens as well, who wanted their single copies of the special edition. Each batch, as it came from the presses, melted like snow and the boys ran through the city crying the news. There had never perhaps been such excitement about a special edition of any Melbourne paper. Later on these editions penetrated into the suburbs where the boys carried them from house to house.At lunch time the people poured up Collins street and crowded the block, reading the special editions, and discussing the war. Everybody, though convinced that within a very short period of time Britain would be at war, kept calm. There seemed to be a general feeling that the fleet would come through any ordeal with credit. The banks reported no special rush of business in the way of withdrawals.
The excitement in the city became more intense as the night wore on and to keep the large crowd within bounds troopers and extra foot constables were called out. It was necessary for the police to take stern measures to suppress the exuberance of gangs of youths, whose conduct at times threatened to cause trouble. Dense crowds remained in Collins street in front of the newspaper office until long after midnight, cheering and singing the National Anthem."GOD SAVE THE KING"A loyal demonstration spontaneously breaking out at the Vienna Cafe showed how full were the minds of all of the news from Britain. During the lunch hour, when the cafe was crowded, the band played"Rule Britannia" and at the end of this patriotic piece the guests cheered. The band went on to play a verse of the National Anthem, which was sung by all assembled and this was followed by three hearty cheers for the British navy.The special editions ceased during the afternoon and the news, posted outside the newspaper offices, kept an interested crowd about the boards. When at about 5 o'clock the crowd of city workers made for home they walked slowly and lingeringly down Swanston street and Elizabeth street for further war editions.EVENING DIVERSIONSEvening brought them in again to stand before the newspaper offices in greater crowds than during the hours of daylight. To enliven the time between the successive postings of news the boys sang patriotic songs. One of them waved a British flag, amid cheers for England and groans for Germany. Then they formed up and marched up and down Collins street singing "Sons of the Sea" and other martial songs. The arrival of the Senior Cadets at the Town Hall for the ceremony of drifting into the Citizen Forces was the signal for immense excitement.
WAR NEWS IN THE CITY. (1914, August 5). The Argus(Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), p. 8. Retrieved August 4, 2014, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article10800651
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Australian Naval & Military Expeditionary Force Commemoration
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| Flinders Street Station, advertising the 7th War Loan Bond. Australian War Memorial Collection H02355. |
The Victorian Government invites you
to the following free event:
Flinders Street Station departure of Australian
Naval and Military Expeditionary Force
(AN&MEF) Commemoration
When: 11am, Sunday 17 August 2014
Where: Flinders Street Station
Registration: Not required
More than one hundred naval officers and sailors departed Flinders Street Station by steam train in August 1914 on their way to Sydney before ultimately departing for German New Guinea where they were the first Australian servicemen to see action in the war. Among the AN&MEF troops was a young Victorian, Able Seaman Billy Williams, who was the first member of the Australian forces to be killed in World War One.
See also: The Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force - First to Fight, 1914 Royal Australian Navy
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"Permanently unfit for general Service", and yet...
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| Gunner Gaudie is lying in the bed at the far end, right side, in an Australian Auxiliary Hospital in 1919. |
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Anzac girl
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British Army Officer Records
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| Group photo of army officers (Catalogue reference: AIR 1/725/100/2). The National Archives. |
Following three years' of work by volunteers, the data of nearly 140,000 surviving paper records of officers who served in the First World War, have been listed by the National Archives. Many of the records were unfortunately destroyed or badly damaged.
Start with this Guide to searching the records, because it looks like being a maze.
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Williams Brother Album again.
In the above photo, the stretcher-bearer in the front row, far right, has been identified by John McKenzie as his grandfather, 6381 Pte Joseph Rhodes, MM, of Fairfield, who joined the 6 Field Ambulance on 8 March 1916. Gordon Williams transferred to the 12 Field Ambulance on 27 Oct 1916, so the photo would date to some time between March and October 1916.
This shows Joseph Rhodes with children circa 1926. Courtesy of John McKenzie.
Some while ago I managed to track down some relatives of Cec Dixon who provided the bottom photo, which looks very much like an older version of Cec.
Cecil Dixon on the left of this photo.
In the above photo, Cec Dixon is probably the man top left. He joined the 12 Field Ambulance on 20 Apr 1916, was wounded on 18 Oct 1917 and did not return to active service.
Cecil Dixon in later years, courtesy of Robyn Bray and Merle Wong.
See the whole Gordon Brothers' Album.
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New Zealand Service Records online
A handful of men from Essendon and Flemington joined the NZEF, and you can find them using the tage NZEF on the Empire Called website.
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Bita Paka Commemoration 11 September
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| Staff of the Royal Australian Naval Brigade, Australian Navy and Military Expeditionary Force (AN&MEF), after the operations against the Germans, September 1914. AWM A04003. |
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Francis Williams, underage soldier
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| 2005 Pte Francis Williams, 46 Inf Bn. |
What is the Army's duty when a clearly underage boy presents for enlistment? Rod Martin examines the lack of process when Francis Williams, aged 16, enlisted in 1916.
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Mentioned in Top 50 Blogs for 2014
"The list was judged on a number of criteria: such as originality, quality of content, historical accuracy, use of photographs, useability, interaction with audience and sheer passion. They are presented in alphabetical order, rather than in terms of merit".
'The Empire Called and I Answered' is listed at 42, which as everyone knows is the Meaning of Life!
Coool!
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Trove is a Winner!
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Norval Dooley and St Thomas' Harriers
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| St Thomas' Harriers pre 1914 |
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Gordon Anderson 1917 albums, 10th ASC
I have just loaded up two albums of photos taken by Gordon Roy Anderson of Buckley Park, Essendon. At that time Buckley Park referred to a farm on the west side of Hoffmans Rd, Essendon, in an area that is now Niddrie. Gordon arrived in England at the end of 1916 and was probably claimed by his older brother, James Grant Anderson, to serve with him in the 10th Army Service Corps. A third brother, Donald Clarke Anderson, was also in this unit, though is not included in these albums. During 1917 Gordon and Jim were in training camps on the Salisbury Plains, the photos being mainly taken at Codford and Windmill Hill. If your relative served with 10th ASC in 1917, you might find him in one of the photos.
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Victorian Veterans Virtual Museum
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| Courtesy of the State Library of Victoria Collection, H99.166/74 |
I went back to an earlier post in this blog to locate the link for the Victorian Veterans Virtual Museum, and of course it has been moved. No longer in the Department of Planning and Development, but in the Department of Premier and Cabinet.
So here is the new link to the Victorian Veterans Virtual Museum.
One of the links it had in the old days which I found so useful (and perhaps it is still there somewhere), was to the list of Unit war histories at the State Library of Victoria. The SLV now has a nice link for that.
World War 1 Unit Histories
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58th Infantry Battalion AIF Memorial Book
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| Detail from image in the Moonee Valley Leader 24 Sep 2014. The Memorial Book is on permanent loan to the Essendon Historical Society. |
The 58th Infantry Bn AIF was formed in Egypt in 1916, after the Gallipoli campaign. The AWM website says that it was formed in part from fresh recruits from Australia, and veterans from the 6th Infantry Bn which had served on Gallipoli.
https://www.awm.gov.au/units/unit_11245.asp
Some Essendon/Flemington men served in the 6th Battalion and probably transferred to the 58th Infantry Bn in 1916, but it is not clear how many, nor how many subsequently died. The is not likely to be a very large number of local men included in the Memorial Book.
The 58th Infantry (Essendon Rifles) CMF provided many recruits for the 7th Infantry Battalion AIF which did serve in Gallipoli, and suffered grievous losses. After troops were evacuated to Egypt, half of the 7th Infantry Battalion were transferred to the new 59th Infantry Battalion AIF, not the 58th.
My research into the local AIF volunteers shows that only 32 locals joined the 58th Infantry AIF directly from Australia, though others will have transferred from the 6th Infantry Battalion in Egypt. The numbers would not have been very large, as only 100 locals embarked with the 6th Inf Bn in time to be involved in the transfers in 1916 – and not all of those would have transferred.
The association of the 58th Infantry Bn AIF with Essendon occurred after the war when the Citizen Military Forces were re-organised.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/58th_Battalion_%28Australia%29
The book memorializes men from all over Victoria.
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RSL Virtual War Memorial
http://www.rslvirtualwarmemorial.org.au/
Amongst other features is what appears to be nominal rolls for the different battalions (not only South Australian), for instance here is one for the previously mentioned 58th Infantry Battalion:
http://www.rslvirtualwarmemorial.org.au/explore/units/216/people
The list does not include the men who transferred in from the 6th Inf Bn, because it would take too long to go through individual files to work out who transferred. It would have been compiled from Embarkation Nominal Rolls.
You can also search for individuals, and upload details of your relatives.
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Lance Sergeant Fish, 2nd Field Ambulance
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| Souvenir in the Australian War Memorial Collection REL31249 |
This souvenir was carried by one of three people, brothers Lance Sergeant George Melrose and Private Charles Vivian Fish or their brother-in-law Private Walter Harold Brentnall. All three, from Melbourne, Victoria, served in 2 Field Ambulance, AIF. Brentnall returned to Australia in 1917 after he was wounded. The brothers, however, both died of wounds, George on 24 July 1916 and Charles on 17 April 1918. Their effects were sent home to their family. .... it is thought that this matchbox may have been picked up on Gallipoli and filled with pebbles and a shell from Anzac Cove......(Australian War Memorial)
Pte Charles Fish's personal effects were lost in the sinking of the Barunga while being returned to Australia. Brentnall served on Gallipoli, and George Fish on Lemnos. This and other mementos were together with an identity disc belonging to G M Fish, and may well have been shells and stones George picked up at Lemnos.
George had been a 23 year old salesmen living in Mackay St, Essendon, when he enlisted in 1914.
Rod Martin brings us George Fish's story.
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