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Scotch College Commemorative website

July 1, 2019, 1:17 am
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Above two images are from the Scotch College commemorative website. 


Scotch College moved it's WW1 Roll of Honour while I wasn't looking, but I have lately relocated it, now with articles about those who died, and those who won honours and awards.  The above images come from a page about Australian Flying Corps Cadet George Robinson Johnston.  Johnston initially embarked with the 6th Infantry Battalion, but later transferred to the Australian Flying Corps.

He met  his death while still in training as an observer in a two seater aeroplane.  Johnston's pal from the Flemington Presbyterian Church, Driver Reginald Robert McLean, wrote home that the pilot was thought to have fainted at the controls, and George had no way of controlling the aircraft from his seat behind.

The pictured cross made from an aeroplane propeller, perhaps even the one from the crashed aeroplane, was made by the mechanics in his unit, and placed over his grave at Winchester (West Hill) Old Cemetery. 

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Football champion goes to war

July 6, 2019, 6:58 pm
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Player poster of Herbert Milne in the 1910 Victorian Football Follower series, Boyles Football Photos
At the age of thirty-one, Herbert Milne had had an interesting life. He had played Australian Rules Football with the Fitzroy and South Melbourne clubs in the Victorian Football League for a number of years. At 181 centimetres tall and weighing seventy-eight kilos, he would have been formidable on the field as a follower (ruckman). He had fair hair and blue eyes, and probably cut a quite dashing figure.

Because of his age at the time the war broke out in 1914, Herbert may well have felt that the predicted short and sharp conflict was the territory of the young and energetic. However, by 19 July 1915, when he joined up, the bad news had come through from Gallipoli, and a substantial recruitment campaign was in full swing. The fact that July 1915 saw the greatest number of recruitments (36 575) of any month during the war may also have had an effect upon Herbert.  Others were doing it, so why shouldn’t he?

Perhaps because of his age, or perhaps because he requested it, Herbert was  assigned to 1 Australian General Hospital, probably as a medical orderly. There is no indication of previous paramedical experience on his attestation form.  He was a clerk by trade. Herbert sailed for Egypt, probably on A71 HMAT Nestor, on 11 October 1915. By the time the ship arrived in Egypt, the evacuation from Gallipoli would have been complete or close to it, so he and his comrades were sent to the recently established Australian base at Tel el Kebir, where they were assigned to 8 and then 14 Field Ambulance (FA) on 18 March 1916.

Rod Martin follows the war service of the former Victorian football champion, Temporary Corporal Herbert Milne.  You can read further on the Empire Called website.
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A Staff Nurse in France

July 27, 2019, 10:54 pm
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Margaret Ethel Miles, of Napier St, Essendon, commenced her three year training, aged 22, at the Warrnambool Hospital in 1912. She obtained her certificate of nursing in 1915, after the commencement of the war.  The Australian Army Nursing Service was not looking for younger women to serve overseas, but Margaret got herself onto the staff of 5 Australian General Hospital in St Kilda Rd in August 1916.  After a few months there, Margaret enlisted with the Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS) and departed on the Orsova for overseas service in December 1916, by then aged 26.

Appointed as a Staff Nurse, Margaret spent only 11 days in England upon arrival, and was quickly moved to France where she began nursing with the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) at their 24 General Hospital in Etaples.   She spent the next 18 months switching between military hospitals run by both the RAMC and the Australian Army Medical Corps (AAMC).  In June 1918 she was switched again to working in Casualty Clearing Stations, a much more dangerous and distressing form of nursing.

Growing up with the Rutherford sisters, all three of them nurses, in the newsagency just around the corner in Fletcher Street, might have influenced Margaret into taking up nursing.

You can read more about Staff Nurse Miles' service at the Empire Called website.
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Neil Neilson answers the Call to Arms

January 17, 2020, 8:01 pm
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State Library South Australia.   https://digital.collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/nodes/view/2434 
On 15 December 1915 the Prime Minister of Australia, William Hughes, put out a Call to Arms to the young men of Australia to play their part in "this greatest war of all times".

Neil Neilson of 39 Mt Alexander Rd, Flemington, driver, answered that call.  He was a fairly slight figure, one of eleven children, but he responded to Hughes' appeal and enlisted on 4 January 1916, just a few weeks after the appeal was made.

Rod Martin tells the story of a fairly troublesome  young man who managed to overcome his difficulties with the army and became a reliable member of 15 Battery, 5 Field Artillery Brigade as Gunner Neil Robert Neilson.   Neilson died after a gas attack, on 8 June 1918.
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2 Air Mechanic James Charles Outhred, AFC

January 19, 2020, 12:30 am
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Flying Officer William Edward Bruce Neilson

February 21, 2020, 11:47 pm
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After last month's story about James Charles Outhred, who was a fellow member of No 3 Squadron,  AFC, Rod Martin tells the story of William Edward Bruce Neilson. While both Outhred and Neilson enlisted at much the same time, embarked on the Ulysses together, and were appointed Second Class Air Mechanics, their experience with their squadron was quite different, Outhred being channelled into Wireless training, and Neilson into mechanics, and later aerial gunnery.  By the end of the war he qualified as a pilot.     Rod Martin tells the story of Flying Officer WEB Neilson.
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A Teacher's Bequest

February 28, 2020, 11:21 pm
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In a letter to his mother in 1917,  a young soldier and former State School teacher, James Stephen Hogan  explained carefully that in the event of his death, his younger sister Doreen could claim his vacant teaching position with the Education Department.  Marilyn Kenny traces the education and training of James Hogan - and what happened next.
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The Aftermath of Lone Pine - Private Leslie Oakley

April 16, 2020, 5:09 am
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Hospital Ship Neuralia 1915    (IWM ART 4405)
After the Battle at Lone Pine, Private Leslie Oakley of Kensington was put on board Hospital Ship Neuralia and taken to Malta.   Rod Martin examines Leslie's records, and relates the story of his war service and subsequent history after discharge. You can see the full story here.
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Troopship Boonah and the Spanish flu

April 18, 2020, 5:12 am
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HMAT Boonah, courtesy of  Wikipedia article on the Boonah Crisis.
In 1919 a scandal erupted over the treatment of troops on the HMAT Boonah who had contracted the Spanish flu.  Sick soldiers were evacuated to Woodman Point Quarantine Station, Fremantle, but there was not even food for them, let alone medicine or adequate nursing and medical staff.  The Boonah contained men from several states. After leaving Fremantle a further group of soldiers were off-loaded at Adelaide to be taken to the Torrens Quarantine Station.  At Melbourne the rest of the troops disembarked, and in an eerie resemblance to the Ruby Princess, the troops travelling on to Sydney and Brisbane took the train, and no doubt spread the flu far and wide.    Marilyn Kenny tells the story of this  plague-ship in her article on The Empire Called.
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The Call to Arms, 1916 digitised in full

April 30, 2020, 12:45 am
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I posted about this series of documents, B6525 in the National Archives of Australia back in 2014.  At the time, only some of the forms had been digitised.  Having another look at them today, I find the whole series digitised, as well as another series, B6526, which are the name index cards for Series B6525.   The cards are sorted alphabetically in four sections, according to whatever reason was, or was not given. Not too hard to match up with the folders in B6525.

Use the Advanced Search option and pop either number in the Series box.  In the results form, click on the number of records - ie, in B6525 you will see 29.  Click on that to get the full list.  B6526 shows 4 items.

James Boyne of 34 Eltham St, Flemington did not get away with a two line reason for not enlisting.   The Committee required a more detailed explanation.  His letter follows his form. 

Seeing that enlistment was still voluntary, these men could not be forced to enlist, but it all added to the pressure.

So if you are wondering why some people didn't enlist, the answer could be here.

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HMAT Boonah in Quarantine on Torrens Island, 1919

May 4, 2020, 5:37 pm
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Quarantined on Torrens Island, near Adelaide, Sergeant Norman Gillies in the centre.
Following on from Marilyn Kenny's story last month about the Troopship-Boonah-and-the-1919-influenza-epidemic  we now have a cache of photos collected by Sergeant Norman Gillies of the Australian Flying Corps, who was on that voyage of the Boonah.  These photos, courtesy of Maurice Austin, show scenes of the troops on board the vessel in 1918, and later quarantined on Torrens Island in 1919.  Some individual portraits, not all identified, are included. Click here to see the entire set of photos. 

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Jim Raff, machine gunner of Kensington

June 4, 2020, 10:58 pm
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Machine gunners in training at Seymour, 1916.  AWM P08299.002.
Albert James (Jim) Raff, a cabinetmaker or 79 Market St, Kensington, enlisted in the Australian Army on 18 July 1916.  Jim trained to be a machine gunner, and his crew became familiar with the Vickers medium mounted machine gun.  It was mounted on a tripod and weighed 40 kilos.  It was served by a crew of three. Because of its weight it could not be carried as part of an attacking formation.  These weapons were dug into a 'nest', and became prime targets for the enemy seeking to destroy them.  It was a very dangerous role.

Rod Martin explains the role of Jim's crew, the 10th Machine Gun Company, and later the 22nd MGC, in  battles in  France and Belgium.  You can read Jim's full story here. 


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The Empire Called 10th Anniversary of Blogging

September 13, 2020, 12:26 am
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7th Infantry Battalion with Lieutenant Colonel Pompey Elliott in the centre of the front row, 1914, just prior to embarkation.

The date of the 10th Anniversary of the commencement of  The Empire Called and I Answered blog has come and gone earlier in the year, as my new Covid-normal is to forgetting things when every day is Groundhog Day, but it is still worth noting.  The blog was created as a companion to my webpage of the same name, which I launched later in 2010.  I use the blog to to draw attention to new additions to the website, to record new Sources for individuals who participated in the Great War (See the Tags on the right hand column), to note new books of local interest.  

The blog and website record the volunteers from Essendon, Moonee Ponds, Ascot Vale, Flemington, Kensington and Newmarket, with occasion others who had grown up in the local area and had their names recorded on local honour boards.  There are about 4500 names in the database, so worth a look if you had family in the area at the time of the Great War.  

In addition to a page for each individual, such as Private George Abbott, there are stories about the Home Front -  covering individuals, such as Mayor John Goldsworthy who created the Essendon Town Hall Honour Boards;  and organisations such as the Cheer-up Brigade.  There are links to pages where there are collections of photos from private albums, and pages where you can see what volunteers left from what street addresses.  There is a link to Acknowledgements for those people who have contributed photos, postcards, and documents, and in some cases stories.  Two people in particular have made significant contributions - Rod Martin and Marilyn Kenny - who have been great supporters of the project.   I thank them and all of the contributors.  Any further contributions of photos, postcards and documents (scans only of course) are very welcome.

I invite you all to have a good look around The Empire Called and I Answered, while I open a bottle of champage, which of course I will drink by myself while in lockdown.

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2nd Aircraft Mechanic Harry Nelson and the widow's fight

September 14, 2020, 4:08 am
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Four Australian air mechanics enjoying lunch at Halefield, June 1918   (AWM P10218.009)

Harry Nelson, fruiterer and cyclist of McConnell St, Kensington, enlisted in October 1917, and embarked in May 1918.  In 1917, between his enlistment and embarkation, Harry married. Harry and his bride, Florence, evidently anticipated their vows, as their son was six weeks old when Harry left the country.

Arriving in England in mid-1918, Harry was a sitting duck for the influenza sweeping though military encampments.  Harry died of illness on 22 October 1918, barely three weeks before the Armistice.  

In his new story, Rod Martin describes the difficulties Florence had getting souvenirs and assets to which she was entitled.  It is not certain if she ever did as Harry's family and lawyer set out to thwart her.  See the full story, so far as we know it, here.

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Mystery Man: Doctor J Hughston

November 10, 2020, 2:58 pm
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The Essendon Gazette of 10 June 1915,  in its For King and Country column,  carried the photo of a young man in civilian dress with a subheading.  There was no article to explain the reference or nor does his name appear on the Roll Of Honour either then or in the succeeding three years of the War.  Who was this man and why did the Essendon Gazette think that this could be of interest to readers?

Never one to ignore a challenge, Marilyn Kenny set out to solve the mystery of this youthful doctor.  She details her findings in an article Mystery Man: Major Johnston Hughston RAMC.

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Thunderboxes, troops, for the use of

November 29, 2020, 4:46 pm
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If you ever wondered what sanitary arrangements were made for troops in the trenches at Gallipoli, wonder no more. Rod Martin has investigated this difficult question, and found that Kensington man, Ernest O'Leary, played a role in attempting to protect the troops from disease. Unfortunately, it was rather too little, and way too late. Follow the link to The Empire Called and I Answered, to read Ernest's story.
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Sapper Douglas Morpeth of Mar Lodge

December 28, 2020, 9:29 pm
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A general search around the internet for photos of Douglas Morpeth turned up this interesting photo on the Great War Forum. The photo shows a group of men who embarked as reinforcements for a Field Artillery Battalion, recently arrived at Lark Hill for training. Morpeth, far right, didn't stay in Field Artillery, being transferred to the 3rd Division Signals Company. Here he distinguished himself under enemy action, and was awarded a Military Medal. Douglas's father was a noted Stock and Station Agent, and Douglas was moving along the same career path before the war. Douglas was included on an Honour Board featuring men in the stock industry. You can read a bit more about Douglas's Military Medal, and find a link to the Stock Agents' honour board on this webpage. On this page you will see two photographs, courtesy of the late Jim Frost, which had belonged to his father Eric who is also in the photo above with Douglas Morpeth.
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Gunner Nott, organist

January 30, 2021, 1:34 am
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Fred Nott, of Ascot Vale, was a well-known musician in Essendon and Melbourne before the war, and had left for England in January 1914 to further his studies in music at the Royal College of Music. When his studies came to a standstill in November 1914, he played in a few concerts and at churches in England, but returned to Australia in 1915. He took up his musical posts and teaching again, but in October 1916 he joined up, and went into camp with the Artillery in Maribyrnong. Fred was given leave while in camp to play the organ at St Peter's on Sundays, as the church hadn't been able to replace him. In the photo above he is in his uniform as a gunner. The army kept him in Australia for 12 months, playing in military bands, until he was finally able to embark. Marilyn Kenny has turned in another excellent piece of work in her research into the life and musical career of Frederick John Nott. If you would like to read more about Fred's part in the war, go to the Empire Called website.
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The sterling qualities of Staff Nurse Margaret Leonard

April 16, 2021, 7:41 pm
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Nurse Leonard on her graduation. Table Talk 21 Oct 1909 p 21

Graduating at the end of 1909 from the Homoeopathic Hospital, St Kilda Road, Margaret nursed for six years before enlisting in the AANS in 1916.  After a 4 month training in military nursing, Margaret was appointed Staff Nurse and embarked for overseas.  She nursed in France and Italy in British military hospitals before returning home.  Her devotion to the members of the AIF saw her continuing on at the Caulfield Military Hospital for the rest of her working life.  Newspaper paragraphs about Margaret inevitably commented on her kindness and other sterling qualities.  You can read more about Margaret's training at the Homoeopathic Hospital and her nursing experiences in Europe on the Time Travellers website.
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Private Frank Archer, husband and father, died in April 1917

April 25, 2021, 3:00 am
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The twenty-six year-old blacksmith had a wife and two children to support and care for, and the initial rush to enlist after war broke out in 1914 suggested that there were plenty of eager and single young men to fill the ranks.  By 1916, however, things had changed.  News of the diasters at Gallipoli had led to a significant reduction in the numbers enlisting, and a commitment by the Huges Labor goverment to provide an extra 50,000 troops on top of those who had already enlisted led to a substantial propaganda campaign across the country. It may have finally persuaded Frank that he had to go and do his bit.

Rod Martin takes up the story of this young husband and father, and the anguish caused to his family due to a mistaken identification.  See the story here.  

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