When War was declared in August 1914, Ern Latchford was working as an Instructional Officer at the 58B training depot in Ascot Vale.  Instructional Officers had been selected to train boys involved in  the compulsory Universal Training Scheme.  The local area - Essendon, Moonee Ponds, Ascot Vale, Flemington - was designated Area 58. On reaching 18 the boys would transfer to the militia 58 Infantry (Essendon Rifles).

Instructional Officers were too valuable to be allowed to enlist with the AIF - they were needed for training at home, and Ern was dispatched to train Light Horse recruits at Broadmeadows.  It was not until 1916 that he was permitted to enlist for overseas service, and embarked as a Lieutenant with the 38 Infantry Battalion.

Using Ern's own letters, as well as detailed research, Mark Latchford has recreated Ern's world, from his infancy, through work at Coles Book Arcade, his interest in military cadets, selection as an Instructional Officer, embarking with the 38th Battalion, being recuited by General John Monash to join a British force in Persia, taking on the training of the White Russian Army in Russia, his postwar Army career and involvement in the 2nd World War.  

There is also the romance with the love of his life, Linda Dehnert of Lily Vale,  Ballan, to whom he devotedly wrote every week until they finally married.  

Ern's letters recreate his war experience for Linda in an articulate and immediate fashion.  He told what it was like to be there - a most remarkable historical record of his time, which will reward the reader.

"Letters to Lily Vale”: The Life and Letters of Ernest William Latchford MC, MBE 1916 to 1919 France, Persia and Russia, by Mark Latchford, Openbook Howden, 2020: ISBN 9780648845621. 

Available from the History Victoria Bookshop.

We always expect a good yarn from Marilyn Kenny, and this time is no exception.   Robberies, police raids, lost wills, orphaned children, 'Pompey' Elliott taking a dunking into the Somme - this story has everything. 

Who will be the beneficiary of John's estate?   His twin sister Grace, whom he named as his Next of Kin, or the ne'er do well brother Wilfred? 

Grab a fresh cup of tea, and sit back and click here for the story of John Hunt  Kelleher, the Lost Boy.

Hermann Taylor was performing clerical duties at the AIF Headquarters, Cairo, when he was stricken with typhoid and taken to the Choubra Military Infectious Diseases Hospital.  Rod Martin takes a look at Hermann's fairly short term of military service for Australia.  You can read the full article here.

If you would like to keep up with every post on The Empire Called website - subscribe to the blog and receive an email notification.  

 2nd Lieutenant Vivian Gilber Garner was featured with the story of his service in the AIF on The Empire Called and I Answered website.  The story was written by Rod Martin, whose name is well-known by followers of this blog, and published back in 2011.   

I was pleased to notice Vivian's photo pop up in my blog roll on the Lost Medals Australia blog, as Glyn Llanwarne managed to trace a relative to whom he could return a lost plaque.  Glyn's story of tracing the relatives (Viv left no descendants) is an interesting one, made even more so by the story of the relative, Bill Garner.

I commend both stories, linked above,  to readers.

 This is a tale of blighted expectations, told by Rod Martin.  

Cyril and his older sister, Mabel Mona (b. 1891), about 1900

(Rodd Johnson/Greg Kaighin)

Cyril was working as a clerk at the GPO in Melbourne when he decided to enlist in 1918.  Things did not go well for him from that time. See Rod's story here.

Cyril is commemorated on the GPO Roll of Honour "To the Glorious Dead".

James Quinlan was a 19 year old labourer of 29 Shuter St, Moonee Ponds when he enlisted in January 1916.  By June James had arrived in Egypt and was assigned to the 3 Light Horse Machine Gun Squadron.  He spent the rest of the war in the Middle East with the Mounted Division under Major-General Harry Chauvel.

Rod Martin carefully traces the course of James Quinlan's war, the task of the mounted division being to drive the Turks out of Sinai then into Palestine, the ultimate goal being Turkish headquarters in Damascus, Syria.

The Middle Eastern campaign was a hard one, with one of the worst hardships being the shortage of water.  One 3 Light Horse Brigade man later commented :

I can honestly say that, except on special occasions, I was thirsty for the whole nine months we were crossing the Sinai.  

If you had a relative in the Middle Eastern campaign, Rod Martin gives an excellent insight into that campaign with the experiences of James Quinlan and the 3 Light Horse Brigade.

Trooper James E Quinlan

 

On 21 August 1914, the Central Prisoners of War Agency was created to collect information on prisoners held by the warring parties. Countries holding prisoners of war sent lists of their prisoners’ names – albeit not consistently – to the agency in Geneva. In this way, the agency collected around 400,000 pages of names.

Volunteers in many countries took on the herculean task  of receiving, recording and forwarding reports of prisoners of war to enable relatives in far away countries to know what had become of their soldier sons and husbands.   

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) have digitised their records and made them available to be searched online by individual name.  Other resources on the website are postcards of prisoner of war camps, reports from inspectors on prisoner of war camps, and personal accounts of life in prisoner of war camps.  

Go to the ICRC website and search for information about a particular prisoner of war.  Take time to investigate how the website works to get the most out of it. 

When war broke out in 1914, Vera Deakin, daughter of Alfred Deakin,  former Prime Minister of Australia, urgently wanted to do something beyond knitting socks and balaclavas for soldiers, but Australia saw little role beyond that for Australian women in the war.   She joined the newly formed British Red Cross (later renamed the Australian Red Cross) in Melbourne, and did a home nursing course, but the VAD auxiliaries then being trained would not leave Australia for some time.

She cabled to Norman Brookes, then one of two Red Cross Commissioners in Egypt, to see if he had something she could do.   Norman was the brother of her brother-in-law Herbert Brookes, married to her older sister Ivy.  Norman immediately cabled back that she should 'Come at once and bring as many like yourself as you can find'.  To the strong objection of her father, Vera booked a passage to Cairo with her friend Winifred Johnston, and thus began a very strong working partnership between Vera and Winifred for the Australian Red Cross. 

The Australian Red Cross Society (ARCS) had been working in Egypt with the British Red Cross in running an enquiry service covering the Gallipoli and Egyptian campaigns, but Norman Brookes wanted to form an Australian bureau to concentrate exclusively on Australian wounded and missing soldiers.  He wanted Vera and Winifred to undertake the leadership.   At the time Lady Barker was in charge of the British Red Cross operation in Cairo, and she helped them to set up their service and trained them to run their Bureau.  Vera became the Secretary, and Winifred Assistant Secretary.  

Mere weeks later the ARCS intended to replace Vera with a man, but Lady Barker defended the two women vigorously, and Vera was allowed to remain in place.  Vera's whole life to this point had prepared her well to undertake a leadership role, and she did it will verve, skill and compassion.

Families back in Australia whose relatives had been reported missing were in anguish about their fate, and wrote letters to the Red Cross and the Army to discover what had happened to them, and if deceased, had they been decently buried.  Searchers went out to the hospitals and army bases armed with lists of missing men to see if they could find someone who knew what had become of them.  Volunteer staff then compiled the reports and letters were written to families on the results of their searches.  Although the British used male and female searchers, the Australian Bureau used exclusively men, as it was felt the men would answer the searchers' questions more openly.

After the evacuation of Gallipoli, the BRCS and ARCS shifted their operation to London, which followed the shift in the Australian troops from Egypt to France and Belgium.  The horrendous numbers of wounded and missing troops meant that the ARCS Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau had to put on more volunteers and more searchers to handle the tens of thousands of enquiries per year.  Australian names were added to the British searchers lists to try and make their enquiries as widely as possible.

The ARCS  made every effort to trace missing soldiers, sometimes taking years to locate a soldier who could report to them what had happened.  On 23 March 1917 Private J D Robson was killed in action in France.  Vera's response to the family was reported (1917, September 25). The Wingham Chronicle and Manning River Observer.

True to her word, the Bureau kept making enquiries about Robson, and finally in 1919 they located a man who could provide details of his death and burial.

By the date on the above response, it would appear the ARCS had tracked the respondent down to his home in Sydney.   This was but one of tens of thousands of enquiries made to the ARCS Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau.

In order to track down as many of the missing as possible, the Bureau began seeking out lists of Prisoners of War coming out of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva, and took it as one of their roles to maintain contact with those prisoners to keep their morale up, and to send them food parcels.  One of the airmen with whom the Bureau and Vera herself corresponded was a man whom she would later marry, Captain Thomas Walter White, whose next of kin, his mother, resided in Moonee Ponds.

One of the things that made Vera peculiarly suited to the work on the Prisoner of War records was that she had studied German, in Germany, prior to the war.  She was able to understand the reports of prisoners being sent to the ICRS from Germany, and interpret for the volunteers.  This was in marked contrast to the non-German speaking Army Officers who were required to send reports to the next of kin in Australia.  The Army became greatly exercised by the fact that Vera could get her Wounded and Missing enquiries responses back to Australia before the Army could make their reports, and they wanted her to stop it. Vera was not impressed. 

Apart from the massive amount of work going on at the Bureau, Vera and her friends entertained Australian soldiers coming to London on leave, taking them to the theatre, picnics, and sight seeing tours, and entertaining them to tea in their flat.  Many of these young men later turned up in casualty lists, to their distress. 

At the end of the war, the Australian Red Cross Wounded and Missing Enquiries Bureau prepared their records to be returned to Australia for the Australian War Museum, later part of the Australian War Memorial.  These records were digitised a few years ago and can be searched by name at the AWM website.

Captain Thomas White's correspondence can be seen here.

All the remaining Bureau records can be searched here.

Vera was awarded an OBE for her war service with the Australian Red Cross in the Great War, but it was not the end of her work with the Red Cross, nor other community work that she took up after her marriage, such as with the Royal Children's Hospital and other charitable causes.  In WW2 Vera and her comrades put their Red Cross uniforms on again, and set to work to deal with further missing and wounded enquiries.  Hers was a life of extraordinary service to Australia.

In 2020 the Royal Historical Society of Victoria published Carole Wood's book about Vera Deakin and the Red Cross.  

In full disclosure I report that I am a member and volunteer with the Royal Historical Society of Victoria.

Tpr Robert Kerr, courtesy of Kim Phillips,

Spirits of  Gallipoli website

An early recruit to the AIF in 1914, Robert Kerr, a commercial traveller of Brewster St, Essendon was assigned to 8 Light Horse Regiment.  When the campaign opened at Gallipoli, it was quickly apparent by the terrain and the danger from Turkish bombs that horses could not be used, and they were left behind in Egypt.  The Light Horsemen became Infantrymen.

The British generals were keen to break through the stalemate on Gallipoli and created an elaborate plan of feints, diversions and charges in August 1915.   The 8 LHR part in the plan involved a bayonet charge at The Nek against Turkish machine guns.   Of course it would work!

Rod Martin takes us through the plan, and explains why it didn't work.  The stupidity of the British Officer Class might have had a bit to do with that. (My interpretation, but I think Rod would agree.)

Robert Kerr, the President of the Scottish Union of Victoria,was a part of the charge which was seen to be so stupid that some of the men were said to have left their guns behind, and went bravely to their deaths.   Read Rod's story about Trooper Robert Kerr.  

The Australian War Memorial at Villers-Bretonneux in the Somme departement in France contains the names of 10,773 men who died but who have no known grave. 

Rod Martin tells the story of one of those men.   Arthur Lane enlisted in Sydney, but his family lived in Wonalta Terrace, Mt Alexander Rd, Flemington. Arthur's younger brother James Lane was also killed in action in October 1917.  

Arthur served with the 54 Infantry Battalion, a Sydney battalion.   He probably arrived in France in time to have Christmas Dinner with other reinforcements, and was taken on strength of his battalion on 1 January 1917, then located at Buire in Picardie, just south of the Belgian border.

Arthur was killed in action just 5 months later.  Read Rod Martin's account of Arthur's part in the war.

John Mott was working in mines in Western Australia when he joined the AIF in 1915, aged 38.  A well-known family in the Essendon area, John was one of four brothers to enlist.  He was quite a dashing officer, and was celebrated as the first Australian officer to successfully escape as a Prisoner of War.

Rod Martin tells the story of his remarkable service, from two awards of the Military Cross, an escape across Germany, meeting the King at Buckingham Palace, and post war work with the Australian Field Graves Battalion, of which he was given command as a Lieutenant Colonel.  Read about this dashing Australian officer.  

Elizabeth Martha Anne Browne (but known as Pattie) was born at Camp Hill, Tullamarine Victoria on 1 January 1863. She was the third of the eleven children of Hugh Junor Browne and his wife Elizabeth (née Turner).

Throughout her married life, Pattie devoted herself to her family and charity work, especially in the area of child welfare.  She encouraged her three daughters to live a life of service to others.

For a listing of her philanthropic work, see the Australian Women's Register. 

Vera Deakin and the Red Cross, by Carole Woods, was published by the Royal Historical Society of Victoria in 2020.  While reading this book I was interested in the reference to the Anzac Buffet, and most particularly just exactly where it was in St Kilda Road.  It required a little bit of digging, but now I know.

When the war began in 1914, the Australian Army put its efforts into equipping and training their recruits for war, but it was the women of Australia who threw themselves into providing comforts and morale boosting for young men separated from their friends and family.  Though the troops were surrounded by young men similar to themselves,  they could be lonely for their wives and girlfriends, mothers and sisters.   The women of Australia understood this and with a will they threw themselves into providing home comforts for the men. 

The women also excelled at seeing a need and working out a way of filling that need without the support of a huge organisation around them.   The Soldiers’ Refreshment Stall, later called the Anzac Buffet, is one example of a need met by a group of women without a formal organisation. Leadership was provided by older women, self-selected largely through class and status, and the rest generally formed a supportive group around them with no formal structure required, only a willingness to work hard and fill a need.

When men who had returned from overseas began congregating for appointments at the 5 Australian General Hospital (5AGH) in St Kilda Rd, often waiting for lengthy periods to be seen, the need was perceived for hot drinks and a meal to sustain them during their long waits and travel time at both ends of the appointment.  The men were highly appreciative of the services provided by the women, and all for the cost of only one penny. 

The 5AGH was located in the newly completed Police Hospital. Before ever having admitted a patient, the Police Hospital was taken over by the Army to provide for soldiers yet to embark and also by wounded returning from Gallipoli. The first patients were admitted in March 1915.

A news article described this drawing: “The Building elevation shown above is that of the new police hospital which is in course of erection upon a site on the corner of St Kilda road and Nolan-street, which was formerly part of the old Immigrants Home property.”  (Argus, 20 June 1914).

 

The hospital faced Nolan Street on the north side, now renamed Southbank Boulevard.  St Kilda Road passes in the foreground.  It reverted to a Police Hospital in 1920.   

The Police Hospital from a drawing of the entire Police Depot in St Kilda Rd.

SeeThe Heritage-Listed Old Police Hospital is Born Again.

Former Prime Minister Alfred Deakin had accepted an invitation to form a delegation to visit the USA in January 1915, and despite his daughter Vera being anxious to find a way to serve the war effort, she was obliged to accompany her parents to California.  Pattie, his wife, and Vera Deakin had been original members of the British Red Cross organising committee in Melbourne in 1914, but left the committee when they travelled overseas with Alfred.   Both of the women were accustomed to leadership roles,  so on their return they had to find a new activity rather than appropriate their former positions, now occupied by other women.  The Australian Red Cross was providing workers in the kitchens at the 5^th Australian General Hospital (5AGH), and  it might have been their suggestion that there was a need for a refreshment service for the men who had long waits to see doctors and other health professionals. 

Vera Deakin worked with her mother and Jane McMillan in the establishment of the Soldiers Refreshment Stall, but on 21 December 1915, Vera and her friend Winifred Johnston left Melbourne on a ship bound for Cairo, to begin her important war work with the Australian Red Cross Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau. 

The Deakins arrived home in early July 1915.  On 29 August 1916 The Argus reported that the first birthday of the Soldiers’ Refreshment Stall had taken place on the previous day, implying that the Deakin women had taken less than two months to set up and commence their work in 1915.   There were formalities to go through  – permission from the authorities at the 5AGH, a tent to work in, some basic equipment to assemble and the first donations of tea, coffee, cocoa and bread, cake and appropriate provisions for soup, and a team of volunteers to operate the stall seven days a week.  They kept this up for four solid years, with the work building from 4,000 per week in 1916  to an average of 1,000 “serves” per day in 1919. (The Herald, 11 Nov 1919, p 1).

The Stall served hospital  outpatients, drivers, men from the camps, orderlies and all soldiers who had a need of it.    Ten and later 15 volunteers turned up each day to run the stall. The group photographs show thirty-six and forty-eight volunteers respectively, and thirty-five are listed individually in the Voluntary War Workers Record, Australian Comforts Fund, 1918.   Between 400 and 500 volunteers assisted throughout the period of its operation, and 130 names were on the roll in 1919. (The Herald, 11 Nov 1919, p 1).

From the Ladies Letter, Punch, 4 May 1916:

“The Base Hospital Soldiers' Refreshment Stall celebrated Anzac Day by entertaining over two hundred overseas "Anzac" men, presenting each guest with packets of  cigarettes, sweets, and matches. There was no speechifying or boresome formality about the affair—just a homely, cheery greeting characteristic of this pleasant "corner" run by the "Serve You Right Sisters," as the volunteer- caterers at the S.R.S. are affectionately dubbed by their khaki customers. Each arrival was just enjoined, in greeting to "remember the day, and what it commemorates” and, indeed, the majority, of those present, with limp, hanging, empty sleeves, shaded eyes and pathetic bandages, had every reason to remember.

This "corner," by the way, is kept so busy now that it requires  an average "of ten helpers a day. There is no committee, no board, no red tape. Practically every suburb is represented among the helpers, among whom exists a wonderful esprit de corps and absence of friction. Over 900 men per day are fed and "mothered" very often, or a mean average of 4000 per week. Supplies and cheques just flow in without any necessity for canvassing or pleading on the part of the organisers — not in huge, spasmodic lumps and amounts, mind  you. There is just that knowledge among the S.R.S. that they know where to turn for support ; a regular fifty pounds of tea, for instance, keeps the caddy replenished from one firm ; so many pounds of cake per week arrive from another ; and so on. A leading Prahran emporium the other day handed in a cheque for £25, saying that was only the beginning of what the employes intended to do as a recognition of the fine work being done.

"By their works ye shall know them," and the gratitude of the soldiers who have been administered to, and of their relatives and friends, is constantly being signified in a variety of ways. One soldier—a baker by trade—sends along his "thank you" every week in the form of a trayful of pastry cook's goodies. The mother of one soldier who was shown kindness by these volunteers tried to express her gratitude by offering little gifts to the chief ministering angel. This was gently declined, with the explanation that other soldiers who were not able to afford such presents might be made to feel unhappy; but if "Mum" liked to send along some scones or something they would be very welcome. Now, with frequent regularity, a package of home-made cakes, scones, etc., arrive at the buffet from this grateful "Mum." In addition to the hundred-and-one little services which the workers in this "corner" are able to do, such as sewing on buttons, writing letters (for those, alas ! incapacitated), interceding with authority, helping through inquiries, comforting relatives, etc., a regular "Returned Soldiers' Aid Fund" has become established.

Temporary loans for small amounts are advanced to those who need them. Poor Billy Khaki is so often "stoney," awaiting pay  arrears—goodness knows why and how ! This temporary accommodation is given, with discretion, with common-sense judgment, but without cold official inquiry, without red tape, without even hesitation" as to its being "deserving." And how it is appreciated ! In nine cases out of ten all such advances are returned in due course. And as for the tenth—well, what are we all supposed to be doing, and thinking, and talking of, and bragging about, if it is not helping soldiers in need?  Another excellent movement instituted is for the provision of suits of civilian clothes for discharged invalids. A soldier is given one outfit by the Government when he doffs his khaki. If that gets wet or damaged he can very seldom afford to buy another. Husbands and friends of this helpful sisterhood are only too glad to contribute suits for this, purpose,  particularly duck and linen, outfits for on board ship for those discharged men who have to return to England”. (Punch, 4 May 1916, p 32.)

The soldiers', new refreshment stall at the base hospital, St. Kilda road, was opened on November 30 by the acting State Commandant, Brigadier-General R. E. Williams. The pavilion was built at the expense of the Defence department in order to provide better accommodation for carrying on the work than the old structure afforded. The new stall has been christened the "Anzac Buffet," and in it returned soldiers are provided with refreshments at a nominal cost. The buffet is conducted by a number of patriotic sympathetic ladies, who give their services, voluntarily. After Brigadier-General Williams had explained the launching of the movement two and a half years ago by women eager to serve their country in any capacity, Mrs Alfred Deakin (directress) responded, thanking the Defence department for the gift of the pavilion, which would greatly assist in the work they were devoted to, at which announcement the soldiers cheered enthusiastically. Luncheon was subsequently served, and amongst those present were Brigadier-General and Mrs  Sellheim, Mr. Alfred Deakin, Colonel F. D. Bird, Major and Mrs. Courtney, Colonel G. Cuscaden, Lieut.-Colonel Pleasants, Matron C. Milne, Mr. T Trumble, Mr. F. Gates, and others. (The Australasian, 8 Dec 1917, p 41)

At the same time as the improvement in accommodation and name change for the buffet came also some smart uniforms for the women.

 The large band of voluntary workers, for they number over a hundred, who help at the soldiers' refreshment stall on St. Kilda road, have blossomed out in smart uniforms of dark brown covert coating coats and skirts piped with red. They are very proud of their new pavilion, which Brigadier-General Williams described as "being quite ornate," and it is in comparison with the little building in which they first started. Fourteen women with a matron attend every day, and serve refreshments to returned soldiers and men on final leave only, and they have carried on their work without ostentation or desire for publicity for two and a quarter years. As this is, I believe, the first group of women to don a set style of dress, no doubt others will follow suit, and so we may have for all voluntary workers a recognised uniform like the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps in England.(Table Talk, 20 Dec 1917, p 31.)

On 1 August 1918 the Punch featured the Anzac Buffet in a page of photographs, by F W Tolra:

The two women who were most synonymous with the Anzac Buffet in Melbourne, Pattie Deakin and Jane McMillan had, however, bowed out in 1919, thanking the Diggers:  

Pattie’s  husband Alfred Deakin, former Prime Minister of Australia, had died on 7 October 1919, just a month before this gracious farewell from the two ladies.   Jane had lost her only child in September 1917, but somehow had drawn herself together and returned to work at the Anzac Buffet.

Most diggers understood that the women of Australia had their own burdens to carry – sorrow, grief, anxiety, and often found on their return to Australia, that their families had been badly affected, with their parents or grandparents carried off by the constant stress of having their sons away, or the death of cousins and nephews, or deaths of sons of their close friends.  The war left a shadow on Australia for many decades.

I need to disclose that I am a member and volunteer of the Royal Historical Society of Victoria.

SOURCES

 
Somme mud, 1916 (AWM P905380.002)

Private William Yeats arrived in France in January 1917 in time to enjoy the worst winter in 40 years.  A slight increase in temperatures preceded a thaw that changed conditions to a muddy quagmire.  Rod Martin takes up the tale of  young William Yeats, iron moulder of Flemington, who struggled through the appalling conditions in France until struck by shelling at Polygon Wood, his death bringing grief to yet another Flemington home.  See his detailed story on the Empire Called website.

William Yeats' memorial at Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery.

 
         Private Thomas Keddie, State school teacher at San Remo.

Thomas Keddie, a State school teacher, enlisted in the AIF at the first opportunity in August 1915.  Like many men of his educational attainments he was made up to a Sergeant at an early stage in his training, but was reduced in rank in February 1915 to Private.  His service record does not specify why that occurred, though it is possible he requested the change himself.    He may have taken part in the defence of the Suez Canal when it was attacked by the Turks, but that remains another mystery.

On 25 April 1915 Thomas landed at Anzac Cove with his 8 Battalion comrades.   Later in the day he was shot in the leg and evacuated.  It meant the end of the war for Private Keddie, and he returned to teaching in Victoria.  His presence in the Ascot Vale State School "Book of Noble Deeds" suggests he taught there for a period.

You can see Rod Martin's account of Thomas Keddie's part in the Great War here.

Pozieres, pulverised by shelling, where George Young suffered shell shock.  AWM A05776

George Henry Young suffered a bit of a battering in the war.  He was wounded in the foot at the Dardanelles, being invalided to Malta and later England.  In 1916 in France he was hospitalised with shell shock, and again invalided to England.  During his lengthy periods in convalescence, he managed to marry a young English woman, and when repatriated in 1919, they had a baby with them.

When he returned to France he suffered shell shock after the terrible shelling of Pozieres, where his Battalion had been posted.

Rod Martin tells the story of George Young's war. 

Local AIF volunteer, George Gilchrist, of St Leonards Rd, Ascot Vale, survived the landing at Gallipoli with the 7th Infantry Battalion on 25 April 1915.

Gilchrist was 19 when he enlisted, and worked as a clerk.   He'd been involved in the cadet movement for some years, spending one year as a junior cadet, 2 years in senior cadets, and 15 months in the Citizens Military Forces with the 58 Infantry (Essendon Rifles).  As compulsory military service had only been implemented in 1913, his years as a cadet before that would have been as a volunteer cadet, possibly training at school, indicating his early interest in soldiering.   This was one reason he would have been an early appointment to Lance Corporal, and Sergeant while still at Gallipoli.

Gilchrist was mentioned several times in extracts of letters published in the Essendon Gazette, and following are extracts from letters he wrote himself to his parents:

Sergeant George A. Gilchrist writes to his parents at Moonee Ponds from "Rabbit Hole Villa," Gallipoli, describing the landing of the Australians at Gallipoli. Out of 35 in his boat only 15 got ashore. They rushed across the beach, and took cover, and connecting with another battalion rushed a small hill and took possession. They remained in the discarded trenches for a while, until they started off to regain the firing line which was well inland. Unable to do this, they retired. They rejoined the battalion later on.  Alick MacArthur was one of those killed on the boat. He was rowing, and was shot through the thigh; but kept on pulling till he dropped from loss of blood. 

In a later epistle, Sergt. Gilchrist tells of the trip to Cape Hellas with a party of New Zealanders. Here they spent a couple of days in the reserve trenches. It was very cold, and they went to bed looking like Esquimaux. On 5th May, they moved into trenches about 1000 yards from the enemy, and about 500 yards from a trench held by British troops. When word came, they jumped out of the trenches and went for the enemy. No. 5 platoon, under Lieut. Swift, was the first to move, and just as the Australians got to the top of the gully, the Turks poured shrapnel into them. Lieut. Swift was hit here and slightly wounded. (His brother, Alick, has since been killed in action.-Editor.) They- reached the trench held by the British, and advanced. The enemy had the range to a nicety, and their firing was very accurate. The boys got within 35 yds. of the Turks, and owing to the firing line having been thinned, they lay down and scratched up a bit of cover, without entrenching tools. They dug all night, and by morning were safe from anything but high explosive shells. 

Sgt. Gilchrist had several narrow escapes. A shrapnel pellet landed in his pack, and while digging he had four other close shaves. At time of writing, he was all right; but complained of the heat, and flies, especially the latter.

OUR SOLDIERS. (1915, October 14). The Essendon Gazette and Keilor, Bulla and Broadmeadows Reporter (Moonee Ponds, Vic. : 1914 - 1918), p. 4 Edition: Morning.  http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article74590395

For more stories of local volunteers, see:  The Empire Called and I Answered: the Volunteers of Essendon and Flemington, 1914-1918

With insufficient shipping to achieve their repatriation within the "duration of the war plus four months" stipulated when they enlisted, a huge effort was needed to keep the waiting troops occupied and entertained.   One program was for sporting competitions between sportsmen of the allied armies, included such sports as shooting, boxing, athletics, football, and rowing.

Major Middleton, who was putting together personalities, programs, locations, and  events, in various sports had been a successful rower himself. He put out a call for men experienced in rowing to come forward and try out for the AIF crew.  He also sent out cables to rowers he knew to be in France or England  and asked them to come.  Whether Lieutenant Harold Newall received a personal invitation from Middleton, or responded to a notice in a newspaper, Newall turned up to tryout and was placed in the stroke seat of the AIF 2 crew, with Albert Dresser being in the stroke seat of AIF 1 crew.

The AIF crew was more democratic that the crews of other countries.  England relied on officers only, who had attended public schools before the war.  Class distinctions still counted in England.   The USA crew likewise filled their crews with officers and men who had been to Ivy League schools.   Australia put men of any rank in their boats, as long as they rowed well.   

A large number of the Australians selected had represented Australia in their pre-war careers, several having rowed in the 1912 Olympics, for instance.   Unlike these men, Newall before the war had rowed only as a club rower in Melbourne, for the Essendon Rowing Club. This club in itself was and is a democratic club, not relying on the public schools of Melbourne to crew their boats, but taking all comers.  

In his 1914 season Newall had distinguished himself as the Men's Senior Eight stroke, and in his last row for 1914, his team-mates lifted him to their shoulders and chaired him onto the shore on the Yarra.   Early in 1915 again, Newell won races for his club with his superior skills as the stroke, but it was the news of the severe losses at Gallipoli of which the Australian public only learnt in May 1915 that had 6 of 9 of the Essendon crew members join the AIF.

Patterson provides a detailed and interesting account of the vicissitudes of the training of the Australian crew prior to the Peace Regatta of 1919.  Some had suffered severely at Pozieres, and probably all had a degree of PTSD. Major Middleton somehow got these two crews to pull together in the boats, selecting himself to balance out the crew that eventually won the Regatta for the AIF.   It was unfortunate that the AIF 2 crew were selected to row against the AIF 1 crew in the first heat, and was thus eliminated from the Regatta early.

The Australian team cheerfully seized the King's Cup from the British rowing authorities who had been very reluctant even to allow overseas crews to compete, because heaven knows the Australians were not gentlemen.  So the King's Cup came to Australia, and even then there was a controversy over it.  The Australian War Museum seized it as a trophy of war.  The Rowing authorities argued that it was not a war trophy and they petitioned King George V to allow them to keep the trophy as an annual perpetual trophy for the men's annual eight-oared competition.  King George graciously agreed to the rowers' request, much to the chagrin of the AWM and others who were appalled at the effrontery of the rowers to go over the heads of the Australian government to petition the King.  (See, I said they weren't gentlemen.)

This book is a jolly good read, and I recommend it strongly to anyone with an interest in sports of any kind, rowing in particular, and the history of the AIF.   Scott Patterson is an excellent story-teller, and is also a film maker. His documentary film project on the AIF rowing team is nearing completion, and you can read about it  at the above link.