NEWSLETTER 1/2019 ISSN 2207-0400 APRIL 2019 Centenary of the Armistice Plaque Chris (C.G.) Appleton (1978)
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ba NEWSLETTER 1/2019 ISSN 2207-0400 APRIL 2019 Centenary of the Armistice Plaque Chris (C.G.) Appleton (1978) As was reported in Newsletter 1/2018, the College accepted the Society’s offer to gift a plaque to the College commemorating the Centenary of the Armistice on 11 November 2018. The plaque commemorates the 158 graduates of the College who saw active service in the First World War. It was funded from the existing funds of the Society. The plaque will be very visible, being located immediately to the left of the entry to the CSC Mess, in the opposite position to the Society’s plaque (to the right of the Chris Appleton with Bill Mellor (Note the barriers around steps) commemorating the 75th anniversary of the opening of the CSC Mess while the Mess undergoes renovation). the College. Arrangements were made with the College to dedicate the Centenary of The Armistice Address plaque at 9:00 am on Sunday 11 November, in a brief By Chris Appleton, President of the Duntroon Society ceremony attended by cadets, staff and friends of the College. 11 November 2018 Assisting with the unveiling was Bill Mellor, the youngest On this day, 100 years ago, what was then the worst war ever member of the Corps, who turned 18 two days prior. known came to an end. The cost to the world, our nation and this College of what was then called the Great War was immense. The First World War touched every community in Australia and most of its families. From a population of less than five million (think Queensland or New Zealand today), 330,000 Australian volunteers served overseas, 60,000 of them died and 156,000 were wounded. New Zealand with a population of just over a million (a little more than twice the size of Canberra today) saw 99,000 serve overseas, 18,000 die, and 41,000 wounded. On this day 100 years ago, the sentiments were mixed: there was joy that it was over, pride for their contribution to victory, and sorrow for the cost. Here today we honour the 158 Australian and New Zealand graduates of the College saw active service in the First World War. In reflecting on their service, we acknowledge that they comprised a tiny fraction of the more than 12,000 officers who served in the Australian Imperial Force and that from 1916 onwards, new AIF officers were almost all commissioned from the ranks. The same was the case in the New Zealand Expeditionary Force. The demands of the war saw the first four classes enter the College and graduate early; none of them got to complete the four-year course they had signed up for. They were few, but they made their mark, distinguishing themselves in action at Gallipoli, on the Western Front, and in the Middle East. The Armistice Plaque dedicated to the 158 graduates who saw active service in the First World War. 1 Their service came at great cost: 42 died, another 63 were wounded. Eleven were wounded twice, four were wounded Digitisation of RMC Journals three times. These numbers from the history books bely an even Richard (R.J.) Lamb (1966) greater cost. Others suffered non-battle injuries and illnesses Readers may be interested in a project currently under way to and in the days before our modern understanding of post- have early copies of the RMC Journal preserved, digitised traumatic stress, many bore less visible scars. and placed on line. The classes of 1966, 1967 and 1968 have Seventeen died at Gallipoli along with their Commandant, contributed $6,350 for the digitisation by the National Library Major General Bridges. Patterson Hall here at the College is of Australia of 53 RMC Journals from 1913 (vol 1, no 1) named for the first of them. Six graduates died in a single through to 1968 (vol xlv, no 56). night in the disaster of Fromelles in 1916. Graduates from the They will be accessible via Trove and already the first ten intake that joined the College in 1912 fared the worst: 19 out journals (1913 to 1918 inclusive) can be seen at of 36 died. http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-734748369. These were prepared in If honours and promotions are an indication of time to mark the Centenary of the 1918 Armistice last achievement, they achieved much. Captain Clive Hopkins November. The project should be completed in the second commanded a company at Gallipoli before he turned twenty. half of 2019. The financial contribution by the three classes Nearly a third of the 158 were promoted to major during the is to be acknowledged in the NLA catalogue entries. war, however instructions issued in 1917 precluded any Hard copies of the journals are available at a number of possibility of their promotion to lieutenant colonel. This was locations including the National Library, Australian War done so they could be retained in vital roles as brigade majors Memorial’s Research Centre, ADFA’s special collections for which their RMC training was considered some library and the RMC Archives. However there are gaps in the preparation. Given that in August 1918, four men who had series held by each source so that for the first time there will been soldiers in 1914 were commanding infantry battalions be a complete set in one place. Also, many of the journals are as lieutenant colonels, these instructions denied some RMC not in good condition with many incomplete or decayed so graduates the opportunity for appointments of even greater the best copy of each is being selected for preservation. responsibility. The journals are a remarkable record of the first few RMC graduates were three times more likely to be decades of the RMC life and will be available for researchers awarded the Distinguished Service Order than other officers not only of military history but also for family and social in the AIF. By war’s end, seven graduates wore the ribbons historians. They are also a record of very early Canberra by of both the Distinguished Service Order and the Military bringing to life the world of Duntroon cadets in another era. Cross. As these journals show, there were significant social and In a 1923 report the Inspector General of the Army, economic linkages between the College, both cadets and Lieutenant General Harry Chauvel reported that: “To say that staff, and the 1,700 or so people of the Limestone Plains the 158 graduates who served in the late war had any bearing stations and villages—even by the end of WW2 the region’s on the 300,000 that comprised the AIF would seem ridiculous population was only 13,000. The establishment of the RMC yet, most, if not all, division, brigade or regimental in 1911 was of course the new Commonwealth’s first major commanders will bear out my statement that this was so. The capital expenditure in the federal capital region, contained its high ideals established at the College by the late General earliest houses, and predated Walter Burley Griffin’s winning Bridges were a potent influence that made itself felt capital design. throughout.” The journals were not published in 1932 nor between When the survivors of those first four classes came home 1942 and 1949. Between 1931 and 1936, the Journals were in 1919, it was beyond their imagination that just 20 years lean affairs with the RMC relocated at Victoria Barracks later, they would be called to serve again, this time rising Sydney; in those six years there were only 32 graduates and rapidly to senior command and again serving Australia with 67 entrants in total. The 1955 Journal original edition was great distinction. Rowell Theatre in the MI block at the RMC withdrawn after publication and only one re edited photocopy is named for one of them. version appears to exist. Early journals were published twice They could not have imagined that their children would a year and once mid-year into the 1930s. After that, also serve in the Second World War, that their publication was annual at year end with the familiar grandchildren’s generation would serve for a decade in December graduation. It could also be noted that the Vietnam and that their great-grandchildren’s generation ‘graduating class pen pictures’ at the end of each journal only would be called to serve in Iraq and Afghanistan. And they commenced as a tradition in 1961, probably commencing could not have envisaged that their College would with the impressive 1961 Journal Jubilee edition. Many class increasingly provide the leadership at all levels for those members have observed that those pithy pen picture campaigns. comments are as accurate now as they were when first 100 years ago, as they were coming to terms with the end written. of the war, it’s unlikely they appreciated the extent to which Occasionally there are gems which cannot be found their service established the high reputation of the College: a anywhere else. One is found in Journal vol 1 no 2 (June 1914), reputation that every graduate of this place has the duty to which describes a visit to the RMC Duntroon in March 1914 uphold. by the Inspector General of Overseas Forces, Sir Ian Shortly, the Duntroon Society will gift a plaque to the Hamilton. It is with some irony that a year later he was College to mark the Centenary of the Armistice. We do so to commander Mediterranean Expeditionary Force Dardanelles honour those 158, to remember them, and to acknowledge Gallipoli. The Journal reports that “… the Inspector General they set the standard for all who would follow in their said physically you cadets are a fine lot ..