Vol. 47 No 2 (New Series) WINTER 2017

THE GALLIPOLI GAZETTE

OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE GALLIPOLI MEMORIAL CLUB LTD

…..Alf Carpenter…..100 not out

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EDITORIAL……..

This edition carries a full report on the Gallipoli Art celebration and presented Alf Carpenter with a Prize which again attracted a broad range of entries. certificate of Club Life Membership. We also look at the commemoration of Anzac Day The elevation of John Robertson to Club President at the Club which included the HMAS Hobart at the April Annual Meeting sees the continuity of Association and was highlighted by the 2/4th the strong leadership the Club has benefitted from Australian Infantry Battalion Reunion which over past decades since the Club was lifted out of doubled as celebration of the 100th birthday three financial uncertainty in the early 1990s. "Robbo" days earlier of its Battalion Association President for joined the Committee in 1991 along with outgoing the past 33 years, Alf Carpenter. President Stephen Ware and myself. So, I know first- The numbers at the reunion lunch were bolstered hand of John's strong commitment over many years by the many friends Alf has made among the to the Club and its ideals. The Club also owes a families of his World War Two mates and the massive debt to retiring President Stephen Ware, support he has given to those families as the ranks who has stepped down to be a Committee member of the 2/4th diminished over the years. The new for continuity. Thank you Stephen for your visionary Gallipoli Club President, John Robertson, joined the leadership and prudent financial management over three decades.

THE GALLIPOLI MEMORIAL CLUB LIMITED Patron: General Arthur Fittock AO

Board of Directors:

President: John Robertson Senior Vice President: David Ford Junior Vice President: Ted Codd Hon. Treasurer: John Brogan

Directors:

Stephen Ware, Glenn Tetley, Scott Heathwood, Andrew Condon, Marc Higgins

Editor: Bob Lawrence Secretary Manager: Margaret Brown

Club Ph: 9235 1533 Fax: 235 1582 Email: [email protected] www.gallipoli.com.aU

RESTAURANT TRADING HOURS Dumpling Bar @ Loftus (Ground Floor) 12 Loftus St, Phone: 9247 6350 Email: [email protected] OPEN EVERYDAY: 12.00 noon - 9.00pm (THURSDAY & FRIDAY: Open -10.00pm) North Ocean Chinese Restaurant (1st Floor) 12 Loftus St, Sydney Phone: 9247 9450 LUNCH: MONDAY - FRIDAY 12 Noon - 3.00pm DINNER: MONDAY – SUNDAY 5.00PM - 9.00PM (Friday Open till 10.00pm)

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2017 Gallipoli Art Prize The 2017 Gallipoli Art Prize was won by Sydney based artist Amanda Penrose Hart with her painting ‘The Sphinx, Perpetual Peace’.

The painting depicts the towering rocky "However, we saw when we were dragging outcrop at Gallipoli that the Anzacs called The through the bush with all our gear quite a few Sphinx. It was selected from the thirty eight body parts, it's really awful." finalist works for the $20,000 acquisitive prize. The painting took her about a year to complete Amanda said that her painting of the extreme and is her way to commemorate the soldiers landscape that faced our soldiers on April 25, who lost their lives and whose remains still lie 1915 showed the extreme height of the hills on that hill, camouflaged by the vegetation. and sharp barbed wire like vegetation which "There were so many people died there and slashed the men trying to advance over those that's why it's so full of bones, and the hills. vegetation grew and grew because there's so "I walked this hill on two trips to Gallipoli and much blood and bone in the hills," she told the while in good shoes and good clothing I media conference after her win. struggled to reach even half way. To some the Ms Penrose Hart often paints landscapes in- land is now a mere tourist site, but to others it situ. Born in Brisbane in 1963 she holds a is a sacred burial ground. The trees have Diploma of Fine Art from Queensland College rejuvenated and the grasses spread like of Art and a Bachelor of Visual Art from Griffith wildfire – they camouflage the thousands of University. body parts within,” she said.

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The last Fuzzy Wuzzy Known unto God – AE1 By Noel Kelly By Margaret Hadfield (Inaugural winner 2006)

She has held twenty solo exhibitions and has Gallipoli Club's 'creed'. Artists can interpret the shown in many more group exhibitions. She broad themes in relation to any armed conflict regularly has work selected in prizes such as in which Australia has been involved from 1915 the Portia Geach Memorial Award (2006, 2007, up to the present day. The works do not need 2008, 2011) and the En Plein Air Art Prize. to depict warfare. Her works are also included in public and “The Gallipoli Art prize continues to attract the collections including Australian support of the visual arts community who have National Maritime Museum, Sydney; Bathurst once again responded with innovative works Regional Art Gallery, NSW; Brisbane Polo Club; that preserve the best of the ANZAC spirit,” Gold Coast City Art Gallery; Hawkesbury said the head of the Judging panel, Jane Regional Art Gallery, NSW; Redcliff Regional Watters, who is the Director of the S.H. Ervin Gallery, Qld; Taronga Park Zoo, Sydney; and Gallery. University of Sydney Art Collection. “The broad range of imagery represented in Every year Australian, New Zealand and the Prize demonstrates the level of inquiry by Turkish painters are invited to submit works to the artists into the stories and people from not the Gallipoli Art Prize that reflect upon the just the but from other themes of loyalty, respect, love of country, conflicts and also from daily life experiences,” courage and comradeship as expressed in the Ms Watters said.

THE GALLIPOLI MEMORIAL CLUB CREED WE BELIEVE…. that within the community there exists an obligation for all to preserve the special qualities of loyalty, respect, love of country, courage and comradeship which were personified by the heroes of the Gallipoli Campaign and bequeathed to all humanity as a foundation for perpetual peace and universal freedom

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GALLIPOLI – A FAILED CONQUEST BY BOTH SEA AND LAND By Bruce McEwan

The landing at Gallipoli by allied ground forces only happened because the original naval campaign by allied warships failed dismally due to a lack of planning and the paucity of military intelligence.

Winston Churchill, then first Lord of Britain’s Cape Helles; and the untried Australian and Admiralty, believed victory over the New Zealand Corps (ANZAC) landed at what Dardanelles would give access to the Black Sea became known as Anzac Cove. At the same and enable the allies to link with Russian time a French diversionary force landed on the forces. He thought this would be facilitated Asiatic shore. through a decisive naval strike by ships of the The French withdrew, according to plan, but allied navies – Britain and France the men of 29th Division were pinned down at The proposed victory was to give some relief to the water’s edge on the two main landing the rising public condemnation of the awful beaches. By the end of the day, the 29th had troop losses and lack of success on the western established a limited beachhead despite battle front at Flanders. It was largely a political massive casualties. At Anzac Cove, the ANZACS decision that was given little military pushed a little way inland only to be forced forethought. Conceived at a time when back to the beach by a Turkish counterattack Britain’s leaders grappled with the unpalatable and losses were heavy. reality of deadlock on the western front, the Despite the lessons of the west front, trench Dardanelles campaign sought to utilize warfare ensued. Conditions were primitive, Britain’s major asset, sea power. and the summer heat took its toll. Over the Churchill believed that a British-French fleet next few months both the Allies and the Turks would easily force its way through the launched concerted attacks to try to break the Dardanelles, the straits that separate Europe deadlock, but all met with pathetic failure. from Asia, and then menace Constantinople, Then, on 6 August, the British initiated fresh capital of Ottoman Turkey – which was allied landings at Suvla Bay and a major effort was with Germany. He reasoned that with Turkey’s made to break out of the Anzac Cove deadlock. surrender to allied naval power that Russia, When this also failed the British generals unhindered, could then deploy powerful army decided at last to evacuate Gallipoli in two forces from Balkan states such as Romania and stages, in and during the Greece to fight in the Balkans. following month. The Dardanelles campaign, Instead, the allied navy lost the advantage of which had promised so much, ended in surprise by bombarding Turkish coastal disaster. Yet it has earned near heroic status in defences in February 1915. After firing massive which facts have had to compete with myth salvos at the protective fortifications, the fleet and legend. Many admirers of Churchill believe suffered heavy losses from mines and accurate his plan to breach the Dardanelles only failed fire from Turkish shore batteries when on 18 because of poor tactics by both naval and March it attempted to force the straits. military commanders. However, there can be When this failed the British 29th Division was little doubt that the concept was too landed on the tip of the Gallipoli Peninsula, at ambitious, that planning and intelligence

The Avenue of Honour at Mortlake by David Porter 5

were lacking, that the response of the Turks was grossly underestimated, and that the operation was under resourced. This much-touted decisive strategy was nothing more than a military folly destined to fail from the outset. The original plan proposed that British and French warships would force their way through the Dardanelles, and cause the surrender of the Ottoman capital, Constantinople. Even if it had been supported successfully by land forces the army component should have been significantly larger than the one deployed, as defenses on both shores of the straits would have Students from the John Colet School with their work had to be overcome. Interwoven Cultures Even if the English and French battleships had got through there was no guarantee that the The total number of British soldiers that served Ottoman’s would have surrendered or that a at Gallipoli far outnumbered Australians and military coup would have been triggered. more French troops fought there than did Without soldiers to fight a ground campaign, Australians. The British casualties totalled the fleet would have been forced to retrace its 70,700 (26,000 dead); Australians, 25,700 steps, humiliated. (7,800 dead); French, 23,000 (8,000 dead); The allies always referred to the enemy as New Zealanders, 7,100 (2,445 dead) and ‘Turks’ but this was not entirely true. Yes, they Indians, 5,500 (1,682 dead). belonged to the army of the Ottoman Empire By any measure Gallipoli was an unmitigated but really they represented a mixed lot that disaster lacking in intellectual merit and included Greeks, Turks, Jews, Arabs and applied military planning. A disaster Armenians. They also had many German compounded by the subsequent slaughter at officers and advisors in the Ottoman army. the Western Front. As I wrote in a previous “Gazette” article, In the minds of many Australians and New Gallipoli was a multinational operation by the Zealanders (especially returned ANZACS) allies, involving troops from England, Scotland, Winston Churchill’s reputation never fully Wales, Ireland, Newfoundland, British India recovered from this costly military blunder – (including Gurkhas from Nepal), France, the even at the height of his popularity during the French empire (including north Africans and battle for Britain in WWII. Senegalese), Russian Jews (who wanted to For all its faults, Gallipoli was an historic occupy Palestine), as well as the ANZACS -- watershed for both Australia and Turkey. Australians and New Zealanders.. The landing Australia established a national identity as a force on 25 April 1915 consisted of 18,100 country that would not be taken for granted ANZACs, 16,800 French, and 27,500 British and Turkey threw off the restrictive shackles of troops. its Ottoman leaders and took the necessary steps to become a modern democracy.

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Pre-Federation military involvements

This is Part One of two part series on the role of the Australian colonies in defence ahead of Federation When the first colonial Under a flag of truce three convicts taken settlements were estab- Cunningham was arrested. prisoner. lished in Australia, British The troops were charged The Ribbon Gang was ex- military units were included and the rebellion was hausted and depleted so in the personnel. As British crushed. Nine rebel leaders they surrendered when the naval captains led the were executed and military reinforcements settlement, naval personnel hundreds punished before arrived. were the most prominent. martial law was revoked a On 30 October 1830, the From the outset marines week later. were put on guarded the Soldiers were involved in trial in the Bathurst Court and putting down the next House by the order of settlements. In 1790 they biggest insurrection, the Governor . were replaced by personnel Bathurst rebellion, by the They were tried by a Special specifically recruited for "Ribbon Gang" a group of Commission and a jury of colonial service. The first escaped convicts who military officers and ten men line regiment to serve in ransacked villages and publicly hanged either for Australia was the 73rd engaged in shootouts in murder or plundering Regiment of Foot in 1810. October-November 1840. farmhouses. Over the following 60 years, They were led by 25-year- British soldiers based in 25 British infantry regiments old English convict Ralph Australia were sent to the and several smaller artillery Entwistle. The group at its Anglo–Maori wars of the and engineer units were peak numbered about 130 1840s and 1860s to bolster stationed in the colonies. men. After an altercation the insufficient troops in The overt role of the troops with local graziers led by New Zealand. The 58th was to guard the colonies William Henry Suttor, the Regiment of Foot was from external attack, but 57th and 39th Regiments of dispatched in February 1845 their main job was to and was soon followed by maintain civil order in a land further troops. Fighting died where convict rebellions or down after 1846 but flared attacks by aborigines were a again in 1860 before a truce constant worry. was declared and peace There were various returned. incidents with aboriginal It was not until 1854 that tribes but the only major volunteer corps and militia convict event was at Castle again formed in the Hill in March 1804 when 233 Australian colonies. News of convicts led by Philip war between Britain and Cunningham, a veteran of Russia in the Crimea led to the 1798 Irish Rebellion, the establishment of William Henry Suttor escaped from a prison farm volunteer corps in some and planned to steal ships Foot were called in to assist colonies and the formation to sail to Ireland. Martial along with Mounted Police of informal rifle clubs in Law was declared in the from Goulburn. The gang others. When the Crimean Colony. The mostly Irish encountered the mounted War ended in 1856 rebels, many armed with troopers from Goulburn volunteer units faded. They rudimentary weapons near , with were revived in 1859 with confronted the troops. casualties on both sides and fears that Napoleon III

7 planned to invade England. The battle was all over in 15- Mahdi, but failed and was By early 1860 most suburbs 20 minutes. For some time besieged in Khartoum. and towns in Australia after that the police Further troops were sent supported a volunteer unit, troopers went berserk into the conflict. When usually a rifle corps. bayoneting and shooting Gordon was killed in early British troops did join police wounded diggers. Five 1885 the in a battle with miners at British troops and 22 diggers Government offered troops the Eureka Stockade, on were killed or later died of in a telegram to London Victoria's Ballarat goldfields, their wounds. Many diggers with costs met by the in December 1854. were taken prisoner. The colony. Other colonies soon In the previous week, public revolt at these actions followed and were several hundred miners and a Gold Fields Royal accepted. protesting about the cost of Commission led to reform of This was the first time that mining licences and led by the laws. Troops were not soldiers in the pay of a self- Peter Lalor had taken an used again against white governing Australian colony settlers. were to fight in an Imperial In the last decades before war. Federation volunteer corps In March 1885 an infantry became more organised, battalion of 522 men and 24 with professional soldiers as officers, and an artillery instructors. battery of 212 men, left In 1890-91 several thousand citizen soldiers were mobilised in eastern Australia to assist regulars and police to maintain order during the maritime and shearing strikes. Peter Lalor Contingents were sent overseas to British Empire oath of allegiance to their conflicts: Southern Cross Flag, and marched off to the Eureka Sudan diggings where a rough The British-backed Egyptian stockade was built from regime in the Sudan was timber and slabs. threatened by an indigenous Throughout Friday, De- rebellion under the cember 1, the diggers leadership of Muhammed continued to build the Ahmed (known as the stockade. They gathered as Mahdi) in the 1880s. In 1883 many firearms as possible. an Empire force was sent On Saturday, December 2, south to crush the revolt, the authorities decided to but was defeated. launch a pre-emptive strike. The British Government sent Soon after midnight on the highly acclaimed Sunday morning, when only General Charles Gordon to about 120 diggers were left determine how to safely inside the stockade, the withdraw the troops. British troops and mounted Instead, Gordon sought The unknown soldier By Fleur MacDonald police launched their instead to delay the assault. evacuation and defeat the

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Sydney amid much public reached Tamai, burned quarantine station on North fanfare. The NSW whatever huts were Head near Manly as a contingent anchored at standing, and returned to precaution against disease. Suakin, Sudan's Red Sea Suakin. One man died of typhoid port, on 29 March 1885 and Then most NSW soldiers there before the contingent were attached to a brigade worked on a railway line was released. Disease composed of Scots, which was being laid across caused the only fatalities of Grenadiers, and Coldstream the desert towards the the war. Five days after Guards. Soon after they inland town of Berber on their arrival in Sydney the marched for 30 kilometers the Nile, half-way between contingent, dressed in their as part of a 10,000 man Suakin and Khartoum. khaki uniforms, marched formation to the village of This lack of the expected through the city to a Tamai. excitement meant that reception at Victoria Although the march was when a camel corps was Barracks where they stood marked only by minor raised, 50 men volunteered in pouring rain as political skirmishing, the men saw immediately. However, they and military leaders gave something of the reality of saw little action. speeches. war as they progressed By May 1885 the British It was generally agreed at among the dead from a government had decided to the time that this small previous battle. Minor abandon the campaign and contingent marked an skirmishing took place on left only a garrison in Suakin. important stage in the the next day's march, but The Australian contingent development of colonial the Australians, sustained sailed for home on 17 May self-confidence and pro- only three injuries and no 1885, arriving on 19 June. vided proof of the enduring fatalities. The infantry They disembarked at the link with Britain . Boer War Several colonies sent troops to fight in the Boar War. This war will be covered in the next edition.

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Previous Winners Gallipoli Art Prize 2006 Margaret Hadfield Ataturk’s legacy 2007 Lianne Gough Glorus fallen 2008 Tom Carment Max Carment, War Veteran (the last Portrait) 2009 Euan Macleod Smoke/Pink landscape/Shovel 2010 Raymond Arnold The dead march here today 2011 Hadyn Wilson Sacrifice 2012 Geoff Harvey Trench interment 2013 Peter Wegner Dog with Gas Mask 2014 Idris Murphy Gallipoli Evening 2013 2015 Sally Robinson Boy Soldiers 2016 Jiawei Shen Yeah, Mate!

Margaret Preston helps the shell-shocked service men By Geoff Harvey(Winner 2012)

Love, loyalty and separation by Susan Sutton

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Anzac Day at the Gallipoli Club

Centenarian Alf Carpenter shows his certificate of Life Membership of the Gallipoli Club presented to him by President, John Robertson on Anzac Day to nurse Helen Jones who was his medical companion on the Australian contingent official trip to El Alamein in 2011 to mark the 70th anniversary of the Battle.

Anzac Day 2017 at the Gallipoli Club was Alf had to swim out to sea to escape the raid dominated by the 2/4th Australian Infantry and save his life. Battalion Reunion on the middle level which The other soldier swimming with him was a doubled as a celebration of the 100th birthday retailer worker from Wallsend in the Hunter three days earlier of its President for the past Valley. 33 years, Alfred Clive Carpenter. A year later with the war over, that same Fifty people, mainly the descendants of 2/4th soldier urged Alf by telegram to move up from members, attended the short April meeting, Wagga Wagga and help set up a general store which was followed by the President of the in Warners Bay, which is how Alf became a citizen of the Hunter valley. Gallipoli Club, John Robertson, congratulating After selling that business he became and Alf on his centenary and handing over a agent for the Kelloggs and Pick-me-Up food certificate to commemorate Alf being made a brands. Life Member of the Club. Alf and his wife Marjorie later headed John and other speakers outlined the amazing overseas. Among his many careers, Alf has life of Alf Carpenter since he was born in been a Yogi Ramacharaka instructor in India, Wagga Wagga, NSW on April22, 1917. taught Tai Chi on the Great Wall of China and Alf had a job as a hardware buyer in the retail toured many countries in a hypnotism show industry and joined the 50th Battalion Militia in with Marjorie where he performed under the 1934. He rose to the rank of sergeant. name of Kim Karson Automatically called up when war was Sadly, Alf lost the site of one eye later in life declared, Sergeant Carpenter saw service in due to being hit in the head by shrapnel from a Libya, Egypt, Syria, Damascus, Aleppo, Greece, German mortar in fighting near Heraklion Crete and in the Pacific campaign. While a during the Battle of Crete in 1941. However, member of the 42nd Landing Craft Company a cornea implant ten years ago gave him back he was helping land troops near the Buka 25 per cent of the sight in the eye and Alf Passage, north of Bougainville when the proudly reminds people he still has a drivers Japanese attacked his flotilla of landing barges. licence.

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Enjoying an ANZAC Day reunion at the Gallipoli Club were members of the HMAS Hobart Association. They included Michael Kielty, Rear Admiral Guy Griffiths, (retd) who is the Patron of HMAS Hobart Assn, Captain David Blazey (retd), Chief Petty William (Bill) Bowley, Ben Welfare (immediate past-President of the Association), Bill Ross, the current Association President and Kennith O'Connor.

Two ships have carried the name of HMAS Hobart, both served with great distinction during war time and peace time. A third HMAS Hobart is due to be commissioned in September this year. The first HMAS Hobart was a Leander class light cruiser built for the Royal Navy as HMS Apollo in 1934 but later commissioned as HMAS Hobart in September 1938. At the outbreak of World War Two, HMAS Hobart was in Sydney, so put to sea and patrolled the eastern seaboard before a very distinguished wartime career which took her to the Indian Ocean, Mediterranean, Red Sea and Pacific. She featured in the landing of British, Australian and American troops in many theatres of war. Among her many exploits was her ability in AA fire and this earnt her the nickname of the "The Flaming Angel". She was scrapped in 1962. The second HMAS Hobart, affectionately known as the "Green Ghost" was a Perth class guided missile destroyer built by the Defoe Shipbuilding Company in Michigan, USA and purchased for US$45 million by Australia. She was commissioned on the 18th December 1965 in Boston USA and decommissioned on the 12th May 2000. She is now in her final resting place as an artificial reef and dive site in South Australia.

Buried where they fell by Ian Chapman

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The King’s letter By Capt. Darlene Lavett (Retd)

Kent McCormack with his painting Hope Rallies Courage

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The rifle designed by William Scurry that saved lives at Gallipoli By Bob Marchant

Piebald Hill with shrubs By Max Berry

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Sergeant Thomas Brogan

Club Committee member John Brogan last year visited the grave of his grandfather along with some relatives on the centenary of his death in the Battle of the Somme. John shares his story with us. Simple fate determined whether a man survived I first ‘met’ Thomas Brogan on the sharp, misty the Great War. If coming through it was not to morning of October 2 2016. Seven of his be his destiny, it determined exactly how he met Australian descendants were there exactly one- his end. You died when your number was on the hundred years from the date of his death to bullet. The story of a new ‘Australian’, Thomas honour him. Typically, as with many men who Brogan, is one of those fascinating ones where a left a young family behind in a distant land, he man defies seemingly impossible odds during left few records behind to help his now proudly the fury of battle, only to die almost by chance Australian grand and great-grand-children know on one of the quieter days on the Western Front. him. Just an etched name, the name of an almost When Irish-born Thomas Brogan emigrated to anonymous man who had started a new Australia in 1912, after a seven-year stint as a Australian dynasty. But, as we gathered around professional soldier in the British Army, he could the white Portland headstone, with prayers and not have foreseen that destiny would soon see wreaths, one bit of information on an otherwise him recalled to fight in much larger battles than sparse tombstone biography seemed to shout he’d seen as a soldier policing the Empire. He out; his regimental number. No. 561. The low could not have predicted that he would number denoted a regular soldier, a soldier with miraculously survive two of the most iconic a longer history than most who lie in the Picardy individual battles of the Great War – namely, the or Flanders soil. It became the key to unlocking storming ‘W Beach’ at Gallipoli on April 25th and part of an extraordinary life and reuniting the the July 1,t 1916 attack on Beaumont Hamel - younger Brogans with their Anglo/Irish- while others around him were wiped out. Just Australian heritage. being part of these actions made him special; Thomas Brogan could easily have been in an everyone knows the story of the ‘Six VCs before ANZAC uniform. He was, after all, just as much breakfast’ or has seen the famed Geoffrey an ‘Aussie’ as the near 40% British-born who Malins photo of the men in the sunken road as joined the AIF. However, like many hundreds of they wait the order to go over the top on that newly arrived immigrants, he was still on the bloody first day of the Somme. And Thomas was British Army reserve list when war broke out in present on both occasions. 1914. He would have been immediately

‘Six VCs before Breakfast’ W Beach

15 recalled to his regular battalion; the famed 1st Bn As a regular with the 1st Battalion Thomas saw Lancashire Fusiliers, formally the 20th Regiment postings in Egypt and Malta (1906) and then of Foot. served throughout India from 1907 to 1912, Thomas had originally signed up for seven-years probably being discharged there on completion with the colours, and five in reserve in April of service having achieved the rank of Pioneer 1905. He was in Wigan at the time, hence the Sargent. He would then have made his way to Lancashire Fusiliers whose base depot was in Australia, bounty in pocket and seeking a new nearby Bury. He was single, as you had to be, and life, where early in 1914 he married Margaret aged 23-years old. That a man originally from Mary Murphy. It was possibly in an ‘arranged’ County Clare should have been in a English marriage to one of the many single women who regiment was not uncommon; approximately went out to help populate the country. Thomas nine percent of the British Army was traditionally would have been 34 at the time. recruited from Ireland and many signed up after A long married life was not foretold by his tarot crossing the Irish Sea, initially to look for work in cards, but before his recall in August 1914 he at the mills and mines of Northern England. The least managed to leave Margaret Mary with an promise of overseas adventure was often more heir. Life cannot have been easy for the young appealing to a young man than a life ‘down t’pit’. family he was forced to leave behind. Perhaps Thomas was simply too tall for mine or Thomas caught up with his old battalion, mill; there are no known photographs, but family recently returned from Karachi, in Warwickshire, legend talks of his being a commanding six foot- and was posted to Alexandria where, as part of seven inches. He was really too tall for the the 29th Division, supplemented with ANZAC and trenches, too, and would have spent his time Indian Army troops, they awaited until that constantly hunched over or ducking. It is possible fateful Gallipoli morning of April 25. Of the five that with his unique stature one might make him beaches chosen for the Helles landings, the out on one of the battalion portraits taken Lancashires drew one of the short straws; ‘W before the Somme; or perhaps he’s represented Beach’. Along with the neighbouring ‘V Beach’, on the painting of the ‘W Beach’ Lancashire these witnessed scenes of unimaginable landing. He would have quite literally been head carnage. Thomas was not only one of the 30% and shoulders above the average-sized soldier of who survived the W Beach landing but also five foot and eight inches. survived the three battles of Krithia, including

16 the attack at Gully Ravine. Incredibly, he was also Lancashire Fusiliers (29th Division) were in the involved in the August Suvla attack on Chocolate line near Gueudecourt preparing for an attack Hill and survived the freezing cold and floods of against Le Transloy. Continuing bad weather had November. Unscathed, the Lancashire Fusiliers resulted in postponements of the general assault finally left Gallipoli on January 2. What would but men were still dying; in fact 485 on that day have been the odds on Thomas leaving with alone, with another 219 ‘missing’. It was also to them? He was no ‘spring chicken’ but perhaps be the day that Thomas Brogan’s number was on the ‘old soldier’ in him had taught him a few the bullet. survival tricks. Nevertheless, over 1300 men of The Lancashire Fusiliers Annual records simply his regiment were left on the peninsular with no that ‘the Battalion suffered a very heavy loss in known grave and whose names grace the Helles the death of Regimental Sergeant Major Kesby, Memorial for the Missing. Still hundreds more lie who was killed by a shell at the mouth of the HQ beneath headstones that bear their names. dugout; Sergeant Brogan … being killed almost at A short re-fit later and the battalion was in the same time’. France, posted to the Somme. Once again the Thomas lies now in Bull Road Commonwealth battalions of General ‘Hunter Bunter’ Weston’s War Grave Cemetery, next to five of his 29th Division were in the thick of it. That fateful comrades killed by that same missile. He could July 1 attack on Beaumont Hamel cost the not have foreseen that having survived so much Lancashire Fusiliers dearly; 7 officers killed and and for so long that his own end would come 14 wounded, 156 other ranks killed and 298 without glory that October day from a stray shell wounded with 11 missing presumed dead. splinter. Fate was the final arbiter. Perhaps it was the God he prayed to that saw Alas, he would never again see his adopted Thomas through the carnage. Perhaps as the country, nor the wife he had recently married, Pioneer Sargent, and one of the oldest surviving nor see the progeny he left behind in New South members of the battalion, he was one of the Wales grow and prosper in the proud new nation cadre held back. Whichever, he survived the day. of Australia to which he contributed as much as Wednesday, October 25 1916 was the 117th day any man who wore the ANZAC uniform. of the Battle of the Somme. The 1st Battalion

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The great adventure By Kristin Hardiman

Mortarium By Judith White

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