PRG 247 Series 48, and 54 Containing Correspondence, Army Records, Newspaper Cuttings and Other Items Relating to Lance A
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PRG 247 Series 48, and 54 containing correspondence, army records, newspaper cuttings and other items relating to Lance A. Lewis transcribed in chronological order, together with some relevant newspaper articles. Series 50 diary follows. Two relevant newspaper articles follow. Partly transcribed by Susie van der Sluys in 2002, and completed by H. Davies who also researched the letters in 2015, both volunteers at the State Library of SA. These items are reproduced here with the permission of the copyright owner, whose permission is required for further publication. Researcher’s notes in the text are shown in italics Transcriber’s introduction The son of Hon John and Martha Lewis, Lance Lewis was the youngest of six children. Lance grew up on the family sheep farm Kooringa near Burra in South Australia. He made several epic horse rides. Aged nine he rode solo Burra to Adelaide return, aged 12 he rode an epic 1100 miles Burra to Warrnambool in Victoria return. Just before the war he rode from Adelaide to Darwin looking at pastoral conditions for the firm he worked for: Bagot, Shakes and Lewis. He was a stalwart member of Burra Football Club, and in his letters home he encouraged them to sign up for war service, no doubt valuing the strong friendships, fitness, and healthy competitive spirit inherent in the sport. More details on football players in World War 1 are available at www.redlegsmuseum.com.au On 19 August 1914 Lance enlisted in the 3rd Light Horse Brigade, which he may have actually helped form some years before in Burra. The Burra Record of 23 October 1912 states ‘With Mr. Lance A. Lewis, as organiser, there is every prospect of Burra forming a light horse regiment, as the required number of horsemen (30) are in sight’. Lance Lewis’s War Record lists his movements during World War One as: 24 August 2015 in Gallipoli sick in hospital then invalided from Mudros by ship to Endsleigh Hospital in England with enteritis. 11 January 1916 disembarked from England on Nominal Roll of the “Ionic” “date of casualty 2 January 1916, place of Casualty Alexandria”. Rejoined Regiment from England at Light Horse Wells, became Major 13 February 1916. 12 February 1916 placed on Supernumerary List of Officers. 23 March 1916 wounded at Rafa, Middle East in the 3rd L.H. Regiment, admitted to hospital in Girga, Sohag, Abbassia and discharged on leave in Alexandria in April 1916. 9 January 1917 – 26 March 1917 wounded B.W. head and back in El Arish as part of the Anzac Mounted Division, dangerously ill, and transferred to Hopital train for Cairo. 10 May 1917 placed on the Supernumerary List of officers, transferred from Abbassia to H.S. Neuralia for Australia on A.I.F. Orders in Egypt. 12 October 1917 discharged as medically unfit by The Medical Board in Keswick South Australia, invalided to Australia per “Neuralia” from Suez for 6 months change. PRG 247 Series 48, 50 and 54 Lance Lewis World War One papers Page 1 of 123 He appears to have returned via Durban and Cape Town. Once home he married Gretta Laidlaw. They raised a family and actively served in their community, fundraising for war widows and returned soldier settlers. The letter writers As well as letters by Lance there are letters by family members, mainly from his sister Jane aka ‘Jeannie’ Melrose who was raising a family on a farm at Oolooloo near Burra in South Australia. ‘Lil’ – is Lance’s niece. ‘Nell’ - Eleanor Lewis was a kitchen work volunteer in hospitals. She became the Area Superintendent for ca 300 Regimental Canteens of Southern Command and later married George Cowan, Commissioner of the Australian Trench Comforts Fund. ‘Brook’ - Dr James Brook Lewis was a Surgeon-Captain in the AIF on the hospital ship ‘Karoola’ and also in France. ‘Gil’ or ‘Gill’ - Major Gilbert Lewis was a Boer War veteran who also served in Europe. ‘Essie’ (Mr Essington Lewis) was in Melbourne with wife Gladys, setting up the Broken Hill Proprietary Company, later to become the giant Australian company BHP. Kath Roach in ‘The Office’ in Adelaide conveyed updates about Lance to his siblings on behalf of their father Hon. John Lewis. In 1898-1905 Kath Roach had excelled at Burra High School and in the University of Adelaide’s Junior Commercial Examinations. In 1917 she was working in Bagots’ office. Her brothers were also heavily involved in the war effort. Lieut. Eric Roach b. 1891 served in Gallipoli and was killed in action in 1918 as an anti-aircraft officer. H. Keith Roach b.1888 served in UK and returned at the end of 1918. A third brother John C. Roach (Jack) b. 1896 served as a sapper draughtsman until 1919 when he returned to Burra. After the war she accompanied Hon John Lewis on an overseas tour including America, as described in a long letter near the end of this collection. There are also some letters from the Burra Lodge, from relatives of men in his Battalion, and a friend Mary Meimerachi who was in Cairo when he was first wounded. Letters and other items in series 48 and series 54 are transcribed in one chronological sequence together with a selection of newspaper articles which the transcriber has researched from the National Library of Australia’s newspaper digitisation site Trove http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper PRG 247/48 Papers relating to L.A. Lewis’ war service 1914-1917. Folder 1 consists of numbered letters sent to and from L.A. Lewis. Folder 2 consists of newspaper cuttings and photocopies of his medical records on ‘Active Service Casualty Form’ numbered 1-24, as vital information relating to the letters. PRG 247/54 Letters written by L.A. Lewis during 1914-1917 while he was in Egypt, at Gallipoli in the desert in Palestine and convalescence in Egypt after being wounded. Includes letters written by his father and others to the beginning of 1921. These letters are on microfiche, although some were too faded for transcription. They are numbered reading from left to right, omitting duplicates. The microfiche have been scanned and are viewable as PDFs on the Library’s SA Memory website: PRG 247 Series 48, 50 and 54 Lance Lewis World War One papers Page 2 of 123 Part 1: 27 December 1914 - 8 May 1915 (4.2 MB) Part 2: 8 May 1915 - 15 July 1915 (5.2 MB) Part 3: 1 August 1915 - 27 January 1916 (5.2 MB) Part 4: 8 February 1916 - 24 May 1916 (4.2 MB) Part 5: 30 May 1916 - 21 January 1917 (5.2 MB) Part 6: 25 January 1917 - 19 February 1917 (4.2 MB) Part 7: 20 February 1917 - 13 March 1917 (4.2 MB) Part 8: 26 March 1917 - 4 June 1918 (4.2 MB) Part 9: 1 March 1919 - 4 January 1921 (2.1 MB) Letters and Army Records and newspaper cuttings in series 48 and 54 in chronological order 8 November 1896 - 27 March 1946. Interfiled in these items from the archival record group are newspaper articles related to Lance Lewis which the transcriber has researched from the National Library of Australia’s newspaper digitisation site Trove http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper and which have links to the article on Trove. Each item in the archival record group has a number such as PRG 247/54/1/23 indicating that this is letter 1 of 23 pages from series 54. Where the item has been digitised, it also has a file name in the form PRG247_54_20_1-2. These items were digitised from the microfiche and the number of the microfiche is also shown as in Microfiche 2 - #30, #31, #32, #33. For example PRG 247/54/1/23 PRG247_54_20_1-2 Microfiche 2 - #30, #31, #32, #33 Note that the dates between the letters and related information in other items sometimes do not match. PRG 247/48 Folder 1/2 8 November 1896 Early letter, handwritten, from Lance aged 11 at Kooringa to his sister Jeannie This letter was written twice, one rough version, the other neat Dear Jeannie I did not go Dalhousie after all. We have only one pup Just at present. The other three are at Mr Killicoat one of the three is mine it is getting broken in. Yesterday was the first day of Polo this season. Mr McCullock had a buster yesterday. We have eighteen chickens about one hundred cats. They are going to sell cats at the Strawberry Fête @ Three pence each so we can Just about supply them. Father went up to Quorn with Essie and he had to go from there to Oodnadatta by himself. Father received a letter from Mr Kelly on Friday night stating that they were \shoeing/ horses. I must Say Goodbye I remain yours loving Brother Lance WRITE. SOON. PRG 247 Series 48, 50 and 54 Lance Lewis World War One papers Page 3 of 123 PRG 247/48 Folder 1/7 13 August 1914 Letter, handwritten, to “Lancey” from Nell in Goona-Cant in India Envelope dated 17 Aug 12.30 p.m.is addressed to Lance Lewis Esq Kooringa South Australia, readdressed to 3rd Regiment Light Horse, Military Camp Morphettville.] My dear Lancey Boy – don’t you go to the war I can just imagine how keen you would be – but don’t go theres a dear kid – Everyone here is most excited about it all – the War is off in a few days with the Lahore division – all the officers are longing to go – if they go all the women in Sudia ? have to collect in one \big/ place in case of another mutiny – the Doc has gone & also a native doctor from the hospital – our officers are very sick about it as they want to go too – Today we are going down the railway line on a trolly shooting as we go – have dinner in Mr Wyllies private carriage at Rati & come back in it by tonights train at 11-30 – Mayor Goodfellow & Mr Martin are motoring down & will meet us there – we have had nearly forty inches of rain in five weeks – all my gloves & some other things are spoilt with the damp & mildew – Much love kid Yrs Nell PRG 247/48 Folder 2, Casualty Form (duplicate copy, original lost at sea) 19 August 1914 Army Record, Australian Imperial Force Army L.A.