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18.6 Coranderrk Aboriginal Station at Healesville

Coranderrk being a part of the Shire of Eltham until 1871.

Updated May 2019

18.6.1 Alfred Davis. S/N55596.
18.6.2 Albert Franklin. S/N97, S/N375).
18.6.3 Leslie Franklin. S/N878.
18.6.4 Walter Lance Franklin (L/Cpl). S/N3347.
18.6.5 James Gordon Harris. S/N3533. KIA, 4/7/1918.
18.6.6 David Mullett. S/N500
18.6.7 Henry Albert Patterson. S/N5193
18.6.8 John Rowan. (L/Cpl). S/N1506
18.6.9 George Alexander Terrick. S/N5243.
18.6.10 James Henry Wandin. S/N18801
18.6.11 Joseph Wandin. S/N300.

Details

18.6.1 Pte. DAVIS Alfred S/N55596.

1989-1962 Aged 73

7th General (Victorian) Reinforcements & Australian Army Service Corps.

Alfred DAVIS. (POB, Healesville Victoria. NOK, Son, Michael Davis, c/o Alfred Davis, Healesville, Victoria. Address on enlistment, Barmah, Victoria. Found on the Healesville & Badger Creek District Honour Boards and the Badger Creek State School Honour Board). Calling: Labourer
Enlisted, 20/4/1918. Age on Enlistment 29 years 3 months. 7th General (Victorian) Reinforcements & Australian Army Service Corps. Embarked, Melbourne 23/7/1918 – London 27/9/1918, HMAT 74 Marathon. Private, Fovant, Training transferred to A.A.S.C. 29/9/1918 – 4/6/1919. Sick Group Clearing Hospital 1/11/1918 – 13/11/1918. RTA, HMAT Euripides 6/9/1919. Discharged, 4/11/1919. Medal, British War Medal.

Unit Colour Patch:

Australian Army Service Corps Details Unit.

(Found on the Healesville & Badgers Creek District Honour Boards and the Badgers Creek State Schools Honour Board)

ww1-coranderrk-soldiers1-2
Postcard featuring Badger Creek Football Club, Victoria, c.1906: Frank Endacott Collection Museum Victoria. Alfred Davis – centre row, second from the right.

Private Alfred Davis, service no. 55596

Posted by VICGOVAboriginalWW1, Wednesday, 25 May 2016

SUMMARY Alfred Davis was an Aboriginal man of the Kulin Nations – Dja Dja Wurrung, Nguraiillum, and Yarra Yarra – who lived at the Coranderrk Aboriginal Station near Healesville in Victoria. Alfred enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on 20 April 1918 and trained with the 1st Training Battalion in England. He was then allotted to the 7th Infantry Battalion but due to the armistice in November 1918 he did not see active service on the Western Front. In September 1919 Alfred returned to Australia.

EARLY LIFE Alfred Davis was born in Healesville, Victoria to Alfred Davis and Lizzie Hylett (also known as Murchison) on 19 January 1889. His parents had been displaced from their original homelands. His paternal grandmother was Maggie McLellan who had been born in Kerang and had moved to the government run Coranderrk Aboriginal Station soon after it was established. Alfred Davis senior, Maggie’s son, was placed in the dormitory on the Station along with the other children of the community. As a young man Alfred senior was one of the key witnesses in the 1881 Parliamentary Inquiry into conditions on Coranderrk. This important part of Victoria’s history has recently been dramatized in the successful theatre production Coranderrk: We Will Show The Country. After the Government Inquiry the Board for the Protection of Aborigines (the Board) introduced new legislation that further jeopardised the future of the Coranderrk community. With the passage of the 1886 Aborigines Act young men and women who were considered ‘half caste’ were forced to leave the station to find work in the wider community. With this loss of young people the farming enterprise floundered and the Board withdrew its funding. Employment on the station was no longer an option and families were forced apart by the new laws. It was in this context of community decline and the loss of autonomy that Alfred Junior grew up. Community leader William Barak’s hopes of turning Coranderrk into a sustainable Aboriginal cooperative had been dashed. The new generation of men and women would need to find another way to live. Aboriginal men were willing to take up arms in Britain’s war in Europe for a range of person and political reasons but military service clearly represented a chance to escape the increasingly restrictive situation at home, a rare employment opportunity and the possibility of gaining an equal footing with white men. In March 1914, Alfred junior married Leah Morgan at Moama. They had one son, Alfie Michael Davis. Sadly, Leah, his wife, died in March 1918 when their child was three years old. At the time of his enlistment Alfred was 29 years old and working as a labourer and living in Barmah, Victoria. It is not known why Alfred left Coranderrk; other siblings had been ejected under the new legislation. His brothers and sisters camped in the bush on the edge of Coranderrk and would visit their parents and friends at night in order to avoid the station manager.

MILITARY SERVICE On 10 May 1918 Alfred enlisted in the AIF in Echuca. The following month he embarked for the Western Front on board the Marathon. From late September to early November 1918 Alfred Davis trained with the 1st Training Battalion in Fovant, England. In early November 1918 Alfred became ill and was admitted to hospital with a fever, just days before the Armistice was called that signalled the end of the war. In September 1919 Alfred returned to Australia and on 4 November 1919 he was formally discharged from the AIF. Alfred received a 1914/15 Star Medal, British War Medal and Victory Medal commemorating his military service.

AFTER THE WAR After his discharge Alfred lived in Healesville and Rushworth. In 1920 he married Nellie Edna Jackson and they had many children. Alfred Davis Jnr died on 11 Aug 1941 at the Maroopna District Base Hospital. He is buried at Rushworth Cemetery. Alfred Davis’ name is listed on the WW1 Honour Roll at the Healesville RSL. Alfred jnr was survived by: Joseph Arnold, Samuel Oswald, Alfred Finnimore, Raymond Edward, Leonard George, Nellie Edna, Edward George, Bernard Jackson, Oswald Watson, Gloria May, Leonard Leslie, Vincent Jackson, Doris Claudetta, and Margaret June. Another four of his children had passed away before him.

SOURCES Alfred Davis service no. 55596 Military record NAA: B2455, DAVIS A http://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/NameSearch/Interface/ItemDetail.aspx?Barcode=1856984&amp;isAv=N 29th Report of the Board for the Protection of Aborigines, 1893, viewed on University of Melbourne library digitised collection https://digitised-collections.unimelb.edu.au/bitstream/handle/11343/21345/114159_Protection%20of%20Aborigines%20Report%2029%201893.pdf?sequence=29 Pride, Integrity and Honour: A memorial tribute to Indigenous men and women who served in Armed Forces and National Service Training, Shire of Yarra Ranges, 1997 Grimshaw, Patricia and Elizabeth Nelson and Sandra Smith, Letters from Aboriginal Women of Victoria, 1867–1926, Melbourne: History Department, University of Melbourne,2002 Phillips, Karen, ‘Diggers from Corranderrk’, Mt Evelyn Historic Group Inc Newsletter, Nov 2014 http://www.mt-evelyn.net/documents/ThingsPast/081%20Things%20Past%20Nov%202014.pdf

FAMILY ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Aunty Dot Peters

Vincent Peters

Faye Cole

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION about Victorian Aboriginal service in WW1 see link to VICTORIAN ABORIGINAL SERVICE IN WW1 HOME PAGE in the side bar of this webpage or copy this link http://discoveringanzacs.naa.gov.au/browse/groupstories/7396

This page contains information about and may contain photographs of person/s who are deceased.
The accuracy of the information provided on this page has been checked as thoroughly as possible by Aboriginal Victoria through the Victorian Aboriginal WW1 Research Project.
There may be additional information which this research project was not able to find or access at the time of publication.
To the best of our ability we have sought to find living relatives to assist with the research, but we do not claim to have contacted all family members who may have relevant information.
The information presented on this webpage may be of assistance to you but the State of Victoria and its employees do not guarantee that the publication is without flaw of any kind or is wholly appropriate for your particular purposes and therefore disclaims all liability for any error, loss or other consequence which may arise from you relying on any information published as part of the Victorian Aboriginal WW1 Research Project.

18.6.2 Pte. FRANKLIN Albert S/N97

1895 – 1951 Aged 56

Australian Remount Unit India.

Albert FRANKLIN Place of Birth, Yea, Victoria 23/12/1894. Next of Kin, (Father) John Franklin, c/o Yea Post Office, Yea, Victoria.
Address on enlistment, Yea, Victoria. Place of Enlistment, Melbourne, Victoria. S/N 97, 4/1/1918. Age 23 years. Australian Remount Unit, India. (From 16/11/1914, served for 3 years 2 months in the Permanent Army Service Corps, Remount Section; still serving at time of AIF enlistment. S/N375). Driver 4/1/1918 1st Remount Unit. Embarked, Melbourne, Mahai,16/1/1918. RTA, HT Durham, 15/5/1918. Discharged, 1/5/1919. Medals, 1914/15 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal. Calling: Bullock Driver.

(Found on the St. Luke’s Church Honour Board in Yea & the Shire of Yea Honour Roll).

Unit Colour Patch:

1^st Australian Remount Unit.

Studio portrait of 375 Driver (Dvr) Albert Franklin, an Indigenous serviceman from Yea, Victoria, who enlisted in the Permanent Military Forces of the Commonwealth, Remount Section, Australian Army Service Corps (AASC) on the 16^th November 1914, a month before his 20^th birthday. Dvr Franklin is wearing the 1903-12 pattern uniform with the distinctive blue and white puggaree of the AASC on his hat. Dvr Franklin enlisted in the 1st Remount Unit of the AIF on the 4^th January 1918 and allocated the 1^st Remount Unit service number 97. Dvr Franklin embarked from Melbourne on board the troopship Mahao on the 16^th January 1918 bound for Egypt. After a brief period of service overseas, Dvr Franklin was discharged from the AIF in Melbourne on the 15^th May 1918 and returned to the Permanent Military Forces of the Commonwealth (Remount Section, AASC) until he was discharged in Melbourne on the 1^st May 1919.

Group portrait of the ‘Roughriders’ of the Australian Army Service Corps (AASC), Remount Section. The three soldiers of the back row are sitting or standing on a horse drawn General Service wagon and on the ground in front of the soldiers of the front row, are five stock saddles, not Army pattern saddles, that were used for horse breaking. With the exception of the two soldiers at either end of the middle row, who are wearing the 1912 pattern shirt and breeches, all the other soldiers are wearing the 1903-12 pattern uniform with the distinctive blue and white puggaree of the AASC on their hats. The soldier third from the left in the middle row, is 375 Driver (Dvr) Albert Franklin, an Indigenous serviceman from Yea, Victoria, who enlisted in the Permanent Military Forces of the Commonwealth (Remount Section, AASC) on the 16^th November 1914, a month before his 20^th birthday. Dvr Franklin enlisted in the 1^st Remount Unit of the AIF on the 4^th January 1918 and allocated the 1^st Remount Unit service number 97. Dvr Franklin embarked from Melbourne on board the troopship Mahao on the 16^th January 1918 bound for Egypt. After a brief period of service overseas, Dvr Franklin was discharged from the AIF in Melbourne on the 15^th May 1918 and returned to the Permanent Military Forces of the Commonwealth (Remount Section, AASC) until he was discharged in Melbourne on the 1^st May 1919.

Albert Franklin, service no. 97

Posted by VICGOVAboriginalWW1, Wednesday, 25 May 2016

SUMMARY Albert Franklin was part of a large family from which two sons, Albert and Walter, and a grandson, Leslie, served in the First World War. Albert served in the Australian Permanent Military Force for three years before enlisting for the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) in 1918. He served overseas for four months before returning to Australia. He served in the Australian military for a total of four years. Late in life Albert protested the lack of recognition and reward he received for his military service by sending his medals back to the military.

EARLY LIFE Albert Franklin was one of 12 children born to John and Harriet Franklin. John Franklin was a Taungurung man, with connections to the Coranderrk Aboriginal Reserve. Harriet Tull’s parents were English. Harriet and John met and married when they were working as servants at the Doogalook Estate. In 1879, after a period working at the Kalatha Creek Estate, John and Harriet selected a piece of land outside Glenmore. Changes to the Land Act in 1878 had made it possible to select small pieces of Crown Land. It was rare for Aboriginal men to gain selectors leases and without the support of the Yea Shire Council, John may not have been successful. They struggled to make ends meet on the 250 acres farm but managed to make significant improvements on the block and built a comfortable home. In 1887 a farming expert from Melbourne reported on his visit to the Franklin’s farm in The Alexandra and Yea Standard. He remarked their industriousness and also the difficulty and injustice John had faced as an Aboriginal man: ‘It will scarcely be believed that this true son of the soil had great difficulty in obtaining his selection. The officials were against him, the red tape system was against him, and, had it not been for the energetic action of the shire council on his behalf, John Franklin would have had to live a Government pauper in the land which a little more than half a century ago was every foot of it owned by his race.’ When the economic depression of the 1890s hit, the family’s hard work and adaptability was not enough to ensure the future of the farm. Like many farmers they were forced to sell their selection. The family moved into the township of Yea where they fared better. Both Harriett and John were skilled and resourceful people. Harriet ran a successful tea shop and John continued to work as a labourer, grazier and drover. Albert was born in Yea in 1895. He and his siblings attended school and participated in sports. They learned to work with horses with their father. During the war, John and Harriet were among the many townsfolk who contributed to patriotic fundraising events. Despite this community involvement and their popular business, racism affected the Franklin family. Later generations of the family recalled experiencing discrimination growing up in Yea. Racism would shape Albert’s life in various ways.

ENLISTMENT AND WAR SERVICE Albert did not experience any barriers to enlisting in the AIF in January 1918. It was the fourth year of the war and regulations requiring Aboriginal enlistment had been changed in 1917. Moreover, Albert was already a soldier in the Permanent Military forces. He had served in the Permanent Forces for three years and two months. Albert was 23 years old and single at the time of his enlistment. His brother Walter already had gone overseas to the war, as had their nephew Leslie. As he had experience working with horses, and as a bullock driver, Albert was positioned as a driver in the Remount Section which trained and cared for horses for the Light Horse Brigade. Albert embarked for overseas service in Melbourne in January 1918. He was stationed in Egypt for several months before returning to Melbourne in May that year. He was discharged from the AIF in Melbourne on 15 May 1918 and discharged from the Permanent Military Forces on 1 May 1919. It is unclear why he returned from the war early. No disability is recorded in his military record. In May 1920, Albert was listed alongside his Walter and Leslie in the ‘Yea Roll of Honour’ published in the Yea Chronicle. Albert received the 1914/1915 Star, The British War Medal and the Victory medal.

AFTER THE WAR Upon returning from the war, Albert was informed that he was not eligible for assistance from the military. He had not sustained enough serious injury to apply for a pension and his appeal for sustenance relief whilst he was looking for work was also rejected. Albert appealed this decision but it was not overturned. The military claimed that he had not applied soon enough after discharge to be provided with financial relief. In 1929 Albert married Mabel Florence Hickey at St Josephs Church in Collingwood, Melbourne. They had two children Maureen and Albert John (known as Jack). The family lived for some time in Abbotsford and then later in Ringwood. In the post-war period, Melbourne offered Aboriginal people more employment and small communities grew in the inner suburbs. Albert found work as a griper with the railways but encountered considerable racism on the streets and in the workplace. On at least one occasion, he was violently assaulted and came home to his family bearing cuts and bruises. In this period, the Aborigines Act 1915 (Victoria) significantly curtailed the freedoms of Aboriginal people. Around this time Albert’s niece and nephew both became members of the stolen generation. The daily struggles with discrimination and the lack of recognition and reward he received for his four years military service must have weighed heavily upon Albert. These feelings eventually found expression in a significant gesture of protest when Albert sent back his medals to the military. This was not the end to the family’s struggle to gain access to repatriations. Albert died in 1951 in Ringwood and several years later his wife, Mabel applied for a war widow’s pension. The application process demanded that the bereaved spend much time going over their loved one’s papers. Mabel wrote to the repatriation committee to explain why she had not yet produced the required documentation. She had found the process upsetting. There was, she wrote, too much ‘red tape’ to get through, ‘After all I am only asking for a chance to live not the world, but it is what they promise the men when they want them to join up. Mabel also commented on her husband’s disappointment and disillusionment: ‘[Albert] used to always say he would never go again and wouldn’t like to see any of his family go after the treatment he got as a young man.’ Like so many widows of ex-servicemen, Mabel did not receive a military pension. Albert had revealed no details of his war experience to his family. Albert’s daughter Maureen Sax was a teenager when her father died, and many years later she wrote to the military in an attempt to fill in the silence that surrounded his First World War service. All the family knew was that he had contracted the ‘black plague’ (tuberculosis). He bore a scar on his throat from the treatment at that time which involved cutting the skin. Maureen, however, took great pride in her father’s war service, and she ‘never missed an Anzac day service’ and she ‘brought [her] children up likewise’.

FAMILY ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Annette Sax

Loraine Padgham

SOURCES Birth certificate Event registration number 8347 Albert Franklin Service no 97 Military record NAA: B2455, FRANKLIN A http://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/NameSearch/Interface/ItemDetail.aspx?Barcode=4019756 Albert Franklin Service no 97 Repatriation record NAA: B73, M87319 http://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/NameSearch/Interface/ItemDetail.aspx?Barcode=13621249 Lecture on the Franklin family history focusing on the life of John Franklin “Talk to the gathering of the Franklin Families at Yae on Labor Day weekend March 9-11 2013” by Meg Dillon, March 9 2013 http://taungurung.net/Franklin%20Reunion%20Lecture%202013.pdf ‘Yea Roll of Honour’ published in the Yea Chronicle, May 13 1920 http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/imageservice/nla.news-page5943464/print AWM photo: https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/P01696.002/

a. This page contains information about and may contain photographs of person/s who are deceased.

b. The accuracy of the information provided on this page has been checked as thoroughly as possible by Aboriginal Victoria through the Victorian Aboriginal WW1 Research Project.

c. There may be additional information which this research project was not able to find or access at the time of publication.

d. To the best of our ability we have sought to find living relatives to assist with the research, but we do not claim to have contacted all family members who may have relevant information.

e. The information presented on this webpage may be of assistance to you but the State of Victoria and its employees do not guarantee that the publication is without flaw of any kind or is wholly appropriate for your particular purposes and therefore disclaims all liability for any error, loss or other consequence which may arise from you relying on any information published as part of the Victorian Aboriginal WW1 Research Project.

18.6.3. Pte. FRANKLIN Leslie. S/N878.

1896 – 1956 Aged 60

24th Battalion & 1st Division Signal Company

Leslie FRANKLIN. Place of Birth, Yea, Victoria. Next of Kin, Grandparent, John Franklin, Yea, Victoria. Nominated Wife, Miss L McKay, Edinburgh, Scotland, 28/11/1919

Address on enlistment, Yea, Victoria. Enlisted, 24/3/1915, Aged 18 years 9 months. Private Depot 29/3/1915 – 24/4/1915. Private D Coy. 24th Battalion, 28/4/1915 – 16/4/1916. Embarked, HMAT Euripidies 10/5/1915. Sapper 1 Div. Signal Corp., 16/3/1916. Driver 1 Div. Signal Corp., France 17/4/1916 – 24/6/1919. Sick, Hospital, Injured in the field 18/10/1916 – 5/12/1916. Hospital Sick, 17/12/1916 – 6/2/17. Re-joined unit 24/3/1917. Promoted to Corporal 25/6/1919 – 30/8/1019. Revert to Driver 31/8/1919. Hospital with Tonsillitis, 2/6/19.RTA, HMAT Marathon, 7/11/1919 – 26/12/1919. Discharged, 11/3/1920. Medals, British War Medal, Victory Medal. Calling: Labourer.

Found on the Badgers Creek and Healesville District Honour Boards and the St. Luke’s Church Honour Board in Yea & the Shire of Yea Honour Roll. Found on Diamond Creek School and St, John’s Church Honour Boards.

Unit Colour Patch:

1^st Division Signal Company.

ww1-coranderrk-soldiers1-13-les-franklin

Leslie Franklin in 1915, Courtesy of Loraine Padgham, available from the Australian War Memorial

ww1-coranderrk-soldiers1-14-les-and-unknown
Leslie Franklin and unknown (possibly a relative) Courtesy of Loraine Padgham

ww1-coranderrk-soldiers1-15-les-and-wife
(Right) Leslie Franklin and wife Maggie Mckay, Courtesy of Loraine Padgham

Infantry Brigades.
Each infantry division contained three infantry brigades. All infantry brigades except the 4th & 8th Infantry Brigades were formed as part of divisions and they were assigned to the 4th & 5th Divisions on their formation in 1916. Thereafter all infantry brigades were assigned to divisions. Infantry brigade commanders were graded full Colonels in 1914 but in September 1915 they were upgraded to Brigadier Generals in line with the British Army. Their seniority was backdated to their date of assumption of brigade command, posthumously in the case of MacLaurin. In 1914 each brigade consisted of four infantry battalions and a small headquarters. In March 1916 a machine gun company was added, formed from the battalion machine gun sections. These were reassigned to the divisional machine gun battalions in March 1918 but in practice each brigade still went into battle with an attached machine gun company or two. Light Trench mortar batteries were added when brigades arrived on the Western Front in April through July 1916. In 1918, the number of infantry battalions was reduced from four per brigade to three, except in the case of the original four brigades formed in 1914.

24th Infantry Battalion (Victoria) (6th Infantry Brigade).
The 24th Battalion was raised in a hurry. The original intent was to raise the fourth battalion of the 6th Brigade from the “outer states”, but a surplus of recruits at Broadmeadows Camp in Victoria lead to a decision being made to raise it there. The battalion was formed during the first week of May 1915, and sailed from Melbourne at the end of that week. Training shortfalls were made up in Egypt in July and August, and on the 4th September 1915, the Battalion went ashore at Gallipoli. It spent the next 16 weeks sharing duty in the Lone Pine trenches with the 23rd Battalion. The fighting at Lone Pine was so dangerous and exhausting that battalions rotated every day. While the bulk of the battalion was at Gallipoli, a small party of 52 trained as packhorse handlers and served with the British force in Salonika.
The Battalion was reunited in Egypt in early 1916 and preceded to France in March. It took part in its first major offensive around Pozières and Mouquet Farm in July and August 1917. The Battalion got little rest during the bleak winter of 1916-17 alternating between the fronts and labouring tasks. When patrolling no-man’s land the men of the 24th adopted a unique form of snow camouflage – large white nighties bought in Amiens. In May 1917 the battalion participated in the successful, but costly, second battle of Bullecourt. It was involved for only a single day – 3rd May – but suffered almost 80 per cent casualties. The A.I.F.’s focus for the rest of the year was the Ypres sector in Belgium, and the 24th’s major engagement there was the seizure of Broodseinde Ridge. Like many A.I.F battalions, the 24th was very weak at the beginning of 1918, but still played its part in turning back the German offensive in April. When the Allies took to the offensive, the 24th fulfilled supporting roles during the battles of Hamel and Amiens. At Mont St Quentin, however, it played a major role by recapturing the main German strong point atop the summit on the 1st September. A diorama at the Australian War Memorial depicts this attack. The battalion’s last battles of the war were at Beaurevoir on the 3rd October and Montbrehain on the 5th October, 1918. It left the front line for the last time on the 6th October, 1918 and disbanded in May 1919.
Casualties:
* 909 killed, 2494 wounded (including gassed).
Commanding Officers:
* Watson, William Walter Russell
* James, William Edward
Decorations:
* 1 VC.
* 1 CB.
* 6 DSO, 1 bar.
* 1 OBE.
* 1 MBE.
* 29 MC, 3 bars.
* 23 DCM, 1 bar.
* 127 MM, 12 bars.
* 7 MSM.
* 31 MID.
* 7 foreign awards.

Formed in Victoria in February 1915.
19th Reinforcements departed Melbourne Ascanius 11th May 1917.
Battle Honours: Suvla, Gallipoli 1915, Egypt 1915-16, Somme 1916-18, Pozieres, Bapaume 1917, Bullecourt, Ypres 1917, Menin Road, Polygon Wood, Broodeseinde, Poelcappelle, Passchendaele, Ancre 1918, Hamel, Amiens, Albert 1918, Mont St Quentin, Hindenburg Line, Beaurevoir, France and Flanders 1916-18.
Area of operations: Egypt, Gallipoli & Western Front.

18.6.4 FRANKLIN Walter Lane (L/Cpl). S/N3347.

1890 – 1960 Aged 70

29th & 32nd Battalions

Walter Lane FRANKLIN Place of Birth, Yea, Victoria. Next of Kin, Wife Mrs Lilian Elizabeth Franklin, c/o Healesville Post Office, Healesville, Victoria. Married 10/4/1916.
Address on enlistment, c/o Healesville Post Office, Healesville, Victoria. Place of Enlistment, Melbourne, Victoria. 17/7/1915 Aged 25yrs 3mths. S/N3347. Private 62 Coy S7/1915 – 2/9/1915. HQ Staff 2/9/1915 – 16/5/16 7th Reinfts 29 Battn 17/5//1916. Embarked, 29th Battalion, HMAT Afric 12/11/1916 – 4/7/16. Hospital Sick (sprained ankle carrying ammunition) 30/1/1917. Hospital sick, 25/2/1917 – 6/3/1917. Promoted to Lance Corporal, 4/10/17. 29th Battn. Detention 90 days 11/4/1918.
O/S to France, 7/5/1918. Promoted to Lance/Corporal, 32nd Battalion, 12/10/1918. Returned to England 16/3/1919. Sick Hospital (Bronchitis) 6/4/1919 – 14/4/1919. RTA Devanha 8/5/1919 – 23/6/1919. Discharged, 7/8/1919. Medals, British War Medal, Victory Medal. (Listed as Walter Lance Franklin 19/5/1921) Calling: Labourer.

Unit Colour Patch:

32^nd Infantry Battalion.

Walter Lance Franklin, Courtesy of Loraine Padgham available from the Australian War Memorial.

Walter Lance Franklin

Posted by VICGOVAboriginalWW1, Tuesday, 17 May 2016

SUMMARY Walter Lance Franklin from Yea Victoria enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in July 1915. His brother Albert and his nephew Leslie also served during the war. Walter was one of the few Aboriginal soldiers in World War One to have been promoted above the rank of Private; he became a Lance Corporal. The military tradition continued in his family and his son Leslie served in World War Two.

EARLY LIFE Walter Lance Franklin’s parents were John and Harriet Franklin. John Franklin was a Taungurung man, who was orphaned as a child and raised by a settler in the Flowerdale area. John had connections with Aboriginal people living at the Coranderrk Aboriginal reserve near Healesville. Harriet (nee Tull) was the daughter of English parents. When they married in 1874, Harriet and John were both working as servants at the Doogalook Estate. In 1879, after a period working at the Kalatha Creek Estate, John and Harriet selected a piece 250- acre piece of land outside Glenmore. Changes to the Land Act in 1878 had made it possible to select small pieces of Crown Land. It was rare for Aboriginal men to gain selectors leases and without the support of the Yea Shire Council John may not have been successful. Despite considerable obstacles John and Harriet managed to make significant improvements on the block and built a comfortable home. In 1887 a farming expert from Melbourne reported on his visit to the Franklin’s farm in The Alexandra and Yea Standard. He remarked their industriousness and also the difficulty and injustice John had faced as an Aboriginal man: ‘It will scarcely be believed that this true son of the soil had great difficulty in obtaining his selection. The officials were against him, the red tape system was against him, and, had it not been for the energetic action of the shire council on his behalf, John Franklin would have had to live a Government pauper in the land which a little more than half a century ago was every foot of it owned by his race.’ Walter Lance Franklin was born in 1890. This was the year that Australia was plunged into a great economic depression and the Franklin family like so many others struggled to keep their farm. John took on numerous other forms of work outside of the farm, but despite his hard work and adaptability, he was forced to sell the farm. The family moved into the township of Yea where they fared better. Harriet ran a successful tea shop and John continued to work as a labourer, grazier and drover. The Franklin children grew up in town, attended school and participated in local sporting events. During the war, John and Harriet were among the many townsfolk who contributed to patriotic fundraising events. Despite this significant community involvement, members of the Franklin family recall experiencing racism when growing up in the predominantly white country town.

ENLISTMENT AND WAR SERVICE In July 1915, Walter Franklin enlisted in Melbourne as a single man who worked as a laborer. He had a sweetheart however, and in April 1916, towards the end of his military training he returned to his local area to marry Lilian Elizabeth Patterson from the Coranderrk reserve. On the eve of his departure overseas the Coranderrk community held a farewell party for Walter. The Healesville and Yarra Glen Guardian reported: ‘A farewell was given by the natives at Coranderrk to Walter Franklin, who has manfully volunteered for active service. The natives, who had decorated the schoolroom, had a pleasant social evening followed by supper at the conclusion of which the superintendent gave a suitable address and presented the young recruit with a pocket testament. The [….] hymn, ” God be with you till we meet again,” was joined in by all present and sung most whole-heartedly. Walter was also presented with a silver-mounted pipe a gift of one of the natives.’ Walter embarked for England on 4 July 1916 as part of the 29th Battalion. He disembarked in Devonport on 22 August 1916 and proceeded to France. After nearly 12 months active service in France, Walter Franklin was promoted to Lance Corporal. He served with the 29th Battalion on the Western Front until the unit disbanded in October 1918, and then served with the 32nd Battalion until the end of the war. Walter disembarked in Melbourne in June 1919, and returned to his wife, Lilian at Healesville. During the war, Walter’s name was regularly included in the local newspaper’s ‘Yea Honor Roll’, but surprisingly his name did not appear on the physical Honour Roll when it was unveiled in 1920. This discrepancy is yet to be explained. He received the British War Medal, Star Medal and Victory Medal for his service.

AFTER THE WAR After the war Walter and Lilian had two children, Doris and Leslie Alexander. Some years later when Walter and Lilian separated, Doris and Leslie were removed from their parents and placed in institutions. At this time the Victorian Government had the power to decide where Aboriginal children should live, and it was not uncommon for children to be removed from their parents. The children of Aboriginal ex-servicemen were not provided any protection from such treatment. Members of Victorian Aboriginal communities still feel keenly the great injustices which Aboriginal returned servicemen and their families suffered. They had been accepted as Australians and British subjects in the military but then stripped of their rights on their return from the war. After the family’s separation Walter moved to Richmond in inner Melbourne where a small Aboriginal community was growing. These must have been hard years for Walter as he was also suffering from a heart condition which impacted on his ability to work. He worked sporadically for some years until he became too unwell. He was not eligible for a war pension as the doctors at the repatriation hospital assessed that the condition was not due to his war service. Despite the lack of reward Walter received for his service, his son Leslie Alexander went on to serve in the Second Australian Imperial Force during the Second World War. Walter’s life, however, was not without happiness. He remained in touch with his family and Sharmaine Meek, Leslie Franklin’s eldest daughter, spent many happy holidays with her beloved ‘pappy’ in Richmond. She remembers him as a gentle, loving and kind man. Particularly memorable were the nights she spent watching him ballroom dancing at the Richmond Town Hall. Walter was elegantly dressed in coat tails and his partner glittered in a yellow dress. A music lover, Walter had large black pianola in his front room. Walter was also a skilled carpenter who made children’s rocking horses. Walter died of a heart attack at the age of 70 and was buried in the Springvale cemetery.

FAMILY ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Sharmaine Meek

Loraine Padgham

SOURCES Walter L Franklin Service No 3347 Military record NAA: B2455, FRANKLIN W L Walter L Franklin Service No 3347 Repatriation record NAA: B73, M67765 NAA: B73, H67765 http://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/NameSearch/Interface/ItemDetail.aspx?Barcode=13621250 OUR SOLDIERS. (1915, July 24). (Vic. : 1900 – 1942), p. 3. Retrieved September 28, 2015, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article60182484) Walter and Lilian marriage Australian War Memorial Biography for Walter Franklin https://www.awm.gov.au/people/P10553606/ Lecture at the Franklin families reunion by Meg Dillion in Yea, 2013 http://taungurung.net/2013/03/johnn_franklin_the_facts_so_fa.html 

a. This page contains information about and may contain photographs of person/s who are deceased.

b. The accuracy of the information provided on this page has been checked as thoroughly as possible by Aboriginal Victoria through the Victorian Aboriginal WW1 Research Project.

c. There may be additional information which this research project was not able to find or access at the time of publication.

d. To the best of our ability we have sought to find living relatives to assist with the research, but we do not claim to have contacted all family members who may have relevant information.

29th Infantry Battalion (Victoria) (8th Infantry Brigade).
The 29th Battalion was raised as part of the 8th Brigade at Broadmeadows Camp in Victoria on the 10th August, 1915. Having enlisted as part of the recruitment drive that followed the landing at Gallipoli, and having seen the casualty lists, these were men who had offered themselves in full knowledge of their potential fate.
The 8th Brigade joined the newly raised 5th Australian Division in Egypt and proceeded to France, destined for the Western Front, in June 1916. The 29th Battalion fought its first major battle at Fromelles on the 19th July, 1916. The nature of this battle was summed up by one 29th battalion soldier: “the novelty of being a soldier wore off in about five seconds; it was like a bloody butcher’s shop.” Although it still spent periods in the front line, the 29th played no major offensive role for the rest of the year. In early 1917, the German Army withdrew to the Hindenburg Line, allowing the British front to be advanced. The Germans, however, made selected stands to delay this advance and the 29th Battalion was involved in defeating a counter-attack at Beaumetz on the 23rd March, 1917. The battalion subsequently missed the heavy fighting to breach the Hindenburg Line during the second battle of Bullecourt as the 8th Brigade was deployed to protect the Division’s flank. The only large battle in 1917 in which the 29th Battalion played a major role was Polygon Wood, fought in the Ypres sector in Belgium on the 26th September, 1917. Unlike some A.I.F battalions, the 29th had a relatively quiet time during the German Spring Offensive of 1918 as the 5th Division was in reserve for a lot of the time. When the Allies took to the offensive again, the 29th fought in a minor attack at Morlancourt on the 29th July, and then in August and September took part in the great advance that followed the battle of Amiens. The 29th fought its last major action in September 1918, when the 5th & 3rd Australian Divisions, and two American divisions attacked the Hindenburg Line across the top of the 6-kilometre-long St Quentin Canal tunnel; the canal was a major obstacle in the German defensive scheme. The offensive of 1918, however, had strained the A.I.F almost to breaking point. On the 12th October 1918, the 29th Battalion was disbanded to provide reinforcements for other 8th Brigade units.
Casualties:
* 485 killed, 1399 wounded.
Commanding Officers:
* Bennett, Alfred Wilton
* Purser, Muir
* McArthur, John
Decorations:
* 3 DSO, 1 bar.
* 1 MBE.
* 20 MC.
* 17 DCM.
* 94 MM, 3 bars.
* 3 MSM.
* 17 MID.
* 5 foreign awards.

Formed in Victoria in June 1915.
11th Reinforcements departed Sydney Afric 3rd November 1916.
(Disbanded, 12th October, 1918).
Battle Honours: Egypt 1915-16, Somme 1916-18, Bapaume 1917, Bullecourt, Ypres 1917, Menin Road, Polygon Wood, Poelcappelle, Passchendaele, Ancre 1918, Amiens, Albert 1918, Mont St Quentin, Hindenburg Line, St Quentin Canal, France and Flanders 1916-18
Area of operations: Egypt & Western Front.

32nd Infantry Battalion (South Australia and Western Australia)
(8th Infantry Brigade).
The 32nd Battalion was raised as part of the 8th Brigade at Mitcham, on the outskirts of Adelaide, on the 9th August, 1915. Only two companies were raised from South Australian enlistees – another two were formed in Western Australia and joined the battalion at the end of September. The battalion sailed from Adelaide on the 18th November, 1915. The 8th Brigade joined the newly raised 5th Australian Division in Egypt, and proceeded to France, destined for the Western Front, in June 1916. The 32nd Battalion fought its first major battle at Fromelles on the 19th July 1916, having only entered the front-line trenches 3 days previously. The attack was a disastrous introduction to battle for the 32nd – it suffered 718 casualties, almost 75 per cent of the battalion’s total strength, but closer to 90 per cent of its actual fighting strength. Although it still spent periods in the front line, the 32nd played no major offensive role for the rest of the year. In early 1917, the German Army withdrew to the Hindenburg Line allowing the British front to be advanced and the 32nd Battalion participated in the follow-up operations. The battalion subsequently missed the heavy fighting to breach the Hindenburg Line during the second battle of Bullecourt as the 8th Brigade was deployed to protect the division’s flank. The only large battle in 1917 in which the 32nd Battalion played a major role was Polygon Wood, fought in the Ypres sector in Belgium on the 26th September, 1917. Unlike some A.I.F battalions, the 32nd had a relatively quiet time during the German Spring Offensive of 1918 as the 5th Division was largely kept in reserve. The Allies launched their own offensive with the battle of Amiens on the 8th August 1917, in which the 32nd Battalion participated. It was subsequently involved in the operations that continued to press the retreating Germans through August and into September. The 32nd fought its last major action of the war between the 29th September and the 1st October when the 5th & 3rd Australian Divisions and two American divisions attacked the Hindenburg Line across the top of the 6-kilometre-long St Quentin Canal tunnel; the canal was a major obstacle in the German defensive scheme. The 32nd was resting and retraining out of the line when the war ended on the 11th November, 1918. On the 8th March 1919, after the gradual repatriation of men to Australia, the remnants of the 32nd Battalion were merged with the 30th Battalion.
Casualties:
* 613 killed, 1466 wounded.
Commanding Officers:
* Coghill, Donald Murray Robertson
* Beardsmore, Robert Henry
* Davies, Charles Stewart
* McArthur, John
Decorations:
* 1 VC.
* 1 DSO.
* 1 MBE.
* 3 OBE.
* 27 MC and 2 bars.
* 16 DCM.
* 66 MM and 4 bars.
* 7 MSM.
* 26 MID.
* 10 foreign awards.

Formed in Australia in June 1915.
Battle Honours: Egypt 1915-16, Somme 1916-18, Bapaume 1917, Bullecourt, Ypres 1917, Menin Road, Polygon Wood, Poelcappelle, Passchendaele, Ancre 1918, Amiens, Albert 1918, Mont St Quentin, Hindenburg Line, St Quentin Canal, France and Flanders 1916-18
Area of operations: Egypt, Western Front.

18.6.5 Pte HARRIS James Gordon

S/N 3533

1899 – 1918 Aged 29

8/3rd Pioneers Reinfts and 59th Battalion. KIA 4/7/1918

*James Gordon HARRIS Place of Birth, Healesville, Victoria. Next of Kin (Mother) Mrs Zipporah (Zippie) Harris, Badgers Creek, Healesville, Victoria.
Place of Enlistment, Warragul, Victoria. 14/11/1916. S/N 3533 28 years 2 months. Private, Res. Coy. 37th Seymour 23/11/1916. Pte. A. Coy. 24/11/1916 – 22/11/1917. 9/2nd Pioneers 22/1/1917 – 9/3/1917. Base Hospital 9/3/1917 – 14/9/1917. Embarked HMAT A7 Nestor 21/11/17 – 1/2/1918. Transferred to 59th Battalion 5/2/1918. To France 17/4/1918. KIA 4/7/1918. Place of Death: Killed In Action at the Battle of Le Hamel, France. Calling: Driver.

Found on the Badgers Creek & Healesville District Honour Boards, the Healesville State Schools Honour Board and the Healesville Presbyterian Church Honour Board.

Unit Colour Patch:

59^th Infantry Battalion.

Commemoration details Australian National Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux, France
Villers-Bretonneux is a village about 15 km east of Amiens. The Memorial stands on the high ground (‘Hill 104’) behind the Villers-Bretonneux Military Cemetery, Fouilloy, which is about 2 km north of Villers-Bretonneux on the east side of the road to Fouilloy.
The Australian National Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux is approached through the Military Cemetery, at the end of which is an open grass lawn which leads into a three-sided court. The two pavilions on the left and right are linked by the north and south walls to the back (east) wall, from which rises the focal point of the Memorial, a 105 foot tall tower, of fine ashlar. A staircase leads to an observation platform, 64 feet above the ground, from which further staircases lead to an observation room. This room contains a circular stone tablet with bronze pointers indicating the Somme villages whose names have become synonymous with battles of the Great War; other battle fields in France and Belgium in which Australians fought; and far beyond, Gallipoli and Canberra.
On the three walls, which are faced with Portland stone, are the names of 10,885 Australians who were killed in France and who have no known grave. The ‘blocking course’ above them bears the names of the Australian Battle Honours.
After the war an appeal in Australia raised £22,700, of which £12,500 came from Victorian school children, with the request that the majority of the funds be used to build a new school in Villers-Bretonneux. The boys’ school opened in May 1927, and contains an inscription stating that the school was the gift of Victorian schoolchildren, twelve hundred of whose fathers are buried in the Villers-Bretonneux cemetery, with the names of many more recorded on the Memorial. Villers-Bretonneux is now twinned with Robinvale, Victoria, which has in its main square a memorial to the links between the two towns. Panel number, Roll of Honour,
Australian War Memorial 167

59th Infantry Battalion (Victoria) (15th Infantry Brigade).
The 59th Battalion was raised in Egypt on the 21st February 1916, as part of the expansion of the A.I.F. Approximately half of its recruits came from the veteran
7th Battalion, and the other half were fresh reinforcements from Australia. Reflecting the composition of the 7th, the 59th was predominantly composed of men from rural Victoria. The battalion became part of the 15th Brigade of the 5th Australian Division. On the 19th July 1916, the 59th became embroiled in its first major battle on the Western Front, less than a month after it arrived in France. The battle of Fromelles was a disaster for the 59th. Attacking in the first wave, the 59th suffered heavy casualties at the hands of German machine-gunners, and its advance faltered far short of its objective. Despite grievous losses, the units of the 5th Division manned the front line around Fromelles for a further two months. The 59th spent the winter of 1916-17 rotating in and out of the front line. In March 1917 the battalion participated in the advance that followed the German retreat to the Hindenburg Line, but was spared having to assault it. It did, however, defend gains made during the second battle of Bullecourt. Later in the year, the A.I.F’s focus of operations switched to the Ypres sector in Belgium. The 59th’s major battle there was at Polygon Wood on the 26th September, 1917.
With the collapse of Russia in October 1917, a major German offensive on the Western Front was expected in early 1918. This came in late March and the 5th Division moved to defend the sector around Corbie. During this defence, the 59th Battalion participated in the now legendary counter-attack at Villers-Bretonneux on the 25th April, 1918. When the Allies launched their own offensive around Amiens on the 8th August 1918, the 59th Battalion was amongst the units in action, although its role in the subsequent advance was limited. The battalion fought around Peronne in the first days of September and entered its last battle of the war on the 29th September, 1918. This operation was mounted by the 5th & 3rd Australian Divisions, in co-operation with American forces, to break through the formidable German defences along the St Quentin Canal. The battalion withdrew to rest on the 2nd October 1918, and was still doing so when the war ended. The 59th Battalion disbanded on the 24th March, 1919.
Casualties:
* 795 killed, 1619 wounded.
Commanding Officers:
* Harris, Ernest Albert
* Layh, Herbert Thomas Christopher
* Mason, Charles Conway
* Scanlan, John Joseph
Decorations:
* 2 DSO, 1 bar.
* 17 MC.
* 14 DCM, 1 bar.
* 51 MM, 4 bars.
* 8 MSM.
* 24 MID.
* 8 foreign awards.
Formed in Egypt on the 24th February 1916, from the 7th Infantry Battalion.
Battle Honours: Egypt 1916, Somme 1916-18, Bullecourt, Ypres 1917, Menin Road, Polygon Wood, Passchendaele, Avre, Villers-Bretonneux, Amiens, Albert 1918, Mont St Quentin, Hindenburg Line, St Quentin Canal, France and Flanders 1916-18
Area of operations: Egypt, Western Front.

Villers-Bretonneux Military Cemetery, Australian National Memorial and the Sir John Monash Centre.

Villers-Bretonneux became famous in 1918, when the German advance on Amiens ended in the capture of the village by their tanks and infantry on 23 April. On the following day, the 4th and 5th Australian Divisions, with units of the 8th and 18th Divisions, recaptured the whole of the village and on 8 August 1918, the 2nd and 5th Australian Divisions advanced from its eastern outskirts in the Battle of Amiens.

The memorial is the Australian National Memorial erected to commemorate all Australian soldiers who fought in France and Belgium during the First World War, to their dead, and especially to name those of the dead whose graves are not known.

The Australian servicemen named on this memorial died on the battlefields of the Somme 1916-18, Pozieres, Bapaume 1917, Arras 1917, Bullecourt, Messines 1917, Ypres 1917, Menin Road, Polygon Wood, Broodseinde, Poelcappelle, Passchendaele, Avre, Ancre 1918, Villers-Bretonneux, Lys, Hazebrouck, Hamel, Marne 1918, Amiens, Albert 1918, Albert 1918 (Chuignes), Mont-St. Quentin, Hindenburg Line, Epehy, St. Quentin Canal and Beaurevoir.

Both the cemetery and memorial were designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens. The memorial was unveiled by King George VI on 22 July 1938. Of the 10,982 names displayed at the unveiling of the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial the burial places of many have since been identified and this continues to this day. As a result, there are currently 10,729 Australian servicemen officially commemorated by this memorial.

Sir John Monash Centre

18.6.6 Pte. MULLETT David S/N500

1867 – 1938 Aged 71

1st Australian Remount Unit, No2 Squadron

David MULLETT. Place of Birth, Lake Condah Victoria. NOK, Wife, Mrs Maude Emily Mullett, c/o Healesville Post Office, Healesville, Victoria.

Address on enlistment, c/o Healesville Post Office, Healesville, Victoria. Enlisted, 6/11/1915 Age 43 years 8 months. Private 1st Australian Remount Unit, 6/11/1915, Embarked, HMAT A67 Orsova, 12/11/1915. On service Palestine and Egypt. Re-joined Unit Overseas 11/9/1916. Going overseas with horses 23/8/1916. Alexandria to Salonika and return 26/8/1916 – 3/9/1916. To Heliopolis 16/9/1916. To Jaffa and return 14/12/1918 – 28/12/1918. RTA, Embarked Suez, Egypt per HT City of Poona 7/4/1919. Disembarked Melbourne 14/5/1919. Discharged,7/7/1919. Medals, 1914/15 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal. Calling: Labourer.

Found on the St Mary’s Mission Church Honor Board, Lake Condah, Badgers Creek and Healesville District Honour Boards.

Unit Colour Patch:

1^st Australian Remount Unit.

David Mullett (seated) courtesy of Charmaine Singleton

David Mullett, Service No. 500

Posted by VICGOVAboriginalWW1, Tuesday, 24 May 2016

SUMMARY David Mullett was one of many Gunditjmara men from the Victorian Western District who volunteered to fight in the First World War. David was an intelligent and resourceful man, who prior to enlisting had attempted to carve out a career for himself as a school teacher and then a farm manager. The discrimination and racism he faced when pursuing a teaching career forced David to seek other work. The war presented an opportunity for gainful employment and wages equal to that of a white man. David served overseas for four years in the 1st Remount Unit of the Light Horse Brigade. Like other Aboriginal men serving our country, David returned from the war to find that this service did not protect his family from the very significant impacts of the discriminatory Aborigines Act 1915 (Vic) which gave the government wide reaching and invasive powers over the lives of Aboriginal people.

EARLY LIFE David Mullet was born in 1872 at Lake Condah Aboriginal Mission to James and Ellen Mullett (nee Dutton). As a boy David excelled at the Lake Condah mission school and for a period he taught at the school. Family members recollect that he later attended the Napier St Teachers’ College in Melbourne and passed his teaching exam with flying colours. He then applied for a job at a school in the Melbourne suburbs but was rejected on the grounds that he was Aboriginal. This was a real blow to David and an end to his teaching aspirations. Only one other Victorian Aboriginal man, Joseph Wandin, is known to have worked as a teacher in the state school system in this period. In 1904 David Mullett married Emily Maud Stephens, known as Maud, the eldest daughter of Emily Milton Stephens (nee Wood) and Harry Stephens. Two of Maud’s brothers also enlisted in the AIF Gilbert Stephen and Alfred Stephen. David and Maud sought an independent life outside of Aboriginal reserves. In 1914, they were caretakers of a farm near Tarrawarra in the Yarra Valley. David was ‘in charge of about 1500 acres of land, stocked with sheep and cattle’. The farm was not far from the Coranderrk Aboriginal Reserve which was home to many relatives and friends. David was saving money to buy a house but his luck changed when he lost his job at Tarrawarra. The family moved to Melbourne and were living in a rented house in Carlton when David enlisted in November 1915.

ENLISTMENT AND WAR SERVICE David enlisted at the Maribyrnong military camp in Melbourne. Maribyrnong was the depot of the Victorian Remount Unit of the Light Horse Brigade, and became known as Remount Hill. David was experienced with horses and the Remount Unit accepted men up to 50 years of age. At the age of 43, David was among the older AIF volunteers and and his wife had four children under the age of 15. A week after enlisting David embarked the ‘Orsova’ in Melbourne and landed several months later in Alexandria, Egypt. For the next four years he was stationed at the remount depot at Jaffa Moascar, Egypt. During this time he developed a heart condition and was judged unfit for continued service. In May 1919, David disembarked in Melbourne and was discharged from the military on 7 July 1919. He was 47 or 48 years old.

AFTER THE WAR Upon returning to Melbourne, David found out that his children had been removed from the care of his wife, Maud, and ‘boarded out’. It is unclear if he knew of these events while serving in the war. The removal of Aboriginal children in Victoria was widespread at this time, and men’s war-time absence made families more vulnerable to official intervention. Whilst he was away, the Board for the Protection of Aborigines (the Board) had also cancelled Maud’s military allotment (payment). On 22 May 1919, Maud wrote to the Secretary of the Board to contest this decision. In her letter, she pointed out her family’s history of independence from the government: ‘David never Enlisted from the mission we are out earning our own living like white people’ The Board would not be swayed on its decision to deny Maud’s allotment of military pay and as a result she suffered great financial hardship. Once reunited, David and Maud moved into a house in the Victorian Western District with some assistance from the Board and the Defence Department. Although they had set up a home, their children remained in institutions and as domestic servants in the homes of white people. During the world-wide economic depression of the 1930s David and Maud requested permission to move onto the Lake Tyers Aboriginal Mission where some of their children and grandchildren lived. Reliant upon intermittent seasonal rural work, the depression deeply affected Aboriginal families. Despite this hardship, the Board denied the family’s request as, according to Victorian legislation, ‘half castes’ were ineligible for government support. David moved around a lot over these years, as did many Aboriginal people looking for work, but he played an important role in the lives of his grandchildren. He passed on his traditional knowledge and skills to the young Albert Mullett, who would grow up to be an important educator and activist for Aboriginal cultural heritage. In March 1938 David Mullett was living in the New South Wales South Coast town of Bega when he wrote to the military about several matters. He had lost his discharge certificate and wanted a duplicate in order to apply for an old-age pension, as he was only receiving £1/1/0 per fortnight (approximately $2.50) as a military pension. David also wished to attend the Anzac Day march in Sydney. He wanted to ‘wear the old uniform once more’ and asked ‘if there is any chance of being equipped with one (‘an old one would do’). The officer in charge at the base records replied that he could not assist him with application for a pension, or provide him with a uniform. David died a few months later in Bega and is buried in the Bega cemetery. His name appears on the Lake Condah Honour Roll as well as the Honor Roll at the Healesville Town Hall.

FAMILY ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Margaret Donnelly

Doris Paton

Charmaine Singleton

SOURCES Grimshaw, Patricia, Elizabeth Nelson and Sandra Smith Letters from Aboriginal Women of Victoria, 1867–1926, Melbourne: History Department, University of Melbourne 2002, https://minerva-access.unimelb.edu.au/bitstream/handle/11343/42073/letters_complete_b5.pdf?sequence=1 Letter from David Mullett to Captain Page NAA B313 Item 117 David Mullett Military Record&amp;amp;amp;nbsp;NAA: B2455, MULLETT DAVID http://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/NameSearch/Interface/ItemDetail.aspx?Barcode=4817821 Oral interview, ‘Living as Koori in Victoria’ interview with Albert Mullet by Wayne Atkinson, The Koori Oral History Program ,State Library of Victoria,1989 http://www3.slv.vic.gov.au/latrobejournal/issue/latrobe-43/t1-g-t2.html Exploring Military History: http://exploringmilitaryhistory.blogspot.com.au/2015/02/remount-units-world-war-i.html?m=1

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT VICTORIAN ABORIGINAL MEN IN WORLD WAR ONE VISIT THE VICTORIAN ABORIGINAL WW1 RESEARCH PROJECT HOMEPAGE, SEE LINK ON SIDE BAR OF THIS PAGE.

a. This page contains information about and may contain photographs of person/s who are deceased.

b. The accuracy of the information provided on this page has been checked as thoroughly as possible by Aboriginal Victoria through the Victorian Aboriginal WW1 Research Project.

c. There may be additional information which this research project was not able to find or access at the time of publication.

d. To the best of our ability we have sought to find living relatives to assist with the research, but we do not claim to have contacted all family members who may have relevant information. . The information presented on this webpage may be of assistance to you but the State of Victoria and its employees do not guarantee that the publication is without flaw of any kind or is wholly appropriate for your particular purposes and therefore disclaims all liability for any error, loss or other consequence which may arise from you relying on any information published as part of the Victorian Aboriginal WW1 Research Project.

18.6.7 Pte. PATTERSON Henry Albert. S/N5193

1898 – 1972 Aged 74

14th Infantry Battalion.

Henry Albert PATTERSON. S/N5193. Place of Birth, Healesville Victoria. Next of Kin, Father, John Patterson, Badger Creek, via Healesville, Victoria. Mother Mrs Lizzie Patterson Badger Creek, via Healesville, Victoria.

Address on enlistment, Badger Creek, via Healesville, Victoria. Enlisted, 4/1/1916, 18 years 10 months. B Coy. 23rd (Depot) Battn, Royal Park, 15/1/1916. Signals School Broadmeadows, 31/2/1916 – 3/2/16. Private 16th Reinfts /14th Battalion (Jacka’s Mob). Embarked, HMAT A68 Anchises to Egypt 15/4/1916. Marseilles 14/6/1916. Bandsman, Hospital Sick, Injured right foot, 26/9/17 – 21/1/1918. Re-joined Unit 15/9/1918. Co. Hq. 14th Battn. Guard Duties France, 1/12/1918 – 32/12/1918. RTA, HMAT Leicestershire, 3/5/1919 – 21/6/1919.
Discharged, 5/8/1919. Medals, 1914/15 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal. Calling: Station hand.

Found on Healesville and Badgers Creek District Honour Boards and the Badgers Creek State Schools Honour Board.

Unit Colour Patch:

14^th Infantry Battalion. (Jacka’s Mob).

Private Henry Albert Patterson service no. 5193

Posted by NAAadmin, Thursday, 20 October 2016

SUMMARY Henry Patterson grew up on the Coranderrk Aboriginal station near Healesville, Victoria. He enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on 4th January 1916 at Melbourne and served with the 14th Australian Infantry Battalion on the Western Front. Henry survived some periods of heavy fighting on the front line and, at the end of the war, returned to Australia. He worked for the rest of his life as a timber cutter and died aged 74.

EARLY LIFE Born on 26th February 1898 Henry was the son of John and Lizzie Patterson (nee Edmunds). The family lived at the Coranderrk Aboriginal Station near Healesville in Victoria. Some of his mother’s extended family lived at the Lake Tyers Aboriginal Mission in Gippsland.

ENLISTMENT AND MILITARY SERVICE When Henry enlisted in January 1916, he was 18 years old, single and working for G F Symes at Healesville as a wool classer for £5 per week. As he was under the age of 21 his parents signed a consent form approving his application to enlist for overseas service. Henry underwent training at Royal Park in Melbourne before being transferred to Broadmeadows to train with the AIF Signal School. On 16 March 1916, Henry embarked from Melbourne upon the HMAT Anchises A68 for overseas service. He underwent training in Tel El Kebir, Egypt for several months before sailing with the 14th Battalion to France. Over the next two years the 14th Battalion were involved in periods of heavy trench warfare on the Western Front. Henry’s service was punctuated by a series of injuries and illnesses, and he spent periods in hospital with a badly bruised foot. He saw the most direct action in the field in the first 6 months of 1918. During these months the 14th Battalion fought against the German offensive in the region of the Somme and Lys. The Germans gained positions in early attacks but incurred huge casualties and were driven back. Henry may have been with the Battalion on 8th August 1918 when they fought in the Battle of Amiens. The advance carried out on this day was considered the most successful single day for the Allies on the Western Front. Several days later he was sent on leave to the United Kingdom. Henry served until the end of the war. In May 1919 embarked for home on board the Leicestershire. On 21st June 1919 Henry was formally discharged from the AIF and received a 1914/15 Star Medal, British War Medal and Victory Medal commemorating his military service.

AFTER THE WAR Upon discharge, Henry was not suffering from any major injuries or illnesses and was able to take up employment as a timber cutter. In 1922 he married Silvia Eileen Sigman and started a family. They had four children: Henry Edward, Richard John, Donald Arthur, and Maxwell Green. Henry worked steadily in the timber industry for the rest of his life. At one time he had a mill of his own. The family relocated for a short period to Apollo Bay, possibly in pursuit of further work. In the 1950s Henry’s health began to deteriorate and, by January 1960, he applied for and was granted a partial military pension. He was suffering from emphysema among other complaints but continued to work. By 1963 Henry and Silvia were living back in Henry’s home town, Healesville, and Henry was working at a local timber mill. In 1972, at the age of 74, Henry died of a heart attack after being sick for several months with acute broncho-pneumonia. He was buried at the Healesville cemetery and was survived by his wife, Silvia, and their four children. Silvia applied for a war widow’s pension but the Repatriation Commission judged that the cause of Henry’s death was not due to war service. She appealed this decision with the assistance of the local branch of Legacy, but the Repatriation Commission would not vary their decision.

FAMILY ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Michelle Monk

Lindy Patterson

SOURCES AWM Battalion history https://www.awm.gov.au/unit/U51454/ Henry Patterson Service No 5193 Military File NAA B2455 Henry Patterson Service No 5193

Repatriation Record NAA B73

Patricia Grimshaw, Elizabeth Nelson and Sandra Smith Letters from Aboriginal Women of Victoria, 1867–1926, Melbourne: History Department, University of Melbourne 2002

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION about Victorian Aboriginal service in WWI including DISCLAIMERS relating to this information see link to VICTORIAN ABORIGINAL SERVICE IN WWI HOME PAGE in the side bar of this webpage or copy this link: http://discoveringanzacs.naa.gov.au/browse/groupstories/7396

14th Infantry Battalion (Victoria) (4th Infantry Brigade).
The Headquarters of the 14th Battalion opened at an office at 178 Collins Street, Melbourne, in the last week of September 1914. On the 1st October it relocated to Broadmeadows Camp where the battalion’s recruits, principally from Melbourne and its suburbs, were taken on strength and trained. With the 13th, 15th & 16th Battalions, the 14th formed the 4th Brigade commanded by Colonel John Monash. It embarked for overseas on the 22nd December 1914 and, after a brief stop in Albany, Western Australia, arrived in Egypt on the 31st January, 1915. In Egypt, the 4th Brigade became part of the New Zealand and Australian Division with which it would serve at Gallipoli. The 4th Brigade landed at Anzac Cove on the afternoon of the 25th April, 1915. On the 19th May 1915, the Turks launched a massive counter-attack. During this fighting Lance Corporal Albert Jacka of the 14th was awarded the A.I.F.’s first Victoria Cross. Jacka’s leadership and courage became legendary within the A.I.F and he was eventually commissioned in the 14th Battalion, which came to be widely known as “Jacka’s Mob”. From May to August 1915 the battalion was heavily involved in establishing and defending the Anzac front line. In August, the 4th Brigade attacked Hill 971. The hill was taken at great cost, although Turkish reinforcements forced the Australians to withdraw. At the end of the month, the 14th Battalion suffered further heavy casualties when it was committed to the unsuccessful attack on Hill 60. The battalion served at Anzac until the evacuation in December. After the withdrawal from Gallipoli, the battalion returned to Egypt. While there, the A.I.F expanded and was reorganised. The 14th Battalion was split and provided experienced soldiers for the 46th Battalion. The 4th Brigade was combined with the 12th & 13th Brigades to form the 4th Australian Division.
In June 1916 they sailed for France and the Western Front. From then until 1918, the battalion took part in bloody trench warfare. Its first major action in France was at Pozières in August 1916. Along with most of the 4th Brigade, the battalion suffered heavy losses at Bullecourt in April 1917 when the brigade attacked strong German positions without the promised tank support. It spent much of the remainder of 1917 in Belgium, advancing to the Hindenburg Line. In March and April 1918, the battalion helped stop the German spring offensive. It subsequently participated in the great allied offensive of 1918, fighting near Amiens on the 8th August, 1918. This advance by British and empire troops was the greatest success in a single day on the Western Front, one that German General Erich Ludendorff described as “.the black day of the German Army in this war…” The battalion continued operations until late September 1918. At 11am on the 11th November 1918, the guns fell silent. In November 1918, members of the A.I.F began to return Australia for demobilisation and discharge.
Casualties:
* 915 killed, 2229 wounded (including gassed).
Commanding Officers:
* Courtney, Richard Edmund
* Dare, Charles Moreland Montague
* Smith, Walter John
* Crowther, Henry Arnold
* Arrell, William Llewellyn
Decorations:
* 1 VC.
* 1 CB.
* 5 DSO.
* 1 OBE.
* 29 MC, 4 bars.
* 24 DCM.
* 132 MM, 10 bars.
* 7 MSM.
* 40 MID.
* 7 foreign awards.
Formed in Victoria in September 1914.
16th Reinforcements departed Melbourne Anchises 14th March 1916.
Battle Honours: Landing at Anzac, Anzac, Defence of Anzac, Suvla, Sari Bair, Gallipoli 1915, Egypt 1915-16, Somme 1916-18, Pozieres, Bullecourt, Messines 1917, Ypres 1917, Menin Road, Polygon Wood, Passchendaele, Arras 1918, Ancre 1918, Hamel, Amiens, Albert 1918, Hindenburg Line, Epehy, France and Flanders 1916-18.
Area of operations: Egypt, Gallipoli & Western Front.

18.6.8 (L/Cpl). ROWAN John. S/N1506

1889 – 1919 Aged 30

14th & 46th Infantry Battalions

John ROWAN. POB, Healesville Victoria. NOK, Father, Richard Rowan, Healesville, Victoria.

Address on enlistment, Healesville, Victoria. Enlisted, 24/10/1914 Age 25 years 10 months. Private 2nd Reinfts 14th Battn, 5/1/1915. Embarked, HMAT Clan Macgillivray, 2/2/1915. Pte. 5th Field Ambulance, Anzac, Sty on eye, 27/8/1915. 1 Stationary Hospital, Mudros, Diarrhoea, 25/9/1915 – 3/10/1915. Transferred to 46th Battn, 3/3/1916. Promoted to Corporal, 23/5/16. Alexandria to Marseilles, 2/6/1916 – 11/6/1916.
Reverted to Private at own request, 5/7/1916. Wounded in action, France 14/8/1916 – 27/1/1917. Re-joined 46th Battn, 19/4/1917. Court Marshalled, Suspended sentence. Hospital 10/3/1918 – 26/3/1918. Appointed Lance Corporal France, 14/6/1918. Wounded in action, gassed, 2nd occasion,26/8/1918. Admitted Hospital, Exeter, Mustard Gas 8/9/1918. RTA, Berrima, for 1915 performance, 2/1/1919. Disembarked, 17/2/1919. Discharged, 18/4/1919. Medals, 1914/15 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal. Calling: Labourer.

Found on the Healesville and Badgers Creek District Honour Boards and the Badgers Creek State Schools Honour Board.

Unit Colour Patch:

14th Infantry Battalion (Victoria) (4th Infantry Brigade).
The Headquarters of the 14th Battalion opened at an office at 178 Collins Street, Melbourne, in the last week of September 1914. On the 1st October it relocated to Broadmeadows Camp where the battalion’s recruits, principally from Melbourne and its suburbs, were taken on strength and trained. With the 13th, 15th & 16th Battalions, the 14th formed the 4th Brigade commanded by Colonel John Monash. It embarked for overseas on the 22nd December 1914 and, after a brief stop in Albany, Western Australia, arrived in Egypt on the 31st January, 1915. In Egypt, the 4th Brigade became part of the New Zealand and Australian Division with which it would serve at Gallipoli. The 4th Brigade landed at Anzac Cove on the afternoon of the 25th April, 1915. On the 19th May 1915, the Turks launched a massive counter-attack. During this fighting Lance Corporal Albert Jacka of the 14th was awarded the A.I.F.’s first Victoria Cross. Jacka’s leadership and courage became legendary within the A.I.F and he was eventually commissioned in the 14th Battalion, which came to be widely known as “Jacka’s Mob”. From May to August 1915 the battalion was heavily involved in establishing and defending the Anzac front line. In August, the 4th Brigade attacked Hill 971. The hill was taken at great cost, although Turkish reinforcements forced the Australians to withdraw. At the end of the month, the 14th Battalion suffered further heavy casualties when it was committed to the unsuccessful attack on Hill 60. The battalion served at Anzac until the evacuation in December. After the withdrawal from Gallipoli, the battalion returned to Egypt. While there, the A.I.F expanded and was reorganised. The 14th Battalion was split and provided experienced soldiers for the 46th Battalion. The 4th Brigade was combined with the 12th & 13th Brigades to form the 4th Australian Division.
In June 1916 they sailed for France and the Western Front. From then until 1918, the battalion took part in bloody trench warfare. Its first major action in France was at Pozières in August 1916. Along with most of the 4th Brigade, the battalion suffered heavy losses at Bullecourt in April 1917 when the brigade attacked strong German positions without the promised tank support. It spent much of the remainder of 1917 in Belgium, advancing to the Hindenburg Line. In March and April 1918, the battalion helped stop the German spring offensive. It subsequently participated in the great allied offensive of 1918, fighting near Amiens on the 8th August, 1918. This advance by British and empire troops was the greatest success in a single day on the Western Front, one that German General Erich Ludendorff described as “the black day of the German Army in this war…” The battalion continued operations until late September 1918. At 11am on the 11th November 1918, the guns fell silent. In November 1918, members of the A.I.F began to return Australia for demobilisation and discharge.
Casualties:
* 915 killed, 2229 wounded (including gassed).
Commanding Officers:
* Courtney, Richard Edmund
* Dare, Charles Moreland Montague
* Smith, Walter John
* Crowther, Henry Arnold
* Arrell, William Llewellyn
Decorations:
* 1 VC.
* 1 CB.
* 5 DSO.
* 1 OBE.
* 29 MC, 4 bars.
* 24 DCM.
* 132 MM, 10 bars.
* 7 MSM.
* 40 MID.
* 7 foreign awards.
Formed in Victoria in September 1914.
2nd Reinforcements departed Melbourne Clan Macgillivray 2nd February 1915.
Battle Honours: Landing at Anzac, Anzac, Defence of Anzac, Suvla, Sari Bair, Gallipoli 1915, Egypt 1915-16, Somme 1916-18, Pozieres, Bullecourt, Messines 1917, Ypres 1917, Menin Road, Polygon Wood, Passchendaele, Arras 1918, Ancre 1918, Hamel, Amiens, Albert 1918, Hindenburg Line, Epehy, France and Flanders 1916-18.
Area of operations: Egypt, Gallipoli & Western Front.

46th Infantry Battalion (Victoria) (12th Infantry Brigade).
The 46th Battalion was raised in Egypt on the 24th February, 1916 as part of the “doubling” of the A.I.F. Approximately half of its new recruits were Gallipoli veterans from the 14th Battalion, and the other half, fresh reinforcements from Australia. Reflecting the composition of the 14th, the new battalion was composed mostly of men from Victoria, although some of the reinforcements hailed from New South Wales and Western Australia. As part of the 12th Brigade of the 4th Australian Division, the 46th Battalion arrived in France on the 8th June 1916, destined for the Western Front. It participated in its first major battle at Pozières. Initially, the battalion provided carrying parties for supplies and ammunition during the 2nd Division’s attack on the 4th August, and then, with its own division, defended the ground that had been captured. The 46th endured two stints in the heavily contested trenches of Pozières, as well as a period in reserve. After Pozières, the battalion spent the period up until March 1917 alternating between duty in the trenches and training and rest behind the lines. On the 11th April 1917 it took part in the attack mounted against the heavily defended village of Bullecourt – part of the formidable Hindenburg Line to which the Germans had retreated during February and March. Devoid of surprise, and dependent upon the support of unreliable tanks, the attack had little chance of success; after managing to fight through to its objectives, the 46th was forced to withdraw with heavy casualties. Later in the year, the focus of the A.I.F’s operations switched to the Ypres sector in Belgium where the 46th took part in the battles of Messines and Passchendaele. The 46th rotated in and out of the front line throughout the winter of 1917-18. In the spring of 1918, it played a role in turning the great German offensive by defeating attacks around Dernancourt in the first days of April. During the Allied offensive that commenced in August, the 46th also played an active part, fighting in the Battle of Amiens on the 8th August 1918, and in the battle to secure the Hindenburg “outpost line” on the 18th September. The battalion was out of the line when the war ended on the 11th November 1918, and disbanded in April 1919.
Casualties:
* 590 killed, 1939 wounded.
Commanding Officers:
* Denham, Howard Kynaston
* Ford, Hubert Cedric
* Edgley, John Milton
* Corrigan, John Joseph
Decorations:
* 4 DSO, 1 bar.
* 1 OBE.
* 28 MC, 1 bar.
* 14 DCM.
* 140 MM, 7 bars.
* 6 MSM.
* 37 MID.
* 5 foreign awards.
Formed in Egypt on the 4th March, 1916 from the 14th Infantry Battalion.
Battle Honours: Egypt 1916, Somme 1916-18, Pozieres, Bullecourt, Messines 1917, Ypres 1917, Menin Road, Polygon Wood, Passchendaele, Arras 1918, Ancre 1918, Amiens, Albert 1918, St Quentin Canal, Hindenburg Line, Epehy, France and Flanders 1916-18.
Area of operations: Egypt, Western Front.

My name is Alliyanna Tipiloura I am a student at Worawa Aboriginal College in
Healesville, Victoria. I am 16 years old turning 17 this year.

I am from Port Keats, Wadeye (pronounced wod-air-yer), west of Darwin. My father
is from the Tiwi Islands. Richard Docherty founded a Roman Catholic mission at Port
Keats in 1935 at Wermtek Nganyi. Wadeye is mainly inhabited by Indigenous
Australians. The population of Port Keats Wadeye is 1,627. Within this population
there are seven Aboriginal language groups. The main language is Murrihn-Patha
which is one of my languages. I speak three Aboriginal languages as well as
English.

Port Keats has limited records regarding any involvement in World War 1, but during
World War 2 it provided an emergency landing ground for fighter planes. There is still
an air force connection to the area. The Tiwi Islanders played a very big role in
Australian history in World War 2 when they first spotted Japanese planes and
alerted Darwin. In 1942, the Japanese dropped hundreds of bombs on the city,
killing over two hundred people. The Bombing of Darwin, as this attack is called, is
one of the most significant events in Australian history as it was the first and largest
single attack on Australian soil. The Tiwi islanders still perform the Bombing of
Darwin Dance which is a traditional re-enactment of that day.

Out of eight students from the school who applied to attend the Dawn Service I was
selected to represent Worawa Aboriginal College at the Gallipoli Dawn Service Tour.
A friend at school had a great, great grandfather who fought in World War 1. I do not
know if anyone in my family has been in a war to fight for our country. I think the
Aboriginal people that have fought in the war are brave people. Having the courage
to leave their country and then using weapons that they are not familiar with makes
them heroes in my eyes. Being involved with this tour has increased my interest in
finding out about the Australian Defence Force and role played by Indigenous people
in defending and fighting for our country. I am looking forward to the opportunity to
go to Gallipoli and experience a Dawn Service in the location of the First World War.

There is record of 52 indigenous men that served at Gallipoli in World War 1. This
number increases with every year as more information is found. Records suggest
these men came from New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Western
Australia, and Queensland. John Rowan (1506) who came from Healesville, Victoria
was listed as being of Aboriginal descent. Private John Rowan who served in the
46th Infantry Battalion was born in 1888 and died in 1939. He embarked for Turkey
on 2 February 1915 from Melbourne. The war service of Aboriginal men during the
early years of ANZACs is something that has been ignored in the past. But this is an
important part of Australian Military history.

Aboriginal men were prohibited from joining to fight in the war as Australian solders.
Across all the wars over 1300 Aboriginal diggers have fought for Australia. The
Defence Act of 1903 only allowed people substantially of European origin or descent
to serve in the Defence Force. However, some of the first enlistments were
Indigenous Australians. About 50 Aboriginal Anzacs fought at Gallipoli. The remains
of an Indigenous soldier who had taken part in the first landing and who was killed
later that day was only recovered in 1922 as he had managed to get farther behind
the Turkish lines than anyone had expected.

After 1915, many Indigenous Australians had to travel away from their communities
to enlist as it became harder for them to join in the war effort. Many changed their
names and lied about their ethnicity. The war could have been ignored by the
Aboriginal ANZACS and they could have said that it was a ‘white fella problem’. But
they were determined to fight and demonstrate that they were more than ‘second –
class people ‘and tried to right the wrong.

The Gallipoli story is important to our country, and to Indigenous Australians.
Australia is a very safe and comfortable place to live in today and I think it would be
very different if people, including my ancestors, had not the courage to serve and
fight for our country.

18.6.9 Pte. TERRICK George Alexander. S/N5243.

1898 – 1956 Aged 58

14th Battalion.

George Alexander TERRICK. Place of Birth, Healesville, Victoria. Next of Kin, (Mother) Mrs Sarah Hunter, Moonah Cullah, Deniliquin, NSW

Address on enlistment, Badger Creek, Healesville, Victoria. Place of Enlistment, Melbourne Victoria 3/1/1916 Age 18 years 2 months. S/N5243. B Coy Royal Park 15/1/1916 – 18/1/1916. Signal School, AIF Broadmeadows, 18/1/16 – 31/1/16. Private 16 Reinfts 14th Battalion (Jacka’s Mob) 10/3/1916. Embarked HMAT Anchises 15/4/1916. Marseilles, France 14/6/1916. WIA, Gas 10/2/18. WIA (second occasion), GSW left arm, severe 5/8/18. RTA, HMAT Orca 19/2/19 -14/3/1919. Discharged, Medically unfit for further duty 24/6/19. Died, 30/8/1956, buried Necropolis, Springvale, Victoria, 3/12/56. Medals, British War Medal, Victory Medal. Calling: Labourer.

Found on the Healesville and Badgers Creek District Honour Boards and the Badgers Creek State Schools Honour Board.

Unit Colour Patch:

14^th Infantry Battalion. (Jacka’s Mob).

Photograph Studio portrait of Aboriginal serviceman, 5243 Private (Pte) George Alexander Terrick, 16th Reinforcements, 14th Battalion, of Healesville, Victoria, courtesy of Australian War Memorial.

George Alexander Terrick service no. 5243

Posted by VICGOVAboriginalWW1, Friday, 27 May 2016

SUMMARY George Terrick was a Taungurung man from the Coranderrk Aboriginal Station near Healesville in Victoria. He enlisted on 3 January 1916 in Melbourne and served with the 14th Infantry Battalion on the Western Front. He was wounded in action on two occasions. He returned to Australia on 19 February 1919. He was discharged as medically unfit due to gunshot wounds to his shoulder and received a part pension from the military.

EARLY LIFE George was born in 1898 at Coranderrk Aboriginal Station to Abel and Sarah Terrick. Abel Terrick was also born at Coranderrk and lived in Deniliquin. George had four siblings; William, John, Margaret and Henrietta. Abel died when George was only five years old and his mother later married Peter Hunter. Peter and Sarah went on to have two girls, George’s half-sisters; Mary and Evelyn. George worked as a labourer at Tarrawarra estate near Healesville, who were employers of many Aboriginal people from the surrounding area.

ENLISTMENT AND MILITARY SERVICE George enlisted on 3 January 1916 with his cousin Henry Albert Patterson, another Taungurung man from Coranderrk. They were both 18 years old, single and working as labourers and prepared to take a chance with war service which offered freedom from station life and a regular salary. They trained at Broadmeadows military camp in Melbourne and both joined the 14th Battalion. They embarked together from Melbourne aboard the HMAT Anchises A68 on 14 March 1916. George was first stationed in Tel-el-Kebir, Egypt where he received further training before travelling to Marseilles. From 1916 to 1918, the 14th Battalion took part in trench warfare on the Western Front in France. He was taken on strength with the 14th Battalion on 7th August 1916 at the time of the first major action in Pozieres. George fought in significant engagements such as those in Bullecourt in 1917 and the 1918 German Spring Offensive. On February 10th 1918, George was wounded in action from a gas attack but made a quick recovery and returned to his unit two days later. On April 5th George was gassed again and received a severe gun-shot-wound to the left arm. This was the last time that he served in the field. Unable to return to the front, George joined infantry training brigades and he was reported as absent without leave on several occasions before he returned to Australia in late February 1919. He was discharged medically unfit for service. George received a 1914/15 Star Medal, British War Medal and Victory Medal commemorating his military service.

AFTER THE WAR After the war, George suffered a lot of pain from the gunshot wound in his shoulder. A medical examination before his discharge in 1920, confirmed that the bullet was still buried in his shoulder. Despite this George was able to work, and spent the rest of his life doing so despite his pain. In 1922, George married Florence Mylynda Fisher. George was self-employed during the 1920s but the onset of the Great Depression in 1929, saw him out of work for five years. George was among the many who were driven to apply for sustenance relief from the government. During this period George sought hospital treatment for his shoulder pain and in 1927 the repatriation Commission granted him a part pension 15% stating that he was 10 % incapacitated by his war injury. George’s health suffered in the years that followed, and in 1944 he was admitted to hospital in very bad shape. He had a heart attack, and was also suffering from pneumonia, diabetes, and a fractured femur. His heart condition worsened and on 30 August 1956 he had a heart attack that killed him. His widow, Florence, applied for a war widows’ pension but the Repatriation Comission rejected her application on the grounds that George’s heart and diabetes were not due to war service. Melbourne branch of Legacy appealed this decision on behalf of Florence but her application was again rejected.

FAMILY ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Cousin Lindy Patterson

SOURCES Australian War Memorial 14th Battalion Unit Diary https://www.awm.gov.au/unit/U51454/ George Alexander Terrick Service No. 5243 Military Record NAA: B2455, TERRICK GEORGE ALEXANDER TERRICK, George Abel [aka George Alexander] – Service Number – 5243 NAA: B73, M54898

a. This page contains information about and may contain photographs of person/s who are deceased.

b. The accuracy of the information provided on this page has been checked as thoroughly as possible Aboriginal Victoria through the Victorian Aboriginal WW1 Research Project.

c. There may be additional information which this research project was not able to find or access at the time of publication.

d. To the best of our ability we have sought to find living relatives to assist with the research, but we do not claim to have contacted all family members who may have relevant information.

Infantry Brigades.
Each infantry division contained three infantry brigades. All infantry brigades except the 4th & 8th Infantry Brigades were formed as part of divisions and they were assigned to the 4th & 5th Divisions on their formation in 1916. Thereafter all infantry brigades were assigned to divisions. Infantry brigade commanders were graded full Colonels in 1914 but in September 1915 they were upgraded to Brigadier Generals in line with the British Army. Their seniority was backdated to their date of assumption of brigade command, posthumously in the case of MacLaurin. In 1914 each brigade consisted of four infantry battalions and a small headquarters. In March 1916 a machine gun company was added, formed from the battalion machine gun sections. These were reassigned to the divisional machine gun battalions in March 1918 but in practice each brigade still went into battle with an attached machine gun company or two. Light Trench mortar batteries were added when brigades arrived on the Western Front in April through July 1916. In 1918, the number of infantry battalions was reduced from four per brigade to three, except in the case of the original four brigades formed in 1914.

14th Infantry Battalion(Victoria) (4th Infantry Brigade).
The Headquarters of the 14th Battalion opened at an office at 178 Collins Street, Melbourne, in the last week of September 1914. On the 1st October it relocated to Broadmeadows Camp where the battalion’s recruits, principally from Melbourne and its suburbs, were taken on strength and trained. With the 13th, 15th & 16th Battalions, the 14th formed the 4th Brigade commanded by Colonel John Monash. It embarked for overseas on the 22nd December 1914 and, after a brief stop in Albany, Western Australia, arrived in Egypt on the 31st January, 1915. In Egypt, the 4th Brigade became part of the New Zealand and Australian Division with which it would serve at Gallipoli. The 4th Brigade landed at Anzac Cove on the afternoon of the 25th April, 1915. On the 19th May 1915, the Turks launched a massive counter-attack. During this fighting Lance Corporal Albert Jacka of the 14th was awarded the A.I.F’s first Victoria Cross. Jacka’s leadership and courage became legendary within the A.I.F and he was eventually commissioned in the 14th Battalion, which came to be widely known as “Jacka’s Mob”. From May to August 1915 the battalion was heavily involved in establishing and defending the Anzac front line. In August, the 4th Brigade attacked Hill 971. The hill was taken at great cost, although Turkish reinforcements forced the Australians to withdraw. At the end of the month, the 14th Battalion suffered further heavy casualties when it was committed to the unsuccessful attack on Hill 60. The battalion served at Anzac until the evacuation in December. After the withdrawal from Gallipoli, the battalion returned to Egypt. While there, the A.I.F expanded and was reorganised. The 14th Battalion was split and provided experienced soldiers for the 46th Battalion. The 4th Brigade was combined with the 12th & 13th Brigades to form the 4th Australian Division.
In June 1916 they sailed for France and the Western Front. From then until 1918, the battalion took part in bloody trench warfare. Its first major action in France was at Pozières in August 1916. Along with most of the 4th Brigade, the battalion suffered heavy losses at Bullecourt in April 1917 when the brigade attacked strong German positions without the promised tank support. It spent much of the remainder of 1917 in Belgium, advancing to the Hindenburg Line. In March and April 1918, the battalion helped stop the German spring offensive. It subsequently participated in the great allied offensive of 1918, fighting near Amiens on the 8th August, 1918. This advance by British and empire troops was the greatest success in a single day on the Western Front, one that German General Erich Ludendorff described as “.the black day of the German Army in this war…” The battalion continued operations until late September 1918. At 11am on the 11th November 1918, the guns fell silent. In November 1918, members of the A.I.F began to return Australia for demobilisation and discharge.
Casualties:
* 915 killed, 2229 wounded (including gassed).
Commanding Officers:
* Courtney, Richard Edmund
* Dare, Charles Moreland Montague
* Smith, Walter John
* Crowther, Henry Arnold
* Arrell, William Llewellyn
Decorations:
* 1 VC.
* 1 CB.
* 5 DSO.
* 1 OBE.
* 29 MC, 4 bars.
* 24 DCM.
* 132 MM, 10 bars.
* 7 MSM.
* 40 MID.
* 7 foreign awards.
Formed in Victoria in September 1914.
16th Reinforcements departed Melbourne Anchises 14th March 1916.
Battle Honours: Landing at Anzac, Anzac, Defence of Anzac, Suvla, Sari Bair, Gallipoli 1915, Egypt 1915-16, Somme 1916-18, Pozieres, Bullecourt, Messines 1917, Ypres 1917, Menin Road, Polygon Wood, Passchendaele, Arras 1918, Ancre 1918, Hamel, Amiens, Albert 1918, Hindenburg Line, Epehy, France and Flanders 1916-18.
Area of operations: Egypt, Gallipoli & Western Front.

18.6.10 Sapper. WANDIN James Henry

S/N 18801

1896 – 1957 Aged 61

29/1st Divisional Signal Company, 1st Brigade.

James Henry WANDIN Place of Birth, 16/3/1896, Healesville, Victoria. Next of Kin – (Mother) Mrs. Jemima Dunolly, c/o Healesville Post Office, Healesville, Victoria. Wife – Olive Wandin

Enlisted, 14/3/1917 Age 21 years. Place of Enlistment – Seymour Victoria. S/N 18801. Private Recruits Battn Royal Park, 19/3/1917 – 10/4/1917. Sapper 1st Divisional Signal Company, 1st Brigade, Broadmeadows, 10/4/1917 – 6/6/1917. Embarked, HMAT A32 Themistoles. Sapper 29/1st Div. Signal Coy, 1st Brigade 4/8/1917 Melbourne – 2/10/1917 Glasgow Scotland. To France 3/5/1918. Hospital Sick, 26.8.1918. RTA, Orsova 8/1/1919 – 27/2/1919. Discharged, Medically unfit for further duty 28/1/1919. Discharged, 28/7/1919. Medals, British War Medal, Victory Medal. Calling: Labourer.

Found on the Healesville and Badgers Creek District Honour Boards and the Badgers Creek State Schools Honour Board.

Unit Colour Patch:

1^st Division Signal Company.

James Henry WANDIN died 21/8/1957, age 61, and is buried in the Healesville Cemetery, Victoria

http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2012/07/04/3538638.htm

4 July, 2012 11:07AM AEDT

Breathing life into Koori language: Wurundjeri elder Aunty Joy Wandin Murphy

By Suzi Taylor (ABC Open)

In NAIDOC week 2012, meet Aunty Joy Wandin Murphy and hear her story – and learn more about how she’s not just keeping the Woiwurrung language alive, she’s teaching it to a new generation of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal kids.

Our Mother Tongue: Woiwurrung from ABC Open Albury-Wodonga on Vimeo.

One day, right before her 14th birthday, Joy Wandin Murphy woke up with a bad feeling. She refused to go to school. She had an unshakeable sense of dread that something was going to happen to her father. Joy was eventually permitted to stay home, and her father passed away that same day.

It was a turning point for Joy. In that moment, she knew with absolute clarity that they had lost a great man and that to honour him, she had to give back somehow to her community. “From there it was indelibly printed that I had to do something, but at that point, I wasn’t sure exactly, what,” she recalls.

Joy Wandin Murphy is a Wurundjeri elder and Woiwurrung language teacher, based in Healesville, 60km east of Melbourne. Joy’s great-great uncle was William Barak, the last traditional ngurungaeta (elder/leader) of the Wurundjeri-willam clan. Joy’s father, Jarlo Wandoon, attempted to enlist for World War 1 but was rejected on account of being Aboriginal. He proceeded to re-enlist under a whitefella name, James Wandin, and went on to serve overseas.

It’s with this same tenacity that Aunty Joy has applied herself to her work.

She is committed to promoting positive relationships between the Indigenous and non-Indigenous community, and to strengthening the Woiwurrung language. Joy frequently gives the traditional ‘welcome to country’ greeting at Melbourne events and was invited to be the creative artist and lyricist for the opening and closing ceremony songs in the 2006 Commonwealth Games.

Among other accolades, Joy was made an officer of the Order of Australia in 2006, for her service to the community, particularly the Aborigines, through ‘significant contributions in the fields of social justice, land rights, equal opportunity, art and reconciliation’.

Joy currently teaches the Woiwurrung language to Year 7 and 8 students at Healesville High school and mentors her sister, Doreen, who also teaches language and culture at the school. It’s a pilot program funded by the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development. It will be supported until the end of the year. Beyond that, Joy is determined to find the funds to keep the program going.

Joy was taught the Woiwurrung language by her aunt and uncle, the older siblings of her father.

“Uncle Frank spent a lot of time with us and although he was a very quiet man, he would say a word, and it would just penetrate. You just never forgot what he said and how he said it,” she recalls.

Joy knew that most of her generation had totally missed out on language, and she felt a responsibility to pass it on to the next generation.

“It’s a very proud moment when you’re able to teach not just Wurundjeri children, but also non-Aboriginal children, because we are about educating everyone. And if we share the knowledge that’s been handed down over all those years, then we hope that can bring a much more harmonious community.’

This film is part of the Mother Tongue language series, documenting Indigenous languages around Victoria. View the first film of the series, on the Wiradjuri language.

18.6.11 Pte. WANDIN Joseph. S/N300.

1885 –

(Broadmeadows Depot).

Joseph WANDIN. Occupation, School Teacher. POB, Healesville Victoria. NOK, Mother, Jemima Wandin, c/o Healesville Post Office Healesville, Victoria.

Address on enlistment, Healesville Victoria. Enlisted, 18/8/1914 Age 29 years. Private, C. Coy 8th Battalion, AIF, 18/8/1914 – 10/9/1914. Previous experience, Cadets 3 years. Discharged, 10/9/1914. (As being unsuitable for military training). Calling: School Teacher

Coranderrk circa 1903. Courtesy of Coranderrk Website

Joseph Wandin Service No.300

Posted by NAAadmin, Tuesday, 15 November 2016

SUMMARY Joseph Letapi Wandin ‘Joe’ was the son of Robert and Jemima Wandin (also spelt Wandoon). The Wandins were one of the original families at the Coranderrk Aboriginal Reserve near Healesville in Victoria. Joseph was a star of the Coranderrk School and one of the few Aboriginal men in the colonial period to qualify and to work as a school teacher. He gave up this career to fight in the First World War, but his mother intervened and he was discharged as ‘unsuitable’.

EARLY LIFE Joseph’s parents were central members of the Coranderrk community. Robert Wandin was the nephew of William Barak, a Ngurungaeta of the Wurundjeri and the leader of the Coranderrk community. Robert was chosen to be one of William Barak’s ‘speakers’ in negotiations with settler authorities over the management of the reserve. The protests of the Coranderrk community during the 1870s and 1880s were one of the earliest organised Aboriginal political campaigns in Australia. Robert married Jemima (nee Burns) who was a Pangerang woman from the Echuca district, though she had grown up on the Coranderrk reserve. Joseph was one of their ten children: Nina (died a baby), Robert, Ellen, Mary, Joseph, Frank, William, Jemima (Jessie), James, and Martha Louisa. When Robert died in 1908, Jemima married Thomas Dunnolly another important figure from the Coranderrk reserve. As a child Joseph Wandin was a talented pupil at the Coranderrk School and by the age of 17, he was training as a teacher with the Education Department. In the early twentieth century this was exceptional as most Aboriginal men worked in manual occupations. Aboriginal women often worked as school teachers in mission schools but they did not receive any formal training or work outside in non-Aboriginal schools. It is understood that Joseph Wandin is the only Aboriginal school teacher in the Victorian state system, but it is possible that there were others. By 1907, Joseph had qualified as a teacher and was working at the Mordialloc State School. He had also taught at Coranderrk Aboriginal School and Badger Creek Primary School.

ENLISTMENT AND WAR SERVICE Joseph was prepared to give up his career when he enlisted on 18 August 1914, just two weeks after the commencement of the war. Unlike many Aboriginal men at this time Joseph was earning a wage equal to that of a white man so he must have had other reasons for wanting to fight in the war. Perhaps it was the lure of the political propaganda entreating men to defend the Empire and freedom. Perhaps the promise of adventure and travel held some sway in this period before the brutality and horror of war had been revealed. Did he also see the war as a chance to gain some of this freedom and justice for himself and for his people? Whatever the reason, Joseph was among the first wave of enthusiastic enlistees for the war. The Broadmeadows military camp just opened, and on the 19th August, the day after Joseph’s enlistment, 2,500 men walked to the camp from central Melbourne. They were surrounded by crowds of supporters. Joseph who had enlisted in Ballarat, Victoria arrived at Broadmeadows five days later. Joseph had already served in the military for three years as a cadet by the time he enlisted in August 1914. Along with his teaching career, this was also unusual for Aboriginal men and suggests a keenness, aptitude and confidence. At Broadmeadows he trained with the 8th Battalion, one of first AIF Battalions raised. The 8th Battalion departed with the first convoy of ships to leave Australia for Britain, and would go on to take part in Anzac cove landing. But Joseph would not be among them. Jemima Wandin did not want to see her son go to war. She wrote a letter to the military: ‘He has volunteered against my wish. I forbade him to have anything to do with the war. Because if he goes, it will only break my heart as I have been worrying over him ever since I heard he was at the Broadmeadows camp.’ Jemima asked that he be discharged and the authorities immediately did so. This incident raises some questions about the motivations of the military staff involved. Joseph was 29 years old and only men under the age of 19 were required to gain written permission from their parents to enlist. The military authorities may have responded out of a desire to not to antagonize the community so early in the war by accepting a son against his parent’s wishes. However, it is more likely that Jemima’s letter, which was written from Healesville near the high-profile Coranderrk Aboriginal community, raised the authorities awareness of Joseph Wandin’s Aboriginality. The fact that he was discharged as ‘unsuitable’ suggests that there was something other than a mother’s anguish at the heart of his dismissal. In 1914, men who had non-European heritage were barred from entry into the military. However some degree of discretion was exercised by individual authorities. Many Aboriginal men were accepted in the local recruiting process only to be rejected once they reached the training camps. Local sympathies, friendships, and the desire to fill quotas and demonstrate regional pride and patriotism may have influenced local recruiter’s acceptance of Aboriginal men. Joseph Wandin’s younger brother James, or Jarlo, also enlisted soon after the relaxation of military recruiting regulations in 1917.

AFTER THE WAR After his discharge Joseph continued working as a school teacher. He married Maggie Howe and they had three children: Gloria, Reginald and Enid. When Joseph got a job at the Bentleigh Primary School the family moved to Melbourne. Jo remained in Bentleigh for the rest of his life.

FAMILY ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Joy Wandin Murphy

Cliff Wandin

Coral Wandin

SOURCES Joseph Wandin Service No 300 Military record NAA: B2455, WANDIN JOSEPH http://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/NameSearch/Interface/ItemDetail.aspx?Barcode=8361633&isAv=N

Broome, Richard, Aboriginal Victorians: A History since 1800, Allen & Unwin, 2005

Ellinghaus, Katherine, Taking Assimilation to Heart: Marriages of White Women and Indigenous Men in the United States and Australia, 1887-1937, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2006

Grimshaw, Patricia, “Federation as a turning point in Australian history.” Australian Historical Studies 33.118, 2002 pp.25-41.

Lydon, Jane, Calling the shots: Aboriginal Photographies. Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press, 2014: pp102-130 [cited 19 Aug 15].

Cemetery Tours

Closed and Pioneer Cemetery Tours

18.6 WW1 Indigenous ANZACS from Coranderrk

The Intellectual Rights to all this Research are Retained by the

Friends of Kangaroo Ground War Memorial Park Inc

18.6 Coranderrk Aboriginal Station at Healesville

Details

18.6.1 Pte. DAVIS Alfred S/N55596.

1989-1962 Aged 73

(Found on the Healesville & Badgers Creek District Honour Boards and the Badgers Creek State Schools Honour Board)

18.6.2 Pte. FRANKLIN Albert S/N97

1895 – 1951 Aged 56

18.6.3. Pte. FRANKLIN Leslie. S/N878.

1896 – 1956 Aged 60

18.6.4 FRANKLIN Walter Lane (L/Cpl). S/N3347.

1890 – 1960 Aged 70

Walter Lance Franklin

18.6.5 Pte HARRIS James Gordon

S/N 3533

1899 – 1918 Aged 29

18.6.6 Pte. MULLETT David S/N500

1867 – 1938 Aged 71

18.6.7 Pte. PATTERSON Henry Albert. S/N5193

1898 – 1972 Aged 74

18.6.8 (L/Cpl). ROWAN John. S/N1506

1889 – 1919 Aged 30

18.6.9 Pte. TERRICK George Alexander. S/N5243.

1898 – 1956 Aged 58

18.6.10 Sapper. WANDIN James Henry

S/N 18801

1896 – 1957 Aged 61

18.6.11 Pte. WANDIN Joseph. S/N300.

1885 –

Coranderrk circa 1903. Courtesy of Coranderrk Website

Joseph Wandin Service No.300

The Intellectual Rights to all this Research are Retained by the

Friends of Kangaroo Ground War Memorial Park Inc

18.6 Coranderrk Aboriginal Station at Healesville

Details

18.6.1 Pte. DAVIS Alfred S/N55596.

1989-1962 Aged 73

(Found on the Healesville & Badgers Creek District Honour Boards and the Badgers Creek State Schools Honour Board)

18.6.2 Pte. FRANKLIN Albert S/N97

1895 – 1951 Aged 56

18.6.3. Pte. FRANKLIN Leslie. S/N878.

1896 – 1956 Aged 60

18.6.4 FRANKLIN Walter Lane (L/Cpl). S/N3347.

1890 – 1960 Aged 70

Walter Lance Franklin

18.6.5 Pte HARRIS James Gordon

S/N 3533

1899 – 1918 Aged 29

18.6.6 Pte. MULLETT David S/N500

1867 – 1938 Aged 71

18.6.7 Pte. PATTERSON Henry Albert. S/N5193

1898 – 1972 Aged 74

18.6.8 (L/Cpl). ROWAN John. S/N1506

1889 – 1919 Aged 30

18.6.9 Pte. TERRICK George Alexander. S/N5243.

1898 – 1956 Aged 58

18.6.10 Sapper. WANDIN James Henry

S/N 18801

1896 – 1957 Aged 61

18.6.11 Pte. WANDIN Joseph. S/N300.

1885 –

Coranderrk circa 1903. Courtesy of Coranderrk Website

Joseph Wandin Service No.300

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