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Infantry Battalion Regimental Marches

19 March 2009 by Theresa Cronk. 5 Comments
From the collection,Personal Stories, bands, Battalion marches, First World War, sheet music

What do a concert pianist, an Indian bandmaster and an Australian militia bandmaster have in common? Each of these individuals composed a march that would eventually be adopted as the regimental march of an Australian Imperial Force infantry battalion during the First World War. Many were popular songs of the period.

The 23^rd Battalion March was composed during the First World War by Miss Una Bourne at the request of Mrs Doris Carter. Una Bourne was a concert pianist and composer who toured as an associate artist with Dame Nellie Melba during her Australian visits. Una remained in England during the war years and performed for hospitals and the Red Cross.

23rd Battalion March

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WWI – For this Sydney family it was “on for young and old”.

18 March 2009 by Sue Jamesion. 23 Comments
From the collection, First World War, People, Private Records

When Leonard Walter Jackson of Neutral Bay joined the AIF on the 6th of August 1915, he must have been one of the youngest Australians ever to enlist in our military services. Using the assumed name Richard Walter Mayhew, and claiming to be an 18 year old orphan, young Leonard, who was born on 27th August 1901, was actually 13 years 11 months and 10 days old on the day he “signed up”.

Len’s older brother, Harry Melville Jackson, had enlisted in the AIF in January 1915 and another brother, Dudley Jackson, also joined up in August 1915. When their father Joseph, a veteran of the Sudan campaign of 1885, realised what his 13 year old son had done, he took the unusual step of enlisting himself, to follow his young tear-away to Egypt and keep a watchful eye on him. Joseph, not surprisingly, also had to lie about his age – he claimed to be 44 years and 11 months old, when he was actually 52!

When the eldest of the Jackson boys, Harry, died whilst a prisoner of the Germans in August 1916, from wounds received at Pozieres, Joseph admitted to the military authorities that he was overage for active service, and that his son Leonard was serving without his parents’ permission and was underage. (By this time, father and son had been serving side by side in the 55th Infantry Battalion since early 1916). To quote a letter written by Dudley Jackson MM in 1964, “[When my father] heard of my elder brother’s death…he decided in fairness to my mother to go back to Australia.” Both Joseph and Leonard were discharged, and returned to Australia aboard HMAT Ulysses in March 1917.

On 4th March 1918, ‘Richard Walter Mayhew’ again enlisted in the AIF, this time claiming his age was 21 years 3 months. A photograph of ‘Richard’ is held by the State Library of NSW.
Private records held in the Australian War Memorial’s collection which were used to uncover the story of Leonard Walter Jackson, include 1DRL/0379 and 3DRL/3846. Relevant service records can be found online through the National Archives of Australia.

Red Cross Records from the First World War

16 March 2009 by Craig Tibbitts. 1 Comment
From the collection,News

In the last few days has come news of an important discovery for First World War historians (especially family historians), in the archives of the Red Cross in Geneva, Switzerland.  British historian Peter Barton, commissioned by the Australian government to conduct further research into a mass grave at Fromelles in France, made the find.  The records consist of ‘card indexes and registers compiled between 1914 and 1918; during that period the Red Cross had acted as a go-between, logging, and passing on information to 30 countries drawn into the conflict.’

Details include the whereabouts and condition of men taken prisoner by the Germans and the location of field burials. Astonishingly it seems no one has ever conducted research into, or used these records until now.

Barton stated, “To a military historian, this was like finding Tutankhamen’s tomb and the terracotta warriors on the same day…”

Read the full article online (includes 3:27 min. video).

The Australian War Memorial has been assisting the Australian government with research into the Fromelles mass grave case since 2005, including more recently with Mr Barton’s research into the Red Cross records in Geneva.

While Red Cross records have not survived in some countries (such as the UK), those of the Australian Red Cross did, and are held here at the Australian War Memorial.  The unearthing of the corresponding records at this central archive in Geneva may prove a useful source for cross-checking the Australian records, or for conducting further research.

Australian Red Cross records held by the Memorial total 105 shelf metres, and are comprised of two main components:

• Records of the Australian Red Cross Prisoner of War Department.
• Records of the Australian Red Cross Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau.

The Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau files have been digitised and are available to view online.  read on

The Coronation Contingent of 1953

11 March 2009 by Annette Gaykema. 6 Comments
Collection,From the collection,New acquisitions,Personal Stories, 1953, Coronation, Queen Elizabeth II, Spithead

Cover of "Coronation Cruise of HMAS Sydney" (RC07761)

After the death of King George VI in February 1952, planning for the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth began. Tradition demanded a procession of all the Queen’s troops be present and so plans were put in place to form an Australian contingent. There were 250 official representatives from the armed forces sent to the festivities. These official delegates, along with their New Zealand counterparts formed the Coronation Contingent.

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The Indefatigable Florence MacDowell

05 March 2009 by Dianne Rutherford. 2 Comments
From the collection,Personal Stories, Heraldry, Nurses

Florence MacDowell in 1912 (from Private Records collection 2DRL/1138)

Florence MacDowell was born in the mid 1870s, the daughter of Swanston Hay MacDowell and Kathleen Champ. She trained as a nurse at the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne, Victoria and the Queens Hospital in Adelaide, South Australia. She opened her own hospital called ‘Windarra’ at Toorak in Victoria, but later moved abroad, living mostly in Italy. She was staying on the Island of Elba in Tuscany when war broke out in 1914.

She made her way to England where she joined the British Red Cross. She worked as a Sister in their hospital at Vranatzka Banya in Serbia. In late 1915 and early 1916 the Serbian forces were overrun and retreated to Albania and Montenegro. Sister MacDowell evacuated from Serbia and eventually made her way back to England.

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