30 June 2009 by Craig Blanch. Collection, Collection Highlights, From the collection, News, Personal Stories, First World War, Heraldry, military medal, People, Western Front, women in war.
Phoebe Chapple was always going to be someone special. She grew up in a family of high achievers. Apart from her father, Frederic Chapple, who was headmaster at Prince Alfred College Adelaide, five of her seven siblings held university degrees: Alfred a lecturer in engineering at St John’s University Cambridge; Ernest, another Cambridge graduate at Jesus University and president of the Fresher Debating Society before taking up a position in Rangoon, Burma; Harold a surgeon at Guy’s Hospital in London; Marian an arts graduate from the University of Adelaide; and Fred, another doctor. However, Phoebe stood apart even in such accomplished company.
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18 March 2009 by Sue Jamesion. 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.
04 April 2007 by Craig Tibbitts. To Flanders Fields, 1917, Frontline troops, People.
Studio portrait of Private Walter Henry Chibnall, No. 1626 of 10th Light Trench Mortar Battery, with his son Billy. A miner of Beaufort Victoria, Chibnall enlisted on 15 March 1916 and embarked on HMAT Ascanius with the 1st Reinforcements on 27 May 1916. He was transferred to the 10th Light Trench Mortar Battery on 7 August 1916 where he was promoted to Corporal on 15 September 1917. He was killed in action at Passchendaele, Belgium, on 12 October 1917, aged 32, when he and a comrade were hit by a shell while taking shelter in a crater. He is commemorated on The Menin Gate Memorial.
Billy Chibnall enlisted in the second AIF during the next war, and served with the ill-fated the 2/21st Battalion. He was taken prisoner of war by the Japanese at Ambon where he died, aged 30, on 20 February 1942.
View Walter Chibnall’s personal service record online at National Archives of Australia
04 April 2007 by Craig Tibbitts. To Flanders Fields, 1917, Frontline troops, People.
Wedding portrait of Private Francis Joseph Mackey, No. 3147, of 40th Battalion (AIF), with his bride Cecilia Agnes. A barman of Huonville Tasmania, Mackey enlisted on 30 October 1916 and sailed with the 7th Reinforcements aboard HMAT Seang Bee on 10 February 1917. He was killed in action, aged 37 on 5 October 1917 at Broodseinde and is commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial, Belgium.
View Mackey’s personal service record online at National Archives of Australia including correspondence from his wife trying to determine his fate.
