'How one’s thoughts wandered back to home'

'Wherever they are, our boys will have a reminder on Christmas Day that the thoughts and sympathy of their people in far-off Australia are with them.'

Red Cross Gazette of December 1917

When Private Herbert Reynolds enlisted on his 18th birthday in September 1914, he could not have known what was to come.

Many at the time had thought that the war would be over by Christmas, but it wasn’t long before they realised how wrong that prediction would be.

Reynolds would go on to serve as a stretcher bearer on Gallipoli and the Western Front, tending to the wounded. It would be many Christmases before he was able to see his family again.

He was in an overseas training unit in Longbridge Derevill, England, when he noted in his diary that he had been presented with a Christmas package from the Australian Red Cross by General McCay and his wife, on 13 March 1918.

It is thought that his diary entry referred to a Christmas 1917 parcel, and that the gift box shown here was given to Reynolds when he returned to Australia in December 1918.

More than a century later, the gift box is part of a collection of items that was donated to the Australian War Memorial by Reynolds’ family. The remarkable collection includes photographs, diaries and letters as well as Reynolds’s Red Cross arm band and the 1918 Christmas gift box.

Australian War Memorial Curator Dr Kerry Neale said the annual Christmas gift boxes were a welcome reminder of home for the men and women who were serving during the First World War.

“The Australian Red Cross distributed more than 50,000 gift boxes to patients in almost 400 hospitals, casualty clearing stations and command depots in France and Britain in 1917 alone … which were ‘received with the keenest pleasure’,” she said.

“The boxes were usually packed in Australia and contained a pipe, tobacco, cigarettes, chocolate, playing cards, match-box, handkerchief and an attractive card, Australian in nature, conveying greetings from the Society.

“The distribution of the Christmas boxes in 1917 though was complicated by strike action by the Waterside Workers and the NSW Railway Workers.

“The strike wasn’t resolved until early August, and by this time there was little chance of transporting material to Europe in time for Christmas. 

“Luckily, the Australian Red Cross anticipated this delay, and arranged for 30,000 boxes to be packed in London.

“The boxes didn’t have the Australian native flowers decoration which distinguished the Australian-produced version, and here, we have an example of one of these British-made ‘Australian’ boxes in the collection. 

“It certainly looks much plainer than the 1918 box we have in the collection, which is beautifully decorated with illustrations of wattle sprigs and a map of Australia. 

“This 1918 parcel was presented to Private Herbert Reynolds, of the 1st Field Ambulance, and was donated to the Memorial by his son almost 90 years later.”

Herbert Vincent Reynolds was born at Sebastopol, Victoria, in 1896, and enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on 16 September 1914, his 18th birthday.

Reynolds’s father had died in 1906, and Reynolds had left school in 1912 to work at the local chemical gold processing plant to help support his mother and siblings.

With the outbreak of war in 1914, Reynolds was left with a difficult choice: he wanted join up and serve his country, but going off to war would deprive his family of the much-needed income that he was making at the gold processing plant.

In the end, he decided to enlist, with his mother's permission.

He embarked from Australia on 22 October 1914 and landed on Gallipoli at 9 am on 25 April 1915. The beaches were still under heavy fire and many Australians, and even some Turkish casualties, were given treatment there before being sent to the hospital ships off shore.

“The beach presented an awful scene,” Reynolds wrote in his diary.

“Evidently the wounded had been collecting on the beach all day.

“There must have been somewhere around 1200 wounded and numbers of dead lying along in the shelter of the cliff, which gave very limited shelter, especially from shrapnel, which every now and then would explode over the beach, taking its toll and adding to the already huge death toll.

“The doctors worked like Trojans, doing their utmost under the circumstances to attend to all serious cases that urgently required it. Their job was an impossible one...

“The courage shown by the wounded will never be forgotten by those who witnessed it. It was brilliant. They were prepared for anything and gave a great deal more thought for how things were going in the line than they seemed to do for their wounds.

“Many would be cursing their wounds and their helplessness, not on account of any pain but for the reason that they were out of the thick of the fight.”

Reynolds continued to treat and transport the wounded on Gallipoli, but became ill during the August offensive; on 16 August, he was evacuated to Mudros with enteric fever. His illness was so severe that he was transported to England and sent to King George Hospital in London. Reynolds recovered slowly and did not return to Gallipoli. 

He wrote to his mother from England in January 1916.

“I suppose you have been wondering how I enjoyed myself this Xmas,” he wrote. “Well it was a most enjoyable one … we were treated splendidly and could not have wished for a more happy holiday…

“I shall always have pleasant recollections of the splendid time that I spent … but how one’s thoughts wandered back to home where the festival season was being held ‘neath sunny skies …

“Although we had such a good time over here … there was a constant longing which at times became a mad desire to be once again back in sunny Australia in the company of those we hold so dear, to once again be amidst old friends and to once again be able to see the beauties and glories of the Australian Xmas season.”

Reynolds rejoined his unit in March 1916, and went with it to the Western Front.

In July, he entered the field of operations at Pozières and resumed his role as an orderly, attending to and transferring the wounded.  In his diaries, he described the never-ending stream of severely wounded men that continued day and night through the heavy shell-fire.

He would spend the remainder of 1916 and 1917 in France and Belgium, performing this vital work, despite the extremely cold weather, constant enemy artillery barrages, and frequent gas attacks.

He was wounded on 20 September 1917, during the fighting on the Menin Road, receiving a gunshot wound to his left ear. He was evacuated to England on 23 September and spent over a month recovering, before being sent to an overseas training unit for the remainder of 1917.

Reynolds returned to France and rejoined his unit near Hazebrouck on 26 April 1918. The men of the 1st Field Ambulance remained in this position during the German spring offensive and did not relocate until the Allied August offensive began to push the German forces back.

The unit was relieved from the line in August and began the process of returning home to Australia, Reynolds leaving on 13 October. He had been granted a special six-month leave for having enlisted in 1914. He disembarked in Melbourne on 23 December and returned home to his family in Sebastopol. He was discharged from the AIF on 20 March 1919.

After the war, Reynolds married and worked as a builder. He enlisted for service again during the Second World War, but due to his age was precluded from active service, and joined the 20th Battalion of the Volunteer Defence Corps instead.

Reynolds went on to become Mayor of Sebastopol, serving in this position in 1936–37, 1941–42, 1947–48, 1953–54 and 1959–60.

He died in Ballarat on 21 September 1978.