| Places | |
|---|---|
| Accession Number | 3DRL/7004 |
| Collection type | Private Record |
| Record type | Collection |
| Measurement | Extent: 2 cm; Wallet/s: 1 |
| Object type | Papers |
| Maker |
Mason, Ernest Bointon |
| Place made | Belgium, Egypt, Egypt: Frontier, Sinai, France, Pacific Islands: Bismarck Archipelago, New Britain, Gazelle Peninsula, Rabaul Area, Rabaul, United Kingdom: England, United Kingdom: Scotland |
| Date made | 1914-1919 |
| Access | Open |
| Related File This file can be copied or viewed via the Memorial’s Reading Room. | AWM315 419/063/015 |
| Conflict |
First World War, 1914-1918 |
| Copying Provisions | Copyright restrictions apply. Only personal, non-commercial, research and study use permitted. Permission of copyright holder required for any commercial use and/or reproduction. |
Mason, Ernest Bointon (Major, b.1890 - d1959)
Description
Collection relating to the First World War service of Lieutenant Ernest Bointon Mason, Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force (AN&MEF)and 21st Battalion Australian Imperial Force (AIF), Rabaul, Egypt, Sinai, France and Belgium, 1914 - 1919.
The collection consists of one diary and two notebooks. The diary, written following Mason's return to Australia consists of succinct and intermittent entries mostly detailing his personal movements. Entires refer to his travel to New Guinea and the surrender and occupation of Rabaul, his return to Australia, discharge from the AN&MEF, and re-enlistment in the AIF, travel to Cairo which he refers to as "the city of sin, sand and sorrow", training and outpost duty int Tel-el-Kebir, Arabia and the Sinai, and his travel to France and the Western Front. He records his experiences billeting, and first hearing the sound of distant artillery, which he evetually comes to refer to "just music to me". He lists casualties for the 21st Battalion during the Battle of the Somme, including his own wounding in the head, and his movements between trenches. He recalls the cold winter, the conquest over the Australian 1st Division in a snow fight, leave in England and Scotland, training courses, and his return to France, patrols in no man's land, a visit by and dinner with Official War Correspondent CEW Bean, photographer George Hubert Wilkins, and artist William Dyson, attending the knighthood of Sir John Monash, and the beginning of the Hundred Days Offensive.
The black, top-bound notebook contains notes from Bombing and gas courses attended by Mason, the names of dead, wounded, and missing soldiers, lists for billeting, and notes on the duties of officers.
The Field Message Notebook contains inventories of equipment, lists of section peronnel, a message regarding a German prisoner taken on the night of 27 March, intelligence and patrol reports, casualty lists, and recommendations for awards for the following servicemen:
186 Sergeant Joseph William "James" Irwin
20 Sergeant John Alva Sturges Lyon
286 Sergeant John Sidney Herbert Semple
Private John Taylor [service number unknown]
4381 Private David Thomas Cameron
5057 Corporal William David McLachlan
2252 Private Vernon Jack Rockliff
4227 Private Richard Scott
5008 Lance Corporal Reuben Henry Dyer