Eyles, John William (Private, b.1883 - d.1915)

Collection relating to the First World War service of 2151 Private John William Eyles, 13th Battalion, Egypt and Gallipoli, 1915.

Eyles was a 31-year-old storeman from Paddington in Sydney when he enlisted for service in the Australian Imperial Force in May 1915. He was allocated to the 6th reinforcements to the 13th Battalion and embarked for overseas aboard HMAT Wandilla in June. The collection consists of the pages from a diary Eyles maintained during his service, beginning on 14 June when HMAT Wandilla set sail from Sydney. The daily entries are brief, but mention the weather, the condition of the sea (whether rough or calm), the sights, the ships passed, and some of his duties as Wandilla, alongside HMAT Karoola, steamed via Melbourne and Freemantle, across the Indian Ocean and into the Red Sea. He also references entertainment and a ball hosted aboard the troopship, a smoke concert on 6 July to celebrate the crossing of the equator, and of the death and burial at sea of Company Sergeant Major Donald MacArthur (mistakenly given as "McCarthy").

Eyles also makes brief remarks on local salesmen in Aden harbour, of training in Egypt and enjoying his time in Cairo, and of witnessing the masses of troop transports, war vessels and hospital ships anchored at Lemnos. Eyles landed at Gallipoli on 2 August and was occupying a reserve trench by that afternoon, where he writes "a few shots was flying about". The entries for Gallipoli are especially concise, noting little more than his movements in and out of the frontlines and of the occasional swim down at the beach. The entries end on 21 August 1915; Eyles was killed in action the following day.