Armitage, Harold Edwin Salisbury (known as Rollo) (Captain, b.1894 - d.1917)

Collection relating to the First World War service of Captain Harold Edwin Salisbury Armitage, 10 Battalion and 50 Battalion, Egypt, Gallipoli and France, 1915-1917. Collection consists of three letterbooks with carbon copies of transcriptions of letters written by Armitage to his parents. The books seem to have been compiled by his parents from the letters they received. They cover Australia to Gallipoli, 20 April to 24 November 1915; Lemnos, Egypt, Sinai, 2 December 1915 to 4 June 1916; and the Mediterranean trip and France, June 1916 to April 1917. Also included is a sheet of biographical notes relating to Armitage. The collection is notable for its lengthy description of Armitage's experience of the 50th battalion's attack on Mouquet Farm, between 13 and 15 August 1916. Armitage was killed in action on 3 April 1917 in France.

Biographical note: Captain Harold Edwin Salisbury Armitage, 50 Battalion, AIF, (formerly with the 10th Battalion) who on April 3, 1917, was killed in action at Noreuil, opposite the Hindenburg Lined. Other biographical details concerning him are: school teacher (taking University Arts course) of Norwood, Houghton, and Millicent, South Australia; born Norwood, educated at Houghton Public School, Adelaide School of Mines, Adelaide High School, and Adelaide University; was successively a private, sergeant, and lieutenant in the 79th Regiment of the Commonwealth Citizen Forces; joined an officers' training school at Brighton (SA) in December 1914 and entered the AIF camp at Oatlands, helping to train the 3rd, 4th and 5th reinforcement of the 10th Battalion; left Adelaide on 20 April 1915 in charge of the 5th reinforcements of the 10th Battalion and went direct to Gallipoli; transferred to 50 Battalion in Egypt, early in 1916, and fought with the 50th Battalion at Pozieres, Mouquet Farm, Flers, le Barque, and Noreuil; age at time of death 22. Son of Henry James and Martha Elizabeth Armitage, of Millicent, South Australia. Born at Norwood, South Australia.

A brother, George William Thomas Armitage, served in the Royal Australian Navy as a midshipman and afterwards sub-lieutenant. He was on HMS Canada and HMAS Torrens in 1917-18 and was aboard HMAT Ballarat when she was torpedoed in the English Channel on 25 April 1917.

• Diary of Harold Edwin Salisbury Armitage, 1915
• Letterbook for Harold Edwin Salisbury Armitage, 1915-1916
• Letterbook for Harold Edwin Salisbury Armitage, 1916-1918