Sidney Firth Lumb

Sidney “Sid” Firth Lumb was born in 1893 in Melbourne to parents Thomas and Phoebe. When the First World War broke out he had just completed his third-year dental exams at the University of Melbourne.

Aged 21, he and a group of fellow students enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) on 21 November 1914. They were told they would be able to return home to finish their studies after one year of service, but Lumb chose to remain overseas until the war ended. His father was not happy about this, and sent letters to the army, the Minister of Defence, and the Secretary of Defence demanding that his son be sent home to finish his studies.

Lumb was appointed as an orderly to the 1st Australian General Hospital, and served with this unit in Cairo before being transferred to Gallipoli as a dental assistant. Here, dental disease was particularly common. Arthur Graham Butler notes in his first volume of the Australian Army Medical Services official history that among the 1st Division men on Gallipoli “600 cases had been evacuated for this cause”. It wasn’t until dental disease began to result in large losses among the men that dental health was taken seriously, and proper dental units were formed.

On returning to Egypt Lumb was transferred to the 1st Light Horse Regiment on 14 January 1916 and promoted to corporal prior to the battle of Romani. Of the battle he wrote:

We were roused at midnight, and saddled up and away. We met the enemy attacking, and had to engage them in the open without trenches, and only tussocks to hide us, and so we held on till daybreak, gradually driving the enemy on. At daybreak our artillery opened and we withdrew … we galloped across a gully about a mile under a hail of bullets. I’m glad to say that I got all the wounded in my section away, leaving only the dead. In the mad rush I had two horses shot under me with shrapnel, and managed to get a third – for there were a few empty saddles – and thus got under shelter.

Sidney Firth Lumb, August 1916

Lumb was recommended for the Military Medal for rescuing the wounded under Turkish fire, and was the first of only four Australians to receive the Russian Cross of St George during the First World War. He later wrote:

Well, I have received a Christmas present already, that is, a decoration of the Russian Order of St. George, 3rd class, a silver cross. The order read like this: “His Imperial Majesty. etc., the Czar of Russia, with the consent of his Majesty King George V of England, has awarded to Corporal S.F. Lumb the Order of St. George, 3rd class, and such decoration is to be worn on all occasions.

Sidney Firth Lumb, 2 October 1916.

In 1917 Lumb was transferred to the 71st Dental Unit and then to the Camel Brigade Field Ambulance. He was promoted to staff sergeant (dental mechanic) in August, and after attending the Officer Cadet School in Egypt was made a second lieutenant. In 1918 he was posted to No. 1 Squadron, Australian Flying Corps, and received training as an aerial observer, before departing for Australia on the day after Christmas in 1918.

Lumb completed his Dental Science degree in 1919 and had a prestigious career, becoming president of the Australian Dental Association (Victorian branch) and the Dean of Dentistry at the University of Queensland Dentistry. He married twice, and died in 1988.

Questions and activities

1. Why do you think Lumb chose not to return home to finish his studies after one year serving overseas?

2. What contributed to high rates of dental disease in the First World War, particularly on Gallipoli?

3. In his letter reporting on the events at Romani, Lumb stated that he managed to get a third horse as “there were a few empty saddles”. What did he mean by this?

4. Referring to Lumb’s letter of 2 October 1916:

   1. Look up the criteria for the awarding of the Russian Cross of St George.

   2. Lumb’s recommendation for a Military Medal was not approved owing to incorrect paperwork. How might he have felt about receiving the Russian Cross of St George instead?