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WWI: Mementos of our Grandfathers

A blog over 52 weeks dedicated to my two grandfathers who both served in WWI. It commenced on 29 January 2017.

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Ashfield Anzac Memorial Service 2017

30/4/2017

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Jordan Nicolopolous, Year 11, of Ashfield Boys High School gave the Anzac Memorial Address on 23 April 2017

We've lived in this area now for 19 years and many times on my early morning walks through Ashfield park I would find floral wreaths at the battlefield monument in the centre of the park, but never knew when the service was held.

Back in April 2010 I was on my way through the park heading for coffee to Summer Hill, later than my usual walk time, when I came across the service in progress.  It seems there is always an Anzac memorial service in Ashfield Park on the Sunday before Anzac Day. 

This year I attended the service hoping to connect with the Australian World War One Descendants association for my WWI project, but they weren't there this year.  Nevertheless I stayed for the service.

A young man from Ashfield Boys High School gave the Anzac Memorial Address, and it was the most moving speech about Anzac Day I have ever heard.  I happened to be standing next to his Principal Dwayne Hopwood and with tears in my eyes I asked if I could speak with young Jordan Nicolopolous after the service.

Jordan had written his speech himself.  He and other students were researching the names on their WWI Honour Board at the school.  He chose to write about Francis Hocking.  Jordan gave permission for me to reprint his speech in its entirety....so here in his words are why we remember all those who served in the Great War for Civilisation!

Good morning everyone.  It is such an honour to have the opportunity to speak at such a significant occasion.
 
Just over a hundred years ago, on the 22nd September 2016, a young local Enfield man was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal for his actions on the Western Front. This medal is the second highest Australian military honour after the Victoria Cross.  The young man's name was Francis Hocking and despite the century of time that separates us there are some things that he and I have in common. Both of us are highly patriotic Australian young men from the local area. Both of us were students at Ashfield Boys High school, although our school was called Ashfield Superior school back then. Both of us have grown up in a world of political uncertainty, global tension and international threat.
 
However, the similarities between us end here.  At the age of 16 I am comfortably pursuing an education in Year 11. Hocking at the very same age enlisted as soon as the authorities would accept him in those early euphoric months of World War One.  I have chosen to mention Francis Hocking today because his story is representative of so many soldiers and is the reason why we are all gathered here this morning. For me, he is more than just a name on the WW1 honour board in our school hall.  He is an example of why, over 100 years on, we still remember.
 
Hocking was awarded his medal for saving countless lives. At considerable risk to himself he organised the ammunition parties to facilitate the feeding of ammunition to keep the enemy at bay during a retreat. His actions ensured the gun crews could remain focused on covering the retreat of the last troops from the communication trenches before it was overrun by the enemy. Even after this act of bravery Francis Hocking ran back out, exposed to gun fire, to rescue one final wounded soldier, dressing his wounds and placing him in a position of safety. On that fateful day in July, 1916, Francis Hocking was the last soldier to leave the trench.
 
I can’t possibly stand before you today and claim to understand the suffering and sacrifice that people like Francis Hocking and all those involved in war have endured over the past 100 years. I have no doubt that this is also a common truth for many of us here today. ANZAC Day marks a special day in our country’s history as we remember and appreciate the bravery of ordinary Australians, who sacrificed their lives for a greater purpose.

However, many weren’t men, many were still children, often younger than me and I cannot possibly fathom the fear that gripped them or the bloodshed they witnessed. Unfortunately, war remains a common occurrence and it comes with the highest cost, the cost of life.
 
I cannot imagine being separated from my family and friends, to be taken half way across the world with the lingering feeling that my life could end at any moment. Yet, this is what happened to thousands of young men. They were transported to a place where sounds of war consumed them, where everything was drowned out by the cacophony of gunfire and explosions. It is safe to say, many of our returning veterans still bear the wounds of war, whether physically or psychologically. I know that days like this can sometimes unearth painful memories for the returned. And it is a reminder to the nation, that returning soldiers cannot simply return to their old lives as if nothing happened and that the least we can do in return is to support our heroes.
 
Despite the century-long gap that lies between then and now, the very fact that I am speaking to you is evidence that the ANZAC legacy has lived on and endured over the decades. The ANZAC spirit dwells within anyone who calls this land home and it is this bond that makes this day move us in ways we cannot describe.
 
The very fact that young people such as myself can acknowledge and hold reverence to the heroism of our soldiers today, in a different century and a different world,  is evidence enough of the ANZAC spirit of courage, endurance, duty, patriotism, comradery and mateship.
 
The freedom that we, as a nation, boast to the world was sorely won. As easy as it is to take our prosperity and comfort for granted, we must remember those who gave the ultimate sacrifice so that we may truly, fully and freely live. It is a blessing that I am not able to understand and account for the horrors of war. Hopefully, thanks to the actions of our forefathers, I may never need to. As part of the ANZAC legacy it is therefore our responsibility to ensure in every way, shape and form that the generations ahead will never need to either.
 
And so, we pause today to acknowledge all current and former members of our defence forces, and we pay respect to those who served and to those who did not make it home.
 
I cannot even begin to comprehend the experiences of our ANZACS.  All I can say is thank you. Thank you for your bravery. Thank you for your strength. Thank you for your courage. Their names will not be lost to history; their bravery will never be discounted. We will forever be indebted to them but most importantly, we will always remember.
 
Lest we forget.

 
Jordan Nicolopoulos
Year 11
Ashfield Boys High School

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April 25th, 2017

25/4/2017

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Most people know how and why we have named 25 April as the day we remember those who served and in many cases gave the supreme sacrifice.  But just in case, and for the record, this day commemorates the anniversary of that fateful pre-dawn landing long ago in Gallipoli in 1915.  The term Anzac was coined after the acronym for our forces, the combined Australian and New Zealand Army Corps.

Since that fateful landing, Australia’s first battlefield engagement during the Great War of 1914-1918, the tradition of and ideals of ANZAC began to emerge – that of courage and sacrifice, endurance and mateship.

According to the Australian War Memorial website the first Anzac Day commemorations were held in 1916.  Marches were held all over Australia; in the Sydney march convoys of cars carried soldiers wounded on Gallipoli and their nurses.

During the 1920s Anzac Day became established as a national day of commemoration for the more than 60,000 Australians who had died during the war.  In 1927, for the first time, every state observed some form of public holiday on Anzac Day.  By the mid-1930s all the rituals we now associate with the day – dawn vigils, marches, memorial services, reunions, two-up games – were firmly established as part of Anzac Day culture.

Tradition has it that the first “dawn” service on Anzac Day in Sydney occurred when, in the early morning hours of Anzac Day 1927, five members of the Australian Legion of Ex-Service Clubs saw an elderly woman laying a sheaf of flowers at the Cenotaph.  They asked if they could join her in silent tribute.

Little publicity was given to that simple ceremony, but in 1928, about 150 people were present.  The next year an open invitation brought 250 people.  By 1930 more than 1,000 people attended.  On the 20th anniversary of ANZAC, 10,000 people attended, and then in 1939, with the threat of another war imminent, 20,000 turned up.

And on the Gallipoli centenary an estimated 30,000 attended the dawn service, including my nephew, Air Force Cadet Aaron Mitchell and I.  We laid wreaths for my parents Jack and Valerie, who both served in Vietnam and WWII respectively.  Dad served 20 years with the RAAF and mum was one of the Australian Women’s Army Service (AWAS), the first group of women to see active service overseas, although she suffered a nervous breakdown in New Guinea after only three weeks and was shipped home.

The half-light of dawn was one of the times favoured for launching an attack. Soldiers in defensive positions were woken in the dark before dawn, so by the time first light crept across the battlefield they were awake, alert, and manning their weapons; this is still known as the “stand-to”. As dusk is equally favourable for battle, the stand-to was repeated at sunset.

Over the years other conflicts have brought new waves of veterans to march in memory of their comrades.  An estimated 20,000 service men and women marched in the centenary Anzac Day march of 2015.

Part of an Anzac Day service is the reading of the Ode, taken from the Ode to the Fallen by O L Binyon: 

They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old,
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.

Lest we forget.

The Cenotaph in Martin Place is a focal point each Anzac Day.  The word “Cenotaph” means an empty tomb, a sepulchral monument in honour of a person whose body is elsewhere.  The word is derived from the Greek “Kenas” meaning empty, “Tophos” meaning a tomb, and “Kenotaphfion” meaning Cenotaph.  There is a slight discrepancy about the first dawn service timing mentioned in the beginning of this week’s blog as the Cenotaph was not completed until 1929.

My tribute to my grandfathers today is to bake my grandmother’s recipe for Anzac Cakes as she calls them.  Tradition says that the women at home during WWI wanted to make something that could survive the two month journey by ship to the Western Front.  Out of the ingredients they had during the war years – oats, flour, sugar, coconut, golden syrup and butter – they created biscuits now known as Anzac biscuits.  The recipe in the photo is in my grandmother, Dorothy Beryl Lilja’s handwriting, from her recipe book.
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On each Anzac Day March these young Army cadets proudly carry a WWI Battalion Flag.  My grandfather Harold's 34th battalion flag is one of them.
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Sydney Royal Easter Show honours Gallipoli centenary

16/4/2017

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At Easter in 2015 I was working at Sydney Olympic Park right next to the Easter Show.  I’d heard the growers were honouring the Gallipoli centenary with their displays.  I knew I had to get into the show to see what they’d done, and the produce displays are my favourite part anyway.

I was preoccupied with preparing to hang my exhibition It’s Time to Remember on Easter Monday, also timed to commemorate this significant battle, it was a series of photographs taken at the Anzac Day march in 2012.  So on the Thursday night after work I rushed into the Fresh Food Dome and stopped in my tracks!

The school district displays were amazing….perhaps even more interesting and moving in some cases than the main district displays…if that is even possible given the effort that goes into each of these simply stupendous displays showcasing not only the bounty of our farmers and regions but also the creativity and ingenuity of the designers, in honouring our Anzacs on this significant milestone in our nation’s history.

Rather than a quick 30 minutes, in and out, I was entranced for a couple of hours.  The most moving of the student entries for me was the figure of a distraught woman lying across her dining table with a photograph in her hand.  She was pining the loss of her man, whether he be her husband, son or brother, with a sea of poppies pouring over red apples like a river of blood. 

And then the most stunning of the regional displays was a field of giant, triffid-like poppies touring above a field of produce.  So much thought and effort went into each of the displays. 

There are five regions who take part – northern, southern, western, central NSW and SE Qld.  The displays are the end result of a year of hard work by passionate agriculturalists, farmers and volunteers, who plan, source, collect, design and install the spectacular constructions for pre-Show judging. More than 50,000 pieces of fresh fruit, vegetables, grains, pulses, wool and other produce are used to create the exhibits. 

Did you know that it takes two weeks to build each display onsite for the Easter Show?  Then comes the judging which is taken very seriously and has been very hotly contested ever since 1900.  This was when the District Exhibits became a permanent feature of each show.  And the term “Royal” was added in 1891 with the consent of Queen Victoria.

In 1900 the show went on even though bubonic plague had hit Sydney shores, and even through WWI years 1914 – 1918 the show went on, but in between shows the showground was used as billeting for the troops coming and going to the battlefields.  But it was in 1919, when soldiers returning from the horror of the Great War brought the Spanish flu epidemic to Sydney, that the show did not go on.  And the showground buildings were used as temporary hospital and morgue.

Around 850 people died in the pandemic, including my grandmother’s youngest brother, Ernest Kenyon Hobson.  He was just 21 years old.  I’ve always wondered why he was photographed in WWI uniform but I couldn’t find his name on the WWI Nominal Roll.  I was told by one of the Australian War Memorial research historians that he had completed an application to enlist but the war came to an end before he could serve.  They also said it was quite popular for people to be “snapped” in say a great coat or similar military attire.  So sad that he was saved from the horror of the battlefields only to die anyway.

After the war the Royal Agricultural Society of NSW (RAS), which had formed in 1822 and ran their first show in 1823, donated funds to assist returning soldiers get instruction and training in agriculture.  And in response to the Soldier Settlement programs in 1926 the agricultural leaders met in the RAS offices to discuss the need for information on modern farming methods.  Out of the meeting came the idea for a network of clubs across the state which became known as the Junior Farmers Movement.

On Friday 7 April 2017 I went to the Easter Show again just to see the produce.  I was lucky enough to visit while the farmers and designers were still at their stands, so got to speak to several of them.  For the first time in over 100 years the South East Queensland region won the overall prize.  I met Jim Mitchell, Shirley Cronk and another gentleman, who proudly showed me their hotly contested and hard won shield.  In talking to Jim I discovered he is from Stanthorpe, on the Queensland / NSW border.  I asked him about the nearby Passchendaele State Forest which I’d discovered on Google maps, and he described the Soldier Settlement there which includes the villages of Amiens and Pozieres with road names such as Messines and Bullecourt.  It is on my must visit list for 2017.

You can buy produce directly from each of the displays such as fruit, vegetables and jams etc.  So I went home with several jams, including a large jar of Shirley's rosella jam, some dried pears and mango, and several sugar bananas, and one cabbage given to me by Jim Mitchell.  Nothing is wasted.  At the end of show all left over produce is donated to OzHarvest who distribute it to the community.

I wish you all a safe and happy Easter holiday break!

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Finding Private Murray

9/4/2017

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Seeking relatives or descendants of Private Thomas MURRAY.

When I told my friend Marion about my WWI project in 2014 she walked into her bedroom and came out with the WWI Australian service medal pictured.  It belonged to Private T Murray, 1st Battalion AIF.  I know this because all medals are inscribed with the recipient’s name, rank and service details.

The medal came into Marion’s hands about 25 years ago when Keith, an ex-boyfriend, asked her to look after it for him.  He has never reclaimed it.
Naturally I was curious as to why someone would give up a medal belonging to a family member, and to find out more about Private Murray.

You can find out about any Australian’s WWI service simply by going to the Australian War Memorial website.  On their homepage there is a section on Family History Research with a link to “search for a person”.  This brings up various searchable lists such as the WWI Nominal Roll, a list of all those who served in WWI.

Private Murray’s service number on the medal is 1392 but I couldn’t find him on the WWI nominal roll under that number.  I thought to myself “this is impossible given I’m holding his medal”.  There are 18 Thomas Murray’s listed, of which 14 were Privates, one Corporal, one Lieutenant Corporate, and two Lieutenants.  Of the 18 seven were killed in action, one died of wounds, and eight returned to Australia, and for two it’s not listed what happened to them.

Of the 14 privates, only two were in the 1st Battalion.  One of them, Private Thomas Frederick Murray service number 2097, was killed in action on 10 or 11 August 1915.  The other, Private Thomas Murray, service number 1479, enlisted on 29 October 1914, survived and returned to Australia in 1917.  But what happened to the owner of this medal, Private Murray, service number 1392?  Why isn’t he listed?

So I wrote to the AWM.  You can do that by the way, send an enquiry and the historians there are very good and will get back to you in time.  Anyway, I got a very informative email back and discovered that Private Murray, service number 1392 and Private Murray, service number 1479, were one and the same person!  There is no explanation why his number changes.  The historian gave me a link to the National Archives of Australia where all service records are held: http://www.naa.gov.au/collection/search/index.aspx

It seems Thomas Murray was 40 years old when he enlisted and he was unlucky enough to be sent to Gallipoli on 7 May 2015 where he was wounded on 19 May with a bayonet wound to the leg.  He was evacuated to Malta where he recuperated and then was even more unlucky as he was sent to France to join the battle at Pozieres in 1916 where he was severely wounded by a gunshot wound to his pelvic region. He spent 58 days in hospital but was considered unfit for general or home service and returned to Australia in 1917 where he was discharged on an invalid pension of £3 per fortnight at age 43.

Throughout his service records there are copies of several letters written to the Department of Defence from his two married sisters, Mrs Kate Barrett and Mrs Margaret Tuffin, both of Wanganui New Zealand, seeking information on his whereabouts.  Private Murray was born in Inverness, Scotland and was an unmarried labourer when he enlisted.  His service record also contained a letter from the Public Trustee that stated he had died on 16 November 1939 in Wee Waa, NSW.

After searching cemetery indexes without finding him, I ordered a transcription of his death certificate which confirmed date and location of his passing and that he died from pulmonary tuberculosis.  He was still unmarried and was buried in the Wee Waa cemetery.  His father was George Murray and mother Catherine Fraser.

The medal came without the ribbon which I purchased from Christie’s.  I would like to return Private Murray’s medal to one of his family members.  You can help by sharing this post.  We are seeking descendants of Mrs Barrett and Mrs Tuppin of New Zealand, or other Murray family members of Scotland.  Thank you for your service Private Murray!
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    I am a social documentary photographer & the family historian. I like to share visual stories.

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