Soldier profile – Mack Macdonald

Mackenzie Macdonald was born in Carnoustie (near Dundee), in Forfarshire, Scotland.  At some stage he migrated to Australia and by 1914 was working as a labourer on a property named ‘Runnymede’, near Stockinbingal, NSW.  When war broke out, Mack as he was commonly known, enlisted on 29 August 1914 in Sydney.  He was 28 years old, with a strongly built 5’ 9” tall, 13 stone frame.

 

An original member of 4th Battalion, he was a private in E Company and would likely have felt quite at home, given the high proportion of Scotsmen in that battalion.  He was promoted Lance Corporal just prior to the Gallipoli landing, and to Corporal the day after, no doubt due to high losses.  Mack’s luck held out and he survived, later taking part in the attack at Lone Pine in early August.  During his time on the peninsula, his efforts did not go unnoticed;

Update – Nominal Roll

A page from the battalion's nominal roll book. Near the top it lists the Heinecke brothers, George and Herbert, both of whom were killed in 1917.

It’s been a while since my last post, but work is still progressing steadily with research and writing of the book.  Alongside that, we’ve also continued to build the battalion’s nominal roll.  We’re hoping to make it as complete as possible (within reason), by using a variety of sources.

These include source records held by the Australian War Memorial such as nominal rolls, embarkation rolls, the Roll of Honour and personal service records (held by National Archives).  Of great help in crunching the numbers more efficiently has been assistance provided by Professor Peter Dennis and his AIF database (see Links), which brings the aforementioned sources together into one searchable database.

A lot of manual work has also gone into compiling this roll, including simply checking if names are on it when they are found in a variety of documents.  We’re also lucky to have a battalion nominal roll book in the Memorial’s collection which covers most of the battalion’s existence from about mid 1916 through to late 1918 (see image above).  I’ve actually employed my two teenage kids to go through copies of this roll and double check against what’s on our working roll (an Excel spreadsheet at this stage).

So far we’ve got almost 3,500 names and are confident that we’ve captured over 95% of the men who served in the battalion.  We’re trying to include everyone, no matter how brief their stay in the battalion was, so it’s a lot of extra work.  The men who joined the battalion late from another unit, and left it before the end of the war are the most difficult to find.  There are bound to be a few of these types that fall through the cracks but with all the sources and cross-checking I’m confident we won’t miss many at all. 

I reckon my eyes have now been over every single man’s name, to the point where if I see a name in a document, I can often say, “Oh yeah, I’ve seen him on the roll” and move on.  I really need to get a life…

Visit to the battlefields

Villers-Brettoneux Military Cemetery

A few weeks ago, Nick and I visited the Western Front battlefields and had the opportunity to see the places where the 56th had fought.  We were part of a joint Australian War Memorial – Imperial War Museum tour; about ten Brits and a similar number of us Aussies.  If you saw the 4 Corners program that aired on 10 November you would have seen our tour featured on that.

While Nick has been several times before, for me it was my first visit to the Western Front.  It was truly wonderful to visit all the sites I’ve been studying and writing about for years.  First we hit London for a couple of days, before taking the ferry over from Dover to Calais.  It was a bit of a whirlwind tour, but boy did we ever pack a lot into those five days.  We were on the go from first thing in the morning until after dark every day.  We were so keen to see all these places and just explore as much as possible, that weariness was forgotten – that really hit hard after it was all over. We were also blessed with great weather and great company as the Brits were a good bunch.  We had many fun times discussing the battles over a pint or two…

Day one: Doullens, Bertangles (where Monash had his HQ and was knighted by the King in 1918), Corbie, Heilly, saw the Morlancourt Ridge, then back to Amiens where we were based in a hotel where Australian officers had billeted in 1918.

The AWM-IWM tour group at Bertangles

Day two: Adelaide Cemetery, Villers-Brettoneux, le Hamel, Peronne, Mont St Quentin, Riqueval, Bellicourt, Estrees and Montbrehain.

View from atop Mont St Quentin

Day three: Serre, the Sunken Lane (Lancashire Fusiliers), Hawthorn Redoubt, Montauban, Trones Wood, Mametz, Fricourt, Albert, Lochnagar Crater, Ulster Memorial, Beaumont Hamel, Y Ravine, High Wood and Delville Wood, Martinpuich, Flers and then Pozieres, (drove past Mouquet Farm) and finished up at Thiepval.

The sunken road on the Somme

Day four: Louverval (where I gave a talk on the 56th Bn), Noreuil, Bullecourt, Vimy Ridge, Fromelles (where we visited the site of the recently discovered bodies), then up to Ypres in the evening, just in time for the Last Post at Menin Gate.  Whew…

Me giving my talk on the 56th at Louverval

Day five: Ypres, Langemarck, St Julien (where Nick did his talk), Polygon Wood (where Lt Col Scott of the 56th is buried), Tyne Cot, Messines then back down into Ypres to visit the In Flanders Fields Museum.

Nick & I at Lt Col Scott's grave at Polygon Wood

After the tour wound up in Ypres, we travelled back across the Channel on the ferry to the UK again.  I then stayed in London for another five days visiting musuems etc, and The National Archives at Kew. 

While in France and Belgium we naturally visited most of the main Australian memorials and cemeteries where we were able to contemplate the scale of the losses, remember the diggers and pay our respects.  I also got a lot out of visiting these sites from the point of view of writing about the battles; i.e. to walk the ground, see the lay of the land, gauge heights and distances etc.  When I write about these places and battles now, I do so with much greater insight and greater confidence.

Pozieres Windmill site

Soldier profile – Pte Leopold Meek

Leopold William Meek was born in Palmerston North, New Zealand on 23 June 1893.  At some stage he and his family moved to Sydney, New South Wales, where in September 1912 he signed on with the Royal Australian Navy for seven years.  During part of this time he served on HMAS Australia.  Gaining a discharge in mid 1914, he apparently became a carpenter; something he’d probably had experience with during his time in the navy, as his service card records an injury from a circular saw.  In 1914, now 22 years old, he was residing in East Zetland, Sydney.  Upon the outbreak of war in August 1914, he immediately joined the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force, and took part in the seizure and occupation of German New Guinea between September and January 1915.

Harold Williams and the Gallant Company

In writing a history of the 56th Battalion, we feel blessed that at least one its members published his story, providing us with much valuable information and insights not found in the official papers.  Lieutenant Harold Williams is our saviour in this respect, as he produced two books in fact; The Gallant Company (1933) and Comrades of the Great Adventure (1935).  Both are well-written works being very informative and descriptive (particularly of people and landscapes), and not at all dull to read.  Early reviews of the books seemed very good.  5th Division commander, Lt. Gen. Sir John Joseph Talbot Hobbs in writing the foreword called it ‘the best soldier’s story I have yet read in Australia.’

From the two books we have learned quite a bit about Williams himself, but not enough.  We would very much like to find any of his descendants to learn more.  We know basically what he looked like, yet have no photo of him.  We know some of his thoughts through his books, but nothing more; nothing about his life after the war for example.  We know he kept letters and a diary, so what became of them? Surely they must have survived.  At the beginning of The Gallant Company, Williams noted:

My brother’s keeper

Roy and Sid Whittle from Kenmore, near Goulburn NSW. Roy (R) was killed at Bullecourt, Sid was later wounded but survived the war (AWM photo P05921.001).

With most AIF infantry battalions recruited on a state basis, it was common to have quite a few men from the same suburbs or rural districts together, and often groups of mates who knew each other before the war serving in the same companies or platoons.  In many cases, perhaps to a greater degree than I previously imagined, family members were also an important factor in a unit’s make-up. 

Having a brother in your battalion could be a mixed blessing.  On one hand it might be good to have a familiar face close by, someone who knew you well and you could also look out for each other; whether that be on leave, or in the front line.  On the other hand perhaps a younger brother could be viewed as an encumbrance, cramping your style and an unwelcome family witness to what you got up to on leave. I suppose it would have depended on the age difference and whether you saw each other as mates or not.

Soldier profile – Private John Jameson

One of the better and more comprehensive collections of personal letters from a 56th Battalion soldier is that of John Jameson (No. 3151).  I was very fortunate to be contacted by his daughter, Pam Shadie, who kindly lent me his collection of letters and portrait photograph.  So I just thought I’d introduce Jameson and provide some brief biographical details on one of the characters who will likely surface in the book from time to time.

Progress update – slowly but surely

Well I haven’t posted anything on the blog for three months which is probably a bit slack of me, so I thought I’d provide this quick update – just so you know we haven’t turned up our toes or anything…

Nick and I have both been very busy with work commitments, managing our sections at the Memorial, preparing the next Memorial exhibition, Advancing to Victory, 1918  (due to open late October), and Nick has also been over in France and Belgium for a couple of months, leading battlefield tour groups.

But anyway, work continues on the 56th Battalion book, slowly but surely.  Nick’s been working on 1916, while I’ve been concentrating on 1917.  I’ve been reading a lot about Bullecourt, just going over the events to get them firmly in mind so I can get a better perspective on it.  Not that the 56th played a very large role there – they didn’t, really only coming in for the last week of fighting there during mid May.  Still, it was a very hot few days in the cauldron where they suffered quite a few casualties and played a small part in repulsing the seventh and final counterattack of the Lehr Regiment.  I’ve also been piecing together events of a milder nature, during the so-called ‘long rest’ between the end of Bullecourt and Polygon Wood, and working on expanding the lead-up to the Polygon Wood battle.  Last year I wrote a short article about this battle which will form the nucleus of the chapter on one of the unit’s key events.  You can read this article online.

Apart from that, I’ve also been reading my way through several collections of personal letters and diaries which always make fascinating and fulfilling reading.  I’ll make a few brief posts on some of these individuals over the next couple of months I imagine.  Another task has been the ongoing compiling of a nominal roll.  So far we’ve identified about 2,000 men.

It’s great to hear from relatives and other interested parties who have, over the past few months, been steadily emerging as they hear about this project, and offering up photos, letters and diaries.

Postwar journal/newsletter

From the Reveille journal, we know the 4th and 56th Battalions formed a joint association for ex-members after the war and usually held reunions around Easter time each year.  Based in Sydney, it seems a G. W. Hewitt was the contact person for the association and possibly their secretary.  This man was probably George Witton Hewitt (No. 787A), who served for a time with 4th Battalion.

So far we’ve found no evidence that the association produced a journal or newsletter, but naturally we’d be delighted to find out that they did. 

Can anyone help here?

A Sinn Fein connection?

While trawling the database for relevant Commonwealth archival records, I came across an interesting file title; ‘Officers of 56 Battalion with Sinn Fein sympathies.’

We know the 56th Battalion inherited a strong Scottish heritage from its parent battalion, the 4th, but it’s also apparent there were quite a large number of men of Irish heritage.  Indeed as Ron Austin, the author of a recent 4th Battalion history tells us, a pre-war nickname of those militia battalions forming the core of 4th Battalion was ‘The Macks and Micks.’  Of course Irish republicanism came to a head during the war, especially with the Easter Rebellion of 1916, and in Australia, the political situation of Ireland was always an ongoing sensitive issue.

This is apparently a police file held in the Melbourne branch of the National Archives, and is dated 1918.  I’ll have to request a copy and see what it reveals.  Could be interesting…