Military Matters

People at war, and the wars they were at.

Two early 18thC Marines

In all the researched years of our family histories there have been numerous people involved in many conflicts at different times and places. Apart from the almost lemming-like persistence of men to "run" to World War 1 and World War 2, we have identified family members in conflicts from the time of the English Commonwealth, through the various 18th Century conflicts between Britain and France, through the Napoleonic era and into the British Empire building excursions to India, Ceylon, New Zealand and the Boer Wars.

There were, of course those who participated in the withdrawal of England from North America, and those who served as marines in the establishment of the new colony of Australia.

Of course those women who served, mainly as nurses, in mititary zones must also be acknowledged.

We have "inherited" two of those controversial ancient genealogies which the Irish and Welsh are so fond of. If we are truly descended in line from these ancient and noble lineages then so be it. I hope no one will criticise me for taking the liberty of including these persons within my pages and of including the lines within the genealogies. Call it the poet in my soul and if you disagree, then do so, but permit me my indulgence.

One published line links our identified 15th century Welshman, Jeffreys, with a lineage stretching back to the days of Rhys Goch. If we believe all we hear of those terrible and tumultuous times, then all men fought. But this published line identifies one or two instances of specific events. To be continued

In like vein there is a published line linking our Jeffreys line through to Ireland and the "Seven Kings" and again, theirs and their compatriots' is a story of continuous battle on which I need not elaborate. -more to come.

Colonel Jeffreys is recorded as being of such rank in the year ...., but whether he was royalist or republican we have not established.

OUR FIRST FLEET MARINES AND INTO THE 19thC

Thomas Harmsworth: and Daniel Stanfield: FONT SIZE=4 COLOR="#00ff00"?-1826

with mentions of the American War of Independence and the Siege of Kandy (Ceylon)

Thomas Harmsworth was a Marine on the First Fleet ship The Prince of Wales. To date we have learned nothing of his experiences prior to the journey to Australia. Also we note that he died within weeks of his arrival here. His significance to us is therefore really through his wife, Alice nee Mansfield. For soon after Thomas?s death, Alice married another marine from the First Fleet.

Daniel Stanfield also arrived with the First Fleet on the flagship Sirius. He was soon to be promoted to the rank of corporal. However it was his choice to resign from the marines and take up farming, first on Norfolk Island and then in Tasmania. During his time on Norfolk he served briefly as a constable. He did have a brief return (1794-1799) to military service in the New South Wales Corps during this time. So in Australian terms his military service was essentially that of prison guard. But we know a little of his prior military service.

Daniel had served on H.M.S. Elizabeth from 1782 to 1785 in the later stages of the American War of Independence. Afterwards, when the Elizabeth was laid up in Portsmouth he was put on part-pay from 1786 to 1787.

It was Sarah, a daughter of Daniel and Alice, who was to marry William, a son of Edward Kimberley as the second generation of the Kimberley family in Australia.

Daniel was a successful farmer both with crops and animals and established a quite prosperous family in Tasmania.

As a courtesy we should here acknowledge young John Harmsworth , son of Thomas and Alice, and also a First Fleeter. John is reputed to have signed on as a drummer boy in the New South Wales Corps at the tender age of six years, and then with the Marines at age 10. He was certainly in the rd Regiment by 1810 and sailed away with them to Ceylon where he was present at the Siege of Kandy and at the overthrow of the King of Ceylon. Following that service he returned to re-settle in Tasmania.

He died in 1860, reputedly the last of the First Fleeters to die.

The Boer War people.

The most significant family "contribution" to the Boer War seems to have been made by the Jeffreys family of Avenel/Burnt Creek /Locksley district via Seymour. Three of the Jeffreys boys participated in this conflict, one never to return.

Dodsworth joined the Second Commonwealth Contingent on February 1902. He sailed from Melbourne on the Transport Templemore on 25 March 1902 as part of the Victorian Units of the 4^th battalion, Commonwealth Horse..

Richard enlisted in January 1902 for the second time, having had 1 year and 128 days previous service with the Second Victorian Contingent - Mounted Rifles, or Mounted Infantry.

For his first round of service he embarked on the ship Euryalus on 13 Jan 1900. On his second embarkation he voyaged on the Templemore on 26 March 1902 as part of the 4^th Battalion.

Frederick?s enlistment is dated February1902. He also sailed on the Templemore, and as was his brother, he was attached to the 4^th Battalion.. Frederick died at Pine town on 1^st May 1902, very soon after arrival. As this was not the site of a battle it must be supposed that he died of some illness. His name is commemorated on the Boer War Memorials at Longford and Ballarat.

I have not been able to find any specific information on the service of these men, but hopefully with the coming remembrances associated with the centenary of the Boer Wars, more detail may come to light. The three are listed on the Longford Boer War Memorial.

OTHER PARTICIPANTS.

As noted on the "legends" pages of this site(LINK TO COME) there were two Tasmanian women who volunteered service as nurses in the Boer War. They were attached to the British Army.

The Great War.

So many men participated in this great conflagration that it is impracticable to do more than name them. Later some effort will be made to outline specific actions or activities of note, such as the air service of Charles Gilmour of Tasmania.

I have opted to briefly include all participants even into cousin/aunt/uncle lines, rather than to select a few close direct line participants to talk about in depth at this stage. Details of the individuals can be found in the genealogy lines segment of this site.

Carl A Brodin and John M Brodin of Locksley.

Carl (Collie) Brodin was born in 1895 and left his job as a tram conductor to enlist at Melbourne in July 1915. He was stricken with meningitis and discharged from active service. His brother John became a corporal in C company , 5^th battalion. He was born at Locksley in 1891, and was working as a wood cutter when he enlisted at Melbourne in February 1915. He fought at Gallipoli where he was twice wounded and then was engaged in the desert fighting in Egypt. In France he was reported Missing in Action on July 25, 1916 and his final fate was never determined.

David Moore and Robert Tristram Moore both served in the First World War. David was in the 22^nd Battalion and Robert in the 21^st. Apart from a brief note on a postcard to John Viccars Moore, we have no details of their service

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Arthur Frederick Kimberley:

A F Kimberley first enlisted in WW1 as a sapper in the 2^nd Signal Squadron of the 1^st A.I.F. Perhaps , with the amount of "traffic" carried by foot runners in that war, his appointment to signals might have been influenced by his youthful skill as a runner, being the holder of a cup inscribed "D(evonport) H(arriers) S(ociety) Won by A.F.Kimberley for the"Highest number of points this season, 1905"

Arthur was a saddler by trade and at the outbreak of war, worked in the Government Harness factory and thus was not eligible for enlistment as his was an "essential trade" . Eventually was able to enlist on 19 June 1917 and embarked on the ship Kyarra. In the Middle East he served with the Australian Base Signal Depot and other units in the Light Horse brigade. He was not discharged until February 1920, 15 months after the war?s end. For this service he received the British War Medal and the Victory Medal.

Surprisingly Arthur was accepted into the Citizen Military Forces at the age of 63, when World War II came. His Attestation Form states that was working as a storeman at the time. He was appointed to the rank of Sergeant and served from February 1942 until June 1947, again not being discharged until some months after war?s end. This service was in Australia at the army ordnance depot in New South Wales.

 John Viccars Moore , Jack, was born in 1904 in Richmond, Melbourne, Australia. He was never a very literate man, his main reading probably being the racing form and football results. But his two little pocket diaries of wartime experience contain one or two brief notes of some poignancy.

One of his proudest memories, judging from the number of times he told me of it, was receiving a postcard from his uncles Bob and XX from their army camp in England during the First World War. It always seemed to me that Dad regretted having been too young for that adventure himself. Perhaps it was the option of a chance to travel and return to the family "homeland". He was briefly in the Citizen Volunteer Forces for a short while as a young man and his photograph in uniform reflects an obvious feeling of pride in the uniform. Anyway, he had started work as a young teenager with a printing works and soon moved as an apprentice to the upholstery trade in which he was employed for the rest of his working life, interrupted only by the hard times of the Depression, the varying lengthy periods of industrial strikes, and, of course, his term as a Sapper with the 2^nd A.I.F. during world war II.

He volunteered for the army in 1941 and because of age and experience as a tradesman, was assigned to the 2/16^th Division, Royal Australian Engineers.

After training his service took him to South Africa in transit, then to India and the Middle East and Egypt. Here he was involved in various "engineering" works such as the building of base army hospitals. While his diaries suggest a certain Aussie disregard for the rules (gambling and being absent without leave in the main) they also reflect the sudden shock of the reality of war during German air raids in Egypt. ((INSERT QUOTE). But that service was relatively short-lived and when Australians were called back to defend their own shores he followed that first sea voyage in reverse, with his few souvenirs of that dramatic tour: beaded Egyptian hats for his children, carved wooden camels and sandalwood prayer books and pressed flower cards. There was a certificate of pilgrimage to the Tomb of Christ and an assemblage of shipboard and on-shore theatre and travel tickets, plus an assortment of strange coins.

Not long in Australia however and the 2/16 was off to New Guinea. Here I am not sure what happened as he never spoke of his time in New Guinea. But Mum told me some details as she remembered them. Jack had been wounded. I recall being told he was stabbed by a Japanese and hospitalised with the consequent loss of one lung and lingering lung disease which was to plague him for the rest of his days, especially in the dirty, dusty environment of the upholstery works to which he returned. But perhaps the stabbing story was an exaggeration as it is not mentioned on his discharge notice. Also, Mum used tell me that he was sunk while on a hospital ship back from New Guinea and that it was this immersion which caused his later lung problems. But I can find no evidence of such a sinking anywhere in the war records; Mum had a tendency to "add" to stories and perhaps made this extension as there was a sinking of a hospital boat off the Queensland coast at about the time he returned, but Jack was not on it. As a result of his wounds he was dismissed before the end of the War on DATE

For many years after the War he was a staunch attendee at Unit Reunions and Anzac Day ceremonies, with all the good and not-so-good consequences of those events in Australian folk history. And then in his later years there were recurring and distressing bouts of visits to the Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital, but by that time its origins as a military hospital had all but disappeared and it offered none of the "camaraderie" and spirit of its wartime and post war years.

Jack never rose to any rank, not even the humble grade of lance-corporal; the only stripes he ever wore were the little blue annual service stripes on his lower arm. But he was awarded the maximum range of Australian Service Medals for his years in uniform, and proudly wore them to those events mentioned above.

The following picture shows his campaign medals and returned soldiers medals and some uniform insignia.

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Copyright © 1999 Gavin Moore
This Home Page was created ,Thursday, 4 March 1999
Most recent revision 20 April 1999