To mark the centenary of the Anzac Landings at Gallipoli, the Gazette published on 22 April a special Anzac centenary souvenir edition. The edition carried the stories of the Diggers who left to fight on foreign shores, the families and communities they left behind, and reflections on their legacy.
In the words of Gazette editor Garry Howe, the thought behind the special edition was not to glorify war but: “So when fronting up for an Anzac Day service, our readers may now have a better idea of who those people were, what they did and how they died”.
Here we present the stories from that edition, so that we who are left can remember them.
Foreword
Tales of the men on the marble
THREE soldiers sit centre stage in a Kooweerup Hall emblazoned with flags, streamers and a huge Welcome Home banner. It’s 1918 and that scene is played out regularly across the district.
The Diggers
Life ripped from the pages
“They are getting killed all around me I have escaped so far …“ This Tuesday 27 April, 1915 entry into Alfred Herbert Love’s Gallipoli diary was his last. The remainder of the journal was left untouched. Never have empty spaces been so haunting.
Men were ‘nine-pins in a hurricane’
JULY 19, 1916, was a day that never left Sergeant Clair Whiteside. The Reverend’s son from Officer spent a large part of that day with a gunshot wound to the head, dodging machine-gun fire and wading through a sea of bodies on the battlefield at Fromelles in France.
‘With God’s help, I got out of it’
Dear Mother, On the morning of the 19th plans were given out to the NCOs, who in turn had to get their sections and grenade parties up to the pitch. After dinner, a pot of old pig potatoes and a lump of pig, we went down to the trenches to our relative positions.
Finn was first to fight
ATOLF Akeksanter Aalto had a thirst for adventure. The enterprising teenager left his family home in Nystad, Finland, and travelled alone to Australia to try his luck at mining. He was only 19 when his ship docked in Melbourne on Boxing Day 1912.
MP was a true veteran
LESLIE James Cochrane lived an extraordinary life in many ways.
Battalion belonged to a boy from Berwick
AS THE Great War entered its final year the 39th Battalion, made up predominantly of Victorians from the Western District, had at its command a boy from Berwick.
Captains lived and died together
THEY were best mates who enlisted together, fought side by side and died on the same day as captains leading their men in one of the last decisive battles of the Great War.
A land of sand and sin
POPULAR Berwick footballer William Watson hated Gallipoli, yet he was one of the last to leave his trench when Anzac Cove was evacuated towards the end of 1915.
Smell of the gum leaves
The letter written by Private W. Watson to Berwick headmaster Henry McCann in August 1915.
Leckys left their mark
THEY were Officer’s brothers in arms from a pioneering family, whose battlefield deaths in France only six weeks apart rocked the small community to its core.
Brothers in arms and soaring spirits
ONE was a pilot who helped force down and destroy an enemy plane well over enemy lines and the other put his life on the line to save comrades carrying a wounded soldier. The McCann brothers, Ashley Vernon and Harry Clifford, signed up as privates and returned as highly decorated lieutenants.
Lieutenant led the way
WHEN Lieutenant William (Donovan) Joynt, 8th Battalion, First AIF, found the men of a company of the 6th Battalion at Herleville Wood, France, on 23 August 1918, they were crying out for leadership. And he gave it to them.
Brothers lost in the fog of war
FOR every hero lauded during the Anzac Day centenary, there will be another thousand Thomas and Patrick Faheys. There are no chapters in military history books devoted to the exploits of these unfortunate former students of St Patrick’s, Pakenham. No larrikin movie characters based on the doomed brothers. No myths. No legends.
All game some, some gave all
IT’S almost unimaginable – four brothers, all in the prime of their lives, fighting for their country in the Great War.
Rise of natural leader
LIEUTENANT Raymond Alva Jeffers rose from humble beginnings on a farm in Cora Lynn to become a highly-decorated World War I soldier and Dandenong’s mayor.
Leadership forged in fire
THE City of Casey borrows its name from Lord Casey, a resident of Berwick and one-time Governor General of Australia – and a veteran of the Gallipoli campaign.
Wounded warrior was a gun recruiter
THE district’s first Gallipoli hero, Private Ernie Gardiner, fought back tears as he stood to address the crowd in a packed and immaculately decorated Berwick Hall for his Welcome Home celebration in September 1915.
The families
Mum’s plea from half a world away
THE soldiers were not the only ones doing it tough as World War I played out in Europe. There was just as much pain, angst and heartache on the home front, clearly demonstrated by a letter from a distraught mother published in the Berwick Shire News and Pakenham and Cranbourne Gazette in late April 1916.
From the Mother country, to a mother
THE letter received from Southampton by Mrs Roberts of Berwick, which was published in the Shire News on 26 April 1916.
Lighthorseman’s Gallipoli fight
IT IS with great pride that a Pakenham woman tells the story of her great uncle Ephrus Hanley Hugh Ball, who’d overcome severe war injuries to lead a successful farm in north-west Victoria.
Big kid who went to war
Agribusiness Gippsland executive officer Susan Webster shares her memories of her uncle Hughie, who served in France as a machine-gunner.
Dairyman had his fill of war
TO MANY, Frank Moore Dale of Caldermeade was an outspoken jokester and highly successful dairy farmer. But to his granddaughter Joyce Mills, he will always be remembered as ‘Pap’.
The communities
Teacher saw boys off to war
THE war years must have been particularly hard for Berwick State School headmaster Henry McCann. Boys whose lives he helped shape in the schoolyard were being sent off to the battlefields of Europe as young men. A few kept in touch with him by letter. Many didn’t return.
Teacher learned war’s lessons
This letter was sent to Berwick State School headmaster Henry McCann from one of his former teachers, Private Cox, in June 1915. It was published in the Berwick Shire News and Cranbourne and Pakenham Gazette.
Artist in action
HARKAWAY always served as a constant in the life of nurse Jessie Traill, both before and after her service in World War I.
Deep pockets for war effort
THOSE who remained at home were not spared from the war effort. Schoolchildren knitted socks, women prepared care packages and the more well-off in society were called upon to dig into the coffers to support the various patriotic funds.
Pompey Elliott unveiled the tribute
ONE of Australia’s most revered figures of World War I, Brigadier General Pompey Elliott, braved terrible weather conditions to officially unveil the Upper Beaconsfield War Memorial on Saturday 15 May 1920.
Looking Back
IN A deviation from the normal format, Looking Back for this Anzac Centenary commemorative edition takes a look back through the pages of the Berwick Shire News and Pakenham and Cranbourne Gazette in the early days of the war, 1915.
The death of Pakenham
IN THIS Anzac centenary year, it’s worth remembering that Pakenham is named after a famous major-general … just not one of ours.
The legacy
Passion for the Anzacs
THEY set out, as they do, to find out a bit about district soldiers in the lead-up to the Anzac Centenary. What members of the Narren Warren and District Family History Group found in their first venture in Berwick Cemetery astounded them.
The people behind history
THE Narre Warren and District Family History Group celebrated 25 years in May 2014. It started with a few ladies interested in sharing family history knowledge and experiences, meeting in the lounge room of a member and their resources filled a suitcase.
Veteran’s journey just beginning
SELF-described ‘young veteran’ Lance-Corporal Scott May will think beyond Gallipoli this Anzac Day.
Hearts set in stone
AT the back of Peter and Mary-Anne Hams’ Tynong property lies a hidden piece of Australian history. The quarry on the Hams’ land provided the silver-grey granite used in the construction of Melbourne’s Shrine of Remembrance, the central war memorial in Victoria.
Quilt for Gallipoli
BEACONHILLS College Year 10 student Madison Schenk is taking a custom-made quilt to Turkey this Anzac Day as part of the Gallipoli 2015 dawn service Victorian Government tour group.
A District Remembers
MASSIVE crowds have gathered around the district to pay their dawn tributes to Australia’s Anzacs.
Games of our forefathers
IT’S a weekend for solemn contemplation on the heroic service of our ancestors. The actions of Anzacs and other Australians in service throughout our history deserve the deepest respect on 25 April as we stand as a nation to reflect on immeasurable sacrifice.
