Personal Stories

Albert Roy Kyle was born in Cowra, New South Wales, and raised and educated in Ballarat, Victoria. He was a bank clerk at the time he volunteered for recruitment. When he enlisted on 4 June 1915, he gave his age as 19 years rather than his actual 17, in order to be accepted for active service abroad. His service record suggests a possibly spirited young soldier, disciplined for absence without leave on more than one occasion.

Born in June 1879 in South Brisbane, Grace Wilson was educated at Brisbane Girls’ Grammar School before her nursing training at Brisbane Hospital. She later trained in midwifery at Queen Charlotte’s Lying-in Hospital.

Louise Estelle Young was born in Hindmarsh, South Australia, in 1882, the daughter of the Windsor Grammar School principal. The 32-year-old nurse enlisted with the AIF on 26 April 1915, sailing to England with No. 3 Australian General Hospital (3AGH) on the SS Mooltan.

Born in Armidale in December 1892, Noel Biden was raised in New South Wales and was an exceptional student at Sydney High School, passing the senior public examination with high distinction. Set on a career in the military, he also excelled at the Royal Military College Duntroon, from which he graduated in 1914.

William Birdwood was born in India in 1865; his father was attached to the British Raj. He was educated at Clifton College, Bristol, and at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. He was a highly experienced officer with the rank of major general before the outbreak of the Great War.

Richard Henry Chase was born in Barbados, in the West Indies. On enlisting, he stated his birthdate was 10 October 1867, making him 47. When he was killed, six months later, his brother, who was his nearest living relative, claimed that he was in fact 55. When Richard had joined 16th Battalion of the AIF on 14 October 1914, the upper age limit for recruits was 35.

Thomas Oliver Gardner was born in 1881 in East Melbourne, where he lived with his family before enlisting. When he joined the AIF on 1 September 1914, he stated his occupation was as a miner. Yet a love of travel also saw Thomas odd-jobbing away from Melbourne, including in Queensland, Tasmania and New Zealand. Recruited into the 7th Battalion, he trained at Broadmeadows military camp in Melbourne before embarking for Egypt.

Henry (Harry) Gissing was born in Rockdale, Sydney, in 1888. His family moved to Melbourne soon after his birth but returned to Sydney when he was 11. After a happy childhood and completing his education at Newington College, Stanmore (New South Wales), Harry completed an apprenticeship and qualified as a pharmacist in 1913.

Max Stewart Goyder was born in 1896 in Parkside, South Australia, the grandson of the state surveyor-general from whom the term Goyder Line originates. Max was a 19-year-old bank clerk when he enlisted in the AIF in May 1915. He embarked on HMAT Wandilla in Melbourne the following month. 

Arthur Leslie (Les) Healy was born in northern Melbourne suburb of Jika Jika. When he enlisted in the AIF on 6 January 1915, he listed his occupation as painter. Les became a member of the 21st Infantry Battalion and embarked for Alexandria, Egypt, on HMAT Ulysses on 8 May.

Born in Sydney in 1880, Oliver Hogue considered himself a bushman and horseman rather than a man of the thronging city. Perhaps it was this adventurous spirit that made him a commercial traveller before becoming a journalist with the Sydney Morning Herald in 1907.

Fannie Eleanor Williams was born in Reedbeds, South Australia, in 1884. She trained at Adelaide Children’s Hospital during 1904–07 before being appointed sister in charge of its Thomas Elder Laboratory and assistant to the pathologist. In 1911, she became laboratory attendant at Adelaide Hospital until late 1914. Its former director, Dr Constantine Trent Champion de Crespigny, encouraged her to join the AIF when he did, and she duly enlisted on 30 July 1915.

Born in 1891 in Port Melbourne, George Furner Langley was a teacher at Mansfield Agricultural High School when war broke out. Enlisting as a private in December 1914, he was made lieutenant in the 21st Battalion on 24 March 1915, embarking on HMAT Ulysses for Alexandria that May.

Born in Balranald, New South Wales, Roy Herke Beaty Malcolm was a 20-year-old clerk living in Melbourne when he enlisted in the AIF on 24 February 1915. He was attached to the 6th Field Ambulance when he left for the war on HMAT Ajana on 4 June.

Jim Martin is one of the youngest Australians to have served in the Great War. He was born in Tocumwal, New South Wales, in January 1901. His father had sought to enlist with the AIF but was rejected; this is believed to have driven Jim’s determination to serve, the farm labourer being the only boy in the family.

John Monash was born in West Melbourne in 1865. A precocious student, he studied arts, law and engineering at the University of Melbourne, though he did not complete his studies and formally graduate for several years.

Archibald Monk was 29 years old when he enlisted with the AIF in Brooklyn, New South Wales, in March 1915. Born on the Scottish island of Benbecula, near Inverness, he served three years in the Cameron Highlanders, an infantry regiment of the British Army, before immigrating to Australia.

George Ernest Richards was born in Windsor, Queensland, in 1895. He was a teacher living in Brisbane when he enlisted in the AIF on 28 August 1914, soon after Britain’s declaration of war.

Born in Newstead, Victoria, in 1895, Roy Rowe was an apprentice cabinetmaker in Perth when he enlisted on 10 September 1914. Having served in the Citizen Military Force, he joined the AIF with the rank of sergeant.

William Echlin Turnley was born in Plymouth, Devon, in 1891, and arrived in Australia as a young telephone mechanic. He enlisted in the AIF on 20 August 1914, with the rank of 2nd corporal, and was made lance corporal the following month. He had served two years with the Volunteer Rifles and five years with the Territorial Army in England.

Born in 1885 in Dunedin, New Zealand, Fred Waite was new to farming when the war was declared; he had recently been a compositor for the Otago Daily Times. He enlisted as lieutenant in the New Zealand Field Engineers in August 1914 and embarked on HMNZT Maunganui in October.

The naval career of Scotsman Rosslyn Erskine Wemyss began in 1877, when he joined the navy as a 13-year-old.

Born in London in 1871, Lawrence Herschel Harris arrived in Australia with his parents when he was an infant. Educated at Sydney Grammar, he went on to study arts at the University of Sydney before switching to medicine. He worked at Sydney Hospital from 1896 to 1907.

Stanley Seymour Argyle was born near Kyneton, Victoria, in 1867. He was educated at Hawthorn and Brighton Grammar Schools, obtained his medical degree from the University of Melbourne and undertook further medical study in England. A man of broad public interests, Stanley was elected to local government in 1898 and drove a movement for the supply of pure milk. Around 1908, he specialised in radiology and was appointed ‘medical electrician and skiagraphist’, as the role of radiologist was then known, at Melbourne’s Alfred Hospital.

Born in Melbourne in 1860, Henry William Bryant studied medicine at the University of Melbourne and Edinburgh University.

Born in 1884 in Healesville, Victoria, Evelyn Davies was 31 years old when she enlisted in the AIF on 5 May 1915. She had trained for three years at Geelong Hospital and had been a sister at the Infectious Diseases Hospital in Fairfield for two years before enlisting. Assigned to No. 3 Australian General Hospital (3AGH), she boarded SS Mooltan on 18 May, bound for England.

Born in Mt Barker, in the Adelaide Hills, in 1883, Lucy Daw completed her nursing training at Adelaide Hospital in 1907. She was 31 when she enlisted in the AIF, leaving Australia on the SS Mooltan in May 1915, with No. 3 Australian General Hospital (3AGH).

Born in Windsor, New South Wales, in 1866, James Dick trained in medicine at Sydney and Edinburgh universities and the Rotunda Hospital, in Dublin. From 1893, he built a successful medical practice in Randwick. He served with the 2nd contingent of the New South Wales Army Medical Corps in South Africa, embarking for the Boer War in 1900. During his service, he was mentioned in despatches and awarded the Queen’s Medal with six clasps.

Born in Cherry Gardens, South Australia, in 1875, Anne Donnell enlisted in May 1915, aged 39. Serving with No. 3 Australian General Hospital (3AGH), she departed Australia on SS Mooltan.

Charlotte Donnelly was born in Bungendore, New South Wales, in 1887. She had trained at the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne, graduating in 1912. Her decision to join the war effort and serve overseas was announced to the community in the local paper.

Richard Herbert (Bertie) Joseph Fetherston was born into a medical family in Melbourne in 1864. During the early and mid-1880s, he practised medicine and midwifery in Dublin, Ireland, and studied at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.

Tomaso (Thomas) Fiaschi was born in Florence, Italy, in 1853. He began his medical studies before departing for Australia, aged 21. He practised briefly in Cooktown and at St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney before returning to Italy to complete his studies.

Born in Ipswich, Queensland, in 1860, John Lockhart Gibson studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh. After graduating in 1881, he undertook further study in Vienna, Berlin and London before returning to Queensland in 1886.

Born in Hamilton, Victoria, in 1871, Caroline Mary Allen was 44 years of age when she enlisted. An experienced nurse, she had most recently been matron of the private Anatole Hospital in Kalgoorlie. She embarked on RMS Orontes at Fremantle on 11 August.

Olive Haynes was born in St Peters, South Australia, in 1888. She began her training at Adelaide Hospital in 1909, graduating in 1912 and serving as charge nurse at the hospital through 1913.

Born in Sydney in 1882, Florence Elizabeth (Betha) McMillan was an adventurous woman who travelled and lived overseas before the war. She had studied art in Paris at the turn of the century, and had visited the USA, Ireland and South Africa. She was 33 when she arrived on Lemnos in August 1915 to serve with No. 3 Australian General Hospital (3AGH).

Born in Sydney in 1884, Frank Marshall trained in dental science at the University of Sydney and then at the University of Pennsylvania in America. He was a 30-year-old dentist when he enlisted in the AIF, as well as a lieutenant in the Australian Medical Corps reserve.

Born in Hackney, London, in 1866, Charles James Martin was a physiologist and pathologist when he arrived in Australia in 1891. He taught at the University of Sydney and the University of Melbourne. Through his research into Australian native fauna, particularly work on snake venom, he was also a pioneer in toxicology.

Born in 1881 near Berrima, New South Wales, Nellie Morrice was the seventh of 11 children. She trained at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney, graduating in 1906, before completing a midwifery course and then nursing privately. At the outbreak of the war, she was working at the Prince Alfred, and she enlisted to serve abroad in November 1914.

Born in Glebe, Sydney, 1881, Edith Rush moved with her family to the Hunter Valley around 1890. She undertook her training at Parramatta Hospital in the early 1900s and then nursed privately before enlisting in the AIF on 26 April 1915, aged 34. The following month, Edith embarked on SS Mooltan in Sydney with No. 3 General Hospital (3AGH), reaching Lemnos in time for the waves of wounded from the August offensive.

Hilda Samsing was born in Christiana, Norway, in 1870. She immigrated to Australia with her family in 1881, living first in South Australia and then in Victoria.

Albert Savage was born in Folkestone, England, in 1890, and lived in New Guinea before arriving in Australia.

Born in London in 1877 and an experienced nurse when she enlisted in April 1915, Emily Taylor had trained in Sydney Hospital between 1898 and 1902. She then worked at hospitals in Inverell, Newcastle, Brisbane and Port Macquarie. In 1910, she was appointed matron of Molong Hospital.

Born in Scottsdale, Tasmania, in 1886, Ella Tucker trained at Launceston General Hospital. She enlisted in the AIF on 29 November 1914 and left Australia a week later on HMAT Kyarra.