So for the last little while I’ve been putting together a bit of information about Anzac Day and who we commemorate for the people I swim with several times a week. Sometimes I read it out between sets on the day, but this year we are only swimming on the days before and after Anzac Day, so I distributed this as reading. I don’t know why I selected some Boy Anzacs and a Dame, it just came to me when browsing the Australian War Memorial’s website. There is also part of a famous poem by Rupert Brooke which I believe says it all, particularly regarding those Boy Anzacs.

 Private James Charles Martin

James Martin was born on 3 January 1901 in Tocumwal, NSW. He was successful on his second enlistment attempt at 14 years and 3 months, departing from Melbourne in June 1915 with the 21st Infantry Battalion. Deployed with reinforcements for Gallipoli from Egypt, his transport ship was torpedoed by a German submarine and he spent several hours in the water before being rescued. He eventually landed on Gallipoli on 7 September.

Although battle casualties were slight in the time he was there, front-line work, short rations, sickness, flies, lice and mosquitoes took their toll on his unit. He contracted typhoid fever in late October and was evacuated to a hospital ship, having lost half his weight. He died of heart failure only two hours later, three months short of his 15th birthday. He was buried at sea and is commemorated on the Lone Pine Memorial on Gallipoli. He is thought to have been the youngest Australian to have died on active service in the First World War.

 Private Kenneth Norman McNamee, M.M.

Private Kenneth McNamee, M.M. (4258, 14th Battalion) was born in Ballarat, Victoria. He was working as a printer with “The Sporting World” and not yet 16 years old when he enlisted in July 1915. Kenneth was awarded a Military Medal for his “daring and coolness” while running messages and maintaining communication between Company and Battalion headquarters during the battle of Mouquet Farm in August 1916. Kenneth was wounded on 11 April 1917 during the battle of Bullecourt and was last seen being bandaged by two German Red Cross men. This was reported after the war by a fellow prisoner of war, who said that Kenneth had been badly wounded by a bullet just above his heart and was unlikely to live long. Kenneth is commemorated on the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux, France. He was 17 years 9 months of age.

 Private Roy Henderson Robertson 

Private Roy Robertson (1765, 20th Battalion) was a shop assistant from Scarborough, NSW. He enlisted in June 1915, claiming to be 18 years old. Roy was killed in action at Russell’s Top, Gallipoli, on 7 November. His name is recorded on a memorial at Walker’s Ridge Cemetery, Gallipoli.

After the war his brother, James L. Robertson, who served with the 45th Battalion, wrote that Roy was 16 years 4 months when he died.

Private Ernest Arthur Deane

Private Ernest Arthur Deane (NX52899, 2/2nd Machine Gun Battalion), from Campbelltown, NSW died on active service in Egypt on 19 August 1941 when his dugout collapsed on him. He is commemorated on the El Alamein War Cemetery in Egypt. His service record file shows his birthdate on enlistment as 26 January 1920 but subsequent letters from his family post-war show his real birth date as 26 January 1925. This was somewhat common with those who looked and sounded old enough to enlist. He would have been 16 years and six months when he was killed accidentally.

 Private Thomas Arthur Jiggins

Private Thomas Arthur Jiggins (NX36926, 2/19th Infantry Battalion), from Barallan, NSW enlisted under his brother Frederick’s name, using his date of birth, 1 May 1920. He changed his name to his correct name in August 1941 in Malaya and did so by Statuary Declaration, without any mention of his correct birth date, 1 February 1925.

His service record shows him as missing believed wounded on 22 January 1942 and he was later officially presumed to be dead. (He was not recorded as a PoW.) The AWM Roll of Honour circular shows that he was only 16 years and 11 months when he died.

Dame Emma Maud McCarthy, GBE, RRC &  Bar, DStJ

Dame Maud McCarthy was born in Paddington, Sydney in 1859 and saw service as a nursing sister and army matron-in-chief in the Boer War and the First World War. Known as the nurses’ general, she was one of the most highly decorated women’s leaders of the First World War. 

She had moved from Australia to England by 1891 and began general nursing training at London Hospital, Whitechapel, becoming a sister in early 1894. She was selected by Princess Alexandra to go to the Boer War with five others as her own “military” nursing sisters and served with distinction from 1899-1902.

On return to England she was matron at a succession of military hospitals and became principal matron at the War Office in 1910. On the outbreak of war she served as Matron-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force in France and Flanders from 1914 to 1919, sailing on the first troop ship to leave England. By the time of Armistice there were over 6,000 in her charge and she had been responsible for the nursing of hundreds of thousands of casualties in the years 1914-1918. She retired in 1925 and died at home in Chelsea, London in 1949.

THE DEAD (IV) extract
Rupert Brooke, 1914

These hearts were woven of human joys and cares,
  Washed marvellously with sorrow, swift to mirth.
The years had given them kindness. Dawn was theirs,
  And sunset, and the colours of the earth.

These had seen movement, and heard music; known
  Slumber and waking; loved; gone proudly friended;
Felt the quick stir of wonder; sat alone;
  Touched furs and flowers and cheeks. All this is ended.

Sources:

https://www.awm.gov.au/

https://www.naa.gov.au/explore-collection/defence-and-war-service-records

https://adb.anu.edu.au/

Other Men’s Flowers. An Anthology of Poetry Compiled by A. P. Wavell, 1981 reprint