Remembrance Day, 2017

Ballarat's Historic Avenues of Honour - Celebrated and Forgotten

A conversation between Professor Keir Reeves, Federation University; Phil Roberts, who is preparing a book on the Arch of Victory and the Avenue in Ballarat West; and Michael Taffe, who is researching other less well known Avenues throughout Ballarat. 

Join us for a interesting conversation reflecting on Remembrance Day and the meaning of memory.

Light refreshments served.

Ballarat Library, Saturday November 11, 11.30 am to 12.30 pm.

Avenue of Honour Planting of Second Section

The 18th August  commemorated the 100th anniversary of the planting of  trees for the second section of the Avenue of Honour to Cardigan. Below are two articles that appeared in the Ballarat Courier in August 1917 which provide details on the preparations which were undertaken and a report on how the day unfolded.

The Ballarat Library will be holding a special Remembrance Day event on November 11th  at 11.30 am when Professor Keir Reeves from Federation University will be joined by Phil Roberts and Michael Taffe to discuss Ballarat's Avenues of Honour. Phil is preparing a book on  The Arch of Victory and the Avenue of Honour  in Ballarat West while Michael has researched the histories of less well known avenues throughout Ballarat. So please join us for what is bound to be a lively and informative discussion.  Bookings essential.

Ballarat Courier 17 August 1917, P.1

Ballarat Courier 20 August 1917,p.5

Trumpeter/ Private Alfred George Rooney - 9th Light Horse Regiment of the AIF

On the 11th of February 1915, the HMAT Karroo set off from Port Melbourne with the troops of the 3rd Light Horse Brigade. Along with the other troops from the 9th Light Horse Regiment, Alfred George Rooney set off for Egypt. They would be aboard the Karoo until the 14th of March.

The 9th was made up of predominantly of South Australian men and a small amount of Victorians. They would consist of 25 officers; 497 other ranks that would serve in 3 squadrons, each having 6 troops. Each troop was then divided into 8 sections of four men each. They would be mounted infantry atop the exclusive Australian Waler Horse and carrying rifles.

Trumpeter/ Private Alfred George Rooney was born in Ballarat East in 1895 to James and Mary Ann Lydia Rooney. He was 1 of 5 children and a labourer by trade. He was also 19 when he enlisted into the Australian Imperial Force on the 15th of October 1914. 

During the duration of the war, the 9th Light Horse Regiment would be awarded 15 battle honours. Follow us as we follow their story.

9th Light Horsemen Receiving the Regimental Standard, Adelaide, 15 November 1914.

[From: The Sydney Mail, 16 December 1914, p. 31.]

[Source: Australian Military History of the 20th Century Website;

http://alh-research.tripod.com/Light_Horse/index.blog/1862192/9th-australian-light-horse-regiment-aif-history/

The troopship HMAT Karroo under tow from the tug Nyora in Melbourne on September 18, 1916. Photographed by Josiah Barnes.

[Source: the Australian Broadcasting Company Website;

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-08-27/hmat-karroo-in-melbourne-1916/5687118]

Sources for this post: 

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9th_Light_Horse_Regiment_%28Australia%29

ABC website: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-08-27/hmat-karroo-in-melbourne-1916/5687118

National Archives of Australia: http://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/NameSearch/Interface/ItemDetail.aspx?Barcode=8036651

Australian Military History of the 20th Century website: http://alh-research.tripod.com/Light_Horse/index.blog/1862192/9th-australian-light-horse-regiment-aif-history/

Private George Douglas

This week’s post presents a problem many family historians encounter – “the mystery man”.

Private George Douglas’ Service Records on the National Archives of Australia website, state that his place of birth was Ballarat East, and that he enlisted in Ballarat. His occupation was given as Miner, and his Next of Kin was his sister Olive. His age is 23 years and 1 month, in December 1914.

So he should have been born around 1891, but when we look in the Victorian Birth Death and Marriage records, we cannot find him.  A search for his sister Olive is also inconclusive.  We can find a George Douglas, with a sister Olive, but his birth year is 1886, making him much older than 23, and neither of them were born in Ballarat.  A search of the Victorian Death Index also doesn’t reveal anything.

His enlistment papers suggest he was originally in the Light Horse, but he is listed in the All-Australia Memorial as part of the 3^rd Reinforcements for the 7^th Battalion.  This means he was serving under Lt.Col. Harold (Pompey) Elliott, in the Infantry.  In the Memorial, his address is given as North Carlton – what was he doing there, if his occupation was “miner”?

So there are many questions we can’t answer about this fellow. Nevertheless, we are going to include him, and follow his experiences through the Great War, as he represents many of those soldiers about whom nothing much is known.  Just maybe, by including him here, someone will be able to give us better details.

George Douglas enlisted on 10 December, 1914, and after only about 3 months training, he left Australia on 25 February, 1915.

"ANZACs in the Making" from The All-Australia Memorial: History, Heroes, and Helpers
a copy can be found in the Australiana Room at Ballarat Library

Major Richard Wells

There is a tree in Ballarat’s Avenue of Honour dedicated to Major Richard Wells, even though his links to Ballarat may seem tenuous. 

William Richard Wells was born in Hotham – North Melbourne, once a municipality in its own right – in 1878.  In all later records his names are reversed as Richard William.  His parents were both born in London, but married in Victoria in 1877, and it appears Richard William was their only child.

In 1909 Richard married Miss Grace Burrow, and their son Richard Edward Burrow Wells was born in Essendon in 1909. 

Richard was working as a clerk in the Victorian Railways Accountancy Branch when war broke out. He enlisted very quickly, on the 19^th August 1914.  He was 36 years of age and the father of a 4 year old boy…  But he was also a member of various militia prior to the Great War and had risen to the rank of Captain.  He joined the 6th Battalion and sailed away with the first convoy on HMAT Hororata. 

*** 

And he has tree no. 151 in Ballarat’s Avenue of Honour.  His father-in-law, Mr. Con Burrow, who was living in Ballarat, must have put his name forward to be included.  There are many included in the Avenue, who are not Ballarat people, and similarly there are many Ballarat people who are not in the Avenue, even though it is commonly believed that all volunteers from Ballarat were honoured in the Avenue.   

Michael Taffe addresses this in his 2008 thesis The Avenues of Honour, Ballarat :  “the Elliot family of Ballarat had two sons overseas, one of whom was Brigadier  ‘Pompey’ Elliot. Neither of these men had a tree in any of Ballarat’s avenues of honour nor is this an isolated instance. The Elliot family … chose not to so honour their children in the services. Others … honoured children who lived elsewhere and enlisted interstate or overseas.”  ¹

If you wish to read more about the Avenues of Honour in Ballarat – and there were many, not just the main one we all know of today – we have copies of both Michael’s theses in the Australiana Room, and in later blogs we will write more about the Avenues. 

Meanwhile I will follow Richard Wells into the Great War over the coming months and will report back here.

1. Taffe, Michael. The Avenues of Honour, Ballarat : what were the origins, development and cultural meanings of Ballara’s avenues of honour 1917-1918? p. 9 

Able Seaman Reuben Mitchell DSM

In Ballarat's Avenue of Honour there has been a tree planted for R.J.E. Mitchell.  The tree's number is 1446 and it was planted by R. Herbert.  I thought rather than see this person as just a name on a plaque in the Avenue of Honour, it might worthwhile to find out about this person and his war experiences.   So over the coming months  new posts about Reuben will be posted on the blog as we follow him through the war.  His name was chosen at random so there is no special reason why he was chosen to blog about, just that he had a tree in the avenue and he had a connection to Ballarat.

For this first post it might be a good idea to introduce Reuben so as to get an idea of his family and his life prior to the war. Reuben was born on 28 July 1894 in Ballarat the youngest child of Thomas and Alice (nee Holman).  Reuben had 4 siblings, Dorothy, Richard, who died when he was 7 months old, Richard James and Thomas.  They lived with their parents at 206 Creswick Rd, Ballarat.

Reuben stood at 5'7" tall, he had brown hair, blue eyes and a fresh complexion.  In 1910 he decided to join the Royal Navy straight from school. He enlisted on 19 March 1910 and was based on the Australia Station.  He served on several ships  before joining HMS Challenger for her voyage back to England.  While based at Portsmouth he volunteered for submarine service and on completion of his training at HMS Dolphin based at Fort Blockhouse and HMS Vernon which included training in HM submarines A6, A13 and E4 he joined HMAS AE2 for he voyage back to Australia as an Able Seaman.

At the outbreak of the war in 1914 Reuben was still serving on HMAS AE2 and saw action off German New Guinea and in the Pacific in the closing months of 1914.

Hopefully this snapshot has provided an overview of Reuben prior to the war and the family he left behind in Ballarat when he enlisted in the navy.

Avenue of Honour

Ballarat's Avenue of Honour is located along Ballarat- Burrumbeet Rd, now known as Remembrance Drive.  The Avenue consists of 3,332 trees  which are located on each side of the road and runs for a distance of 22 km.

The Avenue dates back to 1917  when a suggestion was made by Mrs E.W. (Tilly) Thompson, a Director of local clothing manufacturer E. Lucas & Co, to plant trees in honour of the men from the Ballarat region who enlisted in the AIF during the First World War.  This suggestion was enthusiastically taken up by the employees of E. Lucas & Co ( who at the time were known as the Lucas Girls). The girls had shown interest and activity early in the war by sending a Y.M.C.A. worker to the front and supporting him for over 3 years.

Not only did the girls raise the money for the trees but spent many of their weekends planting them. The planting took place between 3 June 1917 - 16 August 1919.  The trees were planted in order of enlistment. Around each tree a wooden guard was placed to protect the tree. Attached to each tree  was  a plate which provided space for the soldier's name and battalion.

In 1934 the original name plates, most of  which were missing or lost, were replaced with permanent bronze name plaques  which reside along The Avenue today.  The Arch of Victory Avenue of Honour Committee also at this time decided that no reference to any title or rank should be recorded on the new plaques, that only an initial and surname be recorded. Where known,  a cross was included on the plaque to indicate that the soldier had been killed in action.

The Avenue remains a lasting memorial to the men of the Ballarat region who volunteered to answer their nations call so long ago.