AT THE FOOT OF THE SPHINX

Turning the pages of the 100 year old Courier yesterday (February 5th) we discovered a gem.  The Courier, 100 years ago, was not regularly publishing photographs, so this must have caused quite a sensation at the time.  We have tried to find out a bit about the Ballarat soldiers in the photo. 

The caption has not reproduced adequately so we reproduce it below

The group depicted above is composed almost exclusively of Australians now serving in Egypt.  It embraces : - 1^st row (reading from left to right) Armourer Sergeant I.R.Parker, Ballarat;  Bugler Matthew, Scotland; Sergeant-Bugler H. Smith, Ballarat; Bugler A. Dunkeld, Scotland; Bugler B. Walker, Geelong; Bugler L. Hagger, Geelong; Bugler F. Hassell, England; C. Matthews, A.M.C., Melbourne; Bugler D. Summers, Avoca; Bugler Liddle, Queensland;  2^nd row, 1 and 2 unknown;  3. Mohamed Masoufy, 8^th Battalion Guide, Cairo; 4. Bugler E. Youlden, Ballarat; 5. Bugler Gladmann, Ballarat.  We are indebted to Mrs. G. H. Parker, of Bertlyn, Lyons St Sth, mother of Armourer Sergeant Parker, for the loan of the photograph.

Armourer Sergeant Ivo Reginald Parker, remarkably, has the Service Number 9, and the 5^th tree in the Avenue of Honour.  He enlisted on the 17^th August 1914, clearly anxious to serve his country - he’d been a military cadet for 2 years.  Previous to enlisting he’d worked for Jelbarts, in Mair Street. Unfortunately Staff Sergeant Parker became very ill while at Gallipoli (typhoid) and returned to Australia in 1916, discharged as medically unfit. He returned to live in Ballarat. 

Sergeant Bugler H. Smith – this appears to be Harry P. Smith of the 6^th Battalion, originally of Ballarat East. He too enlisted on the 17^th August, and was also a military cadet.  Smith was at the Gallipoli landings, and although he enlisted as a private he was rapidly promoted through to Lieutenant. He was wounded several times but was still able to be a part of the Evacuation; later in Egypt he became so ill with enteric fever he was returned to Australia in 1916 for ‘three months change’!  In April 1917 he rejoined the war in France, and in August 1918 was wounded and hospitalised in England.  He did not return to France before the Armistice.  He returned to Australia in April 1919, after an adventure on the way in South Africa, where he ‘failed to embark’ after shore leave in Cape Town, and was arrested AWL.

Bugler E. Youlden – in fact Ernest C. G. Youdan – was the son of Constable William Arthur Youdan, the constable in charge at Scarsdale, who’d been awarded £50 and a valor badge when he “closed with armed desperado Geo. Shaw.”  Bugler Youdan survived Gallipoli, but died in France in 1916 at Pozieres. His mother Agnes was living in Lydiard Street when she claimed a pension in respect of Ernest’s death, and she received 25 shillings per fortnight.

Bugler Gladmann – we think this is Charles R. Gladman, born in Ballarat but enlisted in Bacchus Marsh on the 12^th September 1914. He was with the 8^th Battalion, and was wounded severely in action many times, but after hospitalisation was always able to return to his unit, until late in 1917 when he was returned to Australia, having by this time lost his left eye, and almost all his vision in his right eye. After returning to Ballarat, he lived in Hickman Street.