Sergeant Gordon Crocker

More sad news from the 100 year old Courier this week.  We introduced Gordon Crocker late last year.  He was a Corporal then, but has since been promoted to Sergeant: in May 1915.  He was at the Gallipoli landings with the 8th Battalion.  By July the 8th Battalion were holding Steele's Post, a key position on the Second Ridge.    They were subject to Turkish shelling and sniper fire.

Ballarat Courier, August 28 1915, p.4

 
Some of Sergeant Crocker's friends wrote to a friend in Ballarat and the Courier published those letters on Wednesday, 8th September.

Ballarat Courier, September 8 1915 p. 2

Another Crocker son, Eustace, was killed in action at Bullecourt in 1917.  In later years the Crocker family placed three stained glass windows in the north end of the nave of St Peters Anglican church, Sturt St, in memory of their sons and brothers who did not return from the Great War

Corporal Gordon Crocker

Amongst all those troops of the first Convoy landing at Alexandria in Egypt, was one Gordon Crocker.  This name is well known in Ballarat, because of Crockers’ department store on the corner of Armstrong and Sturt Sts, a shop well-loved by many and still family owned right up to recent days.


Gordon was the son (b. 1885) of George Crocker (who began the store) and his wife Clara. They lived in Errard St Nth, and as there were 8 children in the family it must have been a busy household.  As well, George Crocker had just completed a term as Mayor of Ballarat, in 1912-1913, and he continued to sit on the Ballarat Council.


Gordon was working as an accountant before he enlisted as a private with the 8th Battalion on 24 August 1914, and on 17 September he was promoted to corporal. The Battalion disembarked on 8^th December and proceeded to Mena Camp – where Gordon and the Battalion  had desert training to look forward to.

from Ballarat Courier,  March 1915