Volunteers of Essendon and Flemington, 1914-1918

 

Barbour R T  A/g Cpl  4976    Robert Thomson    23 Inf Bn    37    Traveller    Married    C of E        

Address: Ascot Vale, Ayr St, 24, "Kipling"   

Next of Kin: Barbour, Flora Kipling, Mrs, wife,"Kipling",  24 Ayr St, Ascot Vale    

                                                                     18 Kent St, Ascot Vale     by 1919 (Electoral Roll)

Enlisted: 1 Feb 1916        

Embarked: A26 Armadale 19 Jul 1916 

 

Relatives on Active Service:

Barbour T C Captain brother

 

Date of death: 10/01/1917

CWGC: "Son of Robert Thomson Barbour and Agnes Lyall Barbour; husband of Flora K. Barbour, of 18, Kent St, Ascot Vale, Victoria. Born at Hawthorn, Victoria".

THIEPVAL ANGLO-FRENCH CEMETERY, AUTHUILE                                                                                         

 

 

Private Robert Thomson Barbour

 

Rod Martin

 

We shall probably never know why thirty-seven year-old Robert Barbour of Ascot Vale enlisted on 1 February 1916.  A traveller by trade, and a husband and father, Robert was unlikely to have received any of the white feathers that were being sent to  civilian males at this time.  They seemed to be generally aimed at younger, single men and many were probably sent by young women.  Perhaps Robert felt that, with the numbers of casualties being reported in the papers, and the likelihood of Australian troops now being sent to the Western Front in France, he had to go and 'do his bit'.  What his wife Flora thought of his action is unknown.  It would be a good bet, however, that she tried to talk him out of it and viewed the future with trepidation.

 

If that were the case, then Robert obviously decided otherwise.  He signed the papers, had his medical, and was assigned to 13 Reinforcements of 23 Battalion.  He trained at Royal Park and Broadmeadows.

 

13/23 Battalion on parade at Broadmeadows,  13 July 1916      (AWM DAX1456)

 

On 19 July 1916, 13 Reinforcements boarded A26 HMAT Armadale at Port Melbourne, and sailed for Devonport in England.

 

Troops boarding HMAT Armadale, Melbourne 1916   (AWM PB0112)

 

HMAT Armadale in 1915    (AWM P05194.017)

 

The troops arrived in England on 20 September, sailing via the Cape of Good Hope to avoid German submarines in the Mediterranean. They stayed in England until 19 November, when they were transported to the training camp at Etaples, near Boulogne in France.  Two days later, Robert was awarded the acting rank of corporal.  He held this position until 1 December, when the reinforcements were deployed to their battalion, and he reverted to the rank of private.  He had obviously shown his superiors that he was leadership material, and he may have looked forward to moving up the ranks as the war took its toll of deaths and injuries.

 

By the time 13 Reinforcements joined up with 23 Battalion, it had just moved to Flesselles, north of Amiens on the River Somme.  The Battle of the Somme, the largest battle of the war, had been going on since 1 July, and was petering out as what was to be the coldest winter of the war was setting in.  The battalion had just gone into reserve and was down to 640 officers and men.  The new arrivals on 2 December added 239 recruits to its ranks.

 

The battalion stayed in Flesselles until l7 December, when it headed for the front line at Needle Trench (near Le Transloy) on the Somme.

 

Cookhouse at Needle Trench, 1917   (AWM H01129A)

 

It went in to support the troops at Needle, Cow and Blighty Trenches on Boxing Day, the men building dugouts and a dressing station and laying duckboards and communication cables before moving into the front line themselves two days later.  Their proximity to the action, reduced as it probably was by the winter weather, can be discerned by the fact that one man was wounded while engaged in the construction work.  By 31 December, four more men had been wounded and two killed.

 

On 1 January 1917, 23 Battalion moved back to a camp at nearby Trones Wood to rest and recuperate.  The men carried out fatigue (support) duties until the eighth, when they returned to the front line.  For the following nine days they survived with no casualties.  On 10 January, their last scheduled day before being relieved, they came under heavy shellfire and suffered three men killed and five wounded.

 

Trones Wood, 1917  (AWM H08776)

 

Robert was one of the dead.  According to reports, he perished when a shell exploded near him, close to the company headquarters at Le Transloy.  He was buried at that spot and a temporary wooden cross erected above his grave.  It would appear that this cross was destroyed during later action, and his gravesite was lost.  The sergeant who buried him and made the cross may well have been able to locate it again, but he himself was killed at a later time.

 

And so Robert's body lay undiscovered when the war ended.  Thus began a continuing correspondence between members of his family and the war department that went on  for more than fifteen years.  His sister and brother asked for information about the location of his grave during the 1920s.  The department could only give them details about his death and subsequent burial in the field.  In the late 1920s it informed them that, should his grave not be found, his details would be inscribed on the soon to be built Villers-Bretonneux Memorial.  In 1929, Robert's son went on a pilgrimage to the Western Front, but was unable to visit the spot where he was buried. To show its willingness to help, the department offered whatever support it could provide to him, including an itinerary that would presumably take him through the areas where his father fought.

 

Then, in 1932, Robert's remains were finally found.  He was recognised by his identification disc, and the war department informed his family.  The disc was sent to his widow, the department believing it would be of value because of  'its former intimate association with [her] husband.'

 

Robert was finally laid to rest in Thiepval Anglo-French Cemetery, Authuille.

 

(Commonwealth  War Graves Commission)

 

Sources

 

Australian War Memorial

Commonwealth War Graves Commission

National Archives of Australia

Travers, Richard: Diggers in France: Australian soldiers on the Western Front,

                             Sydney, ABC Books, 2008

 

 

No 4876 R T Barbour, 23rd Battalion Killed in Action 10.1.17 This man was killed by a shell in an outpost about 400 yards in front of Company Headquarters, in ENDLESS ALLEY,  at LE TRANSLOY, on 10.1.17 and was buried adjacent to this spot by Sgt LOUTTIT since killed.  A cross was made by this Battalion  but I cannot obtain confirmation of its erection.   Source National Archives of Australia B2455

 

St Senga Hazel St Camberwell  E6 March 9/26 Dear Sir Could you let me know where my brother Corporal R T Barbour of the 23rd Battalion was buried please.  He was killed in action January 10th/1917. I would like to know what cemetery if any he was buried in.  The number of his grave and what denomination what country it is in and how could one visit it, and any other particulars available.  Are the original wood crosses still available to relative or have they been confiscated ere now.  If this letter has not been correctly addressed, would you kindly forward it to the proper person who deals with this matter.    Also could you give me any particulars about my brothers death.  We had had a letter from him stating he had been  taken a prisoner for a few hrs but had escaped & got back to his own battalion again. Hoping you will be able to accede to this request & thanking you in anticipation. Yours truly (Miss) G Barbour. Base records Mar 12 1929 Received.    Source National Archives of Australia, B2455 record.

 

 

War Service Commemorated

Essendon Town Hall A-F

Essendon Gazette Roll of Honour killed

 

 

Deaths on Active Service 

 

BARBOUR.–Killed in action in France on 10th  

January, Corporal Robert Thomson Barbour,

the dearly beloved husband of Flora Kipling

Barbour, and loved father of Charles Stewart,

Lois Kipling, and Robert Thomson Barbour,

Kipling, Ayre Street, Ascotvale, and late of

Sargood Bros., Perth, and Melbourne.

W. A. papers please copy.

 

BARBOUR. –Killed in action in France on 10th  

January, Corporal Robert Thomson Barbour,

dearly loved second son of the late Councillor

R. T. and Mrs Barbour, of Hawthorn, brother  

of Agnes, Gertrude, Captain Thomas Canning

(on active service in France), Alexander, and

Julius Barbour, "St Senga," Power street, Haw-  

thorn.

 

Family Notices. (1917, February 3). The Argus

(Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), p. 11.

Retrieved July 15, 2013, from

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article1594715

 

JUDICIAL AND LAW NOTICE  

AFTER the expiration of fourteen days from this  

publication hereof application will be made the

Supreme Court of the state of Victoria in Probate

jurisdiction that PROBATE of the Will of ROBERT

THOMSON BARBOUR, formerly of "Kipling" 24

Ayr street, Ascotvale in the State of Victoria,

warehouseman, but late of France, soldier in the

Australian Imperial Forces, deceased, may be

granted to Julius Aurilian Sylvester Barbour (in

the said will called Julius Aurilian Sylvester Barbour),

of Saint Senga, 95 Power Street, Hawthorn, in the

said State, Engineer, the executor I pointed by the

said will.  Dated this sixteenth day of February 1917,

BELL and FREEMAN 145 Queen street, Melbourne,

proctors for the applicant.

 

Argus (17 Feb 1917, Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), p. 10.

Retrieved July 16, 2013, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article1597813