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Rochstein F S Sgt 5

Page history last edited by Lenore Frost 9 years, 2 months ago

Volunteers of Essendon and Flemington, 1914-1918

Sergeant Fritz Sainsbury Rochstein.

Courtesy of Margery Burston

Rochstein F S Sgt 5 Fritz Sainsbury 7 Inf Bn 18 School teacher Single Prot

Address: Ascot Vale

Next of Kin: Rochstein, S R, Vincent St, Daylesford

Enlisted: 17 Aug 1914

Embarked: A20 Hororata 19 Oct 1914

Born in Ascot Vale, enlisted in Essendon.

Rochstein F S Sgt 1858 Camel Corps 20 Schl teacher S

Embarked: A42 Boorara 10 May 1917

Enlisted: 15 Feb 1917 1912 Footscray

Officers and NCOs of the 7th Infantry Battalion Headquarters Detail, 1914. Sergeant Fritz Rochstein

is standing far right with his bugle. The Lieut-Colonel of the Battalion, H E "Pompey" Elliott is

seated in the centre. Courtesy of Marjery Burston.

Rochstein was wounded at the Gallipoli landing and was eventually returned to Australia and discharged as unfit for active service. He later recovered and re-enlisted for a second time, embarking with the Australian Camel Corps in 1917. He was later promoted to Lieutenant.

HMAT Boorara at Albany, Western Australian on a homeward journey, 1919.

Courtesy of the Wilson Family.

Relatives on Active Service:

Pte Karl Sainsbury Rochstein, brother KIA

QMS Karl Justus Strack, cousin, Wellington Infantry Bn, KIA 1917

2nd Lieut George Sainsbury Strack, cousin, Wellington Infantry Bn

Friend of: Jacobsohn J R Pte 48

The reverse of the above portrait of Sgt Rochstein is addressed by Julius Rupert Jacobsohn to his father, J R Jacobsohn. The messsage reads "See if Tess remembers this boy from Melbourne High School Sgt Bugler Rochstein". Jacobsohn gives his address as 7th Batt, 1st AEIF, Egypt. 14/3/14, apparently in error for 1915. The area where the stamp should be has the notation "o.a.s" - On Active Service.

Education Departments Record of War Service

OUR SOLDIERS

The following letters have been received from No. 5 Staff Sergeant F. S. Rochstein, who is now on his way home:

No. 1 Aust. Gen. Hospital, Heliopolis, Egypt,

14/9/15.

Dear -- -, I suppose that before you get this you will have seen my name in the casualty lists. This time I have got a fair dose, and it will be some time before I can walk again. I got a bomb wound about the centre of the calf of the left leg. It made an enormous hole and was stopped by the fibula which it has smashed badly. I was operated upon about five days ago, and the piece was removed. Pieces of the bone came out of the incision where the piece of bomb was taken. out. The wound was very, dirty, and there was a lot of pus in the leg, and septic was setting in. For the last week I have to sit with it all day in a saline bath, so that you can imagine I have had a fairly rough time. During the five days on the hospital ship I swallowed enough draughts and had enough injections of morphia to kill an average person. Frank Mathews is going back. I hardly saw any of the other boys. Food is pretty fair now on the Peninsula, it is possible to get eggs, etc., from the canteen, but prices are high, perhaps, because of the war. Eggs, 3s a doz.; tinned milk, 3s; so you see we don't buy too much. Things seem a trifle mixed in Australia. Pardon this note being short and the paper scanty, but it is unavoidable under the circs. Good bye for the time.

No. 1 Aust. Gen. Hospital, Heliopolis,

8/11/15.

Dear _____,

A note to tell you I am all right. I am still in bed and cannot walk yet, though I have been in bed for ten weeks now. I feel as if I am malingering, as I look so well and feel so well, now, that I am beginning to worry. I have a masseur trying to persuade a refractory drop foot to move. I am treating myself as well as I can. I lost the few comforts that I did have by a "plum-pudding" * landing in my dug-out, luckily during my absence. When I returned, I stood speechless for a moment, and then ----- ------- etc. The other "askariis"** around moved off for fear that my spite might turn to something more tangible. We have a bonny lot of sisters here, and we are having the time of our lives. I was going "visiting" the other day into the next room across the passage, but the arrival of one of the sisters compelled me to beat a strategical retreat. This was not a success (as I could not get into bed again) and I was captured. That was about the most I exciting thing that has happened for some time. Good-bye for the time.

OUR SOLDIERS. (1915, December 31). The Essendon Gazette and Keilor, Bulla and Broadmeadows Reporter (Moonee Ponds, Vic. : 1914 - 1918), p. 6 Edition: Morning.. Retrieved January 21, 2012, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article74591389

* Plum Pudding A spherical iron shell filled with explosive and projected by means of a trench mortar towards the enemy trench. (Source: Glossary of Slang)

** African term for "soldiers".

Staff-sergeant Fritz Rochstein, son, of Mr and Mrs S. R. Rochstein of Vincent Street, has returned wounded from the front. It is his intention to join his company again as soon as he has recovered.

THE Daylesford Advocate. (1915, December 16). Daylesford Advocate, Yandoit, Glenlyon and Eganstown Chronicle (Vic. : 1914 - 1918), p. 3. Retrieved May 30, 2014, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article119538830