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Gaudie-S-R-Pte-1858 (redirected from Gaudie S R Pte 1858)

Page history last edited by Lenore Frost 6 years, 11 months ago

Volunteers of Essendon and Flemington, 1914-1918

 

Gaudie S R     Pte    1858    Samuel Robert          5 Inf Bn    29    Labourer    Single    Pres        

Address:    Moonee Ponds, Maribyrnong Rd, 332    

Next of Kin:    Gaudie, Ann, Mrs, mother, 332 Maribyrnong Rd, Moonee Ponds    

Enlisted:    20 Jan 1915        

Embarked:     A54 Runic 19 Feb 1915    

 

Relatives on Active Service:

Gaudie-C-H-M-Gunner-22300  brother  DOI

Gaudie, J L  Pte, Black Watch, cousin KIA

 

 

Private Samuel Robert Gaudie

 

Rod Martin

 

It would appear that the old adage, ‘absence makes the heart grow fonder’, did not apply to the Australian military in World War One.  Sam Gaudie from Moonee Ponds tested it out no less than six times and always came off second best.  However, it did not stop him from trying time and time again.  His war was one punctuated by punishments such as hard labour, physical confinement and monetary fines until he was finally wounded in action in 1917 and then invalided home to Australia.

 

A labourer by trade, twenty-nine year-old Sam enlisted in January 1915 and was assigned to 4 Reinforcements of 5 Division.  He was a rather lean fellow, standing 171 centimetres tall and weighing sixty-two kilos.   He did his training at Broadmeadows and embarked with the other reinforcements on A54 HMAT Runic on 19 February 1915.

 

The Runic (AWM P00707.027)

 

Sam and the other reinforcements probably arrived in Egypt some time in March 1915.  They travelled from there to the Australian camp at Mena, on the edge of Cairo.  There they joined the rest of 5 Battalion.  On 4 April, they left Mena and travelled to Alexandria, where they boarded a ship bound for the Greek island of Lemnos.  The battalion was involved in the landing at Gallipoli, being part of the second wave that set out early in the morning.  Whether Sam was involved in that landing is uncertain.  The battalion’s war record for April 1915 is missing and the next section, from May to November that year is not set out in the official format.  As a result, dates and descriptions of events are not clearly stated.  We do know from Sam’s record that he was on the peninsula on 22 May, but there is no other mention of  any details regarding him until 30 October, by which time he was on the island of Lemnos.  We must assume that, in the intervening period, he participated in the Battle of Lone Pine in early August – the only real victory by the Anzac forces on Gallipoli.  This was a very bloody event, taking place between 6 and 9 August. 1 Division, of which 5 Battalion was a part, lost over 2 000 men in some of the fiercest hand to hand fighting in the entire Gallipoli campaign.  The Australian War Memorial tells us that the Turkish losses were even greater.

 

The bodies of Australian soldiers in and above Southern Trench, Lone Pine, 8 August   (AWM A04029)

 

As mentioned above, the next we read of Sam is when he was on Lemnos at the end of October.  Just why he was there is open to speculation.  Perhaps he had been wounded – but if so, why is that not mentioned in his war record?  More likely, perhaps, is the belief that he was on leave from the peninsula.  Whatever, he got himself into trouble for the first time by going absent without leave (AWOL), for which he received fifteen days of Field Punishment Number Two.  The punishment included hard labour but, unlike Number One, he was not chained to a wagon wheel or similar item.  One wonders why he went missing and where he hid out for so long on what is a fairly small island.  Perhaps he met an attractive Greek girl.  Who knows?

 

Failing to find any evidence to the contrary, it must be assumed that Sam returned to Gallipoli after his punishment and stayed there until the peninsula was evacuated in December.  There is mention in his record of some form of attachment to the field ambulance on the third of that month, but no reason is given.  What we do know is that he rejoined 5 Battalion in Egypt, at Ismailia on the Suez Canal, on 1 January 1916.  However, he was only there for two days before he was in trouble again.  His record indicates that he broke camp at 8.30 that morning and remained absent until apprehended drunk in the local town by military police at 4.30 that afternoon. Sam was obviously a glutton for punishment!  He was sentenced to twenty-five days of detention in the new Australian camp at Tel el Kebir, south of Cairo. 

 

Upon his release, Sam rejoined his unit at Serapeum, also on the Suez Canal, on 6 February.  1 Anzac Corps, of which 1 division was part, was scheduled to depart for the Western Front in France in March.  Up until that time, it was working on trenches and strong points and training in musketry.  Just before the men left for Alexandria on 24 March, they were visited by Edward, Prince of Wales, on the nineteenth,  in the company of the corps commander, General William Birdwood.  They rode their horses between the lines of men.

 

The Prince of Wales in Egypt, 1916           (AWM C00739)

 

5 Battalion arrived in Marseilles on 30 March and entrained for the north of the country.  It was heading for the area of the Western Front near the town of Armentières, a relatively quiet zone where the men could acclimatise themselves to the reality of modern industrial warfare without being in too much danger.  On 3 April the men route-marched from the town of Godeswaervelde to the village of  Steent-Je and set up in billets there.  Sam obviously liked the look of the place (or perhaps he did not!) because he went AWOL the very next day and was not apprehended until the sixth.  For this indiscretion, he was court-martialled, sentenced to thirty-two days of Field Punishment Number Two and made to forfeit four days’ pay.  He must have been developing quite a reputation among the ranks!

 

By the time Sam returned to his unit in the following month it was based at Fleurbaix, on the front line, opposite the German-held village of Fromelles.  It had suffered its first fatal casualties on 8 May when two men were killed.  A number of others had already been wounded.  On the thirteenth, the battalion went into reserve at Fleurbaix.  During that time, the men were fully employed on working parties in communication trenches and at a section of trenches called Watling Street.  They returned to the front line on 28 May and suffered nine casualties, one fatal, on the thirty-first.

 

In the first eight days of June, the attrition rate increased considerably, three men dying and thirteen being wounded.  When they left the forward trenches on the ninth, they went into reserve at nearby Estaires.  They were not to return to Fleurbaix, and were therefore not involved in the disastrous attack at Fromelles on 19 July.  That was left up to 5 Division, a part of the recently arrived 2 Anzac Corps.  Instead, the men of 5 Battalion moved around, first going north and into Belgium, and then slowly heading to the south and east, towards the Somme Valley.  On 1 July, the greatest battle of the war began there with the attack by British and French troops across a broad front.  While the Frenchmen were able to gain some significant victories, the British suffered terribly, losing almost 60 000 men on the first day alone.  One of the British targets was the ruined village of Pozières and the strategically important ridge behind it.  By the middle of July, British troops had made two unsuccessful attempts to capture the targets.  The British high command now decided to use the fresh Australian corps, which had arrived in the area on the twenty-fourth.  Sam was with   5 Battalion but probably did not take part in the action, which started on the twenty-fifth.  By this time, you are probably able to guess the reason.  He went AWOL on 17 July at Lealvilliers, while on the way to Pozières.  He was sentenced to fourteen days confined to camp and made to forfeit one day’s pay.  By the time he was available again for action the battalion had been relieved after suffering significant casualties  (forty-five killed, 248 wounded and 159 missing).  1 Division as a whole had suffered 5 285 casualties, but had gained a foothold in the ruined village.

 

5 Battalion stayed in reserve until 15 August when, along with the rest of 1 Division, it returned to the front line at Pozières.  By that time, both 2 and 4 Divisions had been involved in the conflict, the former finally capturing the ridge on the fourth of the month.  When 1 Division replaced 4 Division, the latter was in the process of trying to capture nearby Mouquet Farm, which would give it the opportunity to attack the German fortifications at Thiepval.  By the time it was relieved, 4 Division had suffered 4 649 casualties for no success.

 

The remains of Mouquet Farm, photographed in October 1916.  It was a difficult target

because the Germans had created a maze of protective tunnels under the buildings. (AWM H15927)

 

When 1 Division took over the attack was still in full swing.  By the time it was relieved three days later, 5 Battalion had lost thirty-two killed and 173 wounded.  When it headed into reserve at Albert on 21 August, it has lost a further three killed and eight wounded.   The division as a whole had suffered a further 2 650 casualties – and still the farm had not been captured.  When the attack was finally called off on 15 September, 1 Anzac Corps’ total casualty list was 24 139 men – and all for a ruined village and the ridge behind it.

 

In the intervening period, 5 Battalion had been in reserve in a number of locations.  Early September found it located in southern Belgium, providing working parties for engineering works and ammunition dumps.  Perhaps Sam got bored with this work because he was off again on 12 September, going AWOL once more.  He was apprehended soon after but, given his record, it is no surprise that for this indiscretion he sentenced to twenty-eight days of Field Punishment Number Two and required to forfeit thirty-four days’ pay.

 

By the time Sam returned to the ranks once more, 5 Battalion was based at Steenvoorde, near the Belgian border.  It would appear that he went AWOL again almost immediately, for he disappeared on 20 October and was not apprehended until the twenty-fourth.  As a result, he accrued another ten days of field Punishment Number Two, as well as losing a further fifteen days’ pay.  At the rate he was going, he could end the war having paid the army for his service!

 

That was not to be, however.  On 11 December 1916, not far from the town of Buire in northern France, Sam was wounded in the hand and shoulder.  He was treated in a field hospital but his wounds were serious enough for him to be transferred  first to a general hospital in Rouen and then to a military hospital in Woking, England, on 23 December.  Some time in this period or the one that ensued, one of Sam’s fingers was amputated. 

 

Sam was moved around to a number of hospitals over the next five months.  In April 1917, he was actually reported as missing from one of them.  Surely he had not taken off again?  However, there must have been some confusion because, three days later, it was noted that he had been granted a furlough, and it was then extended.  Her could walk around without having to look over his shoulder for the military police.

 

On 21 July 1917 Sam embarked for Australia minus one finger and carrying a paralysed shoulder.  He was finally discharged on 3 December that year and was granted a pension of thirty shillings per fortnight a day later.  It would seem that his condition improved over the next six months, as the pension was reduced to twenty shillings (one pound) a fortnight in July 1918.

 

Further research by Lenore Frost indicates that Sam moved to New Zealand, probably some time in the 1920s, and took up residence in the capital city, Wellington.  In 1928 he was listed on the electoral roll as a labourer, so his injuries did not prevent him from returning to his pre-war occupation.  In post-war depression years, it may have been the only job he could get, partly incapacitated though he may have been.

 

Sadly, Sam died only two years after that, on 31 August 1930.  The cause of his death is unknown.  He was only forty-four years old.

 

 

Sources

 

Australian War Memorial                                          

Google Earth

National Archives of Australia

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

                             Sydney, ABC Books, 2008

 

 

OUR SOLDIERS.

Mr. Charles Gaudie, of 332 Maribyrnong road, Moonee Ponds, has received word that his youngest son, Private S. R. Gaudie, has been wounded in France. Private Gaudie went away with the 4th Reinforcements of the 5th Battalion, and before going to France he had seen service in Gallipoli and Egypt. The injuries consist of a gun-shot wound in the shoulder and an amputated finger. Mr. Gaudie has also been informed that his nephew, Private J. L. Gaudie, of the Black Watch (son of the ex-postmaster at Montrose, Scotland), and a solicitor by profession, has been killed in action in France. The deceased was a promising young man, and was only 22 years of age.

 

OUR SOLDIERS. (1917, January 11). The Essendon Gazette and Keilor, Bulla and Broadmeadows Reporter (Moonee Ponds, Vic. : 1914 - 1918), p. 3 Edition: Morning.. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article74601339

 

Sam Gaudie advised the parents of Smith-E-Pte-3407 that he had been killed in action.

 

 

War Service Commemorated

Essendon Town Hall F-L

Moonee Ponds West State School [R]

Essendon Gazette Roll of Honour Wounded

Regimental Register

Welcome Home 7 Nov 1918

 

In Memoriam

 

GAUDIE.—On 31st August, 1930, Private Samuel Robert Gaudie,

No. 1858, 5/BN., A.I.F., youngest beloved son of the late Charles

and Mary Ann Gaudie, and brother of W. C. Gaudie, Johnsonville.

 

Evening Post, New Zealand, 1 Sep 1930

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