Whitecross J G Pte Pte 327

Flemington-Kensington Church News, October 1919

327- L/Cpl. J. G. Whitecross, 1st Machine Gun Coy., 1st. Div., left Melbourne, with 3rd reinforcements to the 10th M.G. Coy., on 19th Sept., 1916. Later he was  transferred to the 21st Coy., but for a long time his address has been as above. He was sent to one of the Salisbury Plain Camps, and then to Grantham. He visited relatives in Glasgow on first leave and received a great welcome.

He was sent to France in March, 1917, and had his share of everything that was going. He was Captain of the football team of his unit, and faced several of our own boys in that capacity. There were other things more pleasing in France and Flanders than Huns and mud and frost. He was wounded on 31st May, 1918, and was for two months in the convalescent home at Le Havre. After joining up, his unit was granted leave, and he again went to Glasgow and had a splendid  time down the Clyde with his friends. In the darkest hour of the war, when the Germans broke through the line and the British were forced to retreat over the old Somme battlefields, the Australians were rushed from the North to stop the gap and defend Amiens. The 1st Div., however, had to be hurried back to the Warneton section, where the Hun had broken through. How the Australian held the Hun in both sections is a matter of sober history.

Garnet has seen Paris and Brussels. The former city has captured his imagination. He had the fortune to have his photo taken on the Y.M.C.A. steps at Versailles on 9/4/19. We will welcome our gallant soldier right heartily.