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Hawker F C    Pte   724

Page history last edited by Lenore Frost 7 years, 5 months ago

Volunteers of Essendon and Flemington, 1914-1918

 

Hawker F C     Pte    724    Frederick Charles              2 AGH    46    Printer    Married    C of E       

Address:    Moonee Ponds, Byron St, 34   

Next of Kin:    Hawker, M A, Mrs, 4 Byron St, Moonee Ponds   

Enlisted:    19 Oct 1914      

Embarked:     A55 Kyarra 21 Nov 1914  

Prior service:   46 AMC

 

Mentioned in these publications:

St Thomas' Parish Magazine March 1915 p9;

St Thomas' Parish Magazine April 1915 p2

 

Warrant-Officer F. C. Hawker, of Byron street, Moonee Ponds, has been invalided home from Egypt, and is progressing favourably. He expects to return about the end of March. A description of the Nile Barrage, which ought to be visited by all Australian soldiers, as written by Mr. Hawker, will appear in our next issue.

 

SOCIAL BREVITIES. (1916, March 2). The Essendon Gazette and Keilor, Bulla and Broadmeadows Reporter (Moonee Ponds, Vic. : 1914 - 1918), p. 3 Edition: Morning.. Retrieved January 26, 2012, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article74592109

 

THE DELTA BARRAGE

(Near Cairo).

By Warrant Officer Hawker, No. 2 A.G.H.

 

Egypt, during this eventful year, has been so prominently brought to the notice of Australians, that the follow- ing notes on the Delta Barrage as an example of modern science may not be without special interest to those watching and waiting for their dear ones at home. The Australian Light Horse, camped here in the early spring - for swimming their horses in the Nile - before the stirring days of the Dardanelles, and the photos that must have reached Australia of this delightful spot have probably already made it familiar to many at home. At the invitation of the Director of the Government Gardens there - who, together with his wife, are well-known for their kindness to hundreds of Australians of all ranks -- both wounded and fit - a party of us journeyed from Mena (at the foot of the Pyramids) to spend a well-earned afternoon's relaxation, and drink in the beauty of the Nile, and the lovely gardens, after the heat and dust of the desert, and the hub, of military life - for it is worry, not work, that counts. It was like a - drink of deliciously cool water, in a hot, thirsty land, and, although to Australians, it has the tendency to create feelings of nostalgia like the aforesaid drink, one returns better fitted to go on again.

 

Leaving the main station at Cairo one travels north on the Alexandrian line until the second station, ie., Galiout is reached, and here, through fields which, in their season, contain wheat, clover, cotton, maize, sugar-cane, beans, etc., the line branches off west to the Nile, and the Delta Barrage is reached in about 40 minutes from. Cairo.  The Barrage station is typical of Egyptian dust, sand and flies, and gives little promise of the beauties so near at hand; but trolleys holding four persons, and pushed by two sturdy Arabs are in waiting at the station, and the distance through the Eastern crowd to these conveyances is only the matter of a few yards. Soon we are on our way past the slender Gothic like towers of the Damietta Barrage, and their mellowness enhanced against the blue sky is reflected in the Old Father Nile flowing beneath, and falling in foaming cascades through the   sluice gates of the 60 or so arches - and one through the shady avenues of stately acacea or Lebbik trees, with view of the gardens until the second branch of the Nile is reached-- spanned by the Rosetta Barrage. To give a comprehensive history of this wonderful engineering work would require the space of a fairly thick volume, and to those interested I would suggest a perusal of "The Delta Barrage," published in Cairo in 1902 by Major Sir Hanbury Brown, K.C.M.G., late Inspector-General of Irrigation for Lower Egypt.

 

Sufficient to say that the idea of a Barrage or Barrier to the Nile, was first conceived by Napoleon Bonaparte during the French occupation of Egypt in 1798 and 1799. It was commienced about 1843 by the then Egyptian viceroy, Mehemet Ali, who suggested that the Pyramids should   be demolished to supply the stone for this great work -an act of vandalism fortunately over-ruled on the ground that it would be less costly to obtain the stone from the quarries in the hills near Cairo. The work was continued under Mehemet Ali's successor, Abbas Pasha and Said Pasha, who succeeded him in 1853. With many delays, it was completed in 1861 at a cost, exclusive of forced labour of £1,880,000. Much of the architectural charm of the Barrages is due to Said Pasha, whose "hobby was soldiering in time of peace," for apart from its irrigation value, it was intended to serve as a fortification to prevent an attacking force approaching Cairo by way of the Nile. The whole work was put into complete working order by Anglo Indian irrigation engineers after the Arabi Pashai rebellion in 1882, and during the first few years it more than doubled the cotton crop of Egypt, valued at 12 million, which is now nearily three times that sum.

 

To those interested in engineering, a very instructive "Museum of, Models" exists in the gardens, showing in the clearest way possible the enormous, amount of work, anxiety and forethought that has been expended upon the foundations by damming the Nile, and consolidating this work. From the visitor's point of view, the Barrage and the gardens are inseparable, but it is with the beauty of the latter, combined with the dignity of the former, that Australians in Egypt are particularly interested. The Director of the Gardens, Walter Draper, F.L.S., to whom their beauty is due, is an Anglo Egyptian, trained at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, England, who has been creating lovely gardens in all parts of Egypt for more than 20 years. The Government gardens at Delta Barrage may be justly termed "the Kew of Egypt," and are worthy of the name of a Kew man, and a credit to the Empire's work in this wonderful country. Being of easy access by rail, road and river, they form a most instructive retreat for Australians, the whole forming an oasis of green, hilly country in the midst of flat surroundings, their large park-like stretches of cool, green undulated lawns, with saddle back hills, with a rustic rock-like facing covered with cascades of blossom. The gorgeous masses of brilliant flowering climbing plants festooned from tree to tree is suggestive of a South American jungle; the Australian wattle of all kinds reflected in running water; the concealed shady paths, nooks and green dales, where the gallant lads from home, after doing justice to their picnic basket, may find the bottle brush, callistemons, melaleucas, and many other familiar home plants; the weeping willows of Babylon; the Moreton Bay pine and the sycamore of the Scriptures. The papyrus of the ancient Egyptian is growing in the Nile by the landing stage of plant-covered natural rocks, built up from the Nile, with sloping lawns, and a beautiful stone water gate or steps. Masses of pink, red and majenta Bougainvillea reach to the treetops in wild luxuriance - flowering trees and brilliant shrubs of colour foliage and flower have in many cases been grown from seed from all parts of the globe. The column grey colour trunks of the Cuba royal palm, and the feathered heads of those of the cocos family. Cabbage palms and flax from New Zealand, tall, wavy bamboos, with golden, green - striped and glaucous stems, Riparian plants of all kinds cast their sylvan reflections in the running brook- clumps of Fici of all kinds, from Moreton Bay fig to the graceful pendant Ficus benjamina of Singapore; tall Pinus longi folia, from the Himalayas, and the red stem pine with edible seed from the Lebanons, growing side by side with the Pinus halepensis from the plain of Damascus. Clumps of brilliant red flowering silk cotton (Bombat), from India and China, and large spreading banyan-like trees from tropical Africa, with huge branches supported by aerial roots, and masses of dark green and silver pittosporum and lemon-scented eucalypt, from the dear homeland. We found the modest English daisy and blackberry growing on the grass slopes by the water edge, and in shady spots, clumps of maiden-hair and other ferns - safe from the white heat of the Egyptian summer sun--which recalled memories of many a mountain holiday in Australia. Nearly all our familiar garden annuals seem perfectly happy here, from the Blue Swan River daisy to the brilliant scarlet salvia--watched over and cared for by a true lover of Nature. Through the trees and foliage peeps could be obtained of the slender loop- holed towers of the Barrage and across the white sail-studded Nile, the hills of the Libyan Desert, glowing in the setting sun, forming a picture of a beautiful restful scene-so like one's preconceptive idea of nature in the beautiful that it was difficult to realize that the foreground was the work of man, and we fail to understand why no word of Delta Barrage appears in the Egyptian press, which is a distinct loss to so many Australians here.

 

On the occasion of our last visit to Mr. Draper's charming English home his house and the trees in the back ground were a solid mass of yellow bignonia blossom, which would have delighted the heart of an expert in colour photography. Entering a white gate, under a green arch of a perfectly   clipped duranta hedge, the visitor from the dust-laden camps passes between deep green lawns, up a red-sanded path, bordered with standard roses, to the foliage-covered verandah. Here, like a winter garden, swith tall palms, thick Oriental rugs, and easy chairs - with birds twittering in the aviary, and goldfish in the cool, clear water with the walls covered with souvenirs of travel and the gun, so many gallant men of all ranks and sisters have en joyed the refreshing afternoon tea of our kind host and charming hostess, and the cheers given them by our wounded lads as they have driven off, would have gladdened the hearts of any of those thinking of them in far-off Australia. Glancing at the pretty oak-panneled diningroom, with its armoury, old china and brass pewter and grand father's clock showed one an exact copy of an old English home of the Tudor period. Passing from the verandah, through the book-laden ''den," with its easy leather chairs and Egyptian lattice screens, many have glanced at the home-like glowing fire of burning wood (the first and only one they have seen in winter in Egypt). From under a rustic porch, covered with the soft foliage of the asparagus fern, and down steps bordered by Aviantum capillus veneris (the vinus fern of Australia), we cross a bridge banked by clumps of the blue Cape Plumbago, and here in the garden at the back of the house, with a raised lawn bordered by roses, sweet smelling violets and other flowers, is a large tree with steps and a rustic seat, built up into it, capable of seating nearly a dozen persons. We sit and watch the stately whiten fantailed pigeons as they proudly strut about the grass, and their pretty pink dome Egyptian house, covered with apricot blossom. Passing on, we enter by another green arched gate, and find ourselves in the plant nursery. Here maps of colour are formed of yellow and white banksia roses, with drooping masses of bougainvillea of different colours.  The collapse of the Menafiyjeh regulator     (a complementary dam of the Barrage) in December 1909, did considerable damage to the gardens, but  they are: now seen in a more flourishing condition than they were before the accident. The Barrage can be visited by train and steamer, return fare 8 pt. This trip should not be missed by any of the boys from here, as it is educational, and the gardens remind one of our own clime -Australia.

 

THE DELTA BARRAGE. (1916, March 9). The Essendon Gazette and Keilor, Bulla and Broadmeadows Reporter (Moonee Ponds, Vic. : 1914 - 1918), p. 6 Edition: Morning.. Retrieved January 27, 2012, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article74592231

 

 

Warrant-Officer F. C. Hawker, of Byron street, Moonee Ponds, has been invalided home from Egypt, and is progressing favourably. He expects to return about the end of March. A description of the Nile Barrage, which ought to be visited by all Australian soldiers, as written by Mr. Hawker, will appear in our next issue.

 

SOCIAL BREVITIES. (1916, March 2). The Essendon Gazette and Keilor, Bulla and Broadmeadows Reporter (Moonee Ponds, Vic. : 1914 - 1918), p. 3 Edition: Morning.. Retrieved January 26, 2012, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article74592109

 

No. 5 Australian General Hospital.

We are in receipt of an illustrated and artistic souvenir of No. 5 A.G.H. Base Hospital to hand from the compiler, Warrant Officer F. C. Hawker, of Byron street, Moonee Ponds. The book deals with the evolution of a military hospital, and, includes notes on massage, X-rays, pathological laboratory, dispensary, post office and dental departments connected with this hospital. lt contains thirty full-page illustrations, showing the numerous wards and various objects of interest, including a radiograph of a Turkish bullet in the lungs. This work is authorised by the State War Council and the Lord Mayor of Melbourne, and the proceeds of the sales are in aid of the Red Cross Society. The price of the book is is 1s 6d.

 

No. 5 Australian General Hospital. (1917, August 9). The Essendon Gazette and Keilor, Bulla and Broadmeadows Reporter (Moonee Ponds, Vic. : 1914 - 1918), p. 5 Edition: Morning. Retrieved May 22, 2012, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article74603382

 

War Service Commemorated

Essendon Town Hall F-L

Soldiers Entertained

St Pauls Anglican Church, Ascot Vale

St Thomas' Anglican Church

MUIOOF Loyal Albert Lodge

Essendon Gazette Roll of Honour With the Colours

Welcome Home 7 Nov 1918

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