Private Arthur James Rawlinson
by Rod Martin
Arthur Rawlinson was nineteen when he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on 10 March 1915. He indicated on his attestation papers that both of his parents were dead and that he had no guardian in Australia. This was probably the reason why he was accepted as a recruit, even though he was below the age of consent. It was not the absolute truth. His father may have been alive. However, as his younger sister Fanny indicated in a letter to the war department, she had not seen her father for sixteen years and had no idea where he was. The same would have applied to Arthur.
It would appear that, when he enlisted, Arthur lived with Fanny at 860 (Mount) Alexander Road in Essendon, as he is registered on this website. He described himself as a labourer and indicated that he had no previous military experience. Given his circumstances – effectively an orphan – it is likely that he had left school by the age of fourteen and had to fend for himself. At nineteen, Arthur was approximately 176 centimetres tall, weighed around seventy kilos and had black hair and brown eyes.
Arthur was assigned to A Company of 24 Battalion. This unit had been raised in a hurry because of a surplus of recruits at the Broadmeadows training camp and a need to clear a few of them out to make more space. The battalion officially came into existence during the first week of May 1915, and the men sailed on A14 HMAT Euripides on the eighth of that month.
Troops boarding HMAT Euripides 8 May 1915 (AWM PB0377)
http://cas.awm.gov.au/item/PB0377
HMAT Euripides Leaving Port Melbourne, 8 May 1915 (AWM PB 0374)
http://cas.awm.gov.au/item/PB0374
The men arrived in Egypt some time in July, and then spent the next two months catching up on the training they had missed at Broadmeadows. Then, on 28 August, they proceeded to Alexandria, boarded a ship and headed for Gallipoli, arriving there on 6 September. Once having disembarked, the men were ordered to move to Courtney’s Post, one of the furthest advance points on the heights of Anzac Cove.
Courtney’s Post (AWM A0 1210)
Life at Courtney’s Post had been precarious from the start of the campaign, the Turkish trenches being in very close proximity. The men at the post had already repelled one large attack in May. 24 Battalion was subjected to sniper fire very quickly and the new troops hurriedly learned to duck their heads. Their stay at Courtney’s was to be short, however. Two days later, they were ordered to withdraw, occupy White’s Valley and hold the garrison position at Lone Pine.
Troops filing through White’s Valley to relieve the Lone Pine garrison
(AWM P0 0188.015) http://cas.awm.gov.au/item/P00188.015
The position at Lone Pine had been captured by Australian troops on 6 August. On a day when a number of feints were carried out (including the infamous and murderous one at The Nek) to distract the Turks from British reinforcements landing at Suvla Bay, the capture of Lone Pine stood out as a solitary victory – although at a horrendous cost in life and limb. Naturally, the Turks wanted it back, and carried out regular sniping, bombardments and attacks on the position. When it took over the garrison along with 23 Battalion, 24 Battalion was subjected to sixteen weeks of fighting that the Australian War Memorial tells us was so dangerous and exhausting that the battalions rotated between the valley and the garrison every day.
By 29 September, in addition to a significant number of casualties, the battalion diary indicated that 112 men were sick in hospital, suffering from afflictions such as dysentery. typhus and general debilitation. When October began, the remaining troops were still rotating between White’s Valley and the garrison. Even in the valley, however, they were not safe. On 10 and 11 October, the diary recorded that shrapnel and shells were continually falling on them. The men returned to the garrison on the twelfth and were subjected to continual bombing and sniping, and an enemy advance on one of their positions that was successfully repulsed. The diary indicated that the enemy fire that day was heavier than usual.
The 24 Battalion Diary for 12 October also noted that one man had been killed in the conflict, and four wounded. Arthur was the man killed.
Arthur‘s body was withdrawn from the front trenches and then buried in a makeshift cemetery at Brown’s Dip South. The following map gives some indication of its location and layout (the sketch of Brown’s Dip Cemetery is on the right).
Cemetery Plan Shell Green No.1 (Shell Green) and Brown's Dip North & South, 1915 (AWM RC03016)
http://cas.awm.gov.au/item/RC03016
After the war, the Imperial War Graves Commission exhumed the bodies from Brown’s Dip and reburied them in the new Lone Pine Cemetery. Arthur lies there today, along with 470 other Australian men killed in the vicinity.
Lone Pine Memorial and Cemetery (Commonwealth War Graves Commission)
Arthur’s sister Fanny was the recipient of the contents of his will, his memorials from the government and his medals. He left one other half-brother, who lived in New South Wales.
Sources
Australian War Memorial
En.wikipedia.org
National Archives of Australia
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