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McPherson-J-C-Pte-2309

Page history last edited by Lenore Frost 10 years, 2 months ago

Volunteers of Essendon and Flemington, 1914-1918

 

McPherson J C        Pte    2309    John Charles             8 LHR    25    Station overseer    Single    Pres

Address:    Flemington, Lee S, 8  

Next of Kin:    McPherson, John, father, 8 Lee St, Flemington   

Enlisted:    21 Jan 1916       

Embarked:     A66 Uganda 2 May 1916 

 

Red Cross Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau Correspondence

 

McPherson, John Chas 2309 AIF 3rd Bn

Repatriated Prisoner of War from Turkey
Embarked for Australia 15 Nov 1918

 

Interned Gelebek via Bilemedik, Pouzanti.  Asia Minor
Captured at Bisseba.

Cert by extract from letter received from Pte G B King, 1379, 9th Bn, Prisoner of War, in Turkey, dated 6.1.18.

***
Prisoner of War Turkey, Gelebak, via Bilemadik Pozanti, captured at Birseba, Previously reported Missing, Palestine, believed Prisoner of War.  Cert by HQ 11.3.18.

**
Interned Afion, Kara Hissar
Camp No 5204
Ottoman Red Crescent List dated 1/6/18

***
We are pleased to inform you that 2309 Pte J C McPherson, 3rd Bn, Imperial Camel Corps, AIF (Previously a Prisoner of War in Turkey) left Alexandria on 21.11.18 for England.....

 

https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/records/1drl0428/2/197/4/1drl-0428-2-197-4-3.pdf

B2455
Reported missing, believed prisoner of War, 12 Dec 1917 

 

Flemington-Kensington Church News, January 1918

We regret to hear that Trooper J. C. McPherson has been reported missing in Palestine. All our sympathy is with his parents at 8 Lee Street, as also with  Mr. & Mrs. MacCallum of Crown St., whose son is reported missing in France. May God uphold these two families thro' their anxious waiting!

 

Flemington-Kensington Church News, April 1919

 

Sgt. J. C. McPherson, 11th Coy., Imperial Camel Corps, left Australia for Egypt, on 2nd May, 1916, as a trooper in the 8th Light Horse. After a time he was  transferred to the Camel Corps, and was first employed in the brilliant little  campaign on the West of Libyan front against the Senussi Arabs. It will be  remembered that the Arab General, Gaafer Pasha, was captured and his forces  scattered at Sollum.

 

Then came the long patient fight across the desert from Egypt to Palestine. The Desert Column consisting of the Australian, New Zealand, and British mounted troops and the Camel Corps bore the brunt of the fighting. Romani, El Arish, Magdhaba and Rafa are names of places where our  men overcame the desert and the Turk. The Turk was driven from Rafa in  January, 1917, and took up a line from Gaza, on the coast, to Tel-el-Sheria, with Beersheba as an advanced post on his left. So East and West faced each other on the old historical battlefield of the Philestine Plain, where innumerable  battles had been fought.

 

On March 26th was fought the first battle of Gaza, which, perhaps owing to a heavy sea fog, failed in its object. There were 4000 casualties. On April 17th, the capture of Gaza was again attempted, but failed in its main object. Gaza had stopped the British. After this time the Camel Corps and other forces raided the Turkish railway, demolishing 13 miles of it, and destroying 9 bridges. Sir Edmund Allenby took over the command from Sir Archibald Murray, and after due preparation the attack on Beersheba was  made.

 

Sgt. McPherson was at school when he and other 15 non-com. officers were  sent with rifles and ammunition to outflank and break the flight of the Turks. They were under Colonel Newcombe and a small party with 12 machine guns was organised. The Mecca Arabs were to come up and assist, and the  native Arabs were to be organised as a force. The party went out ten miles beyond Hebron and were to hold the Beersheba—Jerusalem road.   They had  been out four days when they were attacked bv heavy forces. The Arabs failed to come up and the affair became a forlorn hope. The contest commenced at 5 a.m., and terminated at 12.30 p.m., when ten of the machine guns were out of  action and the force was reduced to 60 men, four of whom were Australians. They surrendered, but would have been wiped out but for the interference of a German officer.

 

The surrendered men, but not the officers, were immediately  stripped of boots and the better part of their clothing. With bare feet they were marched over the mountains, stopping at Hebron one night and at Jerusalem for a week. Then on to Jericho, Nabulus, Damascus and Allepo. The march was a fearful affair as the men's feet were torn and the food was poor and scant. At Allepo the Spanish Consul gave the officers and men some money, which helped for the time, but prices were very high for all foodstuffs, and the value of Turkish money had depreciated. The prisoners were then sent to work on  railway construction on the great Taurus mountain range, where there are great tunnels. They were given two meals a day : the first consisting of a small loaf, the size of a yeast bun, and water, and at night each party of thirteen received a bucket of boiled wheat. The sufferings were intense from cold, hunger and  sickness.

 

The German Civil Engineer over that part of the works was brutal in the extreme—a typical Hun, and the Doctor (Wagner) boasted that he had killed more Britishers than any soldier. Floggings were frequent for inability to do  work, and the mortality was extremely high. lt is only right to say that at a camp ten miles away things were conducted quite differently under a humane  German Engineer. After some time of this our soldier went down with malaria and was sent to Kara Hissar, in Anatolia. Here he was smitten with Spanish  influenza. After four months he was sent to Smyrna and stayed in a college there.

 

Towards the end, when the Turkish authorities saw the inevitable collapse of their war dreams, the food and treatment of prisoners of war became far  better. Ultimately Sgt. McPherson shipped on the "Kanowna" from Smyrna to Alexandria. Few of that little party had his good fortune, and they lie in a far distant land, the victims of organised cruelty and wrong. Sgt McPherson has  now been home for some weeks, and is progressing towards the normal after  his strange experiences. We wish him health and all success in the career he has in view.

 

 

War Service Commemorated

Association of Stock and Station Agents

Flemington-Presbyterian-Church

Essendon Gazette Roll of Honour With the Colours (Jack)

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