Hiya Everyone! It’s ANZAC Day tomorrow, and this year I thought I’d continue to tell stories from my ancestry with another World War One story. Like many people, I have a number of ancestors who have served in 20th century conflicts, and very fortunate to have had nearly all of them return home. In 2018, I told the story of my great great uncle, William Thomas Johns, who sadly never returned home from the front. This time, I wanted to talk about three brothers and their very different wartime experiences, which thankfully has a happier ending all round. Albert, George and William Hamson, were the fourth, fifth and sixth children of William Hamson and Sarah Mayfield, having two older sisters and two younger brothers. I’ve previously touched on George and William’s stories, but didn’t go into great detail about their lives during World War One. Albert was born on 18 June, 1888 in Hoby, Leicestershire, England. I’ll admit, I don’t know too much about Albert. In fact, he’s the sibling out all seven that I know the least about. And if it wasn’t for my one photo of him being his army photo, I’d not know that he served in World War One. At this point, I don’t even have war records for him – searching the UK records is a lot more difficult than the Australian records I’m used to, especially since there seems to be so many Albert Hamson’s listed. Not the mention that a lot of the British World War One records were destroyed during the Blitz in World War Two. So while I don’t know the specifics of Albert’s service, I do that he did enlist and that he returned home, awarded the British War Medal 1914-20 and the Victory Medal. Albert married Constance Pitchfork in 1914, going onto have six children together, one born in 1918. He went on to live to the age of 59, passing away in January, 1947. I definitely hope that one day I’ll be able to flesh out his story more, but for now, I’m glad I can at least recognise that he served King and Country, and he lived to grow his family. George was born on 7 May 1890, in Hoby, Leicestershire, England. With younger brother William, he immigrated to Australia at the age of 21, arriving in Sydney on 11 September 1912. He settled in the farming district of southern New South Wales, around the Oaklands and Urana area, alongside William. At the age of 25 years and 10 months, George enlisted in World War One on 20 March 1917 at Wagga Wagga. He was to be part of the 3rd Infantry Battalion, and between March and September of that year, he moved between Liverpool, Seymour and Broadmeadows during training. This culminated in his embarkment overseas, leaving Sydney on 31 October 1917 on HMAT Euripides. He arrived in Devonport on 26 December, before heading to the training camps at Sutton Veny as part of No. 4 Camp. He trained at Sutton Veny until 31 March 1918 where he then proceeded overseas to France via Dover. It wasn’t until 27 April that he joined the 3rd Infantry Battalion as part of the 25th Reinforcements. The 3rd Infantry Battalion itself was among the first units raised, with men recruited predominately from New South Wales. In fact, it was raised within a fortnight of the declaration of war in August 1914 and actually took part in the landing at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915, as well as the attack on Lone Pine in August. After the withdrawal from Gallipoli, the battalion headed to France and the Western Front in March 1916, remaining there until 1918. During this time, they took part in operations against the German Army, principally in the Somme Valley in France and around Ypres in Belgium. When George arrived with the battalion, they had returned briefly to the Somme (Amien) before returning north to Strazeele, which was under threat of being captured by the Germans. During June and July 1918, they took part in several operations in the area before being sent back to the Somme on 6 August, taking part in the Battle of Amiens two days later. German General Erich Ludendorff described the battle as “the black day of the German Army in this war.” On 20 June, George was taken to hospital sick, although his records don’t indicate the extent of his illness. He returned to the battalion on 3 August, presumably taking part in the Battle of Amiens. The battalion continued operations until late September, with armistice coming on 11 November 1918. George’s file also indicates that at the end of the war, he was part of the Corporal Guard, having joined on 15 October 1918. While his rank for World War One was Private, he actually went on to enlist in World War Two as a Corporal. George returned to the England on 7 May 1919 before boarding the Boorosa on 6 July, arriving back in Australia on 26 August, 22 months after he last stood on Australian soil. He was eventually discharged on 20 September 1919. Upon returning home, George was awarded the British War Medal 1914-20, which was instituted by King George V in 1919 to mark the end of World War I and record the service given; and the Victory Medal, which was also authorised in 1919 to commemorate the victory of the Allied Forces. He returned to the Urana area, reuniting with his younger brother, and eventually married Wilhelmina McMillan in 1923. The couple had a son, George Harold in March 1924, but sadly Wilhelmina passed away unexpectedly in April 1925. George, and his son, would both go onto enlist in World War Two, with both fortunately returning home at the end of the conflict. Of the three brothers, George lived the longest, passing away at the age of 82 in December 1973. Finally, we reach my grandfather. William was born 20 October 1892, in Hoby, Leicestershire, England, immigrating to Australia with George when he was 20 years old, which I’ve previously talked about. Unlike his older brothers though, William did not enlist in World War One. Instead, he chose to continue working on his farm in the Oaklands district. This, of course, wasn’t unheard of, with farming operations needing to continue during the War. However, not enlisting didn’t mean that William wasn’t helping with the war effort. Apart from continuing with farm production, which was possibly mixed-farming, or just grain production, William was involved with a major event on the home front. On 2 August 1917, around 5,780 New South Wales railway and tramway employees, most from the Eveleigh Railway Workshops and Randwick Tramway Workshops, stopped work in protest of the new job timecard system that had been in effect for a few weeks. Almost two-thirds of New South Wales’ railway and tramway workers went on strike, seeing the introduction of the new card system as a “direct attack on collective work practices and trade union principles.” The strike spread to other industries in towns right across Australia, totalling around 77,350 workers who refused to work as a result of ‘black bans’ or sympathy actions. Sydney’s coal gas works were left idle, resulting in power outages; shipping was held up; and food shortages were seen as staples like butter, meat and sugar were declared ‘black’. Every week, upwards of 100,000 men, women and children descended on The Domain in Sydney to protest, which was around one seventh of Sydney’s population at the time. On top of the strike and protests, Australia was suffering through the war years. Mass casualties had been seen on the warfront, while poverty was widespread on the homefront. With the Irish Rebellion in 1916 and the Russian Revolutions in 1917, alongside conscription debates a home, it was a very tense and troubling time for everyone. Loyalties were certainly being tested, especially once the strike kicked off. So where does William come into this? On Saturday 11 August, the Oaklands branch of the Farmers and Settlers Association held a public meeting to see what steps could be taken to assist the Government with the strike, having received a telegram from Sydney. Despite being 600km from Sydney, Oaklands was already feeling the effects of the strike, with wheat stacks waiting along the line between Urana and Oaklands going to waste as bags split and rotted. It was moved at the meeting that they would stand by the Government during the strike, with a list of upwards of 30 men volunteering their time and services. One of those men was William. In an effort to keep the cogs of industry turning, both the state and Federal Governments responded by organising strikebreaking on a mass scale, which saw a large number of middle-class men, predominantly from rural areas, descend on Sydney. The strikebreakers, who totalled around 7,000, were housed at the Sydney Cricket Ground and Taronga Zoo. Sydney Cricket Ground garnered the name ‘Scabs Collecting Ground’ by those who supported the strike, while the strikebreakers were referred to as ‘volunteers’ and ‘loyalists’ by those who opposed the strike. Not everyone walked off the job, and some of those who did remain were quiet impressed by the work done by the strikebreakers. The Richmond River Express and Casino Kyogle Advertiser of Friday 24 August reported that one of the wharf managers said: “These country coves handle our bags of maize just as though they were brown paper parcels. They don’t bother about the regulation three bags to a truck. If there is not a truck handy they just whip the bag up on their shoulder and trot off with it. I tell you, these coves are not here just for the fun of it. They mean business, and I have never before seen such eagerness to finish a job” However, it wasn’t all praise and positivity. Naturally, there was division between the strikers and strikebreakers, and their supporters, with scuffles, verbal abuse and some physical violence regular occurrences on the picket lines. In fact, the strike actually saw the death of a striker, Merv Flanagan, at the hands of a strikebreaker, Reginald Wearne, which exposed greater class warfare in Sydney at the time. After six weeks, the strike was defeated in mid-September, with industrial action and protest eventually wound up in early October. Strikebreakers returned home and back to their normal way of life. William went onto marry Violet Johns in September 1923, with the couple having two sons. Violet sadly passed away from appendicitis in December 1926, one month after giving birth to their second child. William remarried in September 1930, tying the knot with Violet’s older sister Fanny. Together, they had a son in June 1933, my grandfather. William lived to the age of 76, passing away in November 1968. In putting together this post, one question comes to mind – did Albert and George, and by extension William, know they had both enlisted and were fighting in the War? How close were they to each other when they were on the front? And did George get to see his family while he was in England before he returned to Australia? Hopefully, if I ever find Albert’s records, I’ll be able to piece together the story a little more, but I do wonder how much contact William and George had with their family back in England during these war years. I do know that William did write to his younger brother Edwin after the war and well into the 1920s, but I don’t know what happened during the first ten years the brothers were in Australia. All three had very different World War One experiences, although I’m sure Albert and George’s experiences were kind of similar, but all three did something important during the War. They left their mark, both during their time, and even today. And they were the lucky ones, able to tell their story when the gunfire ceased. And even though I wish I had a million more details about their lives during this time, I’m glad that I can honour, in some small way, their service, both on the warfront and the homefront. Lest We Forget. Useful Research Links:
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