Rank: Private
Regimental Number: 8816
Place of Birth: Fremantle Western Australia
Address: 29 Holland Street, East Fremantle, Western Australia
Next of Kin: Mother, Mrs Eliz Leunig
Enlistment Date: 29 September 1915
Unit Name: Field Ambulance 4, Reinforcement 14
Age embarkation: 24
Marital Status: Single
Occupation: Commercial traveller
Date of Death:
Place of Burial:
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Rank: Lieutenant
Regimental Number:
Place of Birth: Maitland, South Australia
Address: 26 Allen Street, East Fremantle, Western Australia
Next of Kin: Wife, Mrs E J Lehmann.
Enlistment Date: 16 September 1915
Unit Name: 11th Battalion, 14th Reinforcement
Age embarkation: 36
Marital Status: Married
Occupation: Marine engineer
Date of Death: 21 September 1917
Place of Burial: No known grave
Links:
Lieutenant BENNO CARL LEHMAN.
Lieutenant Benno Carl Lehman, son of Augusta and the late Emil Lehman, was born at Maitland, S.A., and educated at Adelaide. He was married on the 3rd April, 1909, to Lila Mcllwaine, daughter of Henry and Kate Mcllwaine, Solomon-street, Palmyra, East Fremantle. Prior to the outbreak of war he went into camp at Fort Forrest [Blackboy Hill] and later joined the A.I.F and sailed as O.C. 14th Reinforcements, 11th Battalion. On his arrival in France he was transferred to the 3rd Machine Gun Coy. and was wounded at Bullecourt on the [5th and] 6th May, 1917. He was awarded the M.C. and was in action until the 21st September, 1917, when he was killed at Glencose Wood and was buried at Clapham Junction.
Australia’s Fighting Son’s of the Empire
Transcript from “The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of Lieutenant Benno Carl Lehmann MC, 3rd Australian Machine Gun Company, First World War” By Kate Ariotti, Australian War Memorial.
Lieutenant Benno Carl Lehmann MC, 3rd Australian Machine Gun Company
KIA 21 September 1917
Today we remember and pay tribute to Lieutenant Benno Carl Lehmann, who died during the First World War.
Benno Lehmann was born in December 1879 to Emilius and Auguste Lehmann in Maitland, South Australia. When war broke out Lehmann was living with his wife, Eliza, in Fremantle, Western Australia. The 35-year-old was working as a marine engineer when he enlisted in the AIF in September 1915.
Lehmann joined the 14th reinforcements of the 11th Battalion. He left Fremantle on HMAT Miltiades in February 1916 and arrived in Egypt one month later. After a few weeks training, Lehmann was sent to France, where he spent several months instructing reinforcements at Ètaples. In October 1916 he attended Vickers Machine Gun School, and was promoted to lieutenant just after Christmas. Early in the new year Lehmann was transferred from the 11th Battalion and was taken on strength of the 3rd Australian Machine Gun Company. He underwent a further period of instruction and training at Camiers and re-joined his unit in late April 1917.
In May 1917 Lehmann was involved in the fighting around Bullecourt at Riencourt. He was wounded in the right buttock and was sent to hospital for treatment and convalescence. Lehmann rejoined his unit in early July and in August was awarded the Military Cross for conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty for his actions at Riencourt. The citation for his MC read:
During an enemy counter-attack he brought his gun into action at great personal risk … On seeing his gun in danger of being captured he led a bombing attack and though twice wounded, remained until the enemy was repulsed.
Lehmann was killed just over a month later. On 21 September the 3rd Machine Gun Company was involved in the fighting around Glencorse Wood as part of the larger allied advance on the Menin Road. Lehmann had been wounded early in the battle, and was making his way back to the front after receiving treatment at a casualty clearing station when he was hit by a shell. He was badly wounded, and witnesses stated that he died instantly.
Lehmann’s death was reported in several Western Australian newspapers. He was described as “a most popular officer” and it was said that his death came “as a great shock to a large circle of friends”. As a sign of respect and mourning, the flags of the Fremantle Harbour Trust, where Lehmann had previously worked, were flown at half-mast.
After the war, Lehmann was commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial in the Belgian town of Ypres. This memorial contains the names of over 54,000 Commonwealth servicemen who died during the First World War and who have no known grave, including 6,000 Australian soldiers.
Benno Lehmann’s name is listed on the Roll of Honour to my right, along with the names of more than 60,000 other Australians who died fighting in the First World War. His photograph is displayed today by the Pool of Reflection.
This is but one of the many stories of service and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Lieutenant Benno Carl Lehmann, and all those Australians who have given their lives in the service of our nation.
Rank: Private
Regimental Number: 2119
Place of Birth: Mandurah Western Australia
Address: Sewell Street, East Fremantle, Western Australia
Next of Kin: Wife, Mrs Johanna Law
Enlistment Date: 26 April 1916
Unit Name: 44th Battalion, 3rd Reinforcement
Age embarkation: 42
Marital Status: Married
Occupation: Mason
Date of Death:
Place of Burial:
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Rank: Sapper
Regimental Number: 17535
Place of Birth: Brunswick, Victoria
Address: East Fremantle, Western Australia
Next of Kin: Father, Andrew Gustav Landgren
Enlistment Date: 29 November 1916
Unit Name: Cavalry Divisional Signal Squadron 1
Age embarkation: 23
Marital Status: Single
Occupation: Railway telegraphist
Date of Death:
Place of Burial:
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Rank: Private
Regimental Number: 7024
Place of Birth: Mount Torrens South Australia
Address: 155 Glyde Street, East Fremantle, Western Australia
Next of Kin: Wife, Mrs. Ita Mary Knuckey
Enlistment Date: 28 September 1916
Unit Name: 11th Battalion, 23rd Reinforcement
Age embarkation: 31
Marital Status: Married
Occupation: Pipe jointer
Joseph Walter Knuckey
Soldier of East Freo
Joseph Walter Knuckey was born on 6 February 1885 in Mount Torrens, South Australia. He was the youngest of six sons and six daughters of his Cornish-born parents - Joe, an engine driver, and Eliza nee Lyttleton, who married in 1860.
Joe had come to Victoria as a young man in the early 1850s, fought at the Eureka Stockade, and was a prominent, long-time trade unionist. Theirs was a strong and loving marriage, the success of which Joe later attributed to always letting Eliza have the last word, and agreeing with her in all things.
He brought his family to Western Australia in the mid-1890s with the Gold Rush, and secured land on which to build a home in Dwyer Street, Boulder. He also attained his engine drivers’ certificate and became an active member of the Amalgamated Certificated Engine Drivers’ Association.
The 1910-1911 electoral roll shows the couple living in Solomon Street, Fremantle, perhaps indicating Eliza (69) and Joe (78), then the oldest trade unionist in Australia, enjoyed an extended trip away in celebration of their 50th wedding anniversary. Back in Boulder in February 1911, as he sat peacefully in his chair, he suddenly felt death sweep over him. He told Eliza he was done for, and that he then could not see. He made his goodbyes and quietly died a few minutes later.
Eliza soon moved down to Perth to be near her married daughters, who were raising families of their own. She lived at 27 Holland Street, Fremantle, not far from where she had stayed in 1910.
Young Joseph came with her. In the Goldfields he had worked as a battery hand, millhand and labourer, but he now joined the WA Government Railways (WAGR) as a pipe jointer, working in East Perth.
In 1914 he married Ita Colreavy, and they moved into a home not far from Eliza, at 155 Glyde Street, East Fremantle, on the south-west corner of Marmion Street. Their first child, Frederick, was born on 1 July 1915, and was the prescient namesake of Joseph’s brother Fred, who had embarked for Gallipoli, after very little training, the week before. Fred survived his service there, but not without injury and, sadly, died in France in August 1917, having suffered fatal head injuries from a bomb blast.
On 30 August 1916 Joseph enlisted and his medical exam shows he was auburn-haired and very slight: five feet five and a half inches in the old scale (166cm), and just 138 pounds (62kgs). On 23 December 1916 Joseph embarked on the Berrima at Fremantle with the 7th Reinforcements to the 11th Battalion, arriving in Devonport, England, on 16 February 1917. After further training, and having his photo taken at the Dease Studio in Barrack Street, he embarked for France on 20 June 1917, joining his unit on 4 July.
With Joseph away, Eliza moved in to Glyde Street with her daughter-in-law and grandson, before they all moved to 110 Rupert Street, Subiaco, in 1917. At the time Joseph left, neither he nor Ita could have known she was expecting their second child who was born at Nurse Lloyd’s private hospital in Subiaco on 9 September 1917. With the news having only recently reached them that Joseph’s brother Fred had died in France, Ita named him Joseph, after his father, hoping he did not meet the same fate.
Thankfully, Joseph’s service was largely uneventful and he remained surprisingly healthy throughout. There were a couple of highlights: one being the gift of a pair of socks from the 11th Battalion Trench Comforts Fund in late 1917; and three weeks’ leave in England in February 1918. He wrote to thank Miss Kathleen Shea, of Boulder, for the pair of socks, and part of his letter was printed in the Western Mail of 20 December 1917:
“We had just come in out of the line after a dust-up with Fritz, and had not had a change of socks for some days, so I can tell you I did appreciate them. I know your father very well. Tell [him] Boulder is a long way ahead of this place. My brother was killed out here just two months ago. It was real bad luck, as he had been going for so long.”
Medically, there was only one lowlight: a scabies infection that June, but he was back with his unit within a couple of weeks. Unusually, he remained in France until April 1919 - five months after the Armistice was signed. In England, on 1 June, he embarked on the Somali to return to Australia.
Back home Joseph rejoined the WAGR and moved his growing family, and his mother, to Raphael Street, Subiaco, where their daughter Nita was born in April 1920. Later that year he was posted to Northam, where they lived in Gardiner Street. Their son Leo was born there in March 1922, and a daughter, Amy, in 1923.
In 1924 Joseph took up land in a settlement scheme, and was allotted to Group 75 at Warner Glen near Alexandra Bridge in the Busselton district. Eliza came too, contributing her maiden name to the farm: ‘Lyttleton’. The last of Joseph and Ita’s babies, Amy and Olive, were born in 1925 and 1926 respectively. Sadly Olive died suddenly, at three months, just before Christmas, 1926. A few years later Eliza moved back up to Perth where she died in May 1931, at the incredible age of 89.
The Knuckeys stayed at Lyttleton, their growing daughters working in the house, and their sons on the land, until 1942. Then Frederick, Joseph and Leo, all now young men, enlisted in WWII, Nita and Amy began working in the Munitions Factory, and Mabel joined the Women’s Auxiliary Australian Air Force.
Joseph was already overseas when the family gathered at the State War Memorial in Kings Park for a significant photo before Fred and Leo were also deployed overseas. Everyone is smiling except for Joseph, who knew the cost of war, remembering his brother Fred, lost in WWI. He knew this war could cost him too, and the Knuckeys were devastated in October 1942 when they heard young Joseph been killed in action on 30 August in New Guinea. Grief, Joseph’s failing health, and no one to help him work the land was enough; the Knuckeys left Lyttleton and moved back to Perth in 1943.
With the electoral roll listing Joseph’s occupation as ‘invalid’, they lived briefly at 37 Gallipoli Street, Victoria Park, before moving into 183 Hay Street, almost opposite Queens Gardens, East Perth, with Joseph’s older brother Richard.
Frederick and Leo survived the war. Slowly the world righted itself, and Mabel returned home to cook and help Nita and Amy care for her parents and their uncle Richard. Frederick, who had returned early from the war, married in 1944, followed by Leo in 1947, Nita in 1948, and Amy in 1951. All had children of their own.
Joseph died in Hay Street on 15 September 1952, aged 67. Ita moved to Mount Yokine and outlived him by 15 years, dying in 1967, aged 76. Mabel then married but, sadly, her husband died just a few years later in 1973, aged just 47.
Researched and written by Shannon Lovelady for www.streetsofeastfreo
Rank: Private
Regimental Number: 1014
Place of Birth: East Fremantle Western Australia
Address: 46 Hubble Street(WW1: 86), East Fremantle, Western Australia
Next of Kin: Sister, Mrs J Simpton
Enlistment Date: 7 September 1914
Unit Name: 12th Battalion, G Company
Age embarkation: 22
Marital Status: Single
Occupation: Boundary rider
Date of Death:
Place of Burial:
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Rank: Staff Nurse
Regimental Number: N/A
Place of Birth: Essex, England
Address: East Fremantle, Western Australia
Next of Kin: Mother, Mrs M A Kirton
Enlistment Date: 10 August 1915
Unit Name: Australian Army Nursing Service
Age embarkation: 31
Marital Status: Single
Occupation: Nurse
There are three Kirtons on the East Fremantle Roll of Honour: Alec, his brother Gervase (known as Roland), and their sister Dora, the only woman on the Roll of Honour.
They were the children of chemist and former brickmaker, Richard Gervase Kirton and his wife Mary Anne nee Mann. Gervase and Dora were born in England before the family came to Western Australia in the late 1880s. The family initially lived in Glen Iris, near Bunbury, where Alec was born in 1893 and where Richard established The Kirton Patent Pottery Co in 1902. In 1904 they moved up to Belmont where Richard became a town councillor and opened his pottery on a new site on Grandstand Road, near the river, in July 1904.
Though it was the first pottery in Perth and Richard made a diverse range of roofing tiles, terracotta horticultural pots and agricultural pipes, the pottery quietly went into liquidation in February 1906. Another pottery took it over and, in the 1930s, became Brisbane & Wunderlich. Today the kilns and chimneys, dating from Kirton Patent Pottery Co’s time, are heritage-listed; a significant feature of Belmont’s history.
After the failure of his pottery Richard turned his hand back to chemistry, took up premises in Central Chambers, High Street, Fremantle, and moved his family to East Fremantle.
Alec (20) was a bank clerk and still living at home when he enlisted at the outbreak of war in August 1914. Assigned to the 11th Battalion, Alec survived the landing at Gallipoli but a dilated heart saw him evacuated to the 1st Australian Stationary Hospital in Mudros on Lemnos Island, Greece, on 1 June 1915, and on to Alexandria where he was admitted to hospital on 6 June. In August 1915, instead of being sent back to Gallipoli, he was sent for training at the Imperial School of Instruction (for Officers) in Zeitoun, Egypt. He did very well and, on 9 January 1916, was promoted to regimental quartermaster sergeant.
Six weeks later though, on 18 February, Alec was fatally injured in a bomb blast at the school, and died shortly afterwards, aged just 21.
Roland (33), an assistant chemist, enlisted a few weeks after Alec, in September 1914. He, his wife Elizabeth, and their two small children Roma and Gervase, lived in Menzies, but he enlisted in Perth in September 1914. He was assigned to the Australian Army Medical Corps and arrived in Egypt in late December 1915, a few weeks after Alec. He served with the 2nd Australian Stationary Hospital (2ASH) at Mena Camp outside Cairo, where Alec was also camped. They would have seen each other around camp and made their farewells in March 1915, when the 11th Battalion was sent to wait in Mudros Harbour at Lemnos for the Gallipoli campaign to begin.
Back home, on 18 April, Roland’s tiny daughter Roma (3) died in Menzies Hospital. He would have received the news shortly thereafter, but there was no time to mourn her loss for, on 19 April, Gervase and the 2ASH packed up and moved to Mudros, arriving just as the troops were leaving Lemnos for Gallipoli. There, he dealt with the influx of sick and wounded from Gallipoli while his wife, Elizabeth, and son, Gervase (2), moved down to 121 George Street, East Fremantle, to be near the rest of his family. In May, some comfort would have come from seeing Alec for the few days he was at 1AGH, nearby.
After the Gallipoli campaign dragged to a close Roland was sent to Tel-el-Kebir, Egypt, where he heard his brother Alec had been killed in the bomb blast at Zeitoun. He became ill and was seriously depressed; his nerves had been shattered and he was unable to stop fretting about his family. After he was diagnosed with debility, another name for shell shock, a line was drawn under his war service. He was assigned nursing and mess duties on the Runic and returned to Australia in May 1916. He was discharged on 4 July.
Dora (31) enlisted in July 1915. She had trained for three and a half years at Fremantle Public Hospital, qualifying in 1911 with her Medical and Surgical Certificates, and subsequently worked as matron at a private hospital.
She initially nursed on Hospital Transport Ships, nursing the sick and wounded returning to Australia from the front. Later, she served in hospitals in Egypt, convalescent homes in England and in tent hospitals and casualty clearing stations in on the Western Front. She fell ill with influenza in December 1916 in England, but swiftly recovered and resumed duty.
In France on 9 July 1918 she suffered burns to her face and hair when a small (methylated) spirit stove exploded as she lit it. She recovered, and resumed duty on 6 August. Three weeks later she was posted to the 57th Casualty Clearing Station, and returned to the 25AGH on 22 September where she was soon after promoted to sister.
In late-November 1918, in France, Dora was hospitalised with a second bout of influenza at Wimereux, where she was also subsequently diagnosed with debility. With the Armistice having been signed and the war over, she was sent to the newly-opened nurses’ convalescent home, the superb Villa Casa del Mare, Cabbe Roquebrune, for Christmas 1918. After this well-earned rest, Dora rejoined her unit on 6 January 1919.
Dora spent the majority of 1919 nursing in England, but took the opportunity to attend a cooking course at the British School of Cookery in Regent Street, London, between 1 April and 23 June, and enjoyed another month’s leave in England from mid-August. She returned to Australia on the Benalla in November 1919, choosing to be demobilized in Victoria, where she was finally discharged on 21 June 1920.
The next year, in NSW, Dora married wool classer Cecil Alcorn, from Jerrys Plain’s, NSW. Seven years her junior, Cecil had served with the 30th Battalion, and studied to become a commissioned lieutenant. He lost his right leg after being wounded in action in October 1918, and was awarded a Belgian Croix de Guerre for conspicuous services in the field. Cecil became the head teacher in the Technical Education Branch’s Sheep and Wool Department and, for most of the rest of Cecil’s life, they lived in a gracious Federation home in Summer Hill, just outside of Sydney.
Dora never returned to live in Western Australia. Cecil retired in 1953 and died in Summer Hill in 1957, aged 66. Dora survived Cecil by seven years and died in Artarmon, NSW, in 1965, aged 81.
Roland never returned to live in Western Australia either. After his return in 1916 he donned khakis again in January 1918, and worked as a recruiting organiser but, after the war, he and his wife Elizabeth, son Gervase, and their baby daughter Loma, born in June 1918, moved to Townsville, Queensland, where he died in 1976, aged 95.
Researched and written by Shannon Lovelady for www.streetsofeastfreo
Rank: Private
Regimental Number: 56353
Place of Birth: Perth Western Australia
Address: East Fremantle, Western Australia
Next of Kin: Father, H C Kerr, 'Aston'
Enlistment Date: 13 February 1918
Unit Name: Western Australian Reinforcement 2
Age embarkation: 19
Marital Status: Single
Occupation: Civil engineer
Date of Death:
Place of Burial:
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Rank: Private
Regimental Number: 3689
Place of Birth: Perth Western Australia
Address: Silas Street, East Fremantle, Western Australia
Next of Kin: Mother, Mrs G Bergin,
Enlistment Date: 28 July 1915
Unit Name: 11th Battalion, 12th Reinforcement
Age embarkation: 21
Marital Status: Single
Occupation: Engine driver
Date of Death:
Place of Burial:
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Rank: Private
Regimental Number: 3865
Place of Birth: New South Wales
Address: East Fremantle, Western Australia
Next of Kin: Wife, Mrs Mary Kelly.
Enlistment Date: 17 November 1915
Unit Name: 28th Battalion, 9th Reinforcement
Age embarkation: 27
Marital Status: Married
Occupation: Railway employee
Date of Death:
Place of Burial:
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Rank: Private
Regimental Number: 4830
Place of Birth: Horsham Victoria
Address: 117 George Street, East Fremantle, Western Australia
Next of Kin: Wife, Mrs J Jarvis, George Street
Enlistment Date: 7 December 1915
Unit Name: 11th Battalion, 15th Reinforcement
Age embarkation: 35
Marital Status: Married
Occupation: Labourer
Date of Death:
Cause of Death:
Place of Burial:
Fate: Returned to Australia 13 April 1919
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Daniel Jarvis
BIRTH 14 NOV 1892 • Horsham, Victoria, Australia
DEATH 28 JUN 1968 • Perth, Western Australia
Enlisted 1915- 11th Battalion, 15th Reinforcement, served until 1917.
Wife Gertrude Jarvis, 5 Bruce st, Leederville
1916-1921 lived 117 George St, East Freo
1920 Accident. While working on a new building being erected in Essex-street, Fremantle, yesterday, Daniel Jarvis (41), of 117 George-street, East Fremantle; fell from a scaffolding on to the roadway some 30ft. below, sustaining injuries to his ribs and cuts on his head and arms. He was admitted to the Fremantle Hospital and detained for treatment. (reference)
Rank: Private
Regimental Number: 3400
Place of Birth: Fremantle Western Australia
Address: 19 Glyde Street(WW1: 41), East Fremantle, Western Australia
Next of Kin: Father, Alexander Melmoth Jackson
Enlistment Date: 28 August 1916
Unit Name: 51st Battalion, 9th Reinforcement
Age embarkation: 20
Marital Status: Single
Occupation: Boilermakers assistant
Date of Death:
Place of Burial:
Fate: Returned to Australia 21 June 1919
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Rank: Sapper
Regimental Number: 10845
Place of Birth: Brisbane Queensland
Address: Richmond Hill, East Fremantle, Western Australia
Next of Kin: Mother, Mrs Elizabeth Ellis Jarman
Enlistment Date: 25 November 1915
Unit Name: Divisional Signal Company 3
Age embarkation: 23
Marital Status: Single
Occupation: Civil servant
Date of Death:
Place of Burial:
Fate: Returned to Australia 16 May 1919
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Rank: Corporal
Regimental Number: 866
Place of Birth: Brisbane, Queensland
Address: Richmond Hill, East Fremantle, Western Australia
Next of Kin: Mother, Mrs Elizabeth Ellis Jarman
Enlistment Date: 25 June 1915
Unit Name: 32nd Battalion, C Company
Age embarkation: 25
Marital Status: Single
Occupation: Clerk
Date of Death: 20 July 1916
Place of Burial: No known graves
Links:
Son of Richard Edward (deceased) and Elizabeth Ellis Jarman of "Ellisville", Richmond Hill, East Fremantle, WA. Born in Brisbane.
Reported missing in action 20 July 1916 following Battle of Fromelles. Court of Enquiry held 12 August 1917, pronounced KIA 20 July 1916.
Listed on Fremantle War Memorial. Plaque at Kings Park Honour Avenue.
Reference: WFDWA project by Shannon Lovelady
10 February 1918 Wills. Ernest Hewitt Jarman, late of Richmond Hill, East Fremantle, to Sydney Arthur Jarman. £756 (Reference)
Rank: Private
Regimental Number: 4634
Place of Birth: Adelaide, South Australia
Address: 19 Glyde Street(WW1: 41), East Fremantle, Western Australia
Next of Kin: Father, A M Jackson
Enlistment Date: 10 November 1915
Unit Name: 16th Battalion, 14th Reinforcement
Age embarkation: 26
Marital Status: Single
Occupation: Horse driver
Date of Death: 6 August 1916
Place of Burial: Pozieres British Cemetery (Plot III, Row K, Grave No. 20), Ovillers-La-Boisselle, France
Links:
Born in Adelaide, South Australia. Son of Alexander Melmoth Jackson and Mary Ann Elizabeth Jackson of 41 (19 today) Glyde Street, East Fremantle.
Taken on strength Serapeum 2 February 1916 and disembarked at Marsailes.
Killed in Action in France, 6 August 1916. 28 Years old.
Two other brothers served in France and Belgium, and one was awarded a Military medal.
1916 Killed In Action in France, on August 6, Harold Jackson, the dearly beloved and eldest son of Mr. and Mrs. Jackson, of 41 Glyde-street, East Fremantle. A true and brave soldier at rest. Inserted by Mr. and Hrs, Hollands and family, 51 Glyde-street, East Fremantle. (reference)
Rank: Lance Corporal
Regimental Number: 3376
Place of Birth: Port Adelaide South Australia
Address: 19 Glyde Street(WW1: 41), East Fremantle, Western Australia
Next of Kin: Father, A Jackson
Enlistment Date: 26 July 1915
Unit Name: 51st Battalion
Age embarkation: 29
Marital Status: Single
Occupation: Horse driver
ERNEST ALEXANDER JACKSON
(1892-1975)
Ernest ‘Ernie’ Alexander Jackson, (service number 3376) was awarded a Military Medal for his courageous acts during World War l.
He was the firstborn of 7 siblings; his father Alexander Melmoth Jackson, and his mother, Mary Ann Elizabeth Gibson, lived in Port Adelaide, South Australia. The family moved to Western Australia around 1896 and lived at 41 Glyde St (now no. 19) East Fremantle, where 5 of his siblings were born. He worked as a horse driver in Fremantle prior to his enlistment with two of his brothers, Harold Melmoth Jackson (16th Battalion (killed) and Roy Melmoth Jackson (15th Battalion) (Reference).
In July 1915, Ernest enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) at the age of 23, where he was assigned into the 11th Infantry Battalion reinforcements, the first ever Battalion recruited in Western Australia. (Reference). The battalion was raised within weeks of the declaration of war in August 1914 and embarked for overseas after just two weeks of preliminary training.
He embarked on the HMAT Ulysses A38 from Fremantle on 2nd Nov 1915 and arrived in Egypt on the 26th Nov (Reference). Subsequently, the 11th Battalion was heavily involved in defending the front line of the ANZAC beachhead and served at ANZAC until evacuation in December.
After the withdrawal from Gallipoli, the 11th Battalion returned to Egypt. It was split to help form the 51st Battalion...(Reference) In March 1916, this battalion sailed for France and the Western Front. From then until 1918, the battalion took part in bloody trench warfare. Its first major action in France was at Pozieres in the Somme valley in July. (Reference)
Within a fortnight of arriving in France, the 51st Battalion launched an attack at Mouquet Farm, and suffered casualties equivalent to a third of its strength. After Mouquet Farm, the battalion, alternated between front-line duty, training and labouring behind the line throughout the winter of 1916-17, and in early 1917, took part in the advance that followed the German retreat to the Hindenburg Line, attacking Noreuil in April, a fortified village used to delay the Australian advance. Later in the year, as the focus of the AIF's operations shifted to the Ypres sector in Belgium, the Battalion engaged in the battle of Messines between 7 and 12 June. (Reference).
Just before the battle of Polygon Wood between 26 and 27 September, Private Ernest A. Jackson suffered from severe Pyrexia (High temperature) of unknown origin, and was sent to Alexandria Hospital in England to recuperate before rejoining his unit in December 1917. (Reference) (Reference)
Following the collapse of Russia in October 1917, the Germans began a series of Offensives on the Western Front in France. The 51st Battalion assisted in the repulse of a large German attack on 5th April, launching a critical counter-attack. (Reference). On the evening of the 24th of April, the 51st Battalion and 52nd Battalion of the 13th Brigade (about 1500 men), planned to encircle and trap the Germans, around the village of Villers-Bretonneux, in the dark of night. (Reference)
The Germans, however, detected the movement and swiftly launched a counter-attack, turning the operation into a gravely dangerous situation. Captain Robert Forsyth, medical officer of the 52nd Battalion, recalled:
“… an officer shouted 'Still!' I could see a long single line of men standing motionless as far as I could see in either direction, and, as the light faded, the darkness in front started to tap, tap, tap, and bullets whistled round and the line shuffled forward with rifles at the ready like men strolling into fern after rabbits. The whistle of bullets became a swish and patter, and boys fell all ‘round me, generally without a sound.”
[Forsyth, quoted in Charles Bean, The Australian Imperial Force in France during the Main German Offensive, 1918, Volume V, The Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–1918, Sydney, 1941, p.582]
Along with some British battalions, the job of retaking Villers-Bretonneux was assigned to two Australian brigades of the 4th and 5th Divisions—the 13th, commanded by Brigadier-General William Glasgow, and the 15th, commanded by Brigadier-General Harold 'Pompey' Elliott.
Private Ernest A. Jackson played a significant part in the planning and coordination of the night attack by risking his life through German heavy machine guns and shell fire that felled many, to carry messages between the Brigades and the Forward Brigade Station along with a comrade, Private Samuel Royston Brown. His contribution resulted in the well coordinated night attack to successfully recapture the town from the Germans despite the gravity of the situation, and was later nominated along with his comrade to receive a Military Medal.
“On night 24/25th April 1918 during a counter-attack by the Battalion on a strong enemy position south of VILLERS-BRETONNEUX those two men, who are Battalion Runners, continually carried messages through heavy machine gun and shell fire to the Company’s and Forward Brigade Station. When other communications failed they were ever ready to carry messages regardless of their own personal safety. Their coolness and courage throughout the operation were conspicuous.” (Reference)
Private Ernest A. Jackson received the Military Medal - for Bravery in the Field- on the 1st of May 1918, and was given the rank of Lance Corporal shortly after, before being discharged on the 3rd of June 1919.
He returned to Fremantle and was recorded as living at various addresses around East Fremantle: from 1922-25 at 76 Duke St Fremantle and from 1925-34 at Silas St East Fremantle.
In 1934 he married widower, Ivy May Jardine (nee Rundell 1894-1981), who had lost her first husband two years earlier. (Reference)
1932 Death on September 8, at Cottesloe, Robert JARDINE, dearly loved husband of Ivy May Jardine, of 16 Palmerston-street, Buckland Hill, and loving father of Joyce, Roma and Robert ; aged 39 years. (reference)
He subsequently lived at her home- 16 Palmerston Street, Buckland Hill from 1936-1963.
In 1975 Ernest died, at the age of 82, and was buried in the Garden Of Remembrance at Karrakatta Cemetery (Section EC Site 4 Position 0133). He is also commemorated on the East Fremantle Municipality Roll of Honour.
Ivy died in September 1981 and was buried with Ernest at Karrakatta.
Researched and written by Xing Yun Lee for www.streetsofeastfreo
1918 Mr. and Mrs. A. Jackson, of 41 Glyde street, East Fremantle, have received word that their son, Private E. Jackson, has been awarded the Military Medal. (reference)
1919 Soldiers And Sailors: Mr. and Mrs. A. M. Jackson, of 41 Glyde-street, East Fremantle, have been informed by the Base Records Office, Melbourne, that their son, Lance-Corporal E. Jackson, M.M., 51st Battalion, is expected to arrive home early in April, having left England on February 28. He has had three years and four months' active service in Egypt and France. (reference)
Rank: Gunner
Regimental Number: 1160
Place of Birth: Melbourne Victoria
Address: 77 Duke Street(WW1: 169), East Fremantle, Western Australia
Next of Kin: Father, Harry Irving
Enlistment Date: 14 August 1917
Unit Name: Heavy Artillery Group 36, Reinforcement 15
Age embarkation: 21
Marital Status: Single
Occupation: Clerk
Date of Death:
Place of Burial:
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Rank: Private
Regimental Number: 878
Place of Birth: -
Address: c/o Mrs Borgan, Canning Road, East Fremantle, Western Australia
Next of Kin: Mother, Mrs Mary Hewitt
Enlistment Date: 16 March 1915
Unit Name: 28th Battalion, D Company
Age embarkation: 25
Marital Status: Single
Occupation: Prospector
Date of Death:
Place of Burial:
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Rank: Private
Regimental Number: 5613
Place of Birth: Broken Hill New South Wales
Address: East Fremantle, Western Australia
Next of Kin: Father, Gilbert Harris
Enlistment Date: 7 April 1916
Unit Name: 28th Battalion, 15th Reinforcement
Age embarkation: 22
Marital Status: Single
Occupation: Butcher
Date of Death:
Place of Burial:
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Rank: Private
Regimental Number: 7009
Place of Birth: Castlemaine, Co Kerry, Ireland
Address: May Street, East Fremantle, Western Australia
Next of Kin: Brother, Mr P Hanafan
Enlistment Date: 28 September 1916
Unit Name: 11th Battalion, 23rd Reinforcement
Age embarkation: 32
Marital Status: Single
Occupation: Labourer
Date of Death:
Place of Burial:
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