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Photos and Video | Bendigo Advertiser

Photos and Video

In 2015, in the lead-up to the Anzac Centenary, the Bendigo Advertiser and Fairfax Media called on readers to help build a collection of The Faces of Anzac for display. The special tribute paid homage to Anzacs from&nbsp;every community across Australia. See some of the submissions above and read the stories of our Anzacs.

Scroll through to meet the people behind the pictures...

HORACE JAMES MCKENNA: NO. 2397. ENLISTED 27.04.1915.  AGE: 19. 7TH BATTALION. | Horrie sailed on the HMAT A64 Demosthenes as did his cousin Ernie Trigar (2815). Other cousins from Kangaroo Flat who enlisted include Frank Leonard Shelton (1555), Thomas Maddams (1996) and George Maddams (3086). He was attached to the engineers as a miner and arrived at Gallipoli in September 1915.
Conditions were difficult and by November he had contracted Enteric Fever (Typhoid) and was dangerously ill and not expected to survive. He did recover and joined the BEF, British Expenditary Force in Alexandria and in March 1916 transferred to France with the 2nd Field Company, Engineers, where he spent the next three years. He married in 1920, raised a family of seven children and worked for the railways in Bendigo until he
retired. He passed away in 1987 aged 92 years. He always wore his Anzac Medal (Simpson and his Donkey) on the lapel of his jacket. 

CORPORAL GEORGE BROWN FULLERTON: 38TH BATTALION. AWARD: DISTINGUISHED CONDUCT MEDAL. | On June 7, 1917, south of Messines, Corporal Fullerton in company with another NCO, encountered a party of over 20 Germans in a large drain. He attacked them at once, and personally killed eight of them, the remainder being either shot or taken prisoner. During the whole operation extending over two days,
he behaved with great gallantry and coolness, and by his devotion to duty under heavy fire, he materially assisted in the work of consolidation.

ALICIA MARY KELLY: Alicia Mary Kelly was born in Ireland and was 29 when she enlisted as a nurse in No 1 Australian General Hospital. She served in the Middle East and in France, being awarded the Royal Red Cross, the Military Medal, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal. She returned to Australia in July 1918, and was discharged in August that year. She won the MM following her bravery at a casualty clearing station, which was in danger of being destroyed. While all staff had been told to evacuate, Sister Kelly (later Mrs Arthur Chipper) refused, saying “I could not leave my patients”.

EGBERT CHARLES SMITH: Egbert Charles Smith was 21 when he enlisted in September 1914, and embarked from Australia in February 1915, arriving the next month in Egypt. He fought at Walker’s Ridge, was promoted to sergeant, then invalided with typhoid fever in August 1915, but returned to Palestine in August 1916 to take part in the Battles of Beersheba and Es Salt, where he was wounded. Taken prisoner, he was liberated when, in November 1918, the Australian Light Horse rode into Damascus. He was discharged in 1919, but died only four years later, on August 28, 1923.

SQUADRON QUARTERMASTER SERGEANT (SQMS) JOHN (JACK) WOODLAND LOOMES. SERVICE NUMBER 438. OCCUPATION: STOREMAN. HE LIVED IN PATRICK STREET, BENDIGO. BORN: APRIL 6, 1891 IN NYORA, VIC. DIED: BENDIGO, VIC, SEPTEMBER 18, 1972 | Jack Loomes served with the 4th Light
Horse Regiment, C Squadron. His medical examination certificate for the Australian
Imperial Forces listed him as “5 feet 5 inches, with green eyes and black hair”. Service
history: May 20, 1915 - landed at Alexandria, Egypt.
As mounted troops, the Light Horse was considered unsuitable for work in Gallipoli,
however, the mounted troops volunteered to operate as infantry and were sent to
Gallipoli. Initially, the 4th LHR was broken up into component squadrons, which were distributed as reinforcements to depleted infantry battalions. After June 11, 1915,
the 4th LHR was reformed and deployed on defensive activities around Ryrie’s Post. The
4th LHR left the peninsula on December 11, 1915 and returned to Egypt.
In the defence of Egypt, the 4th LHR took part in the defence of the Suez Canal. The work was hot and monotonous. The Regiment remained in the area until after the Battle of Romani, where it was involved in securing the lines of communication.
On June 10, 1916 he embarked on the S.S. Caledonian for Marseilles, France. On June
17, 1916 Sergeant Loomes disembarked at Marseilles. His service record states that he
was ‘taken on strength’ of 2nd ANZAC Army Corps Mounted Regiment from 4th LHR in
France on July 7, 1916. On July 27, 1917 he was detached to the Anti Aircraft Section of the 2nd Anzac in the fields of France. Jack Loomes was discharged from the
Australian Imperial Force on January 24, 1919.

ROGER TREWICK: NO. 2723. AGE 32. UNIT: 2ND AUSTRALIAN PIONEER BATTALION | Killed in action May 3, 1917. Pocket book shows bullet holes

ARTHUR HAMILTON: Arthur Hamilton enlisted on October 25, 1915 aged 23 years.
He served in Flanders as a Gunner, but unfortunately did not return home to his family - he died of wounds in October 1917. His war service medals and bronze circular plaque, and accompanying letter from King George 5th, which were all sent home to his mother, are held by his Bendigo family. He was buried at Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery in Belgium. 

PERCIVAL RUSHTON: In 1914 an intelligent, fit young 17-year-old was working as an assayer at Leggo’s Metallurgical Works in Bendigo where he tested the composition and purity of metals and ores. He was also studying chemistry at the Bendigo School of Mines. His hopes and dreams changed with the events of the First World War. Percival enlisted at Bendigo in the Australian Army Medical Corps on April 9, 1915, aged 18. Within six weeks he was aboard RMS Mooltan headed for Egypt. The following excerpt from his diary shows the perspective of a stretcher bearer at the frontline. “August 6. We have orders to sew white patches on our backs and sleeves so as our artillery can
place us in the dark. We have been carting empty stretchers up to the firing line today, ready in case of emergency, very quiet. At 4.30pm the attack started. It was a splendid sight to see. This charge was a general one along the line stretching from Cape Suvia to Gaba Tepe. Many brave lads fell in this charge and hundreds, more or less, were seriously wounded. We were working at high pressure all the time. We also lost some of our best stretcher bearers. The attack lasted for about three days but it was a week or so before we had all of the men in and fixed up. I saw men die fast and also heaps of the dead, so you will guess how we must be used to it by now." This was the time of the famous Lone Pine charge. “September 8. I finally left the Peninsula, the 2nd Brigade being taken to Lemnos for a well-earned rest. I might say I was not feeling at all well.”

SIX SOLDIER SONS: Mrs SH Gee of Willan Street, Eaglehawk is the mother of six sons who volunteered their services with the Australian Imperial Forces in defence of the Empire. They were all born at Sailors Gully. SERGEANT THOMAS GEE: 
14TH BATTALION. AGE: 24. ENLISTED NOVEMBER 1914. Other sons included, driver Walter Gee, 29; Private William Gee, 32; Private David Gee, 23; Private Albert Gee, 28; Private William Gee, 32; and Corporal Frederick Gee, 21.

EDWARD BICKFORD: NO. 1519. AGE 26. ENLISTED APRIL 8, 1915. UNIT 21ST BATTALION. Killed in action August 26, 1916. | ROBERT JOHN BICKFORD: NO. 1518. AGE 32. RANK CORPORAL. Died wounds January 12, 1917. War Service: Egypt, Gallipoli, Western Front. | WILLIAM BICKFORD: NO. 815. AGE 21. ENLISTED SEPTEMBER 12, 1917. Killed in Action April 11, 1917. Medals: British War Medal, Victory Medal.

LOUIS HYLAND: Louis Hyland, a veteran of the Boer War, was Trooper No 270, in the 2nd Anzac Mounted Regiment. Born in Benalla, he signed up on August 20, 1914, aged 40, served at Gallipoli and was in the last charge of the Light Horse at Beersheba. Hyland was discharged with a Record of Good Service on November 1, 1917, with a certificate of “Meritorious Service” earned for performing his duties “zealously and efficiently”.

LANCE CORPORAL ANGUS MCINTOSH SMITH: SERVICE 18.08.1914 - 24.06.1916. NO. 821. UNIT 7TH BATTALION. | When Angus left to enlist, his workmates at the Sea Mine (gold) in Ironbark, tipped in and presented him with this gold medallion to remember them by. 

WALTER SOMERVILLE: NO. 3488. ENLISTED ON JULY 29, 1915. ORCHARDIST OF STRATHFIELDSAYE. | Walter Somerville left Melbourne on HMAS Nestor, for Egypt and the Western Front. He served with a division of the 7th Battalion of the AIF in Belgium, France and the Middle East, returning to be discharged four years later, on July 6, 1919. Walter died on September 11, 1988. 

JAMES REUBEN EMMERSON: NUMBER: 4490. UNIT: 6 INFANTRY BATTALION
SHIP NAME: HMAT THEMISTOCLES. | James Reuben Emmerson who was born in 1895, and lived with his mum at 23 Grattan Street, Bendigo. A coachsmith by trade, he was fi ve foot fi ve and a half inches, (166.37cms) single and 20 years of age when he joined up on July 12, 1915. When James disembarked from his troopship Themistocles
in Liverpool, he had been on board for over eight weeks. Next step on his journey to the front was on the RMS Transylvania bound for Alexandria in the Middle East. Arriving at the front in June, 1916, 10 days into his active service, he was wounded in the shoulder, discharged to base duties before being taken to the Etaples hospital.

HAROLD RUPERT HYETT: On May 17, 1917, Harold Rupert Hyett aged 24 applied for a commission with the Australian Army Medical Corps. He had graduated from the University of Melbourne with a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery the previous year. Quoting his three years military experience with Melbourne University Rifl es, he volunteered to serve overseas in the July, and by August he was on his way to Glasgow, Scotland, where he reported to the AAMC training depot, at Parkhouse in England. On March 27, 1918 he was sent to France attached to 2 Army General Hospital and then posted to 3 AGH, with a few detachments to the 13th and 4th Field Ambulance before returning to his unit. Rupert, as Harold was always known, had a sister at home collecting every scrap of news and pasting it into a scrapbook. They form the basis of an extensive family history from the time of the Great War. 

PRIVATE HUGH HAROLD SMITH: NO. 1004. ENLISTED IN BENDIGO ON SEPTEMBER 12, 1914. FROM BRIDGEWATER-ON-LODDON. | An employee at Bridgewater Flour Mill, he embarked on HMAT Orvieto in October, and on to the Gallipoli Peninsula on April 5, 1915. Wounded in action on April 25 at the Gallipoli landing, he was evacuated on the hospital ship Itonus, but died on April 28, and was buried at sea. He is commemorated at Lone Pine Memorial, and also in Bridgewater, at the Flour Mill and the Memorial Hall. His brother, Cecil Collins Smith, an apprentice painter, enlisted too, embarking for France in June 1916. Cecil was killed in action on August 8, 1916. He is commemorated at Viller-Bretonneux. 

PRIVATE O J WILMOTT: PRIVATE O J WILMOTT OF ST ARNAUD WROTE THIS LETTER TO HIS GRANDMOTHER - SEPTEMBER 14, 1917: “No words of mine can say, and no pen can write and explain how pleased I was to receive your nice long letter of 27th June which reached me yesterday. Letters take nearly three months to get here, you know. It was better than any medicine I have yet tasted. There is a song that I often sing, and you letter from home made the words come alive for me. Here is the chorus:
"When you’re a long long way from home, It makes you feel you’re all alone; It’s hard to find a pal that’s true Th at you can tell your troubles to. And when you write a letter home
Your mother’s voice rings in your ears. So you cross your t’s with kisses And then dot your i’s with tears. For the sunshine turns to gloom, When you’re a long long way from home." It is a great favourite of all the boys, and I think the words are splendid. Th e summer is finished here now, and everything hints to an early winter (which means that we shall not see much of the sun for months). You cannot credit the intensity and severity of winter here, and the boys are not looking forward to it with any hope of pleasure or gladness. But don’t think they are downhearted (never) as nothing can break the remarkable fortitude and spirit of our lads. They are simply wonderful, and can more than hold their own with all-comers in anything at all. I am like all the Australians here – proud to be an Anzac. Th ere is no place like Australia. It truly is God’s own country. I have seen some wonderful sights and places since leaving home, notably La Belle France and England. But Australia’s natural beauty is way out in front on its own. It is supurb, and the scenery is ahead of anything I have yet seen; and, above all, the Australian people are second to none."

ANDREW MICHAEL COMMANS: REGIMENTAL NUMBER: 388. ADDRESS: PYRAMID HILL, VICTORIA. AGE AT EMBARKATION: 21. NEXT OF KIN: MISS COMMANS. ENLISTMENT DATE: AUGUST 18, 1914. RANK OF ENLISTMENT: PRIVATE. Unit name: 4th Light Horse Regiment, C Squadron. | Andrew Commans was from a Victorian dairy farm at Pyramid Hill, and was apprenticed as a blacksmith. He landed and fought at Gallipoli, then Egypt and France. With a strong constitution, Private Comman’s Casualty Form – Active Service shows he even survived a serious case of mumps, which laid him low for a month.

GEORGE MORBY INGRAM: George Morby Ingram was born in Bendigo on March 18, 1889. Enlisted as a private in December 1914, he was appointed acting corporal with the 24th Battalion, which, in March 1917, held off a German attack on the village of Bapaume. Awarded the Military Medal for courage and initiative, Ingram served as second lieutenant, then lieutenant, and was eventually decorated with the Victoria Cross. He died in 1961, and his medals are now held in the Australian War Memorial’s Hall of Honour. A book about his “heroic life”, Great Courage and Initiative, written by AJ McAleer, was launched last month.

PRIVATE JOHN THOMAS O'BREE: 22ND BATTALION AIF. NO. 6865. HONOUR OR REWARD - MILITARY MEDAL. | For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty during the attack at Estees, East of Peronne, on October 4, 1918. "After the attack many of our wounded were lying helpless in advanced positions under heavy and concentrated shell fire and machine gun fire. This stretcher bearer worked without resting for over 24 hours
carrying stretcher cases over this danger zone, and exhibiting splendid courage and endurance. It was largely due to his self-sacrificing work that many wounded men were saved from being killed where they lay. He set a splendid standard of conscientiousness and sterling work."

STAFF SERGEANT SYDNEY BOLITHO: NO. 2167. 6TH BATTALION. | His family received a letter from Prime Minister Billy Hughes

GEORGE FREDERICK PIERCE: NO. 2839. SERVED WITH THE 6TH
AUSTRALIAN INFANTRY BATTALION. | George Frederick Pierce died in
Belgium, on October 4, 1917 and is remembered on the Menin Gate Memorial, in Ypres. He was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal, for acts of gallantry and devotion to duty in the field, in March, 1918.

FREDERICK J PERRY: Frederick J Perry was born in Malmsbury and grew up at Bears
Lagoon. He enlisted in March, 1916, No.645, aged 24. He sailed in the SS Runic in June 1916, taking part in battles in Messines, Third Ypres and Passchendaele, where he was wounded. Lance Corporal FJ Perry was awarded the DCM in December 1917, and
discharged in January 1918. 

In 2015, in the lead-up to the Anzac Centenary, the Bendigo Advertiser and Fairfax Media called on readers to help build a collection of The Faces of Anzac for display.<br>

The special tribute paid homage to Anzacs from&nbsp;every community across Australia.<br>

The Faces of Anzac, revisted

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