John Williamson WW1

Eight months on the Western Front from 23 November 1916 to 5 August 1917

In 1916 John Palmer Williamson was a single man, two months shy of 26 years of age with blue eyes, standing at 5 feet 6 inches [167 cm] and weighing in at 132 Ibs [60 kg].[i]  He was a qualified marine engineer a civilian working in the merchant navy and had been involved with the movement of Australian troops as they were deployed from Australia to England.

Photographer unknown, JP Williamson[SERN 10030], circa 1916-1919, Helen Condon's Private Photo Collection. [W080]

Photographer unknown, JP Williamson wearing a WW1 AIF cap and cap badge with a non-Australian tunic [SERN 10030], circa 1916-1919, Helen Condon's Private Photo Collection.[W082]

In February 1916, a call was made for men who were engineers or in the allied trades to join the Australian Imperial Force (A.I.F).

“A large number of electrical engineers and plumbers are urgently wanted to enlist immediately for the front. Members of these trades willing to join the A.I.F. should communicate with the officer in charge of the engineers’ depot, Moore Park, Sydney.”[ii]

My grandfather John Palmer Williamson answered that call. He enlisted at the Engineers’ depot, Moore Park, Sydney on 28 February 1916 and became part of the Engineer Reinforcements.[iii] Unlike the other training groups in Australia the recruits for the Engineers were drawn from all over the country not just their home state. Initial training took three months, this was the first stage of training that taught the soldier basic discipline and skills and how to handle his personal weapon and equipment.

Trainees lived onsite “in row after row of white tents with the intervening spaces well swept, while a glimpse inside the tents shows them to be sweet and clean, with every article of clothing,. etc., carefully folded and put away. … they have two large airy dining rooms, where meals are served, and there is also a well-equipped reading-room which is supplied with an abundance of books, magazines, and writing materials, while at one end of the room is a piano which has been lent to the camp.”[iv]

At the end of May, he was amongst the men to become part of 9^th Field Company Engineers, “picked from the troops at the Engrs. Depot Moore Park and sent to Roseberry Park Racecourse, …, under the Command of Major T.A. Williams.”[v]  The 9^th Field Company Engineers' training included the digging of trenches, construction bridges, erection wire entanglements, handling sandbags and demolition work, not to mention bomb-throwing using 'live bombs'.[vi] 

 1916 'ENGINEERS TRAINING FOR SERVICE ABROAD.', Sydney Mail (NSW : 1912 - 1938), 1 March, p. 13. , viewed 21 Apr 2021, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article166256025 

1916 'AUSTRALIAN ENGINEERS BOUND FOR THE FRONT.', Sydney Mail (NSW : 1912 - 1938), 7 June, p. 8. , viewed 21 Apr 2021, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article166257351

But not everything was about bombs and learning new skills, there were also euchre parties (a popular card game at the time), dances in the evenings, and friendly football matches between the various camps.[vii] [viii] [ix]

After three months of further elementary training the 9^th Field Company of Engineers (New South Wales) as part of Third Division, moved to Wolloomooloo Bay on the 5th July 1916, at 4am with other units & was shipped out at 7.30am on No A 31 HMAT AJANA arriving at Plymouth in England at the end of August on the 31^st.[x] [xi]

Photographer Josiah Barnes, Troops on board HMAT Ajana (A31) prior to departure, with well-wishers on the wharf. Troops display a 9th Field Company Engineers banner and a Union Jack., 8 July 1916, Port Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Public Domain, AWM Accessed 21 April 2021

On arrival in England, the troops traveled by train to No.21 Camp in the garrison town of Larkhill, Wiltshire not far from Stonehenge on the Salisbury Plains where the soldiers lived and underwent further training after being vaccinated and inoculated.[xii]  Then the next round of their training began, they “learned how to work as part of a bigger tactical team. After the two weeks indoctrination, eight weeks Intermediate Training subsequently introduced the recruit to graduated lessons in the basic practical disciplines required of a modern infantry soldier.”[xiii]

Lark Hill Camp [10 miles from Tidworth] was ‘very severe and strenuous. We were up at daylight every morning and continued drilling until dark’.[xiv]   As part of the 9^th Brigade, John also trained in the Bustard Area as troops in a trench system on the Salisbury Plains which used live ordinance through the network to help acclimatize the trainees to front-line conditions.[xv] 

Photographer unknown, Elevated view of the huts at No 7 Camp at Codford on the Salisbury Plain, February 1917, Wiltshire England [AWM C01288)]

Photographer unknown, A group of soldiers of the 3rd Division AIF taking part in a training exercise on the Salisbury Plain simulating trench warfare. c 1916, Wiltshire England [AWM H00447]

On the fourth of November John having completed his general training for warfare was moved to the army engineer training base at Brightlingsea (Essex coast) to complete the final part of Engineer training at the Australian Engineers’ Training Depot which included extreme living, mining, demolition mining, etc.[xvi] The terrain for training was characterized by “the soft mud and tidal creeks that were perfect terrain for practice in bridge, pontoon and road building and trench and dugout digging, Brightlingsea already formed part of the East Coast garrison.”[xvii]

Training successfully completed he began the journey with the 3^rd Australian Division for the Western Front. He embarked on the “Black Prince” at South Hampton on the 21 November and arrived the following day on the 22 November at 6.35am in Harve. From there the troops moved onto the front-line town of Bailleul, France with its hospital for treating the Allied wounded. [xviii] The Royal Engineers had become part of General Monash’s Australian Infantry Division while in the United Kingdom.

He finally arrived at the Messines on 27 November 1916, near the village of Armentières; to a sector nicknamed the “Nursery” run by the British Army where further training and updating of skills was undertaken in further preparation for battle. Two weeks after arriving John had his first bout of illness on the 11 December that year saw him in and out of hospital until 16 December.  The weather in France for the December-January winter was particularly bleak, conditions were wet and cold, making work difficult, uncomfortable, and very dangerous with the constant shelling.^[xix][xx] John however rallied and was able to avoid further illness for 6 weeks until the 1^st February which saw almost 3 weeks of illness which included being admitted twice to hospital until finally, he was sent to a divisional rest station for 6 days which seemed to resolve the problem. His repetitive bouts of bronchitis probably resulted from the lack of adequate convalescence between each bout.

Being in a front line battalion John would have been in the trenches for periods of rotating time over“each platoon is changed around, so that at the worst a single man seldom does more than forty eight hours continuous front trench duty in every twelve days, and every forty-eight days the whole brigade gets relieved by the reserve brigade and goes out for a complete rest, or for work in the back area, for a clear twenty-four days”[xxi] During these clear days he would have also undergone further training in such things Musketry, a continuation of training in the use and care of the SMLE rifle and the Lewis Light Machine-Gun and other skills such as how to use the Mills grenade.

John worked in the Messines laying duck wall, widening and deepening the trenches working in preparation for the battle of Messines 7-14 June 1917 which was part of the Flanders Offensive.[xxii] [xxiii]  The battle of Messines started with the detonation of 19 mines under the German trenches, which tunnellers had secretly dug over the previous year, creating enormous craters.[xxiv] The men of the 9th Field Company Australia Royal Engineers Unit were exposed to heavy and constant shelling, slowing the engineers down as they reinforced the tunnels and carried duckboards.^[xxv] 

After the Battle of Messines, the troops were marched to Bourdrelle for rest staying with billets in the town but John did not return to the Western Front for the battle of Passchendaele but was transferred back to England.   He officially became a member of The Australian Flying Corps (AFC) on the 28^th August 1917 with the rank of 2^nd Air Mechanic (2A/M).[xxvi]  

Useful links for background

WikiTree profile for John Aaron Palmer Williamson (1892 - 1982)

Previous Military Posts for John Palmer Williamson & his wife Margaret 

1. Uniforms, Buttons, Badges & Medals of John Aaron Palmer Williamson originally published Wednesday, 21 February 2018
2. WaggaWagga Voluntary Aid Detachment originally published 21 August 2016

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 Sources

Australian War Memorial: First World War 1914-1918, John Palmer Williamson, Sapper, Service Number 10030; 9 FCE [Field Company Engineers] (July 1916); HMAT Ajana A31, Sydney date of joining 5 July 1916 citing AWM8 14/28/1 - 9 FCE [Field Company Engineers] (July 1916) [Embarkation Roll/leaving Australia]

Australian War Memorial: First World War Nominal Roll, John Palmer Williamson, private, Service Number 10030; A.F.C. [Australian Flying Corps] (July 1916); date of enlistment 2 February 1916, returned to Australia 6 May 1919; citing AWM133 57  [record notes – list compiled in London 1919 shows date of enlistment, unit of service at the end of the war, according to AWM contains many errors][returning to Australia]

National Archives of Australia: Australian Imperial Force, Base Records Office, B2455 Personnel Dossiers for First Australian Imperial Force Ex-Service Members, Lexicographical series; B2455, John Palmer Williamson (short form NAA: B2455, WILLIAMSON JOHN PALMER) [personnel file]

National Archives of Australia: Deputy Commissioner for Repatriation, Brisbane, Queensland; M61343, John Palmer Williamson, Service Number 10030 [medical file after the war].

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[i] National Archives of Australia: Australian Imperial Force, Base Records Office, B2455 Personnel Dossiers for First Australian Imperial Force Ex-Service Members, Lexicographical series; B2455, John Palmer Williamson (short form NAA: B2455, WILLIAMSON JOHN PALMER) [personnel file]

[ii] 1916 'Our Soldiers.', Dubbo Dispatch and Wellington Independent (NSW : 1887 - 1932), 11 February, p. 5. , viewed 21 Apr 2021, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article228631387

[iii] National Archives of Australia: Australian Imperial Force, Base Records Office, B2455 Personnel Dossiers for First Australian Imperial Force Ex-Service Members, Lexicographical series; B2455, John Palmer Williamson (short form NAA: B2455, WILLIAMSON JOHN PALMER) [personnel file] Attestation Paper of Persons Enlisted For Service Abroad for J.P.Williamson

[iv] 1916 'SOLDIER ENGINEERS.', Evening News (Sydney, NSW : 1869 - 1931), 14 January, p. 4. , viewed 21 Apr 2021, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article115266787

[v] WHITEHEAD, D. A. 9th Australian Infantry Brigade, ML MSS. 3059/1 Item 2, page 5 (accessed https://transcripts.sl.nsw.gov.au/page/item-02-david-whitehead-papers-regarding-9th-infantry-brigade-1916-page-5 21 April 2021)

[vi] 1916 'SOLDIER ENGINEERS.', Evening News (Sydney, NSW : 1869 - 1931), 14 January, p. 4. , viewed 21 Apr 2021, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article115266787

[vii] 1916 'IN THE WINTER GARDEN.', Freeman's Journal (Sydney, NSW : 1850 - 1932), 8 June, p. 28. , viewed 21 Apr 2021, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article115306863

[viii] 1916 'FOOTBALL', The Mirror of Australia (Sydney, NSW : 1915 - 1917), 17 June, p. 15. , viewed 21 Apr 2021, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article104645199

[ix] 1916 'FOOTBALL.', The Mirror of Australia (Sydney, NSW : 1915 - 1917), 24 June, p. 15. , viewed 21 Apr 2021, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article104642094

[x] Australian War Memorial: First World War 1914-1918, John Palmer Williamson, Sapper, Service Number 10030; 9 FCE [Field Company Engineers] (July 1916); HMAT Ajana A31, Sydney date of joining 5 July 1916 citing AWM8 14/28/1 - 9 FCE [Field Company Engineers] (July 1916) [Embarkation Roll/leaving Australia]

[xi] National Archives of Australia: Australian Imperial Force, Base Records Office, B2455 Personnel Dossiers for First Australian Imperial Force Ex-Service Members, Lexicographical series; B2455, John Palmer Williamson (short form NAA: B2455, WILLIAMSON JOHN PALMER) [personnel file] p.2

[xii] Lewis Frederickson, The Development of Australian nfantry on the Western Front1916-1918: Ab u\Imperial model of training, tactics and technology, 28 August 2016, Thesis for School of Humanities and Social Sciences UNSW Canberra p.64

[xiii] Lewis Frederickson, The Development of Australian nfantry on the Western Front1916-1918: Ab u\Imperial model of training, tactics and technology, 28 August 2016, Thesis for School of Humanities and Social Sciences UNSW Canberra p.66

[xiv] AWM 2DRL/234 diary Private Verdi Schwinghammer, 42nd Battalion, 11th Brigade, 3rd Division, AIF, p. 9

[xv] 6 M. Molkentin, “Trench Warfare 101: Training at the Bustard Trenches”, Wartime Magazine, Issue 33, 2006.

[xvi] Goddard, Henry Arthur, Events of 1916 for 24th Company Army Service Corp, 9th Australian Machine Gun Company and 9th Field Company Australian Engineers complied by Henry Arthur Goddard. P.9

[xvii] Brightlingsea Museum, Brightlingsea Anzacs, https://brightlingseaanzacs.org/about/ accessed 23 April 2021

[xviii] The Joseph Lamb Story, http://www.users.on.net/~skibeagle/locations/bailleul.html , accessed 23 April 2021

[xix] Army, Australian, "WWI The Western Front - Australian Army", http://103.11.78.168/Our-history/History-in-Focus/WWI-The-Western-Front.  Accessed May 1 2017.

[xx] AWM4 Subclass 14/28 - 9th Field Company, Australian Engineers, July 1917

[xxi] T. Macdougall (ed.), Monash letter March 1917, The War Letters of Lieutenant General Sir John Monash, Sydney, 2002, p. 127.

[xxii] Service Record for John Palmer Williamson, p.5

[xxiii] Service Record for John Palmer Williamson, p.2 & 9 p.5

[xxiv] Department of Veterans' Affairs (DVA),  Anzac Portal, https://anzacportal.dva.gov.au/wars-and-missions/ww1/where-australians-served/western-front/battle-of-messines accessed 23 April 2021

[xxv] AWM4 Subclass 14/28 - 9th Field Company, Australian Engineers, July 1917  accessed 1 May 2 [research note- "During World War I, duckboards were put along the ground of trenches on the Western Front. This is because the trenches usually flooded. Mud and water would stay in the trenches for months. The boards helped to keep the soldiers' feet dry. It also helped stop soldiers get a disease called trench foot. Trench foot is caused by standing on wet, muddy ground for a long time. They also helped soldiers move along the trenches faster. Sometimes, falling from duckboards could be deadly. Some unlucky soldiers drowned in mud because of their heavy equipment." source Duckboards. (2020, May 14). Wikipedia. Retrieved 03:02, November 8, 2023 from https://simple.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Duckboards&oldid=6940683.]

[xxvi] Service Record for John Palmer Williamson, p.4 & 10.