TIMELINE November 1918
Wednesday, 6 November 1918
Corporal John Edward Leslie HOURIGAN (45th Battalion) was promoted to Sergeant in France.
Corporal J. E. L. Hourigan (Cumberland Argus and Fruitgrowers Advocate 12/8/1916)
Friday, 8 November 1918
Private Andrew James MCGREGOR (2nd Australian Field Bakery) departed England aboard the HT Gaika bound for Australia for medical discharge.
Andrew James McGregor (Daily Telegraph 22/9/1916)
Monday, 11 November 1918
The guns fell silent, and all fighting ceased on the Western Front at 11.00 am when the Armistice, signed by senior Allied and German representatives in the forest at Compiègne in France earlier that morning, came into effect.
Friday, 15 November 1918
Sapper Henry John KING (Anzac Mounted Division Signal Squadron) departed Suez Egypt for return to Australia aboard the HT Port Darwin for medical discharge
Tuesday, 19 November 1918
Private Percy Walter HOLPEN (36th Battalion) was admitted to the 30th General Hospital at Calais, France, suffering from Influenza.
L. Cpl. W. Holpen, Redfern, Sydney. Died of Illness (Sydney Mail, 8/1/1919)
Tuesday, 26 November 1918
Private Percy Walter HOLPEN (36th Battalion) died from Influenza – he was buried at Les Baraques Military Cemetery, Calais.
Percy Walter Holpen’s headstone, Le Baraques Military Cemetery, France (Photograph:S. & H. Thompson 29/8/2016)
Wednesday, 27 November 1918
Private William Laurence HUNT (45th Battalion) arrived in Australia aboard the HMAT Runic for medical discharge.
Bill and Jack Hunt. Photograph courtesy of Iain and Judy Macdonald.
Saturday, 30 November 1918
Letter written by Cyril Roy MCMILLAN (45th Battalion) [ex prisoner of war] on this day was later published in The Cumberland Argus and Fruitgrowers Advocate. Extract: … We were released about two weeks ago. They just cast us adrift and told us to find our way back. They never gave us any bread to start with, not even a bite. Only for the Belgians we should have had hundreds of deaths along the road. But the Belgians cared for us in every manner possible … We crossed the British lines on the 17th Nov., and we were heartily greeted by our own lads. Several of us had to go to hospital through sickness. I am in hospital at present, but will be across to England for Christmas, and hope to be home in Parramatta shortly afterwards’.[1]
Private Roy McMillan (Cumberland Argus and Fruitgrowers Advocate, 11/5/1918)
[1] ‘German Atrocities. A Parramatta Prisoner’s Story’, The Cumberland Argus and Fruitgrowers Advocate, 18 January 1919, p. 10. Retrieved March 12, 2017, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article86118958
1915 Coo-ee March 