Category Archives: WWI Timeline

TIMELINE May 1916

Posted on May 3, 2016 | Leave a comment

TIMELINE May 2016

Monday, 1 May 1916

Frank HUMPHREY embarked from Sydney on the HMAT A17 Port Lincoln ; Percy Walter HOLPEN transferred to the 4th Pioneer Battalion in Egypt.

HMAT A17 Port Lincoln on a later voyage. Part of the Australian War Memorial collection. PB0867.

HMAT A17 Port Lincoln on a later voyage. Part of the Australian War Memorial collection. PB0867.

Wednesday, 3 May 1916

Francis Noel WHITE and another Coo-ee embarked from Sydney on the HMAT A1 Hymettus ;  Darcy KEATING and three other Coo-ees embarked from Sydney on the HMAT A46 Clan Mcgillivray.

HMAT Clan MacGillivray A46

HMAT A46 Clan MacGillivray on a later voyage. Part of the Australian War Memorial collection. PB0315.

Friday, 5 May 1916

William Solomon CISSMAN and Arthur Ernest MCGREGOR embarked from Sydney on the HMAT A10 Karroo.

Saturday, 13 May 1916

William Henry PEPPERNELL embarked from Sydney on the HMAT A72 Beltana. 

 Sunday, 14 May 1916

Charles Edmond MARCHANT received an accidental gun shot wound to the left elbow at Serapeum in Egypt, which resulted in his being sent home to Australia.

Private Charles Marchant (Sunday Times, 8/10/1916)

Private Charles Marchant (Sunday Times, 8/10/1916)

Saturday, 20 May 1916

Laurence Leslie MAGUIRE transferred from the 13th Battalion to the 45th Battalion in Egypt.

Tuesday, 23 May 1916

John TARLINGTON transferred from the 54th Battalion to the 4th Pioneer Battalion in Egypt.

Thursday, 25 May 1916

Colin David WREN transferred from the 54th Battalion to the 4th Pioneer Battalion in Egpyt.

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TIMELINE April 1916

Posted on April 3, 2016 | Leave a comment

TIMELINE April 1916

Saturday, 1 April 1916

Joseph ARMSTRONG, Percy George BROWN, Charles William Gordon CONROY,  Edwin Joseph FULLER, John MARTIN, Donald Singleton STEWART, John TARLINGTON,  John William THOMPSON,  William Charles WALKER, Joseph Patrick WALLIS, and Colin David WREN, the Coo-ees who on 16th February 1916 had embarked for Egypt on the HMAT Ballarat A70 as 14th reinforcement for the 13th Battalion, were all transferred to the 54th Battalion at Ferry Post, Egypt.

Sunday, 9 April 1916

Lewis LEOVILLE and five other Coo-ees embarked from Sydney on the HMAT A71 Nestor.

Photograph of HMAT A71 Nestor loaded with troops on an earlier voyage, taken 11 October 1915. Part of the Australian War Memorial Collection. PB0607.

Photograph of HMAT A71 Nestor loaded with troops on an earlier voyage, taken 11 October 1915. Part of the Australian War Memorial Collection. PB0607.

Tuesday, 11 April 1916  

The bulk of the Coo-ees arrive at Alexandra in Egypt on the HMAT A15 Star of England.

Friday, 14 April 1916

William Thomas HITCHEN embarked from Sydney on the HMAT A14 Ceramic.

Sunday, 16 April 1916    

Joseph PARRISH , Karl Alex Frederick NIELSON and John QUINN transferred to the 4th Pioneer Battalion in Egypt.

Tuesday, 18 April 1916  

William Henry NICHOLLS and two other Coo-ees embarked from Sydney on the HMAT A56 Palermo.

Wednesday, 19 April 1916          

Harold BAXTER,  Harold Brooks DAVIS and Alan Chesher JOHNSON (Alan Cheshyre JANION) transferred to the 45th Battalion in Egypt.

Sunday, 25 April 1916

First anniversary of the landing of Australian troops at Gallipoli.  William Hilton SAUNDERS had wrote in his diary about his experience on the first Anzac Day held on 25th April 1916, where a sports day was held in the Australian camp in Egypt where he and the other Coo-ees were in training. He wrote the following words:

W. H. Saunders diary entry 25/4/1916 (Image part of the State Library of NSW collection)

W. H. Saunders diary entry 25/4/1916 (Image part of the State Library of NSW collection)

April 1916: 25 Easter Tuesday. “1st anniversary of landing at A.N.Z.A.C. Holiday for all troops in Egypt. Sports held on the Canal. Swimming etc. on the water. Did not go over myself felt too lazy. Stayed in camp & wrote home.”

Wednesday, 26 April 1916          

Ronald Hector PERKINS and another Katoomba Coo-ee embarked from Sydney on the HMAT A39 Port Macquarie.

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TIMELINE March 1916

Posted on March 8, 2016 | Leave a comment

Tuesday, 7th March 1916

The bulk of the Coo-ees undertook their final parade and inspection in Sydney as 15th Reinforcements for the 13th Battalion. To read further click here: Final Parade and Inspection

The State Commandant inspecting the "Coo-ees" in Sydney (Sydney Mail 15/3/1916)

The State Commandant inspecting the “Coo-ees” in Sydney (Sydney Mail 15/3/1916)

Wednesday, 8th March 1916

About 119 Coo-ees embarked from Sydney on the HMAT A15 Star of England, and made up just over half of the 15th Reinforcements for the 13th Battalion on this troopship.  These included: Harold BAXTER, Sidney BENNETT, James Gerald CAMERON, Allan COLQUHOUN, Bernard COYTE,  James CRAWFORD, Harold Brooks DAVIS, Alan John Burnett EASTERBROOK, William FARTHING, Maurice Bertram FREE, Walter James GOODLET, Denis Roy GREEN, Leslie Webster GREENLEAF, Charles Alfred HAMPSON, Lightfoot Lamonby HAMPSON, Oliver James HARMON, William John Luther HOWARD, Charles Henry HUNT, Jack Henry HUNT, William Laurence HUNT, William Emerton HUNTER, Thomas JACKSON, Alan Chesher JOHNSON (Alan Cheshyre JANION), Darcy KEATING, Alfred Rupert Clyde LINGSTROM, Samuel LUKE, Laurence Leslie MAGUIRE, James MAHER, Charles Edmond MARCHANT, Ernest Charles Norman MAY, Wilfred Ernest MCDONALD, Edward Joseph MCGARRY, Andrew James MCGREGOR, Joseph Raymond McGUIRE, James MCKEOWN, Jack MORRIS, Karl Alex Frederick NIELSON, Joseph PARRISH, John QUINN, Victor QUINTON, Arthur Charles REID, William Hilton SAUNDERS, John Thomas SMITH, Ernest Stephen TAYLOUR, John William THOMPSON, Thomas THORNE, David James WAGNER, William WEBBER, and Rowland John WILSON

AWM_H17014_HMAT_A15_Star_of_England

Photograph of HMAT A15 Star of England. Part of the Australian War Memorial collection. H17104.

Saturday, 11th March 1916

Joe BILLING and three other Coo-ees embarked from Sydney on the HMAT A67 Orsova.

Tuesday 21st March 1916

Charles Arthur FINN and Percy Walter HOLPEN and Clement Patrick KANE and Henry MOSS and  John Herbert WATTS and another Coo-ee embarked from Sydney on the HMAT A26 Armadale.

Wednesday, 22nd March 1916

The Coo-ees on the HMAT A70 Ballarat arrived in Egypt.

Leslie SULLIVAN and four other Coo-ees (all Light Horse) embarked from Sydney on the HMAT A4 Pera.

Friday, 31st March 1916

William Henry GRIFFITHS and two other Coo-ees embarked from Sydney on the HMAT A16 Star of Victoria.

 

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TIMELINE February 1916

Posted on February 21, 2016 | Leave a comment

Wednesday, 16th February 1916

The first group of Coo-ees embarked from Sydney for overseas active service, on the HMAT Ballarat A70.

HMAT Ballarat A70, 18/2/1916. Photograph from the AWM Collection PB0182.

HMAT Ballarat A70, 18/2/1916. Photograph from the AWM Collection PB0182.

These included: Joseph ARMSTRONG, Percy George BROWN, Charles William Gordon CONROY,  Edwin Joseph FULLER, John MARTIN, Donald Singleton STEWART, John TARLINGTON,  John William THOMPSON,  William Charles WALKER, Joseph Patrick WALLIS, and Colin David WREN.

It was reported in the Dubbo Liberal and Macquarie Advocate that Percy George Brown had written “The first batch of the Gilgandra “Coo-ees” to leave for the front will sail at the end of the present week. About 15 men, including four who enlisted at Dubbo, have been transferred into an earlier reinforcement of the same battalion, which the rest of the “Coo-ees” are in”.[1]

[1] ‘Our Soldiers’, The Dubbo Liberal and Macquarie Advocate, 4 February 1916, p. 4, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article77604424

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New WWI Timeline webpage

Posted on February 16, 2016 | 1 comment

New WWI Timeline page

The story of the Coo-ees did not finish with their arrival in Sydney on 12th November 1915 at the end of the Coo-ee March.

One hundred years ago today, on 16th February 1916, the first group of fifteen Coo-ees embarked overseas on active service from Sydney, on the HMAT Ballarat A70.

Stephen and I plan to provide an overview of the Coo-ees’ involvement in the First World War on a WWI Timeline on this website.

We have spent the past few weeks collating the information we have collected on the Coo-ees to create a timeline of their involvement in WWI – what ships they embarked on from Australia to travel to Egypt or England, and for most, on to France to the Western Front, and the dates for those who were casualties. We are also gathering information for other significant events in their service, including information about those Coo-ees who received military awards for their actions.

We plan to tie these details in to the progress of the First World War in the Timeline.

Each month from February 2016 until the end of the centenary of WWI I aim to write a blog entry containing details for what happened regarding the Coo-ees for that month one hundred years’ previously, and add the entry’s details to the new WWI Timeline webpage at https://cooeemarch1915.com/wwi-timeline

Where names of the Coo-ees are listed in entries, their names will have hyperlinks to their individual records that I have written to date, for further information about each Coo-ee. (For those Coo-ees where I have not yet added an individual entry, I will update the Timeline with the hyperlink for each mention of their name after I complete their entry).

I will also from time to time add names for further Coo-ees to entries, and/or update other information on the WWI Timeline webpage.

For some entries, I will add hyperlinks to letters from the Coo-ees, or newspaper articles, which relate to that particular event or person, or add quotes to the Timeline from these letters and articles, or other sources.

Information will start being added to the WWI Timeline webpage in the next few days…

 

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