The identification of Aboriginal men who are known to have served on Gallipoli has continued to grow from the 56 soldiers acknowledged in 2015. In 2018 the names of those who took part in the landing or arrived in the following months has surged to over 70.

This is in line with the increase in total numbers of known Aboriginal volunteers: the latest edition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Volunteers for the AIF: The Indigenous Response to World War One (published 2018), contains in addition to commentary and context, the names of 189 volunteers not represented in the 2015 edition. This and the fact that since publication the names or eight more men have been uncovered shows that the process of uncovering these men is still an ongoing one.

While acknowledging the service of all Aboriginal men is important, it is their presence on Gallipoli which symbolically places them and their comrades within the Anzac story central to Australia’s war remembrance. The Gallipoli service of these men shows not only this but that Aboriginal men volunteered from the outbreak of war in 1914. By examining their service records, photographs and other documentary sources it is readily apparent that the Aboriginal heritage of almost all of these men would have been evident to the recruiters. This makes it clear that from the first, at least some recruiters and medical officers were prepared to ignore the provision of the Defence Act 1901 (amended 1909) which prohibited the enlistment of men not substantially of European origin – and that their actions were not simply linked to low recruiting levels.

Aboriginal men went on to volunteer throughout the course of the war and to serve elsewhere in the Middle East, France and Belgium. The Australian War Memorial estimates that approximately 160 Aboriginal men  were killed or died of wounds during this conflict – and included amongst these are some of the 34 Aboriginal men known to date to have been decorated for bravery. Australians have repeated Lest We Forget over the one hundred years which have elapsed since the end of the First World War. However it is an inescapable fact despite this that we did forget the service of Aboriginal men – and later women. As the centenary draws to a close the situation has begun to change, accelerating in recent years, so that now on Anzac Day 2018 it can be truly said that the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men and women who served  Australia have at last received the public recognition and remembrance by their nation that they  have always deserved.

Philippa Scarlett

25 April 2018

 

During the past two years we have been concentrating our efforts on expanding the number of known men of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander heritage who volunteered to serve in the First World War.

Below are the names of 151 additions to the list published in June 2015 in the third edition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Volunteers for the AIF: The Indigenous Response to World War One. This named total enlistments as 945, a number which was subsequently slightly lowered in the light of fresh information.

The men named here are those who volunteered to serve in the AIF. Their records are contained in the collection of the National Archives of Australia in series B2455 First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers and series MT1486/1 Applications to enlist in the Australian Imperial Force. Those with records in MT1486/1 were unsuccessful as were a small proportion of men in series B2455. The men whose records are located in MT1486/1 are indicated by an asterisk*.

A complete list of men identified by Indigenous Histories will be published in the future in indigenoushistories.com. This list will be prefaced by a detailed explanatory note and will be updated as the continuing interest in Aboriginal service results in the discovery of the names of additional servicemen.

While the majority of the new names posted here have been the result of research by Indigenous Histories we would like to thank those who have shared their research or given advice including Michael Bell Indigenous Liaison Officer and Margaret Beadman, Australian War Memorial, Des Crump, State Library of Queensland, Sandra Smith, Dubbo NSW and Peter Bakker, Cranbourne Victoria.

NOTE

Identification has been made from publicly available primary and secondary sources and family members. However we welcome corrections. As always, we also welcome information about the service of men so far unacknowledged.

Some issues relating to heritage and identification are addressed in Understanding the Numbers.

Each of the following names is accompanied by a service number. Where a second number appears in brackets this reflects the number named by the National Archives of Australia in June 2017 in NAA’s online database RecordSearch. This can differ from the most relevant number contained in a service record itself. When searching for a record in RecordSearch the number in brackets should be used.

Philippa Scarlett and Christine Cramer

15 June 2017

 

ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER VOLUNTEERS FOR THE AIF IDENTIFIED SINCE JUNE 2015.

ANDERSON Robert Q22911 Depot (Q22911)

ARAN William N6516 (6519)

AULTON Gordon N/A *

AYLETT Claude 41

AYLETT Cyril 63236

AYLETT Lindsay 2288B

BAKER Walter James Depot

BEALE Samuel Edward Depot

BRETT John George 1886

BRETT John George 3251

BREWHOUSE James 4028

BRIGHT Stanley 4535 (2295 4535)

BROWN William Stanley 52635

BUDDSWORTH Joseph William 3971A (AKA Joseph William Hamilton)

BURNEY William 1821

BURNS John 1875

BURNS Thomas 1874

BURNS Sidney N/A *

CARTER Jack Depot

CHAPMAN Robert Arthur 2989

CLARK William N/A*

CLARKE Frederick 3693A

CLATEWORTHY Robert 1699A (AKA Robert Clatworthy)

CLEMENTS Ernest N/A *

COLLINS George 1621

COPLEY William Harold 5839/8840

DALEY William 3636

DAVIS Arthur John 2648

DAVISON Charles Henry Depot

DELANEY Myers N78126 (N/A)

DIXON James Depot

DUNCAN Bruce Stanford 57536

EDWARDS John Goldsmith Claude 5086

EDWARDS Lance Hampton 5087

FARRELL Richard Alfred 3618

FINLAY Willie N/A *

FINN Joseph Harold Roland N/A *

FLETCHER Joseph 435

FRANCES William Lindsay 3637

FRENCH Arthur John N/A *

FRENCH Percy Alfred 3295

GALVIN William John 1132 (record amalgamated with WW2 NAA record N42544)

GARNER Robert George 5105

GRAHAME James Depot (N/A)

GREEN Amos Depot N94991 (Depot 94991)

GREEN Clarence Clifton 6014

GREEN Harold Marcus 603 (Depot 56112 603)

HAMILTON Henry Claude 3162A

HAMILTON Herbert 3742

HARPUR Patrick Bertrand 2431

HARWARD Arthur Walter 17209

HARWARD Robert Percy 443

HEARN George 5352

HICKEY George William N/A *

HICKEY John 3041

HILL Percy 139

HITE Charles Ethelbert 2843

HITE Edgar William 2844

HITE John 411

HOOD John N/A *

JACKSON Charles N/A *

JACKSON Oswald N/A *

JONES David John 1677

JONES Sydney Gerald 1573

KELLY Edward 1986

KENNEDY Francis N84988 (first enlistment as Samuel Francis Kennedy N/A*)

KENNEDY Phillip N/A *

KING Charles Roy 804

KNIGHT Lilley 4529

LATWOOD Charles 5424

LEANE Edmund William N/A *

LONGBOTTOM Clarence N/A *

MAKINSON John 2184A (2184)

MARKS William N/A *

MASON Allan 1962

MASON Leslie 3412

MAURER Cecil Samuel 259

MAYBURY Edward N51831

McCARTHY Herbert 698 744

McCARTHY John Joseph James 257

McCARTHY John Thomas 3195

McFARLANE Robert Alexander Malcolm 1708

METHMEN Charles 6801

MORGAN Albert Joseph N/A *

MORRIS William Albert N/A *

MUIR Charles Andrew 55667

MURRAY Norman N/A *

MURRAY Percival Harry 1948

MURRY Walter Patrick N/A *

NEVILLE John Q20765 Depot (20765)

PEARCE John 5954

PETERS Harry N/A *

POWELL John 497

PURVIS Harold 2728

PURVIS John N/A *

RAWSON Alfred Chas N/A *

RAWSON Alfred Ernest 3339

READ William N/A *

REAKES Clarence Lancelot 5098

REAKES Leslie Marmaduke 2209

REAKES Mervyn Royal 1979

RICHARDS George Henry 601

RICHARDS John Alfred 602

ROE Cornelius Edwin 5187

ROGERS William Edward 68001

ROSE James Wallace N/A *

RUSSELL Daniel N/A *

RYAN George 57261 (Q23574)

RYAN Alfred James 1802

SHERRY Denis 2179

SIMPSON Charles Arthur 8969

SINCLAIR Arthur Smith 7776A (7776)

SINCLAIR Francis Darcy 2169

SINCLAIR Henry Edgar 2158

SMALE Walter Edward 794

SMITH Hugh Percival N/A *

SMITH William N12253 (Depot 12253)

SOLOMAN Harry N/A *

SORBY Charles Depot

SORBY Joseph Henry George 551

STAFFORD Walter James 1310

STAFFORD William Henry 1909

STEWART Herbert Robert Depot (7448)

STEWART Robert N94031 (Depot 94031)

STEWART Sidney Harold 899

SULLIVAN Sylvester 7879 (AKA Samuel Brown and Darcy Wills)

SUSAN Alfred 1406

TAYLOR William 2259

TIGHE William James 57648

TRINDALL William Buckingham N/A *

UPRIGHT Charles N/A *

URQUHART Edward 3294

WALKER Robert William Q20346 Depot (Q20346)

WALLACE George Percy 1931

WALLACE William John N88878

WALSH Arthur 2050

WALSH Charles 24222

WANDIN Frank N/A *

WATTS Norman Alfred Henry 2667

WESTBURY John James 2206

WESTBURY William Charles 421

WHEATLEY George Robert 1833

WHEATLEY David Walker Marshall Robert 326 and 6876 (AKA Weekley)

WHEATLEY William Henry Kenneth 1593 and 6146

WIDDERS Claude 66289

WIDDERS Reginald Ralph  N95859 (95859)

WIGHTON James N/A *

WILLIAMS Archie N/A *

WILLIAMS Arthur Edward Depot

WILLIE Sandye Q23125 Depot (Depot)

YEO William Henry 3516

 

 

 

 

When war broke out in September 1939 Australia did not hesitate to join Britain in her opposition to Hitler and Nazi Germany. The second AIF or Australian Imperial Force, comprised like its predecessor solely of volunteers, was immediately formed and one of those men who were quick to offer their services was Walter Henry Steilberg. He volunteered aged 21 on 7 November 1939 and served as NX1164 in the 2/1st Field Company, Sixth Division. The Sixth Division progressively captured Bardia, Tobruk, Derna and Benghasi in January in the first Libyan campaign before being sent to Greece in March of that year to support the Greeks against the Germans invading from Yugoslavia,  from the start a hopeless task. The inevitable defeat and evacuation, for Australia alone resulted in the loss of 320 lives and the capture of 2,065 men. One of these prisoners was Walter Steilberg. He refused to accept his situation and in the following years escaped seven times from POW camps and work parties. He recalled his motivation and determination later in life when he said ‘I made up my mind I’d beat them in the end and I’d be a free man by the end of the war’ (quoted by Paul Rea in Neave Aussie Soldier Prisoners of War p.280). To punish his continued attempts to seek liberty he was sent to the Nazi concentation camp Terezin in Czechoslovakia. His experience and the brutalities he witnessed there have been documented in newsprint, film and books.

Walter Steilberg 1939 , NAA B2458: 262002

After the war he was amongst those who received the British Empire Medal in 1947 for their attempts to escape from German custody. However his experience in Terezin was unrecognised for forty years because the camp was not accessible to the Red Cross and no records existed of the presence there of prisoners of war. Finally in 1982  the Australian Government granted individual compensation of $10,000 to him and the few others like him.

Writing on the prisoner of war experience in 2011 Peter Monteath (POW: Australian Prisoners of War in Hitler’s Reich p.312) reports an exchange between Steilberg and a German officer early in his captivity: ‘Australian aren’t you? Why aren’t you black?’There was a considerable degree of irony in this question. What is today not well known is that Walter Steilberg was a direct descendant of Yarramundi chief of the Boorooberongal clan of the Darug – traditional owners of the Sydney basin. A meeting between  Yarramundi and  Arthur Phillip, Governor of New South Wales was recorded by Watkin Tench on 13th April 1789.(Sydney’s First Four Years pp.229-30). His Aboriginal family’s record of service was an extensive one. His great uncle Jerome Locke was a member of a colonial unit, the Windsor Volunteer Corps – and with two of his sons served in France with the first AIF. Walter Steilberg’s great uncles Walter and Norman Sims were also members of the AIF – in fact in total 27 members of his Lock and extended Lock family volunteered for the First World War and most went on to serve in the Middle East, France and Belgium. Not only this but William Stubbings, son of his great grandfather’s sister Martha Lock, was a member of the 3rd New South Wales Mounted Rifles and served in the Boer war.

The  Greek campaign was the first time Australian and New Zealand units had fought together as an Anzac force since Gallipoli. In 1915 Walter’s cousins Henry James Locke and Alfred Frederick Bolton were part of the first Anzac force. In 1941 Walter Steilberg became part of its second incarnation.

Walter Steilberg , 2013 wearing his campaign medals. His British Empire Medal is on his right.

Courtesy Karen Steilberg

Walter Steilberg was not the only member of the Lock family to serve in the Second World War. Others included his brother Charles. However few after reading about what he saw and endured could argue that his experiences were not amongst the most challenging.

Philippa Scarlett

29 May 2016

Thank you to Walter’s daughter Karen Steilberg for permission to write about her father and to Walter’s niece Liz Locke, daughter of Charles, who first told me about Walter’s history.

In 1931 and 1932, Reveille the journal of the Returned Sailors and Soldiers Imperial League of Australia, (the predecessor of the Returned and Services League and referred to as the RSL) published lists of Aboriginal men who served in the First World War. These lists named men from Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland and noted their service in a range of capacities – mainly infantry battalions and light horse regiments but also transport, signals, ambulance, engineers, artillery, remounts, machine gun companies and service corps. The publication was based on information received from state Aborigines Protection authorities and an appeal to readers. The interest this displayed was not isolated and was part of a wider movement in the 1930s to write about and document war participation and experience. The service of Aboriginal men was then forgotten and never part of Australia’s history of this conflict.

In the 1970s things started to change – if slowly – spearheaded by the discovery of the Reveille lists by military historian Dr Chris Clark and his important 1973 and 1977 articles drawing long overdue attention to Aboriginal service in the First World War. In 2015 Dr Clark revisited these lists in an attempt to explain the increase in number of Aboriginal soldiers which had escalated sharply from the 1980s.  His conclusions were based on careful deductions from the Reveille numbers – 289 (actually smaller because of repetition of names across and within state lists) in relation to the 1911 Commonwealth census which showed 75% of Aboriginal ‘half castes’ lived in Victoria, Queensland and New South Wales. The remaining 25 % of men described in this way lived in the states not represented in Reveille’s 1931 and 1932 articles. This led him to estimate, by deduction that the number 289 from the eastern states reasonably could be seen in proportionate terms to represent 75% of the number of Aboriginal enlistments  nationally. This being so the number of men from the remainder of Australia would account for 25% of enlistments or a number of approximately 96. However he noted that the total of these two figures, 385, falls far short of the number of men now said to have served. It was on this basis that he concluded that many of the men named from the 1980s onwards, although undoubtedly of Aboriginal heritage, did not physically display their Aboriginality and that the increase in numbers must be because ‘many of the men now identified as Indigenous either did not know or acknowledge that fact at the time, or chose to conceal it’ and so are the result of what he calls ‘broadening the definition of Indigenousness’.

In the latest edition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Volunteers for the AIF: The Indigenous response to World War One (to date containing the only referenced list of volunteers) I give figures suggesting that 759 men served overseas as opposed to a higher total number of volunteers, including those who were rejected or did not leave Australia. While the majority are from the states covered by the two Reveille lists, it does not automatically follow that the increase in numbers is the result of the recent identification of large numbers of men who were not recognisably of Aboriginal heritage. Although a lesser proportion of men do fall into this category, Dr Clark’s assertion is discounted by photographic evidence, information in service records and by other contemporary primary records and newspaper sources.  What is clear, however, is that the Reveille survey was even less reliable than assumed at the time and sometimes later – and as such is not a firm basis on which to project numbers.

There is considerable evidence to show that the lists from Victoria, Queensland and New South Wales are far from complete. There are no documents showing the way in which the Victorian and Queensland lists were compiled, but the records of the New South Wales survey have survived. These show that the names were sought by police stations across the state with the help of mission managers. It is likely that a similar approach was adopted in the other two states. The Queensland list bears this out. It not only contains men who were born and enlisted in New South Wales and the Northern Territory but also men for whom no AIF records can be located – suggesting that the names were the result of word of mouth searches. Moreover the total number of Queensland men listed in the 1931 Reveille, 154, (of whom only  109 actually enlisted from Queensland) is contradicted by a statement made in 1940 by the Queensland Department of Native Affairs about the service of what it referred to as ‘half- bloods’: ‘In the War 1914-1918 some 200 coloured people of whom this Department was aware, and there would be others, enlisted and served overseas.’ (NAA: MP508/1, 275/750/1310 Aborigines Enlisted in AIF).  The observation supports the contention that local inquiries rather than the records of the Chief Protector were the source of the names provided to Reveille. Just one of the Queensland men who were not listed by Reveille was Charles Alley , who with Martin Blyth was the subject of press and RSL attention in 1930, the year prior to the survey:

The bad old convict days ‘ of Australia are recalled by the banishment from the mainland ‘ to Palm Island of two half-caste aborigines — Martin Blyth and Charles Alley— both returned soldiers … the Returned Soldiers’ League in Northern Queensland are protesting “to the authorities, at what they call the ” barbarous treatment” of the two men. (Evening News (Rockhampton, Qld.) 17 May 1930:5.)

Of the two, Blyth was listed by Reveille and Alley was not, demonstrating the hit and miss nature of the name collection process. Similar comments apply to the Victorian list. Amongst others omitted  by Reveille were six Aboriginal men whose names appear on the honour board from the Lake Condah mission church. The Aboriginality of one of these Herbert Winter was noted as ‘complexion black’ in his service record.

It seems probable the background to some of the discrepancy lies in the fact that the efforts of the officials in NSW and elsewhere, well after the end of the war, were dependent not only on word of mouth but the collectors’ knowledge of the communities they were based in and the degree of application and interest which as individuals they brought to the task. Another indication of how unrepresentative the lists are can be seen in cases where only one brother of a number who enlisted is recorded, despite their enlistment often on the same day and with consecutive service numbers. These omissions can be found in all three states. In addition in some of the New South Wales correspondence, the reply to the official inquiries is demonstrably deficient in relation to Aboriginal men known to have served from a particular district. Surprisingly, too the New South Wales correspondence shows that not all the men whose names were reported by police were published in Reveille. There seems no reason for the omission of these names – possibly a slip up in the publication process – but it does highlight yet another weakness in the information provided to Reveille.

Relevant to men from all lists, but particularly for the larger states of New South Wales and Queensland, were the itinerant work patterns of bush workers which meant that they volunteered far from their original homes, sometimes in other states, making identification difficult or impossible and the fact that some men were loners, unknown in the communities they passed through and so unremembered. In other instances men and their families may have actively sought to keep under the radar of Protection authorities and police. A communication to the Inspector of Police, Broken Hill NSW dated 12 December 1931, from the constable at Ivanhoe, suggests some of the difficulties encountered by the name collectors, often faced with enormous patrol areas:

I beg to report that there are only two Aborigines within this patrol, whom the above mentioned Circular applies to and they are both absent droving somewhere in Queensland, and I have been waiting for their return. I have also been communicating with the Manager at Carowra Aborigines Reserve regarding this matter and the Aborigines cannot give any other information other than that they are returned soldiers.

In another communication, the manager of Angledool Aboriginal Station explained that  he ‘ found it very hard to get in touch with the people [he] named as they are on the move all the time and this information has been given by other people that are conversant with them.’ (AWM27:533/1 Returns showing particulars of men of Aboriginal parentage who enlisted and served with the AIF, presented by the Board for Protection of Aborigines, Sydney, 10 Aug 1932.).

The following indicative examples from New South Wales illustrate that men not recorded by Reveille came from differing locations and backgrounds. Walter Newton was born and lived in Corner country in the Broken Hill police patrol area but went to nearby South Australia to enlist as did other similarly located non-Aboriginal men. His Aboriginality was recognised in his attestation which recorded ‘complexion black’ and is discussed by Jeremy Beckett in Newton’s entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography and an expanded article in Oceania. After discharge he returned to Broken Hill where he worked in the mines before resuming stock work. He also joined the RSL. Despite this he was not included on the Reveille list.

The identification of Aboriginal servicemen in the crowded environment of cities and their suburbs was similarly lacking. The police returns detailing men living in the Sydney area gave the names of three Aboriginal servicemen (Douglas Grant, Thomas Kelly and Tom Williams) but failed to identify amongst others Leonard Gilmore Smith, William Castles and Ewan Rose. Smith – also described in his attestation as ‘complexion black’ was from South Australia and living in Bankstown Sydney. There is no evidence that he was known to the Aborigines Protection Board, however William Castles, ‘complexion brown’ was a former Protection Board ward. He was a member of a family associated with the Plumpton and Sackville reserves and with his brothers, appears in the index to Protection Board minutes. Ewan Rose, awarded the Belgian Croix de Guerre, an Aboriginal man from Queensland travelled to Sydney with a circus. He was befriended by a white family and lodged with them at St Marys before and after the war. His appearance is documented in David Huggonson’s Too Dark For the Light Horse photographic collection.

Particularly significant is the omission of William Irwin DCM, the only Aboriginal man to be identified by Charles Bean in The Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-1918. He was born at Coonabarabran and although he enlisted at Narrabri, his application to enlist was made at Moree which was also his postal address. His service record shows the presence of family in the Moree area and includes the results of a search in 1919 by the Moree police for family members eligible to receive his service medals and gallantry award. It also contains a 1936 letter from the manager of Quirindi Aboriginal Station about him, written on behalf of his brother. Despite all this in 1932 his name was not recorded in the New South Wales Reveille list.

These are all examples but not exceptions. I hope later to elaborate on this and to show even more clearly that the increase in number is not primarily the result of a changed perception of who may or may not have qualified at the time as an Aboriginal man according to the restrictive racist provisions of the Defence Act, its interpretation by recruiters or the community opinion reflected in the Reveille lists which included men described as both ‘half castes’ and ‘octaroons’. However the question pinpointed by Dr Clark remains, even given the difficulties faced by the Reveille collectors and their glaring omissions – that is what is the reason for the large discrepancy between the lists created in the 1930s and the much larger number of men of Aboriginal heritage now known to have served in the AIF?

The answer to this question lies primarily in the fact that the potential of word of mouth and memory available to police and managers to locate Aboriginal ex-service men, years after the end of the war, is hardly a match for the power of modern day printed resources and search engines. Since the early 2000s we have had the ability to read every AIF service record (available in the 21st century on the website of the National Archives of Australia) and to search for and read contemporary newspaper accounts via the National Library of Australia’s Trove digitised newspaper project. Combined with this is the easy access to a host of records including police records and photographs, and indexes and some records of Protection boards. All this is complemented by the growth in interest in Aboriginal family history and the availability of identifying photographs and family information via the public Aboriginal family trees displayed by ancestry.com. The growth in Aboriginal biography and autobiography and of Aboriginal history itself – so long excluded from mainstream history are also important factors. Put another way this assembly of weaponry dwarfs the limited resources of the officials who conducted the inquiries on which the Reveille lists are based and has resulted in the discovery of information which far outstrips that provided to the journal’s editor. This is not in any way to diminish Reveille’s importance. The 1931 and 1932 articles, with all their deficiencies, were crucial in demonstrating the service of Aboriginal men – and Dr Clark’s actions in realising their significance and rescuing them from oblivion, unquestionably give him the distinction of being the first Australian historian to recognise and write about Aboriginal service in the first AIF. However these lists are only one source and, as Dr Clark acknowledges, are a restricted sample and in the nature of a snapshot. Rather than being seen as the basis for estimating maximum numbers they point instead to the minimum number of Aboriginal men who served in the First World War.

Philippa Scarlett   27 March 2016

Thanks to Christine Cramer for her help particularly with numbers in this post.

The articles published in Reveille are ‘Many served: AIF Aborigines’, 30 November 1931: 22 and ‘Aborigines: N.S.W.’, 31 January 1932: 20.

NOTE

I am pleased that in 2018 the Australian War Memorial endorsed the comments in this blog post by their partial repetition in the War Memorial’s book For Country For Nation pages 22 and 23  and that in April 2021 the Memorial article which is referred to in this post was amended to reflect the position detailed above. See Indigenous service in Australia’s armed forces in peace and war https://www.awm.gov.au/articles/indigenous-service/report-executive-summary