Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

# 2138  FISHER Archibald                   9th Battalion
 
Archie Fisher stated he had been born at Manly on the Northern Beaches of Sydney. There is very little information available about his early life and no Roll of Honour Circular is listed on the Australian War memorial website. It would seem that Archie was taken in by the Douglass family of Blackbutt, perhaps while still young. Letters from Douglass family members state variously that Archie was adopted or was a foster child. The head of the Douglass family, John Douglass JP, stated that Archie had lived with the family at a property just outside Blackbutt, “Chestnuts”, for many years and had no known relatives. It is clear that Archie was considered a member of the family and probably worked on the family property.
 
Archie travelled to Brisbane to enlist on 25th March 1915. He gave his age as 28 years and named John Douglass of Blackbutt as his next of kin (foster father). Archie travelled home to Blackbutt on home leave before embarking on the “Karoola” in Brisbane on 12th June as part of the 6th reinforcement of the 9thBattalion. The 9th Battalion was the first battalion raised in Queensland at the outbreak of the war and as part of the 3rd Brigade of the 1st Division AIF, was the first ashore at Anzac Cove on 25th April. The reinforcements disembarked in Egypt and were posted to an infantry depot to await orders. In late September, Archie received notice that he would embark on a transport for passage to the Dardanelles to join the 9th Battalion in the fighting at Anzac. Probably during the voyage to Gallipoli, Archie made out his will in the form contained in his pay book. He stated that, in the event of his death, all his possession and estate was to bequeathed to Miss Ada Douglass of Chestnuts, Blackbutt. Ada was John Douglass’ daughter.
 
Archie was one of 125 reinforcements taken on by the 9th Battalion in the trenches at Lone Pine on 4thAugust 1915. The Australian and New Zealand forces were under considerable pressure from General Birdwood to force a breakthrough at Anzac and a number of operations were planned. Some were designed as purely diversions such as the 1st Brigade attack at Lone Pine and the futile charges by the West Australian Lighthorsemen at the Nek. The main thrust incorporated an attempt to scale the heights of Chunuk Bair by New Zealanders and the 4th Brigade of the AIF, while at the same time a large British force would land at Suvla Bay.
 
Archie’s battalion had a supporting role at Lone Pine and the rifles of the 9th Battalion became too hot to handle as supporting fire was poured onto the Turkish positions. Of all of the operations planned for that first week in August, Lone Pine was the only one that could be claimed to be a success. The Light Horse at the Nek were mown down as three successive charges failed; the 4th Brigade got lost in the dark attempting to climb the Sari Bara Ridge, while the English landed unopposed at Suvla and promptly camped on the beach giving the Turkish defenders time to reposition their forces. The failure of the August offensives marked a change in the attitude of both invaders and defenders. From that point on, the Turks were assured that they could continue to contain the Anzacs on the narrow beach head. The British command realised that any further attacks would be futile. Both sides settled down to await the end that both knew was coming.
 
The war diary of the 9th Battalion records that during the next four months following the August 1915 offensives, the battalion settled into a routine of front line “stand to” for a week or so before going into the relief camps in Monash Gulley. During this same time, opposition to the entire Dardanelles Campaign in London was beginning to make the British government uneasy. In early November, Lord Kitchener, British Minister for War sailed to Gallipoli to inspect the situation for himself. He spent a few hours ashore at the Anzac front on 13th November and promptly sacked the Commander of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, General Sir Ian Hamilton. At the same time Kitchener decided that it was time to bring the whole campaign to a close.
 
The 9th Battalion received orders to depart from Anzac Cove embarkation pier on 15th November and disembarked at Mudros Harbour on the island of Lemnos the following day. The 9th had spent almost a month on Lemnos in April preparing for the landing on the 25th. In the intervening period, the entire island had been transformed into a military camp and logistic support base. Lemnos was also the only source of potable water available to the Anzac forces and its supply was strictly rationed. There was almost no water available for hygiene which led to a large number of cases of dysentery and typhoid.
 
Archie Fisher was admitted to the #1 Australian Hospital on Lemnos with paratyphoid on 29th November. In all likelihood, Archie had been suffering from typhoid for some time. After a month in the temporary hospital at Lemnos which was becoming more and more unsuitable as the winter weather lashed the island, Archie was transferred to the Ricasoli Hospital in Malta via a hospital ship on 26th December 1915. From the time of the Napoleonic Wars, Malta had played a significant role in military medicine. At the outbreak of the First World War, Malta assumed the role of the main military hospital centre in the Mediterranean. At the height of the Dardanelles campaign, there were 16 hospitals on the main island staffed by doctors of the British and Australian Army Medical Corps and nursing staff from Queen Alexandria’s Imperial Military Nursing Service. Archie spent a month at Ricasoli recovering before going before a medical board which determined that Archie would benefit from a prolonged rest and he was slotted to be sent to Australia “for change.”
 
Archie embarked on the “Lanfranc” in Valetta Harbour on 1st February 1916 and arrived in Alexandria in Egypt three days later. The next day, Archie was admitted to the 1st Australian Auxiliary Hospital in Cairo with a recurrence of typhoid. He then moved to the 3rd Australian Hospital for convalescence and was discharged on 3rd March. It would appear that all thought of sending Archie home for a rest had been overtrumped by military requirements and Archie rejoined the newly reinforced 9th Battalion at Serapeum on 9th March. On 27th March, the 9th Battalion boarded transport in Alexandria harbour for the crossing of the Mediterranean to the southern French port of Marseilles. The battalion proceeded by train through the French countryside to the northern sector of the Western Front. To become accustomed to the routines of trench warfare in France, the new arrivals spent time in the “nursery sector” of the front near Armentieres where the boggy ground made mass infantry attacks risky. Archie was promoted to the rank of corporal on 16th April.
 
General Haig, Supreme British commander on the Western Front was planning a big push in the south of the British sector through the Somme River valley for the summer of 1916. It was to be the largest battle of the war so far, and was timed to commence on the 1st of July. The attack was a disaster, with the British suffering 60,000 casualties on the first day, many of them fresh faced conscripts of Kitchener’s New Army. In spite of this setback, Haig was determined to push on and the 1st, 2nd and 4th Australian Divisions were moved south from the Armentieres sector to Albert to take part in the Somme offensive. As the 9th moved into new billets closer to the Somme, Archie was promoted to the rank of Lance Sergeant.
 
A salient had developed on the front near the village of Pozieres half way between Albert and Bapaume. Pozieres was of strategic importance as it occupied the highest point on the ridge and was the key to that part of the battlefield. Haig ordered the 1st Division of the AIF to take Pozieres. On 20th July, the men of the 3 Brigades of the 1st Division marched up to the front through the city of Albert to take up positions in Sausage Valley. By midnight on 23rd, the Australians were in position on the jumping off tapes to advance when the protective artillery barrage came crashing down at 12:10 am. The advance was performed in three waves with each brigade securing a position and holding it as the next wave came through. The 3rd Brigade was the last to advance and had the task of taking the final objective. That part of the village south of the main road was secured with only minor resistance and the Australians were withdrawn to the support lines. A battalion roll call determined that a number of men had been killed or were missing, one of whom was L Sgt Archie Fisher.
 
Archie Fisher was just one of many who disappeared at Pozieres. He was formally listed as Killed in Action with no known grave. At the conclusion of the war, service medals were issued to the families of men who had not survived the war. John Douglass of Blackbutt signed a statutory declaration to the effect that he would keep Archie’s 1914/15 Star, Empire Medal and Victory Medal in safe keeping and would relinquish same if a claim from a blood relative should be made.
 
In 1930, 14 years after Archie disappeared, an Imperial War Graves Commission Grave Exhumation Team came across a grave of an unknown Australian Soldier. Items found with the remains, a watch in a leather case and a purse, indicated that the dead soldier had the surname of Fisher and initial A. The authorities wrote to John Douglass to ascertain if Archie Fisher may have been carrying such items. Ada Douglass, writing in reply, stated that her father was deceased. She also advised that Archie was wearing a wristwatch with a leather band and protective case when he visited Blackbutt on home leave before embarkation in 1915. The watch was engraved with his initials A.F. and he was in the habit of carrying a purse marked A. Fisher.
 
The watch and purse were returned to Ada to be kept with Archie’s medals and letters from the front. The remains of Archie Fisher were reinterred in the Serre Road Cemetery north of Albert. The Somme campaign of 1916 claimed 23,000 Australian casualties. On the site of the Pozieres windmill today is a commemorative stone which reads:
“The ruin of the Pozieres windmill which lies here was the centre of the struggle on this part of the Somme Battlefield in July and August 1916. It was captured by Australian troops who fell more thickly on this ridge than on any other battlefields of the war.”