Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Archie Barwick was a famous Australian ww1 soldier known for writing poems during his time in ww1 from his perspective. He was previously a farmer before the war. Archie was born on the 7th of March 1890 Monmouth Land District Tasmania. Archie Barwick had signed up to be a part of the war and was enlisted late August 1914. Archie was very enthusiastic and celebrated to join the war and did two summersaults of joy. Archie Barwick’s service number was 914 and was put into the Australian first infantry battalion.

His first training was in Egypt and arrived on the 9th of December after 20 days of being on the HMAT A19 Afric. Barwick and the other soldiers were trained hard in preparation for war and had to climb pyramids as climbing training. In March 1915 Archie had completed his training, and then on the 4th of April 1915, Archie was one of the first soldiers to go to Dardanelles, Turkey. Throughout the journey, soldiers were paid with Turkish currency. On the 25th April 1915 Archie Barwick was one of the 60,000 Australians who were involved at Gallipoli. He was involved in the battle of lone pine and was part of the second to last group to leave Gallipoli after the amount of casualties and hard spot to kill the Turkish soldiers. Archie described it as the most glorious and disastrous campaigns that Great Britain had been a part of. 

Under a year later, Archie Barwick had arrived in France after a brief stay in Egypt for training. From 1916 and 1918 Archie fought in France and Belgium. He was involved in a few major battles in these countries. On the 1st of August 1916, Archie Barwick was assigned to corporal and then sergeant in October. He was sent as an instructor to Durrington camp near Salisbury, Wiltshire England in May 1917 and returned to France in September 1917. During Archie Barwick’s time in world war 1 he was injured three times. The third was the most serious, as he was near an exploding shell causing him to have severe chest injuries and was hospitalised for 16 weeks and then remained in hospital until the war had ended. Archie Barwick had survived ww1. His two brothers Leonard and Stanley were also in the war. Archie and Leonard had survived but Stanley had suffered from many wounds. Archie was a reserve soldier in ww2 but ended up not participating. Archie later died in 1966. He had wrote many journals about his time served in the war. He was given 4 medals. The Croix de Guerre, the 1914/15 Star, the British War medal and the Victory Medal.

"...Archie Albert Barwick was an enthusiastic young 24 year old when he joined the First AIF in late August 1914 - his service number was 914. When he learnt that he'd been accepted into the army, he was so happy he turned two somersaults for pure joy. this is his diary, that he kept throughout the war - from Cairo to Gallipoli, from Marseilles through to the terrible winter of 1916 in the Somme, from Ypres to Pozieres. He was wounded three times and sent back to the fighting, before finally travelling back home in December 1918.." - SOURCE (www.harpercollins.com.au)