Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Alexander Henry 'Alec' Backler was 25 years old, single and working as a labourer when he signed up in 1916. He travelled up to Adelaide with two other Robe men at the end of September and enlisted on October 10, 1916. He was given the rank of private, and assigned to the 10th Battalion, 22nd Reinforcements.
Alec had time to come back to Robe and spend about two weeks with family and friends before entering camp. According to a report in The Naracoorte Herald, the community organised a well-attended farewell at the Institute, with supper, singing, and dancing to send him on his way. Alec was presented with a pocket book and woollen items, and made a speech of thanks in return. The next morning school children marched and sang 'God Bless Our Splendid Men' as he was driven along the main street, accompanied by hearty cheers from a large crowd of townspeople.
Alec set sail for England aboard the HMAT A19 Afric on 7 November 1916. Two years earlier the ship had been part of the historic convoy that assembled off the WA coast at Albany to take the first Australian troops to the Middle East. The voyage from Adelaide was her last - she was torpedoed and sunk in the English Channel four months later.
According to his military records, Alec spent more than two weeks of the voyage in the ship's hospital but the cause was not recorded. After disembarking at Plymouth on January 9, 1917, he was sent to Durrington Camp on the Salisbury Plain for training. A little over a month later he fell sick again and was admitted to the Fargo Military Hospital where he spent almost a month before returning to camp.
Alec finally joined the 10th Battalion in France in late May 1917, in time for a major British offensive at Ypres. He had a brief respite from the front line after receiving a shrapnel wound to the right shoulder during action in September. He was treated in the field before being evacuated to the 32nd Stationary Hospital at Wimereux in France. He rejoined his unit about three weeks later.
In February 1918, Alec spent two week's leave in England. He was back on the Western Front by the end of the month and survived the Battle of Amiens but on September 18, just days before his battalion was withdrawn from the front line for the last time, Alex was reported missing in action. The news was published back at home in The Naracoorte Herald, in the same story that reported the death of another Robe man, 'King' McIntyre from Lake Hawdon station.
His family must have feared the worst, but just 10 days later, on November 11, the day the war ended, James and Ellen received the joyous news in a message sent by the Red Cross that he was only 'slightly wounded', and being held prisoner of war by the Germans. He was repatriated to England in early December and arrived back in Australia in April 1919.
At the end of June, the people of Robe crowded into the Institute once more to welcome him home at a social organised by the local Dinkum Club. He and another returning soldier were given 'a most enthusiastic reception' as they marched onto the stage under an arch of flags formed by local school children, accompanied by another rendition of 'God Save Our Splendid Men'. Alec was presented with a gold medal by the club, and a cigarette case by the Children's Coo-ee Club. The evening concluded with games, supper and dancing, and a series of musical performances, featuring an exhibition of the Irish Jig and the Highland Fling by young Millie Owen, that was so good it earned her an encore.
Alec later moved to Norwood in Adelaide, where he worked for Woodroofe's soft drink factory before retiring to Tobruk Cottage in Robe sometime in the late 1950s/early 1960s with his wife, Gladys, who was a member of the Dawson family. A keen gardener and amateur fisherman, he died in 1967, aged about 76 years.
Researched and written by Liz Harfull, a co-owner of the former Backler home, with additional information provided by Rob Hall, a nephew to Alec and Goff.