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From Ballarat & District in the Great War

Cpl Charles Alfred Hill 2787
 
Perhaps the most lasting impressions of our Great War soldiers, other than those often haunting images, come from the words they wrote home; the letters that expressed everything from love to fear, humour and quite unintentional pathos to jingoistic fervour. All too often those missives, conveyed on any available piece of paper, elaborately embroidered postcards or even the inedible staple of trench biscuits, were lost with time. That is why I have always been enthralled by the hundreds of letters that were printed in the nation’s newspapers – each one gave a voice to the writer that may otherwise never have been heard. It was the appearance of just such letters, written by Beaufort’s Charlie Hill, that prompted my investigation into another local story…

Charles Alfred Hill was born at Beaufort in January 1890. He was the youngest of eight children born to Edwin Hill and Mary Jane Greenwood. Whilst Edwin Hill came from Rutland in the English Midlands, Mary Greenwood was born in Ballarat on the eve of the rebellion at the Eureka Stockade; her family had its origins in the historic English County of Cumberland. They were married at the Primitive Methodist Church in Sebastopol on 14 October 1873. But it was agricultural town of Beaufort that was to become home for their family.

When Charlie reached school age, he was enrolled at the Beaufort State School. He had just completed his education when his father died on 9 December 1903. The death of his mother followed barely two years later on 15 February 1906. Effectively, 16-year-old Charlie was now an orphan. Fortunately, he shared a close bond with his siblings and, although they were soon to disperse to communities across the country, that closeness was maintained.

His eldest brother, William, moved to Albury, where he worked as a draper. The eldest of the sisters, Clara, married Richard Vowles, and eventually settled at Langi-Kal-Kal, not far from Beaufort. Bertha, also married and lived at Daylesford. For a time, Charlie also lived in the town, where he worked at the Nuggetty Ajax gold mine.

The sudden deaths of two of the Hill sisters brought further grief to the family: 21-year-old Beatrice Mary (then married to Robert Henry Guyatt) died of pneumonia at Waterloo on 28 July 1910. It was just three weeks after the birth of her only child. By this time, Charlie was living and working in Mildura. Then, at Ballarat on 19 July 1912, Lilian May (who was married to schoolteacher, Charles Wesley Frost, who served at Gallipoli as a sergeant with the 8th Battalion) died from complications following childbirth.
Charlie drifted, not settling anywhere for very long. In the lead-up to the outbreak of war, he was working as a barman at the Bijou Hotel in Rundle Street, Adelaide. It seems he had finally found a place to belong and had been there for ‘several years’ by the time he enlisted at Keswick on 31 May 1915.

In physical terms, Charlie Hill was a solid unit – he was 5-feet 9¼-inches tall, weighed 180-pounds and had a chest expansion of 42-inches. Unfortunately, the only image currently available does little to reveal the finer aspects of his appearance, so we need to rely on the description supplied by the medical officer: Charlie had a fair complexion, blue eyes and brown hair. There were three vaccination marks on his left arm and he easily passed the basic eye sight test.

As his parents were dead, Charlie had to choose a suitable person as his legal next-of-kin, someone to whom the authorities could direct all correspondence. He chose his sister, Bertha Green.

On 8 June, Charlie joined the H Group Base Infantry Depot at Mitcham, an army camp on the three-hundred-acre Grange Farm owned by the Mortlock family. Given that he had not served as a cadet or with any militia unit prior to the war, every week of drill and training would be vital in preparing him for combat.

A month in to his training, Charlie was posted to the 9th reinforcements to the 12th Infantry Battalion as a private with the regimental number 2787. It was to be a further two months before he sailed for the Front. He left Adelaide on 21 September onboard HMAT Star of England.

Whilst Charlie joined his unit at Mudros on 27 November 1915, the 12th Battalion had just been withdrawn from ANZAC after seven continuous months in the trenches. The Gallipoli Campaign was drawing rapidly to its conclusion and the evacuation had already begun.

Charlie returned to Egypt onboard the transport Lake Michigan in early January 1916. By the end of the month, he was in hospital suffering from a mild case of mumps. He was initially admitted to the 8th Field Ambulance at Serapeum on 27 January, and was then treated at the No1 Stationary Hospital at Ismailia for parotitis and orchitis – swelling of glands in both neck and groin. After twelve days in the No. 4 Auxiliary Hospital at Abbassia, Charlie was discharged to duty on 11 February and marched into the Overseas Base at Ghezireh. He finally rejoined the 12th Battalion at Serapeum on 16 March.

The 12th Battalion marched out of the Staging Camp at Serapeum at 4:20pm on 28 March and entrained for Alexandria where HT Corsican was waiting. They sailed for France the following day, with the week-long voyage to Marseilles proving to be uneventful.

When the 12th Battalion was deployed at Pozieres in July, Charlie found himself unwittingly and unknowingly caught up in administrative bungle that had him declared missing in action. According to Sergeant Clarence Moller, Charlie was on his roll for the “stunt” that took place at 0030 on 23 July and was found to be missing when the roll was next called. Moller stated that Charlie, who he knew to be with the Brigade Machine Gun Section, ‘turned up again a couple of days later.’ As it turns out, Charlie and another 12th Battalion man, Eric Peck, had been transferred to the 3rd Brigade MGC in April, but there had been ‘some mix up in regard to their papers,’ which showed them as still attached to the 12th Battalion. Corporal William Evans and Private Herbert Hearle, who both knew Charlie very well, agreed that Charlie had been sent away to the Machine Gun School for further training ‘some time ago and had not returned on July 24th…’

The problem was magnified when Charlie’s family received information that he had been declared ‘missing in action.’ Whilst it was quickly confirmed that Charlie was not missing and was back with his unit, word was a lot slower to reach his anxious family. Understanding that there was a necessary lag in the transmission of official notifications, it is indicative of the delay that Charlie’s eldest sister, Clara Vowles, did not hear that he was missing for nearly a month and it wasn’t until mid-September that they had their fears relieved.

By the time this was all resolved for his family, the 12th Battalion had already been through a second tour of Pozieres and Charlie had been appointed to the rank of lance-corporal.

Writing to his cousin, Mary Sinclair, on 18 December, Charlie Hill painted a stark picture of life at the Front. And how important it was to see faces from home and to maintain contact with family – especially his brother, Jim, who was serving (in an administrative role) with the 9th Light Horse in Egypt. He also conveyed his own feelings regarding the most important question facing the Australian people: conscription.

‘…I will be spending my 27th birthday and Xmas in the trenches this year, as we are in for about a month this time. You can believe my Xmas will not be a very pleasant one. I just came out of the firing line a few nights ago, and was very glad to do so as we were waist deep in mud while there. There were no shelters from rain, and snow, and we could not walk about, but just had to stand in one place all the while we were in the trench. The cold is something awful at times. It is going to be a very severe winter for us boys here this year. A lot of them are going away with sickness, and the worst of the winter is yet to come.

It came as a great blow to us boys here when we got the news that conscription had been lost in Australia. Just fancy Australia being the first to quit when she ought to have been the very last. Who are us boys fighting for here? We are here for Australia's cause as much as England's. What would happen to Australia if the Germans won? We also had a vote here on conscription, and some of the boys were of the opinion that if they had to force men to come they would not be any good to us when they got here. Pride more than anything else stopped some of the boys from voting "Yes," but none of us here will lay down our arms till we have beaten the enemy and made them pay for all the outrages that they have committed during this war.

We have given the enemy a terrible doing this last four months. It has been one great battle from start to finish, and we had them well beaten on this front at the time. With another six weeks of good weather we would probably have had them retreating, and they would have gone miles before they could have stopped again. We had broken through all their strong positions, which were a mass of forts from start to finish. They must have lost thousands of men. No matter wherever you look their dead can be found, sometimes in heaps. They must have lost four men to our one. It must be terrible to be under one of our bombardments, when there are thousands of cannon throwing shells of all sizes up to the weight of 15cwt. You people out there have not the slightest idea of what war is like and the terrible sights we see.

I am expecting leave to England very shortly now, and have been waiting for someone to send me Bob's address, so now I will be able to see him when I go there. Willie Vowles [his nephew] and I met about 6 weeks ago for the first time and he stayed with me for two nights. He then rejoined his unit, which was coming out of the trenches and we were going in. I hoped to see him again, but we relieved another division, so his may relieve mine this month some time. I am looking forward to seeing him again shortly. I met several of the Beaufort boys when in Egypt, but have not seen any of them in France. I often get a letter from Jim, who is in Egypt and when he last wrote he was well…’

The new year began with a birthday and a promotion to the rank of corporal, which was confirmed on 19 January. Although Charlie was with the 3rd MGC, he was still attached to the 12th Battalion and the transfer was not completed until 8 February.
When Charlie wrote to his sister, Clara Vowles, on 4 March 1917, nobody realised it was going to be his last letter home.

‘…I have just come out of a big battle again without a scratch. It happened three days ago, and my brigade was the first to drive the Huns out of the trenches and get them on the run. We drove them back about three miles up to when we got relieved. Our brigade is the most famous of all the units in the Australian Army. They made the Landing at Gallipoli, and were the first to attack at Pozieres, and this time they were the first troops to break the Germans' line on this front. I can tell you I am proud to belong to it. The Germans did not put up a good fight against us. We gave them no quarter this time. Whenever our boys got near them they threw down their arms and asked for mercy. We have found out here that the only German that is any good is a dead one.

Our casualties were not so heavy as expected, although their artillery was heavy most of the time. That is the only way they will fight us now they are up against it; but they were different when they were better prepared than the Allies were. From now on you can watch the downfall of the German Empire, and if all goes well with me, I hope to be home with you all this time next year. We hear here lately that the Light Horse in Egypt have got Jack the Turk on the run, and are giving him a rough handling. We will have them running on all fronts this offensive. You see if I am not right.

The weather here of late has been very wet and cold, which is about the worst thing we have to contend with. It is awful at times when we are up to our waists in mud and water; but I will not worry you with my troubles, as you have enough of your own. I am glad the children got some of the cards I sent. Tell Jim to get everything ready for a good time shooting and fishing when I get back. I hope it won't be long…'
On 5 May 1917, the Australians were advancing on the enemy trenches at Bullecourt, when Charlie Hill was caught be the blast of a high explosive shell. Lance-Corporal Tom Bedelph (of the 12th Battalion) was alongside Charlie when he was killed. He covered Charlie’s body with an overcoat, but had to move on. It was too dangerous to attempt anything further.

News reached his family on 24 May, with Bertha Green being informed of Charlie’s death by Canon John Carrington of the Christ Church in Daylesford, ‘at the request of the Defence Department.’ He was also asked to convey the condolences of the King and Queen and the Commonwealth. Given the false report that he was missing in the previous July, the family still held out hope that Charlie would be found alive. But it was not to be… Bertha had only just received a postcard from him, saying that ‘a year had just expired since he set foot on the soil of France.’

On Sunday 27 May, the flag at the Shire Hall in Beaufort, was flown at half-mast as a last tribute
of respect to the memory of Charlie Hill. As was the way, Charlie was also eulogised for his many fine qualities – he was described as being cheerful; very open and generous, with a pleasant, sociable disposition and having ‘a splendid physique.’ A phrase to describe many a fallen soldier, one that proved particularly common during the war, was also used: Charlie was said to have been ‘of a fine stamp of manhood.’ He sounds like he was a good, young bloke.

In November, William Hill received a communication through the Red Cross Society, informing him of the manner in which his brother met his death. News that he had been killed ‘instantaneously’ was no doubt of great comfort to the Hill family. In another letter received by William, Charlie’s commanding officer, Lieutenant Reece Warren wrote that Charlie had shown ‘great courage’ and that he ‘now lies peacefully just north of Bapaume.’ Such words were intended to help alleviate the grief.

Charlie’s pitiful few possessions – two handkerchiefs, a pipe, a knife and a copy of his attestation paper – were returned to his sister, Bertha in April 1918. But, when it came to the presentation of his medals, memorial plaque and scroll, her rights as his next-of-kin were overridden by the Deceased Soldiers’ Estate Act of 1918. This meant that the authorities adhered to primogeniture – father or mother (if living), eldest brother – ANY brother – and any sister older than Bertha. Base Records wrote to Bertha on a number of occasions asking for information as to those with a higher claim than hers to the mementoes. She apparently never responded. As a result, the 1914-15 Star, British War Medal, the Victory Medal, and his “Dead Man’s Penny,” were sent to a holding facility referred to as “untraceables.” They have never been claimed.

The war also saw an early demise of Jim Hill, who died at the McLeod Sanatorium on 10 July 1922. It was said the cause was due to ‘the effects of injuries received in the war’ – he had actually been suffering from pulmonary tuberculosis. Although a Medical Board decided that his illness was due to war service, further investigation showed that he had probably developed TB whilst mining before the war. The doctors did, however, believe it was aggravated by being indoors performing clerical work whilst in Egypt. He was just 35.

As Charlie Hill’s body was never recovered from the battlefield where he fell, there was no grave to be marked in perpetuity. His name was instead recorded on the Australian National Memorial at Villers-Bretonneux.

The Untraceable Medals Project WWI is attempting to see families receive the medals owed to our fallen servicemen, so, if anyone knows of any member of the extended Hill family, please contact the group via Twitter or Facebook.

@untraceablemissingmedals