Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

From the book Fallen Saints

Vernon Newland Hopkins of Adelaide was born at Hackney South Australia in January 1891 and was later educated at Pulteney Street School and the Collegiate School of St Peter. After leaving school was a clerk with the Bank of Australasia, Adelaide for three years before subsequently working for Messrs G S Yuill & Co, shipping agents in Sydney.

He was a prominent member of the Woodville Cricket Club as well as the Port Adelaide Lacrosse Club and represented New South Wales in the latter game against Queensland in 1914.[i]

Vernon enlisted at Liverpool New South Wales on 27 March 1915 and joined the 5th Field Ambulance AAMC at Queens Park at the end of April and a month later sailed from Sydney aboard HMAT Ajana. He was attached to 2nd Australian General Hospital in Egypt, and then in August sailed for Gallipoli where he joined the 17th Battalion.

Raised at Liverpool, New South Wales in March 1915, the 17th Battalion, 5th Brigade, left Australia in early May and after landing at Anzac on 20 August took part in the last action of the August offensive, the attack on Hill 60.

The 17th Battalion, although  garrisoned at  Pope’s Hill, for a short period, was for most of its time on the peninsula responsible for the defence of Quinn’s Post, one of the most hotly contested and dangerous locations at Anzac.

FROM QUINN’S POST

Celestial star that crossed my path,

Leaving fair visions in my soul;

Oh! Why did you e’er leave your realm

And break my heart? With mournful dole

Now restless night doth me pursue,

And friends do tempt my soul to hell.

Ah gentle maid, if you but knew

My inner shrine and it could tell

My hidden love, as deep, as true,

As gentle as sweet birds at play;

Drift back bright star and comfort me

In this unending dreary day.

V. N. Hopkins,

Pte. A.M.C., att. 17th Aust. Bn. [ii]

Following the Gallipoli evacuation Private Hopkins returned to Egypt after and after rest and further training sailed for France in March 1916 and disembarked at Marseilles six days later.

On 14 July, he was found in Amiens without permission and for his adventurous transgression was charged and awarded 168 hours field punishment No1.[1]

He was transferred back to 5th Australian Field Ambulance at the end of September but remained attached to the 17th Battalion and while in Belgium was promoted to Corporal on 10 October 1916.

He went to England in March 1917 and after successfully completing officer training at No 4 Officer Cadet Battalion at Oxford, returned to France in June.

Second Lieutenant Hopkins joined the 17th Battalion as a general reinforcement infantry officer in July but at end of the month fell ill and was admitted to 10th Stationary Hospital, St Omer; on 1 August, he was transferred to 39th General Hospital, Havre and did not return to the battalion until 7 September. 

On the morning of 20 September in the battle of Menin Road, eight German aeroplanes broke through what had up until then been a very effective British screen maintained by the Royal Flying Corps. The planes strafed the 17th and 18th Battalions but fortunately the 18th had already prepared the position and the 17th was able to take cover with them and the machine gun fire from the planes inflicted only slight damage.

A greater annoyance was the fire of the German artillery, directed upon the 28th and 17th as soon as they began to dig in on the Anzac Spur. [iii]

A Lewis Gunner of the 2nd Pioneer Battalion shot down one of the German aeroplanes that morning but machine gun fire has no effect on artillery and as always it was the shelling not the aircraft that created the heaviest casualties that morning.

Lieutenants C R Hannaford (17th Bn.), L J Corrigan and C Cleary (18th) and G G Watts and E A W Smith (28th) were killed here, and Lieutenants V N Hopkins (17th) and R L Fidge were mortally wounded. The 28th also lost Lieutenant A J Tye killed. [iv]

This extract from a letter to Vernon’s mother dated 6 February 1919 briefly explains the circumstances surrounding the death of her 27-year-old son.  

… I am now in receipt of advice which shows that he was admitted to the 17th Casualty Clearing Station on 20.9.17 suffering from shell wounds of the head, arm, leg, and side, and died the following day at 5.25 am as a result of these wounds. He was buried on 21-9-17 in the Lijssenthoek Cemetery, Nr. Poperinghe, Belgium, Plot 23 D.14. Chaplain the Rev D M Salmon officiated. [v]

Vernon’s Brother, Private Horatio Hopkins, (OS) was wounded but survived the war and returned to Australia in 1917.

[1] See glossary.

[i] ibid., 6 October, p. 38
[ii] The Men of ANZAC, The Anzac Book, Cassell and Company Ltd, 1916
[iii] Bean, C E W, Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–1918, Vol IV, Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1933, p. 777
[iv] ibid
[v] National Archives of Australia: B 2455, Hopkins Vernon Newland / 2952 / 5830982, viewed 15 November 2005