Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Son of Henry Wallace ATKINSON and Martha Jane nee HIPWOOD, of Fitzroy Chambers, Adelaide St., Brisbane, Queensland.

A SOLDIER'S RECORD.
THE LATE CAPTAIN J. V.
ATKINSON.
Mr. and Mrs. H. W. Atkinson, of Coorparoo, some months ago suffered a double bereavement in the loss of their son (Capt. J. V. Atkinson) and their son-in-law (Lieut. R. H.  Verry), both being killed in action. Under date December 8, 1918, from Belgium, Mr. and Mrs. Atkinson have received a detailed statement of the service seen by their son, the  writer being Pte. Andrew Livett, who was his batmen. Pte. Livett mentions that the battalion arrived in France from Egypt on June 12, 1916, disembarking at Marseilles. Its first experience of the trenches on the Western Front was at Fleurbaix, between Ypres and Armentieres. Matters were quiet there and after about a month orders were received to  proceed to the Somme.  The battalion then got its first real baptism of fighting in France, as the Somme battle was in full swing, and it went into Pozieres. "If I remember, right," wrote Private Livett, "your son was mentioned in despatches them (at Pozieres) for devotion to duty, and he received a letter of congratulation from General Cox, who  was in command of the Fourth Division. At that time we were relieved there, as we were only consolidating the line, and we lost rather heavily there in men. We went back  about 30 miles, and prepared for our first engagement at Mouquet Farm. We gained all our objectives that morning of September 3, 1916, but we had about 600 casualties. We were relieved, and proceeded to Ypres. We went into the line at a place called Vermozeele, and were there about a month; then we went back to the Somme again, and  went into the line at Flers. We were there about a month ; then your son received orders to proceed to the base at Etaples for instructional purposes. We were there about  three months, where your son made many friends. I met Major Condon there. We were there from December 2, 1916, until February 28, 1917. We rejoined our unit again, and we were with the battalion about three weeks. Then we proceeded to Norrieul, which formed a part of the Hindenburg line. Your son was in that engagement, and then he was also in Bullecourt. We were relieved there, and proceeded to rest billets at a place called Buire. We were there about three weeks, when we were picked out as storm troops for the Messines battle, along with the Third Division. Two Australian Divisions only took part in that. Your son took part in that also. We got through all right, went for a spell for about a month, and went into Ploegstreete after. We left there again, and went to Steenje for a rest. I went on leave from there to England, and when I came back your son  ad proceeded to England for instructional purposes at the Training Battalion. He received his captaincy before he went to England.
He was there some time ; then he rejoined his battalion again, and I took up my duties with him again. He took over the command of A Company. We were resting there at a  place, Locre, in Belgium, when the German offensive started. We had a hurried call, and proceeded to a place called Hebuterne at Arras on March 25, 1918. We weren't needed  there, as the Fourth Brigade of the Fourth Division stopped the Germans, so we marched all that night, about 27 miles, and went into action at a place called Lavieille,  in front of Amiens.
We stopped him there, then we went back to a place called Brayle in support to our 12th Brigade. Nothing happened until April 5, when the Germans launched another  offensive on our front, and we proceeded to Dernacourt. We went over the ridge, and met the Germans advancing. We formed a line, then the Germans broke up and ran. We  gained part of our objective, and A Company were under fire from three ways. We were getting enfiladed fire from right and left, as some of our battalion didn't get up in line  with us, and we had to dig in, so your son proceeded out to the left flank to see what was holding up the attack, and coming back to where I was lying, a sniper got him when  he was about two yards from me. He sang out and told me he was wounded, and I went over and bandaged him up. He was quite cheery on it ; all he asked me to do was to  make him comfortable. We lay there for about three-quarters of an hour, and he spoke to me the most of the time about the fight. It started to grow dark, and he said he could get out all right if I gave him a hand. We were going out when he got wounded again in the groin. It must have been a machine bullet, as it was too dark for a sniper. The  bullet went through his wrist, and into his groin ; it was the fatal wound. As I laid him down he told me he was done for, and gave me that message to his mother. I got the stretcher bearers, and we proceeded to carry him out. He was still conscious, and we were only half way to the dressing station, and he asked for a drink. We laid him down,  and he never spoke, and we examined him, and found he had passed away, so I took everything off him, and after we were relieved I gave his belongings to Lieut. McDougall. I spoke to Mr. McDougall the same night as your son died, so I got your son buried next day. I never saw Mr. Verry, but Mr. McDougall told me he was buried alongside your  son. I cannot say much more, but he was loved by every one officers and privates alike ; he always gave the boys a good spin. He treated me more like a brother than  anything else. He was always talking to me of home, and what he was going to do after he was finished with the military." A tabled summary shows that Captain Atkinson took  part in 11 engagements in France and Belgium between June 25, 1916, and April 5, 1918.

 
James Victor Atkinson # 182 9th Battalion / Captain 49th Battalion
James Atkinson was the son of Henry Wallace Atkinson, a prominent city architect, and Martha Atkinson. The family address was “Martha Villi”, Cavendish Road, Coorparoo. James was born in 1893 and as a boy attended Coorparoo State School and then Brisbane Boys Grammar.
James enlisted on 22 August 1914 aged 19 years and 9 months, barely two weeks after war was declared and just two days after recruiting began. At the time he stated that he was serving in the 9th Logan and Albert Regiment, Citizen Forces. His attestation papers record that he was employed as an insurance clerk with New Zealand Insurance.
Even by the high standards of recruitment in 1914, James Atkinson must have presented as an outstanding candidate. A secondary education was a rarity in the early 1900’s indicating a person of outstanding ability. It is therefore no surprise that within five days of enlistment, James was promoted to lance corporal whilst in training at Enoggera, and then to corporal after a further five days. One day later he was promoted to sergeant.
One month after James’ enlistment, the 9th Battalion, after parading through the streets of Brisbane, boarded HMAT “Omrah”. Fears of German naval activity in the Pacific caused a short delay in the gathering of the first transports. Meanwhile the battalion disembarked from their transport in Melbourne and spent from the 1st to the 16th of October in training, probably with the other battalions of the 3rd Brigade. On the 17th October, the battalion was inspected on the Melbourne Town Pier by Prime Minister Andrew Fisher (who famously pledged to “defend the empire to the last man and last shilling” during the election campaign of 1914) and the Minister of Defence, Senator George Pearce. The Battalion then re-embarked on the “Omrah” and sailed for King George Sound, Albany to rendezvous with the rest of the first division transports before sailing for Egypt via Colombo, Aden, Suez and Port Said. During the voyage, James reverted to the rank of Corporal at his own request.
The time of the first division’s sojourn in Egypt has been well documented elsewhere and I do not propose to dwell on this part of the narrative. By March 1915, training had been completed and the 9th sailed for Lemnos where they were in camp whilst practising boat drills for the landings at Anzac.
The plan for the landing of 25 April called for the 3rd Brigade to land first as the covering force with the 9th Battalion on the far right. James Atkinson was promoted to the rank of Sergeant on Gallipoli on 3rd July 1915.
On 2nd August, Sergeant Atkinson was evacuated from the peninsula to the Hospital Ship “Gascon” with what the records describe as diarrhoea, but given that he would spend the next six months in the No.2 General Hospital in Egypt, was more likely dysentery. On the 18th February 1916, James was discharged from hospital and was attached to the 3rd Training Battalion at Mena Camp in Egypt.
After the evacuations of the ANZAC Force from Gallipoli, the Australian Government planned to expand the AIF from its two divisions to five. To achieve this huge expansion, a number of original ANZAC battalions were split to form the nucleus of two battalions with the ranks being swelled by reinforcements who were now in Egypt. The 9th Battalion would be halved to create two battalions, the 9th and the 49th. In keeping with the parochial nature of the AIF, both the 9th and the 49th would be nominally Queensland Battalions (and would share a similar battalion patch of black over blue, with the 9th’s being a rectangle and the 49th’s being a circle). James Atkinson transferred from the training battalion to the 49th on the 16th March 1916. On 8th April while still in Egypt, James was promoted to Regimental Sergeant Major, and then almost immediately was promoted to 2nd Lieutenant. When the 9th arrived in Marseilles on the 12th June, James went off to Officer’s Training.
On 1 July 1916 (the opening day of the battle of the Somme) 2nd Lt. James Atkinson returned to his unit and was immediately promoted to 1st Lieutenant. At this time, the 49th Battalion, along with the rest of the 13th Brigade, were stationed in the “nursery trenches” in the Armentieres sector of the front. As the situation on the Somme called for increasing manpower, Haig brought three Australian Divisions (1st, 2nd and 4th) to the staging areas around Albert to use in the assault on Pozieres.
The 1st and 2nd Divisions were thrust into the struggle for Pozieres first during late July and early August, and had secured the village and the important blockhouse on the site of a windmill above the village. It was now the turn of the 4th Division (of which the 49th was a part) to continue the offensive towards a ruined farm which the Germans had heavily fortified by extending the cellars and creating a line of three defensive trenches. The farm was depicted on the maps as “La Ferme du Mouquet” but the Australians referred to it as “Moo Cow Farm” or “Mucky Farm.”
The assault on the farm was conducted on an ever narrowing front that was enfiladed by German artillery and machine guns on three sides. The ground was so churned up that advancing troops could not recognise a trench line when they reached it. Attempts to dig new trenches were unsuccessful due to the loose ground caving in. The 49thwas finally withdrawn from the battle for Mouquet Farm without the objective being reached at considerable cost. The 4th Division had sustained 4650 casualties and the officer corps of the 49th was particularly hard hit, sustaining 5 officers killed, 6 wounded and 2 missing. Lt. James Atkinson was lucky to have survived unscathed.
The 49th were withdrawn from the Somme in September 1916 and sent to rest with the remainder of the Australian Divisions around Ypres in Flanders. In November of 1916, James Atkinson was detached to the School of Instruction for officers at Etaples and returned to the unit in February 1917. In May, James was granted one week’s leave in England and he returned to his unit in time for the 13th Brigade’s assault on Messines on 7 June which opened the third battle of Ypres, often referred to as the battle of Passchendaele.
On 1st August of that year, James was promoted to Captain and transferred to the 13th Training Battalion in Codford, England where he was seconded until March of 1918 when he rejoined his unit.
On 21 March 1918, Ludendorff launched his final gamble to break the stalemate on the Western Front. The timing was critical as the Germans had a number of divisions available after the collapse of the Eastern Front which were hastily transferred to the Western Front. The operation needed to succeed before General Pershing’s U.S. Forces, which were arriving on the Western Front, could be deployed and swing the course of the war in the allies favour. Operation Michael caught the British Forces in the Somme by surprise with the speed and efficiency of the advance and the gains of 1916/ 17 along the Peronne- Amiens axis were quickly surrendered by Gough’s forces.
To halt the advance, first the 3rd and then the 4th Australian Divisions were rushed into the line at Dernacourt on the Ancre River just south west of Albert. On the 5th April, the 13th Brigade faced one of the heaviest infantry attacks of the war. The 49th was defending a railway embankment but the Germans managed to cut them off from the flank support by pouring through a railway underpass. The 12th and 13th Brigades were attempting to halt 2 and a half German Divisions. At 5:00pm the 49th along with the 48th Battalion counterattacked to regain the embankment. The 4th Division suffered 1100 casualties at Dernacourt; Captain James Atkinson was one of them. Also killed on that day was James’ brother in law, Lieutenant Reginald Verry of the 49th Battalion.  
It would appear that James was killed outright as there is no record of him being in a Field Ambulance or Casualty Clearing Station. He was buried close to another 49th Battalion man, Private Edward Rieman in the Albert Road Cemetery (perhaps in the same grave). A photograph of James’ grave was sent to his father. At war’s end, the Imperial War Graves Commission began consolidating the thousands of scattered graves into central locations. When the grave of Capt Atkinson and Private Rieman was excavated, no remains were found. Instead a memorial cross was erected with the following inscription.
 
To the memory of this Dominion Officer and man killed in action in April 1918 and buried at the time in Albert Road Cemetery, which was partially destroyed by the enemy in August 1918.
Their glory shall not be blotted out.
Eventually in 1923, The IWGC erected individual headstones for each man in the Dernacourt Communal Cemetery Extension, even though there were no physical remains. This was a departure from normal practice, as men whose graves had been lost were usually commemorated on a memorial, which in the case of Australian soldiers in France would have been the National Memorial at Villers Bretonneux ( even though it was not finished until 1938). There is considerable correspondence regarding the burial of Capt Atkinson in his file in the National Archives.
James Atkinson’s personal effects (which in the case of officers included all uniform items) were packed in a sealed steamer trunk and valise to be despatched to his father. Among the usual personal items such as cards, letters and souvenirs there was also an automatic pistol (not service issue) in a leather holster. The baggage was loaded onto the S.S. Barunga in July 1918. Also on board the Barunga was a number of returning wounded and discharged servicemen heading for Australia. On 15 July 1918 the Barunga was torpedoed by a German submarine south of the Scilly Isles. She sank quickly with all cargo being lost but all survivors were rescued. Ironically, the Barunga was previously registered as the Sumatra, and had been confiscated from the German owners by the Australian Government when she was discharging cargo in Sydney in August 1914. Strangely James’ father had not been notified that his son’s effects had been lost at sea as he wrote to Base Records in February 1919 enquiring about them.
James Atkinson began his military career as a private and finished as a captain. This was not unheard of in the AIF but it indicates the high rate of attrition within the infantry battalions. James had survived unscathed (except for a time in hospital in Egypt) through almost four years of war. He saw action in Gallipoli, France and Belgium; through some of the fiercest battles of the war. His father received three medals, the 14/15 Star, Empire Medal and Victory Medal from a grateful nation.