Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

BEASANT Stanley Walter  # 3684  25th Battalion
 
Stan Beasant was one of eight children born to William and Martha Beasant of Klein Street, Toowoomba. It is unlikely that he ever lived or even visited Redcliffe but his name along with that of his brother William is recorded on the Woody Point Roll of Honour. Stan’s parents moved to Redcliffe during the war, where they had a shop for some years. It is this connection that explains Stan’s name on the Roll of Honour. His elder brother, William also served and returned to live at Redcliffe.
 
Stan reported on his enlistment papers that he had been born in Drayton, Toowoomba. When presenting himself to the recruiting depot in Toowoomba, he had with him a form signed by both parents giving their permission for him to enlist in the AIF as he was only 19 years old. Stan gave his occupation as shop assistant in his parents’ shop and stated he had served in the senior cadets for two years and one year in the militia.
 
On 25th August 1915, Stan was sworn in as reinforcement for the 25th Battalion. The 25th was widely known as the Darling Downs Regiment as many of the original recruits came from that area. The 25th had only recently embarked for overseas but Stan was too late to make that departure. Instead, he travelled to Enoggera and was posted into a depot battalion awaiting more recruits to make up the 8th reinforcement echelon for the battalion which was by then manning the trenches at Gallipoli.
 
Stan embarked with the 8th Reinforcements from Brisbane on 3rd January 1916 and disembarked in Egypt later that month. The 25th had been withdrawn from Gallipoli during the previous December and was in camp at Tel El Kabir regrouping before being redeployed to the western front.
 
The bulk of the 25th sailed for Marseilles in the middle of March and from there were moved by train north to the Armentieres sector of the front, near the French Belgian Border. Stan would appear to have been diverted to the training camp at Etaples for a period. His file contains no notation for the reason but given other information in his record, it may have been he was training as a signaller.
 
The 25th Battalion along with the other three battalions in the brigade spent several months in the Armentieres sector, which was often called the “Nursery sector” where newly arrived battalions could become acclimatised to trench warfare. In June the battalion was moved further north to the Ypres salient in Belgium at Messines. This was a livelier sector of the front and the battalion had a more difficult time.
 
On 1st July 1916, Haig launched his big push with the opening of the Battle of the Somme. The British battalions of Kitchener’s new army, mostly conscripts, suffered appalling losses; almost 60 000 casualties on the first day. The gains of the offensive were minimal but Haig was committed to pushing on. By the middle of July, three of the four Australian divisions in France and Belgium were moved south to the Somme where they would be thrust against the might of the German Armies. The primary objective was the high ridge on which nestled the village of Pozieres. The 1st Australian Division successfully took the village on the 24thJuly. The 2nd Division, of which the 25th was a part were charged with taking two lines of trenches and a blockhouse on the crest of the ridge above the village.
 
The 25th moved up into the jumping off trenches on the night of the 29th July and awaited the artillery bombardment that would cut the wire in front of the enemy positions. The 25th was in the centre of the assembled battalions as they charged uphill to their objective but the wire remained uncut and after severe losses the battalion withdrew.
 
Five days later, with a slightly better plan, the 7th brigade of the 2nd Division made another attempt and by the 5th August had taken the two lines of trenches and the blockhouse, but at tremendous cost. In the two attacks against the German lines, the 25th which had a nominal roll of about 900 suffered 650 casualties; of which 250 were killed. Another 70 would subsequently die of their wounds. Among the casualties were a number of men listed as Missing in Action; one of whom was Stan Beasant.
 
The Australian Army was completely overwhelmed by the casualties at Pozieres. Over 23,000 were killed wounded or missing during the months of July and August 1916. Base records in Melbourne had the task of communicating the news to the families, often on the flimsiest information contained in cables from London. In the case of the wounded and missing, the family wanted further information and base records could only wait for further news via cable. Stan’s family back in Toowoomba received the standard telegram: Regret advise No 3684 Pte Stanley Beasant reported Missing in Action. Further information will be provided when it comes to hand. Base Records.
 
William Beasant wrote to base records requesting any information of his son’s fate. The response was the standard “no further information available.” In March of 1917, Stan’s younger sister, Gertrude (Gertie) received a letter from a friend whose brother was in the same battalion and who had witnessed Stan’s death. The letter stated in part, the writer’s brother, Jim and Stan survived the first charge (29th July) without a scratch but in the second charge (5th August) Stan was hit in the stomach and legs and he fell dead. When this information was conveyed to base records, they requested the name and service number of the witness “so that he can be interrogated”. The letter to Gertie; now in Stan’s file in the National Archives, was forwarded to base records along with the witness’s details. As a result of the emerging evidence a court of inquiry on 25th July 1917 (twelve months after the event) determined that Stan Beasant was now to be listed as Killed in Action.
 
The Beasant family finally received a parcel of Stan’s personal effects, a damaged razor, money belt and a telegraphic key (Morse key) and coil. Gertie Beasant, Stan’s sister, worked in her parents shop at Redcliffe until her marriage to another 25th Battalion man, who had been wounded at Pozieres.
 
The battleground at Pozieres had been churned up as a result of extensive artillery bombardments during 1916 and would again be fought over twice more in 1918. The remains of many who fell in July and August 1916 were never recovered. Belatedly, the Australian Government resolved to build a permanent memorial to those who had lost their lives in France during the war and had no known grave. In 1938 the newly crowned King George VI and his wife Queen Elizabeth (The Queen Mother) unveiled the Australian National Memorial at Villers Brettoneux. The limestone tablets bear the names of 11,000 Australians who perished in France during the great war and have no known grave. Stan Beasant is among those 11,000.
 
A stone tablet on the site of the Pozieres Windmill reads in part:
 
The ruin of the windmill which lies here was the centre of a struggle on the Somme battlefield in July and August 1916. It was captured by Australian Troops who fell more thickly on this ridge than on any other battlefield of the war.

Stan's parents were William Henry Beasant and Martha Child. William Henry was a shopkeeper who moved to Redcliffe from Toowoomba about 1916. The shop was situated on Redcliffe Parade between the Brisbane Road (now Anzac Avenue) and the Ambassadors Hotel. The sign above the shop read W H Beasant and Sons. The Beasants had two sons go off to war, Stan being the first to enlist on 5 August 1915 and his brother William Henry on 5 January 1916. Stanley was killed in action at Pozieres in France in August 1916. There is no known grave.