Homer Wilson 1894~1918

 

Homer Wilson was born at the Black Range/Lavington on 29 September 1894 and was the third eldest of the eight  children produced from the union between Homer Wilson & Emily Rose.

 

We presume that Homer had attended the Black Range/Lavington Public school if the reference to Mr Henry Hague, found on the Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour circular that had been sent to the family of the deceased requesting further particulars of his life is correct ... the Principal of the local school has been listed as one who maybe able to help the museum historian with further information about Homer.

 

However, my attempts trying to discover anything meaningful that could be written about Homer's life at the Black Range has proven to be ineffectual to say the least. Nonetheless this may give us pause that although nothing of any great detail can be found in the tabloids of the time may just reflect upon the lad's good character ... he was never in trouble, going about his work as a labourer (probably a farm labourer) earning whatever money he could to support his mother, father and his siblings.

 

What has been found is scant:

 

A farewell, attended by about 200 people, given to "Bob" Pettiford & Homer Wilson took place on Wednesday evening April 5 1916. A toast to the boys inparticular and the "The Army & Navy" was proposed by Mr. F. Wells and supported by Mr. H. Hague. In responding to the toast on the boys behalf, Mr. T. Goldsworthy - "believed that the boys now leaving for the front would maintain the high standards of soldiery acheived by their predecessors". The departing boys were presented with pocket wallets.

 

Apart from the farewell shown above only Homer's death and the presentation of medals to his father have made it into the local newspaper after that. 

 

It would appear, but of course not proven, that Homer's death had had a profound effect on his father's well being. Having lost his second eldest boy and namesake - Homer - in August 1918, Homer snr. has passed away in September 1919 just over 12 months later. Homer's mother Emily would live until 1942 still lamenting the loss of her son.

 

Unfortunately, as with most of these boys, we do not have a photo with which we can identify with but we do know from his service record that he stood 5' 9" tall with a fair complexion, clear blue eyes and light brown coloured hair. This at least enables us to conjur up a mental picture of how Homer would have looked.

 

---------(O)---------

 

 

The following details have been obtained from the Embarkation Rolls from the Australian War Memorial:

 

Wilson: Homer

 

• Service Number: 2010(A)

 

• Rank: Private

 

• Unit: 56 Infantry Battalion - 2 to 9 Reinforcements (April 1916-January 1917) - Transferred to 35 Battalion

 

• Embarkation Date: 23 June 1916

 

• Place of Embarkation: Sydney Nsw

 

• Ship Embarked on: HMAT Barambah A37

 

• Date of Enlistment: 6 January 1916

 

• Age on Enlistment: 23 years 3 months

 

• Next of Kin: Homer Wilson snr. (father)

 

• Religion: Roman Catholic

 

• Occupation: Labourer

 

• Marital Status: Single

 

• Address on Enlistment: Lavington via Albury Nsw

 

• Fate: KIA 22 August 1918 Bray-sur-Somme

 

---------(O)---------

 

The Second Battles of the Somme 1918 were fought in the summer of that year following the German spring offensive of "Operation Michael". The Allied offensive of the summer opened with the Battle of Amiens on August 8th. At the same time the French Army attacked to the south of the river Somme in the Battle of Montdidier. Ten Allied divisions were involved including Australian and Canadian forces serving with the British Fourth Army. Homer Wilson's 35th Battalion was engaged.

 

The Allied forces surprised the Germans on that first day (8th August) and made rapid progress eastwards for several miles taking hundreds of German prisoners along the way. This significant advance recaptured much of the ground lost by the Allies in March earlier in the year. This battle marked the end of the stalemate of trench warfare on the Western Front. The effective use of the combination of infantry, air support and tanks was a telling factor. This was the beginning of several battles from August to November 1918 which became known as the Hundred Days Offensive.

 

By the fourth week of August 1918, in what proved to be the most sweltering heat of the year, the Hundred Days Offensive brought Bray-sur-Somme back into the immediate frontline for the final time, this time defended primarily by remnants of the German 43 Reserve-Infanterie-Division - a veteran unit recruited from the reserve of the elite Prussian Guard, which had served on numerous fronts since 1914.

 

In the period leading up to its arrival on the Somme in early June 1918, this division had suffered particularly - not only from the great 1918 flu pandemic, but also a typhoid epidemic while it was resting in Lille. It further suffered disastrous losses attempting to defend the line against Australian Imperial Forces, American infantry and British Mk V tanks during the Battle of Hamel on 4 July.

 

As a result the 43.R.I.D. had already been rated third class in fighting ability by the time it had been assigned the defence of Bray. Despite this, on 22 August using a combination of accurate & determined machine gun fire, shelling and poison gas the division managed to break up a night time attack by the 33rd, 34th & 35th Battalions AIF and 3rd Pioneer Battalion AIF, who had tried to capture Bray from the north.

 

The 3rd Pioneer Battalion, however, had been able to occupy the cliff on the south-western fringe overlooking the town, which enabled accurate spotting of artillery and Stokes mortar fire into the town. Elements of the Australian 13th Light Horse Regiment had also been brought up with a view to deploying them in the event of a breakthrough, however it ultimately performed its usual role doing scouting, messaging and prisoner escort duties.

 

The following comes from the "Official History of Australia in the War of 1914~1918. Volume VI - The Australian Imperial Force in France during the Allied Offensive, 1918 (1st Edition 1942) Chapter XVII titled - Haig's Second Stroke (August 21-25)" written by C. E. W. Bean:

 

" ... Zero hour was at dawn, 4:45 a.m. For the sake of simplicity the troops were to assemble on the Méaulte-Etinehem road; the posts on the edge of the valley ahead would be withdrawn just before the barrage fell. The moon was bright, and the officers and scouts laying the tapes just ahead of the road could see the approaching battalions 800 yards away. At 2:30 a.m. a heavy German bombardment descended on the front line and lasted an hour. The left battalion (33rd) was kept as long as possible in the old trenches near Tailles Wood and then sent to the tapes in extended order. The bombardment came down again at 4 a.m., but the 33rd assembled in time with only 20 casualties; and south of it the 35th had only 6 men hit though shells burst on the road and earth was constantly showered on the troops as they lay ... "

 

Homer is also remembered at panel # 126 in the Commemorative Area of the Australian War Memorial.

 

According to the battalion's Unit Diary 2010 Pvt. H. Wilson was missing in action after this encounter on the morning of August 22 1918. He was later confirmed KIA! Initally interred in Vaux sur Somme Communal Cemetery Extension, Homer has been re-interred in Point 80 French Military Cemetery west of Bray-sur-Somme near Albert!

 

 

Do not stand at my grave and weep

I am not there. I do not sleep.

I am a thousand winds that blow.

I am the diamond glints on snow.

I am the sunlight on ripened grain.

I am the gentle autumn rain.

 

When you awaken in the morning’s hush

I am the swift uplifting rush

Of quiet birds in circled flight.

I am the soft stars that shine at night.

Do not stand at my grave and cry;

I am not there. I did not die.

 

Mary Elizabeth Frye 1905~2004

 

 

 

Homer's Medals

 

The power of the press coupled with the modern day use of technologically never ceases to amaze or astound me.

 

An article that I had written back in May 2014 that had been placed in the Border Mail searching for information about the nine young men whose names appear on the Memorial Plaques at the Urana Road Oval, and who had given their lives in the service of their country during both atrocities of the last century, had received only moderate interest from the area and I had given up hope of finding anything meaningful about those brave and selfless young men.

 

With this apparent lack of interest I had decided to shelve the project and move onto other things.

 

It wasn't until late October 2014 that I received a phone call from a chap by the name of Kevin Hartley informing me that a work mate of his had alerted him to the letter that I had written some five months earlier concerning one Homer Wilson. He went on to say that he was in possession of Homer's two service medals (Victory Medal & British War Medal) and that he had found them in a sock drawer after his father had passed away.

 

He had no idea why the medals were in his father's possession. He had been told stories that the Hartley & Wilson families were in some way related but could never work out how or why. I will add here that Kevin is related to the Hartley families here in Lavington and it was this fact that had him almost convinced that this is where the connection lay!

 

 

Unfortunately Kevin had no more information to impart regarding Homer's life nor, I must add, any photographs that could be used on the web-site, but had asked for my opinion and help as to how he could repatriate the medals with any living relative of Homer's or should he donate the medals to the Australian War Memorial. I suggested that the Australian War Memorial scenario be used as a last resort and that I was willing to undertake a search for any living relatives on his behalf.

 

Another piece of information Kevin had in his possession, that came from his mother, was that when Homer had decided to enlist he and a David Hartley had gone off together to Melbourne to join up.

 

This, I thought, would be a wonderful starting point for the search to begin. If I could discover who this David Hartley's parents were maybe this could lead us to the connection between the two families. However that thought soured very quickly when I discovered two important factors:

 

• Homer's WWI service record indicated that he had enlisted here in Lavington on January 6 1916 and had been appointed to “B” Coy at Cootamundra Nsw.

 

• There are no records held at the NAA nor the AWM that indicate that anyone with the surname Hartley, and who came from the Lavington area, had ever enlisted for service in WWI!

 

However what did come to light was that in August 1914 a David Edwin Hartley did enlist at Kensington Nsw. This David Hartley was born at Moorawatha near Howlong but he too was KIA in 1917 in Belgium almost a year before Homer met his fate.

 

According to Homer's service record his service medals, memorial plaque & scroll were all returned to and signed for by his father Homer snr. before his death in 1919. So how the Hartley family came to be in possession of the medals is a mystery!

 

Or so I had thought.

 

When I started looking into this for Kevin Hartley I was only aware that Homer had had six siblings and none of those had any connection to the Hartley family. The eldest boy William had married a Ruth Gehrig in Albury in 1915; eldest sister Mary had married Henry Charles Poppleton in 1911 in Albury; & younger sister Emily had married Francis Walker Clear in 1916 also in Albury. None of their children had any connection to the Hartley family. And it appeared that younger brother James had not married and there were two infant twins who died at birth.

 

I had thought that the easiest way to check for any connection with the Hartley family after having no success with the marriages of Homer's siblings, would be to do a search of the available records for a marriage between any Hartley and any Wilson to see if I could manage to find anything of a concrete nature.

 

The search parameters that I considered using were between the years 1900 and 1925 and that the event had to have occurred in Albury. All that the search revealed was the three marriages that I had already found. The three children who had married had all been born between 1888 and 1896 and as we have seen all married before 1925. I deemed it unnecessary to search after this date.

 

That was a mistake!

 

However, what I wasn't aware of was the fact that there had been another daughter born to Homer & Emily in 1904 ... this birth appears not to have been registered as there is no record of it on the NSW BDM Index.

 

This daughter is the connection. I only became aware of this lady after locating a memorial notice placed in the Albury Banner & Wodonga Express in 1919 that listed her as Miss V. Wilson (sister).

 

Violet Wilson married Robert Keith Hartley in Albury in 1930 some twelve years after Homer's death in 1918 at Bray-sur-Somme in France.

 

However, well before this startling revelation announced it's presence I had been able to locate a living descendant of Homer's eldest brother William – in fact his grand niece – and she and her husband were very keen to obtain Homer's medals.

 

I had put them in touch with Kevin Hartley and vice versa and it appeared that we had come to the happy conclusion that the medals would once again be in the rightful possession of a deserving family member.

 

Nonetheless, with the discovery of that Hartley-Wilson family connection through Homer's youngest sibling Violet, Homer's medals would appear to have been bequeathed to her after her mother's death in 1942. This is pure conjecture on my part but has merit when considering that Violet's grandson – Kevin Hartley- now has the medals in his possession.

 

The other factor to consider is that the story told to Kevin by his mother about Homer & David Hartley going off to join the AIF together actually has some merit to it although they did not join at the same time nor place.

 

He is the lad mentioned above who was born at Moorawatha. This David Hartley is the elder brother of Robert Keith Hartley … grandfather of Kevin Hartley.

 

In the wash up of all this it appears that Kevin Hartley was and is the rightful owner of Homer's medals. Although not “legally” bequeathed to him by any official documentation they have been handed down through the generations of the family that began with his great grandmother Emily handing the medals onto his grandmother Violet.

 

The last part of this story gives me no pleasure in it's telling. I have continually tried to make further contact with Kevin trying to tell him that the medals are rightfully his. I have left numerous messages on his phone asking him to make contact with me. I have told him that I had finally found the connection between the Wilson & Hartley families. I tried on five consecutive days only to find that either his phone had been switched off or he just did not want to return my calls for whatever reason.

 

This saddens me no end!

 

I can only hope and pray that Kevin has taken on board the news contained in those messages and not relinquished Homer's medals. They are his to keep and cherish for all time!