Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Private Charles David Fellows (No.511). Charles was born in Hastings (Sussex, England) and probably immigrated to Queensland with his family sometime before the Great War. He was 19½ years old when he enlisted with his younger brother, Claude Jonathon Fellows (18 years old), at Bundaberg in Queensland on 1 March 1915 and was assigned to No.4 Platoon. He escaped unscathed during the Gallipoli campaign and returned to Egypt after the evacuation from the Peninsula. His brother was not so fortunate, having been transferred to a hospital in Egypt due to back problems. On the trip from Alexandria to Tel-el-Kebir by train, his commanding officer, Captain Thomas Cotgrave Hewitt, gave him the role of picquet of a train wagon/truck. According to Thomas, Charles was looking forward to meeting his brother at the base in Tel-el-Kebir. The train left Alexandria train station around 10pm on 10th January 1916 and Charles was sitting at the right front corner of the train truck. When the men awoke before the train arrived at Tel-el-Kebir train station around 6am on 11th January 1916, he was found to be missing. No one saw him fall out of the train wagon, but several soldiers in the same wagon did see him during the evening before midnight. In fact, the man next to him, Julius Bleckman, spoke with Charles until midnight. Charles had been talking and playing the mouth organ. His body was found on the 11th January near a section of the train track and was buried in the Cairo War Memorial Cemetery a few days later. Captain Hewitt, in a private letter to a family member dated 11th January 1916, mentioned Charles' death: " One of my boys fell off the truck we were travelling in from Alexandria to here - he wasn't missed till we stopped, as it was dark and the men asleep. Bad luck after getting through the Peninsula with us. But we get absolutely hardened to 'accidents' ". According to witnesses, everyone on the truck was sober and there was no "hilarity". Charles' death was important enough to be mentioned during the Bundaberg Dairy Company Limited's Board of Director's meeting. Having worked as a Carter, Charles had left the company the previous year in February to enlist with the AIF. The Board instructed the Secretary to send a letter of condolence to his parents. Later that same year, his brother would become prisoner of war during the battle of Pozieres on 29 July 1916. Charles' name was included on Bundaberg's Fallen Soldier's Memorial Statue, which was unveiled on Saturday 30 July 1921.