Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

GRAY Loch James #4204 9th Battalion

Loch Gray was born at Bowraville on the Nambucca River, NSW. By the time he was ready to attend school, his parents, James and Mary had relocated the family to the Colinton district on the newly extended Brisbane Valley Rail line.

Loch attended the Brisbane recruiting depot in Adelaide Street on 1st September, 1915. The later half of 1915 was period of great enthusiasm for the war in Australia as stories of the Gallipoli campaign began to appear in newspapers. Loch was 19 years old and stood 5’ 10”. He stated his occupation as farmer. His parents had a property at Narinda.

Loch was allocated as a reinforcement for the 9th Battalion, which at the time of his enlistment was fighting the Turks on Gallipoli, and had been there since the first day in April. After three months of training at Enoggera, Loch and the other reinforcements embarked on the “Kyarra” in Brisbane on 3rd January 1916. The embarkation roll shows that Loch had allocated 4 shillings of his 5 shillings daily pay to his mother. The reinforcements disembarked in Alexandria, Egypt on 19th February and went into camp at Tel el Kabir. After the Australian forces had been withdrawn from Gallipoli back to Egypt in December of 1915, the AIF began a period of restructure and expansion. Reinforcements such as Loch would allow the AIF to double in size before the four infantry divisions were sent to France and the Western Front.

Loch and the 9th Battalion arrived in Marseilles on 4th April 1916 after a four day journey across the Mediterranean. Loch contracted mumps in May and spent time in hospital at Etaples before being discharged on 2nd June. When Loch rejoined the 9th Battalion, the unit was rotating in and out of the line in the Armentieres sector of the front near the French Belgian border. To accustom the new men to action, limited trench raids were conducted.

On 1st July 1916, General Douglas Haig launched the battle of the Somme. The battalions of Kitchener’s New Army rose up from the jumping off trenches and walked towards the enemy positions. On the first day, the British suffered 60,000 casualties for virtually no gain; yet the offensive was continued. On 8th July, the 9th Battalion and the rest of the AIF’s 1st Division began a gradual redeployment from the relatively quiet Armentieres Sector to the assembly areas around Albert on the Ancre River.

The road from Albert to Bapaume runs dead straight for 20 kilometres North East following the line of the original Roman road. At a point about a third of the way from Albert, the road crosses a ridge which is the highest point in that part of the Somme. In 1916, the Germans had constructed strong defences along that ridge, particularly near the village of Pozieres.
By 20th July, the 9th Battalion were in billets in the village of Contalmaison, and during the night of 22nd July, moved up to the jumping off tapes. Their objective was the capture of the part of Pozieres village south of the Albert Bapaume Road and two heavily defended trench lines known as OG1 and OG2.

The Australians began the attack at just after midnight on 23rd July. This attack was the first time that Loch had gone into action, and it would prove to be his last. His file shows that Private Loch Gray received a significant bullet wound to his left leg. Loch was carried to the 45th Casualty Clearing Station by stretcher. By the time he arrived he was unconscious. The medical staff amputated the smashed limb but sadly Loch did not regain consciousness and died later that same day. He was buried at the Daours Communal Cemetery Extension with the Rev. Wilkinson attending. Loch had just turned 20.

When permanent headstones were erected at the end of the war, Loch’s mother chose the inscription “in memory of the dearly loved son of Mr and Mrs Gray of Colinton.” Mary Gray was granted a pension of two pounds per fortnight.