Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

# 556 MILLER Alexander                    9th Battalion
 
Alexander Miller was born at Watten, a small village on the shores of Loch Watten in the Northern Highlands of Scotland. He told the recruiters in 1914 that he had served 12 years with the famous Scottish Regiment the Seaforth Highlanders and had probably served in a number of empire wars in India, Egypt and South Africa. Probably in a desire to find better prospects, Alexander and his eldest brother John emigrated to Queensland and took up a farming block at Crow’s Nest.
 
Soon after war broke out between the British Empire and Germany, Alexander took a train from the South Burnett, where he was probably working at the time, to Maryborough where he presented himself for enlistment on 29th August 1914. He told the recruiting officer that he was 36 years old and named his brother John of Crow’s Nest as his next of kin. Alexander stated his occupation as labourer.
 
 
Alexander took a train to Brisbane and then on to Enoggera station where he was added to the roll of the 9thBattalion. The 9th Battalion was the first of the Queensland battalions to be raised at the beginning of the war. It would make up part of the 3rd Brigade of the 1st Division AIF. Barely three weeks after enlisting, Alexander boarded the transport “Omrah” at Pinkenba Wharf. He had allocated 2 shillings and sixpence of his daily pay to a bank account in Queensland.
 
As the “Omrah” sailed south to Sydney and then Melbourne, fears were growing about the possible presence of Admiral Graf von Spee’s German Cruiser Squadron from the China Station roaming the South Pacific. Until the threat was past, the ships that would take the 1st Division to war stayed in southern ports. Once it was learned that the squadron had sailed east towards Samoa and Tahiti, the sea journey resumed with the assembly of the fleet in Albany WA before sailing across the Indian Ocean. The fleet did meet one ship from the German squadron, the Cruiser “Emden” which was quickly despatched by the escorting Australian Cruiser “HMAS Sydney”. While crossing the Indian Ocean, news was received that Turkey had entered the war on the German side. This changed considerably the plans for the Australians who had expected to go “fighting the Kaiser” (sung to the tune of Waltzing Matilda).
 
Eventually the Australian and New Zealand transports arrived in Egypt and the men went into camp at Mena on the outskirts of Cairo. Time was spent training and sightseeing but the fun came to an end when the division was loaded onto transports in Alexandria on 2nd March 1915; destination Mudros on the Island of Lemnos. The next six weeks the men of the third brigade trained in boat drills and landing drills in preparation for the opposed landing on the Gallipoli peninsula.
 
The commander of the Australian Forces, General Birdwood, had selected the 3rd Brigade to be the first troops ashore on the 25th April 1915. The 9th Battalion would occupy the far right of the line closest to the Turkish batteries at Gaba Tepe. Some time during that first day at Anzac Cove, Alexander received a gun shot wound to his left ankle. Plans to deal with casualties were hopelessly inadequate and Alexander may have spent some time lying on the beach before one of the transports which had brought the men from Egypt, the “Clan McGillivray”, was hastily called into service as a hospital ship. Alexander was evacuated onto the hospital ship and taken to the island of Malta where he was admitted into the Tigne Hospital, one of the many military hospitals on the island, on 4th May 1915.
 
Alexander was back with his battalion at Gallipoli by the end of June. During that time, despite repeated attempts by both sides to force a resolution, the positions held by the Australians were exactly those that had been reached on the first day. The Ottoman forces were unable to push the Anzacs back into the sea and so a stalemate had developed over the three months of the battle.
 
The commander of the Anzac Forces, General William “Birdie” Birdwood was under considerable pressure to break the stalemate. His solution was to plan an encircling movement on the northern part of the front in the hope of capturing the heights of the Sari Bair Ridge and Chunk Bair. This action was to take place at the same time as a landing by British Troops further north at Suvla Bay. Two diversionary stunts, occurring in the southern part of the front, were designed to lure the defenders away from the real assault. One of these stunts involved the three brigades of the AIF at Lone Pine on 6th August 1915.
 
Alexander and his mates of the 9th Battalion had the task of enfilading the Turkish positions with rapid rifle fire as the battalions of the 1st Brigade charged across the “Daisy Patch” and tore through the log roof of the Turkish trenches to engage in hand-to-hand fighting. The Battle of Lone Pine lasted for 4 days and resulted in the Australians taking the first line of enemy trenches and holding it; at a cost of 2000 casualties. The other stunt at The Nek resulted in the Western Australian Light Horse being mown down for no gain. The assault against Sari Bair Ridge was abandoned when the Australian force was forced to withdraw when they got lost in the dark and the landing at Suvla Bay was an absolute fiasco.
 
By the middle of August, both sides were exhausted. The front line, with the exception of a small gain at Lone Pine, stayed as it had been in April. Birdwood had thrown everything he had at the campaign but the terrain and lack of resources were as big an obstacle as the defiant Turks. The campaign continued on a much reduced scale. There were no more infantry assaults and some of the battalions that had been at Anzac since the beginning were relieved by newly arrived battalions from Australia. The 9th Battalion rotated in and out of the line at Plugges Plateau on a regular basis.
 
By the beginning of October, the Australians were being ordered to construct larger and more substantial dugouts in preparation for the coming winter. For the men of the 9th, they spent more time in the front line swinging a pick than they did holding a rifle. On 20th October, after a stint of five days in the front line, the 9thwas relieved and went into bivouac at a rest area in Monash Valley named Shell Green. It is recorded that on 23rd October, Alexander Miller was killed by enemy action (artillery shell) at Shell Green. He was buried nearby and a wooden cross was erected over his grave.
 
Alexander’s brother, John, received a parcel of his brother’s personal effects which included a handkerchief, a tin, pencil, postcards and photographs. He also received the balance of Alexander’s deferred pay and war gratuity. At the end of hostilities, the Australian War Graves Team began the task of consolidating the many temporary graves. Alexander’s remains were exhumed and reburied in the Shell Green Australian Cemetery. Although his brother had an opportunity to provide an inscription for the headstone, John did not reply to letters requesting same.