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Australia

Clarence Cameron Stacey was born at Stirling North, South Australia on 28 October 1891. His parents James Stacey and Alice Elizabeth (nee Johnston) lived at Stirling North on one of the small farming blocks. A scheme to get people onto the land had been started in 1885, and in agricultural areas ‘working men’s blocks’ of up to twenty acres were offered on a twenty-one year lease to men who lived by their own labour, on condition that the lessee or one of his family lived on the block for at least nine months each year. The farmers were referred to as ‘Blockers’, due to the farm sizes.

In January 1903 the area was flooded, breaking a three year drought, but helping the farmers to reap a multitude of vegetables and fruit. Then in March the floods, that saved the ‘Blockers’ at the January show, came back with a vengeance. The town of Stirling North was flooded to the extent that there was two feet of water throughout the town. The tops of the headstones at the cemetery were just visible and James Stacey's parents hotel, the Travellers’ Rest Hotel was inundated, with water pouring into the cellar through the cellar door.

This latest flood was the last straw for James Stacey who had been battling to make a living on his farm, constantly battling dust-storms, sand drifts and floods. In June 1903, he left his wife Alice and five children in Stirling North, packed up and travelled to Western Australia to set up a new start for his family. In January 1904, having established himself in Caversham, ten miles north-east of Perth, James sent for Alice and the children. After a tearful farewell at the Port Augusta railway station Alice and the five children caught the train to Adelaide and then on to Port Adelaide where they embarked on the steamship ‘R.M.S. Omrah’. This Royal Mail Ship’s voyage had originated in Sydney and embarked passengers, in Adelaide, on Wednesday 20 January and departed on Thursday bound for London, via Fremantle, Colombo, Port Said and Naples. The ‘R.M.S. Omrah’ arrived at the Port of Fremantle, on Monday 25 January, where Alice was reunited with her husband and the children with their father.

By 1909 James Stacey and his two sons, Harold and Clarence, were clearing and fencing their one thousand acres at Lot 8068 Sunny Vale Road, eight and a half miles south-east of Quairading. The town of Quairading was one hundred and fifteen miles east of Perth and the Stacey’s property was close to the ‘Number Two’ rabbit-proof fence.

On 23 February 1913 Clarence Cameron Stacey and Daisy Maud Simpson announced their engagement.

1915

On Wednesday 17 November 1915, aged twenty-four, Clarence signed his A.I.F. Attestation Papers at Blackboy Hill, a military training camp used to accommodate the A.I.F. troops prior to overseas deployment. The camp was fourteen miles east of Perth in the Greenmount area.

Clarence Cameron Stacey, regimental number 4588, was assigned to the 11th Infantry Battalion - 14th Reinforcement on 16 December. After another two months of training Clarence embarked on the troopship ‘HMAT Miltiades’, from Fremantle on Saturday 12 February 1916, arriving at Suez, Egypt on Friday 10 March. The 11th Battalion reinforcements were transported by train to the Moascar A.I.F. Camp at Ismailia where they joined what remained of the 11th Infantry Battalion. After their withdrawal from Gallipoli, the 11th Battalion had returned to Egypt and some soldiers were transferred to form the 51st Battalion. Clarence, and the other soldiers of the 14th Reinforcement brought the 11th Battalion up to full strength.

The 11th Infantry Battalion left the Moascar Camp, by train for Alexandria, on 28 March. On Wednesday 29 March they went aboard the transport ship, ‘HMT Transylvania’, bound for France and the Western Front. The ship arrived at Marseilles on Tuesday 4 April and the men were marched to a rest camp, one and half miles from the port, where they spent the night.

The next morning the 11th Battalion left the camp at 9 o’clock, marched to the railway station and boarded the train to Etaples, some five hundred and sixty miles north. After a two day train trip they arrived at Etaples and were marched to the 2nd ADBD (Australian Divisional Base Depot) just outside Etaples on a very cold morning. At the camp they were issued with their rifles and ammunition. The next day, Saturday 8 April, the Battalion was sent on a four mile route march to the coastal village of Le Touquet and return.

On the Sunday, Clarence reported to the sick-bay with symptoms of the flu and was admitted to the No.26 General Hospital, Etaples. He died, one week later, on Sunday 16 April 1916, from bronchial pneumonia, aged twenty-four. He was buried the same day at the Camier's Road Cemetery, Etaples (Plot 5, Row B, Grave 3a).

His effects were packaged (Package No. 121) and shipped to his father, James Stacey, ‘Sunny Vale’, Quairading, Western Australia. The package contained a disc, leather belt, leather purse, testament, rising suns (3), Australia's (2), post cards, coins (4) and a cloth bag.

Sources

Australian War Memorial - www.awm.gov.au (www.awm.gov.au)

The Immigrants, Paul M. Hoskins, Xlibris, 2014