Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

ROY THOMAS McINTOSH    SN 21739

On November 11, 1918 the German government signed an armistice that brought an end to the First World War. By the war’s end 61,512 Australians had been killed or died of wounds or disease, and 152,000 had been wounded.

Lance Corporal Roy McIntosh most likely arrived in France on the day the Armistice was signed.

His military record states he was ‘Marched Out’ of his AIF training camp at Forvant in Southern England on November 9, 1918 to ‘Proceed Overseas to France’ (POS) via the port town of Folkestone. This journey usually took between 2-3 days by rail then sea across the English channel.

The next entry on his record has him being ‘Marched In’ to the Australian Army Corp Depot at Le Havre, a key AIF base on the northern coast of France on November 13.

Whether Roy made it, in time to France to join in the celebrations on November 11 is unknown. There is little doubt that the following few days would have seen an outpouring of extraordinary mixed emotions. Celebration and relief that the fighting was over and that they had remarkably survived, together with the immense sorrow with futility of the loss of so many mates who had died in ‘the war to end all wars.’

Despite his actually timing, there is probably little doubt that Roy would have been thrown into the deep end treating the many wounded still arriving from the fighting that had taken place in the days, weeks and months before the Armistice was signed.  

It is not known at this time, whether Roy knew that his older brother Aubrey had been killed just a month earlier on October 2 at the front killed in his tent by a bomb dropped from a German plane at night. No doubt he would receive this tragic news over the coming weeks either by letter from home or by following up enquiries on Aubrey with Aubrey's 37th battalion the 37th who had endured months of constant fighting on the Somme and at the time of the Armistice was down to a battalion of just 90 men.   

Here is Roy Thomas McIntosh's WW1 experience-

Roy was born in Long Gully near Bendigo in on April 25, 1896. He was single, lived with his parents William and Mary at 37 Cambridge Crescent, White Hills and listed his occupation as a ‘Coach painter’. This was a skilled job and he had completed a five year apprenticeship at Mr S Brown’s Coach factory in Queen street, Bendigo.

He enlisted on October 4, 1917 just a week after his ‘sister in law’ Janet married to his older brother Aubrey had lost her brother (Walter McPherson) at the front in France.

Whether this was impetus or whether Roy was keen to join his brother in France we do not know, although now that he had reached the age of 21, he could enlist without his parent’s consent.

He would be drafted into the reinforcements for the Australian Medical Corp (AMC). After farewells in White Hills by the end of October, he was a Private at the AMC recruitment depot at the Broadmeadows Camp. Three weeks later he continues his training and work at the No.11 Australian General Hospital (AGH) in Caulfield.

During World War I the Caulfield mansion Glen Eira was converted into the hospital and became known as The General Military Hospital No. 11. After the war it continued as a repatriation hospital and permanent home for many disabled soldiers. (Source - https://collections.museumvictoria.com.au/items/394850 )

Roy would spend nearly six months training here before being able to to join his friends and colleagues at the front. While at the AGH in Caulfield, he would receive word from White Hills that his mother has died suddenly from an asthma attack in early May, 1918.

Roy would finally get the chance to embark from Adelaide on S.S Gaika on August 6, 1918 as a member of the 13th Field Ambulance unit which was aligned to the 13th Brigade of the 4th Division. 

After nine weeks at sea, Roy and hundreds of other reinforcements would disembark at London on October 18, 1918. Train journeys across southern England would have them from London to the Australian Army camp at Forvant on the Salisbury Plain.  

The Fovant camp was built in 1915 at the Dinton station enabling a series of camps to be joined together including a the major AIF Hurdcott Camp. Australians were prominent at Fovant camp from August 1916, becoming the major occupants in March 1917.   (Source - https://anzac-22nd-battalion.com/training-camps-england/  )

Roy would not be at Forvant camp long. He is stamped ‘Proceed overseas to France’ on November 9 via the port of Folkestone a major steeping off point for troop ships ferrying between the northern coast of France and England.  

As stated earlier he is ‘Marched In’ at the AIF Le Havre base depot on November 13, and three days later he joins his unit, the 13th Field Ambulance behind the front line. 

With the war over, there is still much to be done in the medical corp. On January 19, 1919 he is promoted to Lance Corporal after a brief stint working with the 4t Division medical unit. In late February (25) as the wounded and invalided are slowly departing France he proceeds to the No.1 County Depot back in England for non military deployment. 

Back in Southampton on March 5, he would proceed to the Parkhouse camp back on the Salisbury Plain. At this stage many thousands of AIF soldiers were awaiting the opportunity to return to Australia however, due to a shortage of troop ships available. Repatriation to Australia was organised by Lieutenant General Sir John Monash, on a first come, first go basis and as Roy was one of the last to arrive, he had many thousands in front of him before he would get a berth home. 

In March, 1919 Roy secures employment with J H Kelly Lorry works in Van st, Glasgow as a painter, the relatively new skilled trade he had learnt in Bendigo before the war. (see photo) J H (Jack) Kelly went on to emigrate to the USA and the family business is one of the largest industrial mechanical contractors in that nation still called J. H Kelly.

Roy would work here through to August, when he is finally granted a passage back to Australia on the H T Barambah leaving London on September 3. He would disembark at the Port of Melbourne on October 25, 1919.

Lance Corporal Roy Thomas McIntosh is remembered by the people of White Hills. The names of the local lads who sacrificed their lives and those that were fortunate to return from the Great War are shown on the embossed copper plaques on the White Hills Arch of Triumph, at the entrance to the White Hills Botanic Gardens.