Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

A war to settle old scores was brewing in Europe when Stanley (Stan) Madge migrated to Australia with his mother, 3 brother and two sisters on 13 January 1913. The second son of Annie and Frederick Madge he was 15 years of age at the time.
The family were emigres from Otterton near Barnstaple Devon, England. His father Frederick (Fred) had already travelled to Australia two years previous to forge a new life for the family.
Stan was working as a farm labourer at the family property "Gooseberry Hill" when he enlisted on 12 April 1916 aged 19 years. At the Kiama training camp he was assigned to the 53rd Battalion as a signaller and excelled at the task. The 53rd Battalion was a "pup" of the 1st Battalion which had stormed the beaches of ANZAC Cove a year before.
Stan embarked from Sydney on 11 July 1916 on the HMAT Vestralia. He would join his unit in the field at Bernafay Wood France on 17 December 1916.
The battalion was still largely ineffective as a fighting unit due to the horrendous losses sustained in the abortive Fromelles attack 19-20 July 1916. British military history has to this time largely ignored this debacle as a mere stunt. Benjamin Richardson, also of the Valley, disappeared there.
The first snows of winter were falling and the trenches were now knee deep in freezing mud. Cruel blizzards and frigid temperatures were to follow.
It was more like punishment than service. The battalion held the line through January 1917 at Delville Wood France. Casualties were being taken every day due to the spiteful German artillery. The 53rd would trudge in and out of the frontline until May.
Stan wrote to his uncle Alfred Madge in Devonshire England at this time to say he was A1. He neglected to mention the stench that the warming weather had brought from the unburied bodies in the field.
The battalion marched out of France in September and relocated to the Ypres sector in Belgium. Sheltering in the shattered remains of the city the German the battalion came under heavy shellfire with numerous casualties sustained. Stan survived the barrage.
Moved into the line at Peronne on 25 September Stan went forward into what the Australians would call the Battle of Polygon Wood. Most of the objectives were taken although 66 53rd Battalion men were killed, 226 wounded.
By November the ground conditions were horrendous again. The mud as bad as anything experienced previously in the Somme sector.
Stan was happy to be granted two weeks UK leave from 17 December and spent the time visiting friends and family. On his return he visited the Brigade Signal School before re-joining the battalion on 24 January 1918.
The 53rd entrained and moved from Menty France on 29 January and into the frontline at Wytschaete Belgium. In full view of the enemy Stan spent his time running telephone cables between the companies and the headquarters. They were in the frontline continuously then until relieved on 21 March.
But their rest was short-lived. The enemy had launched their massive spring offensive, Operation Michael, which again threatened Paris. The battalion dug in at Louvencourt and then Harponville as the enemy moved closer. Here, and along the line where held by the Australians, the enemy advance was halted.
By 5 April Stan had been moved to Villers-Bretonneux. An active and heavily contested part of the Somme sector, their position was repeatedly and heavily shelled. The Germans had been ordered to hold the town at all costs. The Battalion War Diary reported at this time that:
"Artillery was fairly active during during the day and we had several casualties."
Stan was wounded here on 7 April, losing both legs to a shell burst that also injured his right arm and chest. Taken to the 5th Casualty Clearing Station he was too critically wounded to survive and died there on 8 April.
His father Frederick had enlisted in February 1917 at the age of 44 and was serving nearby as a sapper with the 14th Field Engineers. They were busy repairing a bridge when Stan was carried past during his evacuation. Fred was said to have heard Stan's voice and went to him, speaking to him for the last time before he died.
Stanley Madge was long remembered by the extended family with no less than three Madge boys named after him. He was also mourned by his South African fiancée, to whom he planned to marry.
Stanley Waldron Madge is buried in the small Picquigny British Cemetery, France, some some 12 kilometres north-west of Amiens. Frederick Madge survived the war and was sent photographs of Stan's gravesite in April 1919. He also received Stan's Memorial Plaque and Scroll in 1922.
[The author visited the gravesite in 2010].