Arthur Wilson VEITCH

VEITCH, Arthur Wilson

Service Number: 157
Enlisted: 17 August 1914, Enlisted at Melbourne
Last Rank: Private
Last Unit: 7th Infantry Battalion
Born: Brunswick, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 1894
Home Town: Fitzroy, Yarra, Victoria
Schooling: Not yet discovered
Occupation: Paper Miller
Died: Killed in Action, Gallipoli, Gallipoli, Dardanelles, Turkey, 25 April 1915
Cemetery: No known grave - "Known Unto God"
Lone Pine Memorial Panel 29, Lone Pine Memorial, Gallipoli Peninsula, Canakkale Province, Turkey
Memorials: Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Lone Pine Memorial to the Missing
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World War 1 Service

17 Aug 1914: Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 157, 7th Infantry Battalion, Enlisted at Melbourne
19 Oct 1914: Embarked AIF WW1, Private, 157, 7th Infantry Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '9' embarkation_place: Melbourne embarkation_ship: HMAT Hororata embarkation_ship_number: A20 public_note: ''
12 Apr 1915: Involvement AIF WW1, Private, 157, 7th Infantry Battalion, ANZAC / Gallipoli, Killed near the 7th Bsttalion landing site at North Beach

Help us honour Arthur Wilson Veitch's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.

Biography contributed by Carol Foster

Brother of Clara Ellen Veitch, George Annas Veitch, James Veitch, Edward Veitch, Florence T. Veitch, Reginald Veitch, Albert Harold Veitch, Richard Veitch and Mary C. Veitch

Arthur father Donald was killed in action on 25 April 1915 while serving with the 7th Battalion and has no known grave. Donald and Arthur were last seen together firing from behind a tree

Biography contributed by Carol Foster

Son of Donald Wilson Veitch and Mary Ellen Veitch nee Payne of 238 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy, Victoria

Medals: 1914-15 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal

Also served in the senior cadets

Biography contributed by Stephen Brooks

Arthur lived with his parents and apparently had 11 younger brothers and sisters in Fitzroy. According to an article written by Ross McMullin, when Don discovered Arthur was going to enlist he decided that his eldest son shouldn't go on his own. Recruits had to be aged between 19 and 38, but Don was a month short of his 44th birthday. He told them he was 38. In Egypt during March the father, Don, for some misdemeanor unspecified in the records, was sentenced to a fortnight's detention. At the Gallipoli landing their company was detached from the rest of the 7th. It was with the 8th Battalion on board the Clan MacGillivray as it made its way across the Aegean Sea in the dark on 24 April 1915.

The two men were reported missing, and according to their Red Cross files, they were last seen near a bush on the 400 Plateau shooting at a group of Turks who were advancing towards them. False hopes that they may have been taken prisoner delayed confirmation of their fate. For Mary and the remaining children back in Fitzroy, this was not only emotionally wrenching, it had implications in holding back their pension entitlements. Apparently Arthur's brother Jim, born in 1905, pitched in by selling newspapers and then by training as a wood turner at an unusually young age. He later earned a handy quid as a ruckman, playing League football for Hawthorn in 1930. 

The traumatic consequences for this large family of the events of April 25 1915 caused much grief and hardship.

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