Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

CLARK  Oliver Perkins  #3775  25th Battalion
 
When Oliver Clark presented himself for enlistment at Brisbane on 8th May 1917, he stated that he was 38 years old, a fruiterer from Caboolture, who was married with two children. He was born in Aldenham, Kent and had served for 18 months in South Africa during the Boer War as part of the British Army. He and his wife had emigrated to Australia around 1909.
 
Oliver’s wife, Elizabeth, when completing the Roll of Honour Circular after his death provided information that her husband was in fact 48 years old, not 38 as recorded on his enlistment papers. It was not unknown for men to lie about their age when enlisting but it was usually men putting their ages up, not down. The AIF had originally placed an upper limit of 40 years on enlistments but this had been revised upwards to 45 in response to poor recruitment figures. It was felt that the rigours of frontline service would not be well handled by men who were in middle age.
 
Oliver reported to Enoggera where he was placed into a depot battalion and in the last week of June was granted a week’s home leave. Upon returning to camp, he was allocated as part of the 10th reinforcements of the 47th Battalion and embarked for overseas on the “Miltiades” in Sydney on 2nd August. The reinforcements landed in Glasgow and by 3rd October were billeted in the Australian Training Camp at Codford on the chalk downs. By the middle of January 1918, Oliver had been reallocated to the 25thBattalion (with the letter A added to his regimental number).
 
When Oliver arrived at the 25th lines, the battalion was rotating in and out of the line in the area of Ploegsteert (soldiers called it Plugstreet) just south of Messines in Belgium. Oliver would have settled into the usual routine of fatigues as very little activity was occurring in that part of the line at the time.
 
With the coming of spring in 1918, the German commander Ludendorff took advantage of a numerical superiority of troops to launch a surprise offensive against the British on the Somme. So successful was this offensive that in a few days the Germans had retaken all of the ground surrendered earlier in the war during 1916 and 1917; and were even threatening the vital communication hub of Amiens. In response, the British commander Haig rushed three Australian divisions south from Belgium to plug the gap.
 
The 25th Battalion, as part of the 2nd Division, remained in Flanders, until early April when they too journeyed south to operate as brigade reserve. Once the German advance was halted at Villers Brettoneux by battalions from the 13th and 15th Brigades AIF, the Australian commander Monash ordered a period of “peaceful penetration”, in which the Australians engaged in harassment and forceful patrols into no man’s land.
 
On 6th June, Oliver was admitted to a casualty clearing station with a scalded leg and foot. The 25th were set to launch a limited attack on the Morlancourt Ridge that day and perhaps to allay suggestions of a self-inflicted injury, Oliver’s file makes it quite clear that the injury was “accidental”. Oliver would not return to his unit for another two months. While he was recovering, the 25th had taken part in two major battles, Hamel (4th July) and Amiens (8th August). The Australians had pushed the Germans back to the fortress town of Peronne on the Somme River and Monash wanted to push ahead and not give the enemy time to regroup. While the 3rd and 4th Divisions crossed the river to attack the town itself the 2nd Division was tasked with taking the fortified hill to the town’s north, Mont St Quentin.
Two companies of the 25th set off charging up the hill “yelling like a mob of bushrangers” on the morning of the 2nd September 1918; with the other two companies in support. German resistance from artillery and then machine guns was intense and casualties were heavy. During the charge, Oliver Clark was killed. His file indicates that he was buried in a shell crater 1 ¾ miles north of Peronne.
 
Correspondence in Oliver’s file attests to the impact his death had on his wife, Elizabeth, and their two children who were both under five years old at the time. Oliver had allocated 4/- of his daily pay to his wife but these payments ceased upon his death. Elizabeth wrote often to the authorities requesting a death certificate so that she could claim against a life assurance policy. She and the children returned to England soon after the end of the war.
 
Oliver’s remains were reinterred in the Peronne Communal Cemetery Extension by the War Graves Commission and service medals were distributed to Elizabeth.
 
At the end of the war, the Australian Government with the support of the French and Belgian Governments resolved to construct a series of memorials to each of the five Australian divisions that fought on the western front. The 2nd Division memorial was built at the summit of Mont St Quentin. When first constructed the memorial depicted an Australian soldier bending over with his bayonet about to be thrust in the throat of an eagle. This imagery did not survive the German occupation of 1940 – 1944. The current monument depicts a digger in slouch hat and full battle dress gazing thoughtfully.