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Australia

Son of Michael and Kathleen Durack of McDougall Street, Milton, Queensland. Brother of Clare Durack of Ingham, North Queensland, Ambrose Durack of Argyle Station, Wyndham, Western Australia and Margaret Marchant of Dart Street, Auchenflower, Brisbane

Sapper Fergus James Durack was attached to the Indian Mountain Artillery Brigade at Kantara early in 1915. During the time of the attack of the Canal and was complimented by the Commnading Officer for the surveying work he did.

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

Fergus was born in Rocklea, Brisbane, in 1889, the son of Catherine McInnes and Michael Durack. Michael Durack and his brother Patrick explored the Kimberley region of Western Australia and cattle country in Queensland. They were the “Kings in Grass Castles.” Catherine McInnes was born in Middle Arm near Goulburn, the daughter of Angus McInnes and Anabella Nicholson. Fergus was the ninth child and third son of ten children. His father Michael died when he was four years old, and his mother Catherine died when he was fourteen. 

Fergus attended St Joseph’s College at Gregory Terrace in Brisbane and was apprenticed as a surveyor with his brother John, and both were employed by the railways as surveyors.

Fergus enlisted on August 18th, 1914, and his Service Record shows his service number as 1, presumably meaning he was the first to register at that office. Fergus enlisted eight days after enlistment offices officially opened and was assigned to the 3rd Field Company Engineers.

The 1st Division Engineers was composed of twenty-one officers and six-hundred and ten other ranks. The strength of each field company was two hundred, including six officers and eight non-commissioned officers. Each field company had thirty-two bicycles and sixteen vehicles, including water carts, baggage, storage and catering wagons. Tradesmen such as surveyors, drivers, electricians, carpenters and blacksmiths were some of the specialist occupations that were desirable for the Engineers Company.

The men of the AIF were selected under some of the toughest criterion of any army in World War 1 and it is believed that roughly thirty per cent of men that applied were rejected on medical grounds. The extract from Fergus’ enlistment papers show he was half an inch shorter than the required height, but this was not considered an impediment. Many of the strict requirements were lifted later in the war, however, as the need for replacements grew. Indeed, casualties were so high, that of the thirty-two-thousand original soldiers of the AIF only seven thousand would survive to the end of the war.

Having enlisted in August Fergus, by October, was on board the Saldanha which left Adelaide on October 21st and disembarked in Cairo, Egypt, on December 10th. The troops then marched to Camp Mena, which was established by the 1st Infantry Division and was the training camp for the troops destined for Gallipoli. The camp was situated alongside the pyramids, including the Pyramid of Cheops, and about six kilometres from the centre of Cairo.

In early January the 3rd Engineers Company were moved from Camp Mena to Ismailia on the Suez Canal to assist in the defence of the canal against the approaching Ottoman forces. By January 15th the Engineers were in Kantana and were assigned to the construction of a steel pontoon bridge over the canal at Kantana. In the days that followed trenches were dug, gunnery lookout posts and water troughs for horses of mounted regiments were constructed.

During the time of the attack on the Suez Canal Fergus was attached to the Indian Mountain Artillery Brigade at Kantara. The Allied Forces fought off an attempt by Turkish forces to take the Suez Canal. Fergus was complimented by the Commanding Officer for the surveying work he did.

Engineers in World War 1 had many tasks including surveying and mapping, tunnelling, and mining. They were involved in the construction of gun positions, trench excavation, water supply, and road and bridge construction.

While much of the 1st Division departed Camp Mena for Gallipoli in the days after the Engineers Company returned from Suez the 3rd Field Company did not leave with them. For the next month the men were involved in enlarging maps of the Gallipoli Peninsula as well as preparing water storage and sleds for transporting materials. Equipment such as timber, shovels and barbed wire were prepared for the invasion.

The 3rd Field Engineers marched from Camp Mena and boarded the City of Benares to Lemnos on April 3rd. On the morning of Sunday April 25th Sections 2 and 3 of the 3rd Field Company landed on Gallipoli. Fergus Durack, assigned to section 1, remained on Lemnos with other sections to organise the unloading of stores. They landed on Gallipoli along with other sections in the hours after the initial landing.

One of their first tasks was to construct a zig-zag track, for the transport of ammunition and stores, from the Anzac Cove beach up the cliffs to the plateau about one hundred and twenty metres above the height of the beach. The engineers also dug a series of wells, troughs and pipelines from which fresh water could be obtained for the troops and horses.

At the beginning of May, the 1st section was engaged in making jam-tin hand grenades using old jam tins filled with rock and pieces of metal, an explosive, a detonator, and a fuse, attached to a stick. On May 3rd the section moved to the left flank to assist the New Zealand Field Companies. Trench warfare on this flank at Quinn’s Post was intense and involved the throwing of bombs into the enemy trenches fifty metres from their own trenches. Together with the New Zealand Engineers and the recently transferred 3rd section, the troops of 1st section began digging three tunnels from Quinn’s Post which would allow listening devices to hear the Turkish troops. The Turkish troops were also tunnelling towards Quinn’s Post.

The days that followed saw the engineers involved in the digging and reinforcing of trenches, dangerous work close to enemy lines and many casualties resulted, including Major-General William Throsby Bridges. Fergus was receiving medical treatment for conjunctivitis on May 17th, and he returned to the unit the following day when the enemy had started using an 8-inch gun with many shells falling with a hundred metres of the 3rd Field Company.

The unit diary shows that between the 21st and 24th of May 1915 the company was involved in extending barbed wire entanglements and several men were wounded on each of the days. A burial armistice was granted on the 24th from 2:30 am to 4:30 pm, the only recorded burial armistice in the war, however Fergus died on the Hospital Ship Soudan on May 24th where he was taken having suffered a fatal injury, a compound fracture of his femur, an injury that can still be fatal one hundred years later. He was buried at sea, aged twenty-five years, and is commemorated on the Lone Pine Memorial to the Missing at Gallipoli.