Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

# 6076 PONTING Arthur William       15th Battalion
 
Arthur Ponting was born at Tallegalla near Rosewood to James and Selina Ponting. He attended school at Rosewood and then probably worked on the family farm. The promise of good farming land being released for selection lured Arthur and his brother George to take up a selection at Leafdale on the Wondai Proston Road.
 
Arthur attended the recruiting centre in Adelaide Street, Brisbane, on 14th February 1916. He stated his age as 31 and occupation as farmer. He was taken on by the 11th Depot Battalion at Enoggera and in April was assigned as part of the 19th reinforcements of the 15th Battalion. On the 8th August, the reinforcements boarded the “Itonus” in Brisbane for the voyage to England, stopping at Durban, Capetown and Sierra Leone. The reinforcements disembarked at Plymouth on 18th October and were transported to the 4thDivision Training Base at Rollestone one month later. The delay was most probably due to the reinforcements being quarantined due to an outbreak of mumps, a common occurrence for new arrivals in England.
 
Just after Christmas 1916, Arthur crossed the English Channel to France on a night ferry from Folkstone and went into the staging camp at Etaples. On 6th January 1917, Arthur was taken on strength by the 15thBattalion. His journey from Wondai to France had taken eleven months.
 
At that stage of the war on the Western Front, the Australian battalions were resting and training after a gruelling initiation at Fromelles, Pozieres, Mouquet Farm and Flers in the latter half of 1916. The 15thbattalion was camped in the rear areas around Albert engaging in field training, musketry and bomb throwing training. At the end of the month, and with winter firmly in control of the landscape, the 15th battalion began preparations to move up to the line in the vicinity of Gueudecourt. Two companies of the battalion moved into the front line at night with the other two companies in the reserve trenches. By the 29th January, the whole of the battalion was occupying the front line. Most of the time the men were engaged in repairing and revetting the trench system. A small raiding party was sent out on the night of 30th January to gather intelligence which sparked increased activity by the German artillery. The artillery exchanges continued for the next few days during which Arthur Ponting and Sidney Pelin, who was a member of the same reinforcements as Arthur, were killed on 1st February 1917 when a shell landed in the trench in which they were sheltering.
 
Reports to the Red Cross Wounded and Missing Enquiry Service stated that Arthur and Sidney were buried some distance behind the front line, with a chaplain in attendance. The grave was marked with a wooden cross.
 
At the conclusion of the war, the Graves Registration Unit began to exhume the remains of those men who had been buried in isolated graves. When the grave of Arthur and Sydney was excavated, no remains were located. Such events were not unusual as the ground in which the two had been originally buried had been fought over twice more in 1918.
 
Arthur Ponting and Sydney Pelin are commemorated on a memorial cross located in the Guards Cemetery at Lesboeufs.