NICHOLSON, Rupert Frederick
| Service Number: | 5392 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 16 February 1916 |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 26th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Langlo Downs, Queensland, Australia, date not yet discovered |
| Home Town: | Charleville, Murweh, Queensland |
| Schooling: | Morayfield State School, Queensland, Australia |
| Occupation: | Stockman |
| Died: | Killed in Action, Belgium, 20 September 1917, age not yet discovered |
| Cemetery: | Not yet discovered |
| Memorials: | Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Caboolture District WW1 Roll of Honour, Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial |
World War 1 Service
| 16 Feb 1916: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 5392, 26th Infantry Battalion | |
|---|---|---|
| 8 Aug 1916: | Involvement Private, 5392, 26th Infantry Battalion, Third Ypres, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '15' embarkation_place: Brisbane embarkation_ship: HMAT Itonus embarkation_ship_number: A50 public_note: '' | |
| 8 Aug 1916: | Embarked Private, 5392, 26th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Itonus, Brisbane |
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Add my storyBiography contributed by Ian Lang
NICHOLSON Rupert Frederick #5392 26th Battalion
Rupert Nicholson was born at Langlo Downs Station near Charleville. His father reported that Rupert attended Morayfield State School but he would appear to have returned to Langlo Downs to work as a stockman.
Rupert travelled from Charleville to Toowoomba to enlist on 11th February 1916. He stated his age as 21 years and was passed medically fit, spending the next 6 months in training at Enoggera before boarding the Itonus in Brisbane as part of the 14th reinforcements of the 26th Battalion. The Itonus docked at Plymouth on 18th October and Rupert was finally taken on strength by the 26th Battalion on 12th February 1917.
In early 1917, the 26th Battalion as part of the 7th Brigade of the 2nd Division AIF had been brought out of the rest areas in Belgium to engage with the Germans along the north bank of the Somme around Flers on the Western Front. Three weeks after joining the battalion, Rupert was wounded in the leg during an attack. He was treated in the Australian Hospital at Rouen before convalescing. He rejoined his unit as preparations were being made for the big offensive of the 1917 summer. This time the attack would be well planned and well resourced. The battleground chosen by General Haig was the flat marshy ground east of Ypres in Belgium and began with a series of enormous explosions under the German lines at Messines.
Rupert was sent to the Divisional Bomb School for a week of instruction in July before resuming training and rehearsals for the first in a series of “bite and hold” manoeuvres along the line of the Menin Road which ran from Ypres towards the Passchendaele Ridge.
On 20th September as he was jumping down into a trench, Rupert was hit by the blast of an artillery shell. Witnesses stated that he died within 5 minutes and was buried on the spot by some of his mates, including John Hincks who retrieved Rupert’s personal effects and sent them to his family. Hincks and Rupert had been mates since Enoggera.
In spite of the efforts of Rupert’s mates, all trace of his grave was lost as the war raged on. Rupert Nicholson is commemorated along with 54,000 other British and Commonwealth servicemen who lost their lives in Belgium and have no known grave.
By the time that service medals were being distributed to next of kin, Frederick and Louisa Nicholson had settled in Wamuran near Caboolture.