Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Gordon was the son of William Edward JACOB & Sophia COLLINS and was born on the 9th of October 1888 in Snowtown, SA.

His parents were married on the 16th of July 1884 in St Marks Church, Penwortham, SA.

His father was the son of John Hillier JACOB & Caroline EDWARDS and was born in 1854 in Glastonbury, Somerset, England.
His mother was the daughter of Joseph COLLINS & Mary Ann PATERSON and was born on the 14th of February 1862 in Gawler Plains, SA.

Gordon was the third child born into this family of 7 children (all boys).

His father was educated at Long Ashton and after immigrating to the United States at the age of 16, he spent, seven years in various callings in that country, before returning to England.

He had then immigrated to South Australia on board the Hydrabad on the 15th of February 1878 and joined his uncle Mr James Jacob, for many years the proprietor of Fellmongery & Tanning Establishment in New Hamburg, 2 miles from Strathalbyn on the banks of the Angas.

Farm life occupied his attention for a time and then he joined the police force as a Trooper and was posted to Snowtown in 1883 and this is where he met Gordon’s mother as she lived in Terowie

Gordon’s father served in the Police Force for 10 years and then in June 1891 he took over the licence of the Snowtown Hotel and the family moved into the Hotel.
Gordon’s mother was no stranger to running a hotel as her parents had built the Collinsfield Hotel in 1874 and when her father drowned at Wallaroo in a boating accident on the 18th of January 1876 she helped her mother run the Hotel.

Gordon and his brothers went to school at Snowtown and then in December 1898 his father took over the license of the Prince of Wales Hotel in Moonta.
They spent 2 years here before his father took over the licence on the Norwood Hotel in December 1900, so the family moved to Adelaide.
Their moved here was very short as his father then purchased the Royal Exchange Hotel in Kadina in March 1901 and the family moved back to the country.

At Kadina his father also had considerable farming interests and purchased a 1,352 acres property on the Alford and Bute roads and they named the property “Edgarley Estate” and the family lived here.

In August 1911 his father retired from the publican’s life and disposed of the good will of the Hotel, but still owned the Hotel.

In 1912 Gordon joined 81b Battalion Senior Cadets (Kadina) with his brothers and gained the rank of 1st Lieutenant.
He then joined the 24th Light Horse Regiment, C Squadron.

In late June 1913 his brother William suffered with Hydatids and was admitted into the Kadina Private Hospital. He was operated on and it was anticipated that he would make a full recovery, however the Hydatids Cist ruptured and spread throughout his body and sadly he passed away on the 11th of July.
He was 26 years old at the time of his death and was at the time Second Lieutenant, commanding A Troop, C Squadron, 24th Light Horse in Kadina.
His funeral service was held in the Christ Church in Kadina and they buried him in the Kadina Cemetery the following day.

At the age of 26, Gordon enlisted into the 1st AIF on the 19th of August 1914 in Morphettville and allotted the service number 309 and posted to the 3rd Light Horse Regiment, B Squadron in Morphettville Camp.

The following evening, on very short notice, a farewell social was held for Gordon in the Royal Exchange Hotel.

His eldest brother Ross enlisted into the 10th Battalion on the same day with the rank of Captain and given the command of H Company.
Then his brother Jack enlisted into the Mechanical Transport and was allotted the service number 2020.
Then on the 8th of September 1914 another brother, Kenneth, enlisted into the 12th Battalion, F Company and was allotted the service number 770.
Kenneth embarked 9 days later from Melbourne on board HMAT Geelong on the 17th of September.

Ross embarked from Adelaide on board HMAT Ascanius on the 20th of October 1914 and then Gordon embarked from Adelaide 2 days later on board HMAT A17 Port Lincoln on the 22nd of October 1914.
Jack then embarked from Melbourne, on board HMAT A40 Ceramic on the 22nd of December 1914.

In Egypt Ross’s Company merged with B Company and they became C Company and Ross was appointed Captain of C Company.
Ross was one of the first men to land on the Gallipoli shore at 4.25am on the morning of the 25th of April 1915.
Jack then landed on the shores of Gallipoli within minutes of Ross.

On the 12th of May 1915 Gordon joined Ross & Jack at Gallipoli.
Then after losing a finger in Gallipoli Jack suffered from Endocarditis and was invalided back to Australia on the 26th of September 1915.

Another brother Glen, aged 18, then enlisted into the 50th Battalion, 4th Reinforcements on the 27th of April 1916 and was allotted the service number 2197.
Glen embarked from Adelaide on board HMAT A70 Ballarat on the 12th of August 1916.

Glen was reported missing in action on the 2nd of April 1917 at Noreuil, 9 miles north of Bapaume. Glen and the 50th Battalion had come under tremendous machine gun fire and had suffered 80% casualties.
GWS to head and left arm and then captured by the German’s. interned at Soltau Hanover, Germany Z3605 (the largest POW camp)

Gordon then served in France and then embarked from England on board HT Borda on the 5th of April 1918, disembarked in Melbourne on the 30th of May and entrained to Adelaide.
This very same day 2nd Lieutenant Kenneth Grant JACOB was Killed in Action in the front line near Strazeele.

Gordon’s homecoming was overshadowed by the sad death of his brother as his parents received the news a day before Gordon returned home to them.

His brother Max then enlisted on the 13th of June 1918 and was allotted the service number 299 but he did not embark. He served as a motor driver for the 7th Australian General Hospital at Keswick.

Gordon was discharged from the AIF, medically unfit, on the 1st of July 1918 and then at the end of the month, on the 31st Ross embarked from England for Australia on board HT Malta.

On board the HT Malta with Ross was Staff Nurse Maude Beatrice Beetham and a shipboard romance began between Ross and Maude.
Maud had trained as a nurse like her older sister and passed the Australasian Trained Nurses Association exams on the 2nd of June 1915. She joined AANS & AAMC as a Staff Nurse and had enlisted in Sydney on the 25th of August 1916. She embarked from Sydney on the 9th of December 1916 on board the Kaiser-i-Hind and disembarked on the 10th of January 1917 at Suez.
She then served at the 14th Australian General Hospital in Abbassia & with Sea Transport Service on HMAT Wiltshire, departing in Nov 1917 on voyage back to Sydney.
Her appointment was terminated on the 3rd of January 1918, but she immediately re-enlisted for a 2nd tour of duty the following day and embarked again from Sydney on the 8th of May 1918 on board RMS Osterley.
Maude disembarked on the 10th of July at Liverpool and served at the 2nd Australian Auxiliary Hospital in Southall.

They disembarked in Melbourne on the 28th of September 1918 and Ross returned to Kadina where a welcome home social was held for him on the 1st of October.
Good news then finally came to the family in January 1919 when they were notified that Glen was safe and had been repatriated back to England on the 26th of December 1918.

Ross and Maude married on the 21st of March 1919.

With Glen being the last son to be returning from the war, Gordon’s father sold the family property near Kadina in April 1919 and purchased Mt Eba Station, 45 miles from Kingoonya.
At this time the 3,000 square mile (7,770 km2) property was mostly running cattle, but he intended to make the move back to sheep. The station by this time incorporated the Boolgunnia and The Twins pastoral leases.
It was the farthest settled place in the north and the last 60 miles of the journey was taken on camels.
He also purchased McDouall Peak Station and Twin’s Station and they all adjoined each other.

Glen finally disembarked in Adelaide on the 9th of May 1919 and returned home to Kadina and on Glen’s return their father gave the boys the Stations.
Ross and Gordon were given Mt Eba Station, Jack McDouall Peak Station and Glen Twin’s.

The boys, excluding Max, then moved up to their Stations, including Ross’s wife Maude, who was seen trekking into the Nullarbor Plain with her household effects stacked mountains high on a camel caravan.
Maude was raided in Bondi, Sydney, with its surf, its magnificent outlook over the harbour and its gay crowd so this was some step for her to the loneliness and the desolate scenery of the north.

For three weeks they waited for their furniture as the old 11 roomed homestead was previously furnished in bachelor roughness.
Luckily however, their nearest neighbour had left them a supply of fresh milk, meat and clean bedding, so they all roughed it cheerfully!

The nearest woman neighbour was 20 miles away and the only means of communication with her was by riding or driving a buggy to her.
The next woman neighbour was 40 miles distant and the doctor was 300 miles away.

They arrived at the beginning of a seven months drought and everything seemed to go wrong.
At night the dingoes howled round the homestead and their weird, long-drawn-out wails seemed to emphasise the loneliness of the north.
On their first Christmas Eve at Mt Eba they went to bed feeling that things had nearly reached rock bottom as there was something about a drought that cast a gloom over everything and cheerful spirits seemed forced and entirely out of place.
It was an unhappy Christmas Eve and most people in the north were thinking of the hopelessness of Christmas Day and the New Year.

Suddenly they felt a patter of rain on the roof and then a steady downpour and everyone was out of bed like a shot.
They dressed again and went out of doors with the eagerness of children. The next day so great was their joy that they distributed fresh meat and cigars among the aborigines.
Fresh meat then was a luxury for Mt Eba was a cattle station and they only killed once a week.
It was so hot that the meat could be kept fresh for only one day and for the rest of the week salted meat was the fare.
No water was laid on to the homestead and a garden was impossible.

In the summer the carpets had to be taken from the floor for every day the sand rose inches thick.
Vegetables were as precious as gold, for there was no hope of growing any.
Potatoes and onions came up from Adelaide and a case of fruit, that would keep, was also cherished as a luxury.
Help in the homestead was difficult for Maude to get, for girls thought it too lonely!

Fortunately for many people both black and white in the North West, Maude was a trained nurse and from cut fingers to diagnosing cases of diphtheria her skill was always sought.

On one occasion, faced with spending a fortnight alone at Mt Eba, or joining a search party to Lake Phillipson for water, Maude chose the latter. The lake was over 122 miles from the homestead, part of the way was taken in a motor car, but some 50 miles was taken in a buggy drawn by two camels.
Maude was one of the few white women to have accomplished the trip to Lake Phillipson.
There had been rain at Mt Eba and the journey was being taken to see if the lake were full so that the stock could be turned into the surrounding country.
They camped under the stars and it was not until the third day that they felt that it was anything but a picnic, especially when Maude was handed a cup of water to wash herself.
They had been used to talk of shortage of water, but one small cup showed them all the risks of perishing for want of it.

Lake Phillipson was a picturesque spot, about 3 miles long, and its shining white sands gleamed through the sugar gums that border it.
On this occasion it was a fruitless journey, however, for the lake was empty, but there was enough in the waterholes round about to enjoy a more generous supply for bathing.
There was just enough drinking water to use for our return trip.

Ross and Maude then welcomed a son; Kenneth Reginald, at Mt Eba Homestead on the 1st of May 1920. He was named after his uncle who was killed in WW1.

In late 1922, after three good seasons and during a really hot summer, when there was plenty of grass about, a bushfire broke out some distance away from the homestead and raged for days.
They could see the flames reflected in the sky and the smoke and cinders reached the station in terrifying profusion.
Maude had everything packed ready to leave for the city, but it proved unnecessary after all.
At that time Gordon and Ross and over 4,000 head of cattle on the station.

With a Station of this size the Jacob brothers employed station hands, including local aboriginals and one of the men they employed was Leslie Steel TUCKER a returned 32nd Battalion WW1 veteran.
Leslie married a widow, Venetia Bowes at the registry office in Warminster, England on the 16th of January 1919.
They had embarked from England on the Zealandic on the 3rd of July 1919 and disembarked in Adelaide on the 21st of August 1919 with her 2 young children.
They had moved to Mount Gambier and then one of the children was killed in a horrible wagon accident having falling off the cart and being run over, all while alongside of Leslie.

After this tragic accident Leslie gained employment with the Jacob brothers on Mt Eba Station as a station hand and Venetia was employed as the station cook. Not long after moving to Mt Eba more tragedy became onto this family. Leslie had suffered multiple nervous breakdowns due to post traumatic stress and often he became very angry and heated arguments erupted.
He would quite often say that he needed to go to Adelaide for a rest.

One normal day on the farm Leslie and Venetia had an argument over Leslie emptying some wash tubs for her. She had asked him to help when he yelled back, “go to hell and do it yourself’’. Then the two of them argued for a while until a gun was brought into the argument when Leslie stated ‘’perhaps you would like to shoot me’’, before getting the rifle.
Then Venetia described everything as a blur as she jumped forward before everything went black and then when she looked down, she saw Leslie lying on the floor.
She ran to the aboriginal camp for help and they came back and helped put Leslie on a stretcher, where she tried to close the wound and bandage it, but Leslie died within 30 minutes.

The aboriginals then went to find Gordon who was at McDouall Peak Station as all the other station hands were at Kingoonya trucking cattle.

Gordon then rang the Tarcoola Police and then Gordon met the police and the coroner at the Kingoonya train station, 60 miles away and that evening and they returned to the Mt Eba Station by noon the following day.
They viewed his body and an inquest was held into the shooting and death and they decided to leave it up to the Crown solicitor as to Venetia’s fate.

Leslie’s body was conveyed to the little graveyard about 100 metres from the homestead by Gordon and his motor lorry.
His funeral service was held at the gravesite and was read by the coroner and the attendees were the Jacob brothers, the police, a neighbour, Venetia and her little son.
On completion of the service Venetia tossed her wedding ring into his grave and burst into tears.

Venetia was later found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to 180 days imprisonment in the Port Augusta Gaol as the judge deemed Leslie’s behaviour foolish and reckless as he was saying suicidal things.

Gordon’s father died on the 19th of March 1924 and he left £30,500 to his family.

Gordon married Mary Ethel Eileen COWAN on the 18th of May 1925 in the Registry Office in Adelaide, SA.
Mary was the daughter of William Thompson COWAN & Mary Elizabeth HOOPER and was born on the 12th of March 1895 in Milang, SA.

Mary was previously married to George Eric MIDDLETON on the 17th of April 1916 in the Great Northern Hotel, Pt Augusta, SA. Her mother and step-father, Mr Norman Hamilton OSWALD were the publicans of this Hotel from 1912 – 1925.
Mary was granted a divorce from George in April 1925 on grounds of cruelty and his misconduct with a woman in Tahiti.

In 1926 Gordon & Ross dog proofed the fence and brought in 20,000 sheep and turned the station into a sheep station.

His brother Max was a salesman and he married Gretchen Dorothea KINDERMANN on the 21st of April 1926 and they lived in Napier Terrace, Unley.

By the end of 1926 times were easier on the station and motor cars now traversed the roads that were once broken by camel tracks and the country was more closely settled. Water had been laid on to the homestead and therefore gardens were possible and fresh, green vegetables added joy to the menu.
Electric plants enhance the comforts of a town house, for, instead of petrol lamps and candles, the light could be switched on at a moment's notice.
Electric refrigerators meant that ice could be made in the home and all sorts of luxuries kept.
No longer was there only fresh meat once a week, for sheep were killed more often and the meat could be kept in the refrigerator.

Wireless then brought the residents in the farthest outposts into touch with civilisation and at Mt Eba, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane stations, were heard clearly. Instead of a mail once a fortnight, letters and parcels were brought to the door every week.
The huge woolsheds at the station made wonderful ballrooms and people came for hundreds of miles to attend parties and twice a year there were horse races at Kingoonya where more than 200 people would attend and camp out at night.
A dance was held in the tin schoolroom and the festivities sometimes lasted a week.

In April 1927 Gordon & Ross hired a manager for Mt Eba Station and Ross & Maude moved to Pt Lincoln for 8 months before moving to Adelaide.

Gordon & Mary welcomed their first child; Peter William, on the 14th of April 1927 in North Adelaide and then they moved from Mt Eba Station into Kadina and took over the running of the Royal Exchange Hotel as the licensee had removed to Adelaide.

His brother Max then committed suicide by shooting himself in the heart on the 3rd of September 1929 in the sand hills on the Somerton Beach.

Sadly, Mary died at 6am on the 4th of January 1933 in Sister Berry’s Private Hospital, Kadina and Gordon buried her in the Kadina Cemetery; Path 38, Block 17.
The members of the Kadina RSL formed a guard of honour for her.

Gordon was now left a widow with a 5 year old son to raise and the running of the Hotel.
After Mary’s death Ross & Maude moved back to Kadina to help Gordon.

Ross went on to be the vice president and president of the South Australian branch of the Returned Solders League and in 1938 was unanimously chosen by a postal ballot to attend the unveiling of the Villers-Bretonneux War Memorial in France, by the King.

With the outbreak of WW2, on the 3rd of November 1939 Gordon’s nephew Kenneth Reginald JACOB (Ross’s son) enlisted into the 2/39th Battalion (ZX1157) and was later promoted to the rank of Captain.
In May 1940 he announced his engagement to Nurse Doris Joyce WYLLIE.
He was then posted to the Middle East and later, after the Japanese invasion of the southwest Pacific, to New Guinea.

Doris herself had volunteered for service and she had her medical on the 6th of September 1941 and on the 21st of November she enlisted for home duty with the Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS). She was assigned the rank of Staff Nurse and detached to the 113th Australian General Hospital (AGH) in Concord, Sydney.

On the 30th of August 1942, Kenneth was killed in action at Kokoda.
He was buried on the Kokoda Track between Eola Creek and Alola and his body was never been found after the war.

On the 22nd of October 1942, just 3 weeks after Kenneth’s death, she enlisted for overseas duty with the AANS and a month later she was promoted to the rank of Sister Group 1, and in the meantime remained at Concord (NX138687).
Four months later she was attached to the 2/3rd Australian Hospital Ship Centaur.
On the 17th of March 1943, Doris departed Sydney on the newly commissioned hospital ship and then returned to Australia with wounded.

On the 12th of May 1943 Doris and the Centaur sailed unescorted from Sydney at 0945 hours carrying crew and normal staff, as well as stores and equipment of the 2/12th Field Ambulance.

By the 14th of May they were steaming a course 24 miles E.N.E. off Point Lookout, Stradbroke Island, on their way to New Guinea to give aid to injured service personnel. At 0415 hrs the Centaur was struck by a torpedo fired from a Japanese submarine and sank within minutes of the attack, with heavy loss of life. Of Centaur’s compliment of 332, only 30 of the crew and 34 army medical staff survived.
Sadly Doris was not one of the survivors and was drowned.
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* The Centaur was found off the south-east Queensland coast on the 20th of December 2009, solving a 66-year-old mystery about its final resting place. The wreck is located about 30 nautical miles off the southern tip of Moreton Island, off the south-east Queensland coast. It was found in one piece just seven days into the official search and close to a position calculated by the hospital ship’s navigator, Gordon Rippon, who radioed the position as the ship was sinking.
The Centaur was proclaimed a War Grave and an exclusion zone has been set up and a memorial plaque placed on the wreck to remember the 268 people who perished, including 11 nurses.
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During this time Gordon was made a Life Member of the South Australian Caledonian Society and was a member of the Kadina RSL.

On the 16th of October 1945 Gordon’s son Peter enlisted into the RAN and was allotted the service number 27915 and he listed his uncle Ross as his next of kin.

The following years, on the 15th of April 1946 Gordon retired and sold the Hotel to supervise his sheep stations in the South East & North.
In 1949 Gordon was made a Life Member of the Kadina and Wallaroo Jockey Club.

In December 1952 Gordon purchased a home on the corner of Davenport Street and Fenton Avenue, Christies Beach.
In 1957 Peter retired from the RAN after 12 years of service and went and lived with Gordon at Christies Beach.

Gordon died at his home on the 16th of February 1956 and was cremated in Centennial Park on the 20th of February 1956 and his ashes interred in the Kadina Cemetery; Path 38, Block 17, with his wife.

His home was transferred to Peter when he died.

In 1990 Peter was living at Corny Point and wrote to the Australian War Office asking for the service records of all the JACOB’s that he was related to and he also stated he was the eldest surviving male in this linage.

Out of the 7 JACOB brothers; 6 enlisted into WW1, 5 served oversees with Kenneth paying the supreme sacrifice.
If William hadn’t have died in 1913 there is little doubt he too would have enlisted.

Military

At the age of 26, Gordon enlisted into the 1st AIF on the 19th of August 1914 in Morphettville and allotted the service number 309 and posted to the 3rd Light Horse Regiment, B Squadron in Morphettville Camp.
He listed his mother, of Kadina, as his next of kin.

They trained at Morphettville Camp and on the 21st of September they marched through the streets of Adelaide.
On the 4th of October they moved camp to north of Bay Road in Mr A Morphett’s paddock.
On the 21st of October they marched out at 2.30pm for Outer Harbour for embarkation the following day.

Gordon embarked from Adelaide on board HMAT A17 Port Lincoln on the 22nd of October 1914 and on board were 19 officers, 347 men and 338 horses.
They arrived in Albany four days later at 6.30am on the 26th and on the 1st of November the convoy of 26 Australian transports and 10 New Zealand transports were escorted out of Albany at 6.am by HMS Minatour, HMAS Sydney and Melbourne.

After two weeks at sea they arrived in Colombo at 2pm on the 15th of November and after re coaling they left Colombo on the 17th at 11am.
They arrived in Aden on the 25th at 5pm and left at 6am the following morning and had reached the Red Sea three days later where they received their instructions that they would complete their training in Cairo and proceed from there to the front. They received their first inoculations for Typhoid on the same day.

On the 1st of December they arrived at Suez and they following day they sailed for Port Said, arriving at 7am on the 3rd.
After two days anchored here they sailed for Alexandria and arrived at 10am on the morning of the 6th. After two days anchored in the harbour they came alongside the wharf at 4.40pm but did not embark until 7am the following day.

They were then entrained to Cairo and then marched into Ma’adi Camp on the 10th at 8am.
Christmas 1914 was spent here and then they moved to Aerodrome Camp at Heliopolis on the 31st of January 1915 to be near the rest of the Division for Divisional training.
All of March and April were spent here and then on the 9th of May the Regiment left Heliopolis Camp and entrained from Pailais Kubba for Alexandria and embarked on board the Grantully Castle for the Dardanelles at 7pm.

On the 12th of May they arrived at Cape Hellas at day break and then at Gaba Tepe (ANZAC Cove) at 7.45pm.
They had disembarked by 10pm and moved to Monash Valley the following afternoon. The were immediately employed on fatigue duty to circumvent sniping and dogging fire and communication trenches on Popes Hill and Quinn’s Post.

They came out of the trenches 2 weeks later and went into General Reserve behind Headquarters and bivouacked at the foot of Pope’s Hill.
After a weeks rest they took over garrison duty at Pope’s Hill and then rotated week about for the rest of June and into July.

On the 7th of July they came off of Popes Hill once again and Gordon was admitted into the 16th Casualty Clearing Station with Gastro Enteritis, transferred to a Fleet Sweeper and then to the 16th Stationary Hospital on board a Hospital Ship.
He was then transferred to the Hospital Transport Ships Dongola & Ansonia and transferred to Imtarfa Military Hospital in Malta on the 16th.
After 5 weeks here recovering Gordon was transferred to the St Peters Convalescent Camp in Ghajn Tuffieha on the 24th of August.

On the 17th of September he was transferred to England on board HMAS Carisbrook Castle and admitted into the 3rd London General in Wandsworth on the 24th.
After finally recovering he spent Christmas 1915 in England before proceeding to Alexandria on the 22nd of February with the 22nd Draft and taken on strength with the 1st Light Horse Regiment barracks in Heliopolis on Police duty.

He was then transferred to the newly raised 50th Battalion in Serapeum on the 17th of April but 5 days later he was transferred to the newly raised 51st Battalion, possibly because his brother Major Ross JACOB was 2nd in command of the 50th Battalion.

Both Gordon & Ross embarked from Alexandria on board the Kingstonia on the 5th of June, disembarking in Marseilles 7 days later and within a fortnight had moved into the trenches in the Petillon sector and relieved the 10th Battalion.

They were relieved on the 11th of July and marched and then entrained to their billets in Halloy and after 2 weeks resting and training they marched out to Herissart.
They then fought their first major battle at Mouquet Farm in August and September and suffered casualties equivalent to a third of its strength in both of the attacks on the 14th of August and then on the 3rd of September, which they had launched.
On the 12th of September Gordon was promoted to Temp Corporal.

After Mouquet Farm, they saw out the rest of the year, alternating between front-line duty and training and labouring behind the line. This routine continued through the bleak winter of 1916-17 and they spent Christmas 1917 at Vignacourt and during this time Gordon was promoted to Sergent.

In January they moved through Cardonette, Buire and Fricourt to Bazentin Camp and were employed in carrying parties until the end of January when they relieved the 50th Battalion in Flers.
During this time Gordon completed the 9th Course, 4th Army Infantry School but then became ill, suffering from Pleurisy and was admitted into the 12th Australian Field Ambulance in Bernafay and then transferred to the 7th Stationary Hospital in Bolougne 2 days later.
Whilst he was recovering he was placed on the seconded list and then discharged on the 6th of March to the Michelham Convalescent Home at Cap Martin, near Villa Roquebrune.

Gordon spent a further mother here before he was discharged to the 4th Australian Division Base Dept (ADBD) in Etaples on the 2nd of April and then transferred to the 13th Training Battalion in Codford on the 28th.
He was then placed on the Supernumerary list on Command at the Army Signalling School in Dunstable for 5 months before returning to the 13th Training Battalion and promoted to Lieutenant.

He remained here for Christmas 1917 before being posted to Depot duties and then he began to suffer from an irritable heart and pains in his cardiac area.
The medical board then recommended that Gordon be invalided back to Australia, so he was transferred to No.2 Command Depot in Weymouth on the 18th of March awaiting embarkation.

Gordon embarked from England on board HT Borda on the 5th of April 1918, disembarked in Melbourne on the 130th of May and entrained to Adelaide.

Gordon was discharged from the AIF, medically unfit, on the 1st of July 1918 and awarded the 1914/15 Star, British War & Victory Medals.