Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Charles Edward WEATHERSON

Military Medal

Promulgated in the 'Commonwealth Gazette' No. 9

Date: 24 January 1918.

It appears Charles Weatherson’s family had been in Eaglehawk since the mid 1850’s at the height of the gold rush when Weathersons arrived from Durham England to seek their fortune.

Charles enlisted at Albert Park in order to gain a place in the Field Artillery Brigade he become a ‘Gunner’ in August and on October 20, 1914 he would become a Bombardier. That day, Charles and his brigade embarked with the Brigade on HMAT Shropshire on October 20, 1914 with the Flotilla of 29 Australian and 10 New Zealand ships. Their first stop to refuel and replenish would be Colombo, Ceylon and then on into the Indian Ocean heading for the Suez Canal. The Australian Officers and men on board these ships would have thought their destination was Europe to fight the Germans who had invaded Belgium and France just a few months earlier.

However, when they arrive in Alexandria, Egypt they are told to disembark and marched to establish camp at Mena, ten miles west of Cairo on the river Nile looking towards the great pyramids of Giza. A new mission and enemy was now their objective fatefully determined by the British political and military hierarchy.

At the Mena Camp they were drilled six days a week – marching through the sand, digging and attacking trenches. It was here that they were formed into the ANZAC Corps, with the New Zealand forces. Major-General William Birdwood, a 49-year old British officer was given command of the Australian and New Zealand troops.

Training would end in the early April 1915 when the AIF Battalions entrain to the port of Alexandria for the fateful journey to the Gallipoli peninsula, Turkey. After a relatively short sea journey, they were to join over 50,000 AIF, New Zealand, British and French troops off Lemnos Island, Greece for the greatest amphibious landing force in history ever assembled.

There are few details entered on Charles Weatherson’s Gallipoli experience. There are few entries on any soldiers record unless they were wounded or killed.

In August after the major push at Lone Pine he would be made a Corporal. He would serve right through until all Allied forces are secretly evacuated in mid December and transferred back to Egypt to recuperate, recover and regroup.   

In Egypt he was promoted to Sergeant in March 1916 and sail with a greatly enlarged AIF Force to France to now fight the Germans. He would serve through the worst of trench warfare on the western front in 1916 and 1917 and was wounded on August 24 1917 in one of the many battles that raged at Pozieres in Northern France with a ‘Gun Shot Wound’ GSW to the chest that required medical evacuation to England.

He was presented with the Military Medal for his action at Pozieres on September 25, 1917 and rejoined his unit back in France in late January 1918. He obviously not fully recovered from his wound and is shipped back to England for return to Australia leaving England in Mid February 1918 landing back in Melbourne two months later in mid April, 1918.

Charles Weatherson’s war on the Western front  was considered over, however, Charles had different ideas. He re-attests that he is a fireman based at the Melbourne Metropolitan Fire Headquarters in East Melbourne, with his brother and re-embarks for Europe again on July 17, 1918. He has been home just two months. He arrived in Northern France just as the Armistice is signed and is eventually ‘Taken on Strength’ into the depleted 6th Battalion on December 4th, 1918. He would return home again on the June 29, 1919 and be discharged two months later.

SERVICE DETAILS: 

Regimental number: 1121

Place of birth: Bendigo

Religion: Roman Catholic

Occupation: None in 1914, Fireman in 1918.

Address: Lester Street, Eaglehawk in 1914

Marital status: Single

Age at embarkation: 24

Next of kin: T Weatherson, Leicester Street, Eaglehawk

Enlistment date: 18 August 1914

Final Rank: Sergeant

Embarked: Transport A9 Shropshire on 20 October 1914

Unit: 2nd Field Artillery Brigade

Fate: Returned to Australia Aril 17, 1918 & June 29, 1919.

Military Medal Source: 'Commonwealth Gazette' No. 9

Date: 24 January 1918

Pozieres – July 23 – September 5, 1917.

For many of the men who fought on the Western Front, Pozières was just the beginning of a long and bloody series of battles they would fight again and again for whatever remained of their broken lives.[1]

[1] Virtual War memorial Australiahttps://vwma.org.au/explore/campaigns/103