Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Private 2867 Louis Hollingworth Bluhdorn, 56th Battalion

By Frances Bluhdorn, Gladesville, Lou’s granddaughter.

Louis Hollingworth Bluhdorn was born 28 February, 1899, in his family home at Pymble Avenue, Pymble, NSW, the third child and second son of Albert Daniel Bluhdorn, a stationer and his wife, Alice Maude Light. Louis (known as ‘Lou’) carries the name of his Irish-born paternal grandmother Catherine Hollingsworth, who arrived in New South Wales as a potato famine orphan in 1849.

Lou’s early childhood was spent in Sydney’s northern suburbs of Pymble, Hornsby and Gordon, and in 1903 when aged four years, his youngest brother Roy, who was an infant, died of convulsions. In 1907, when aged eight years, his family moved to Springwood, located in the Blue Mountains near Sydney, for his father’s health.

In 1910, Lou now aged 11 years and his older brother Eric, aged 13 years, were the principal mourners at the funeral for their father, which left their Springwood home in Bathurst Road for the North Springwood Cemetery where the interment took place.

Lou was schooled at the Woodford Academy School for boys, which was established in the Blue Mountains by John Fraser McManamey in 1907. He enrolled on the 19 August, 1912, aged 13 years and came from Springwood Public School. On Christmas Day 1914, when he was aged 15 years, Lou had a considerable quantity of blasting powder in a tin and threw a lighted fuse into it causing a loud explosion – being rather badly burned about the hands and slightly so near his eyes; Lou narrowly escaped serious injury.

The Bluhdorn family was very active in community life in the Springwood district and Lou, who played billiards, participated in local tournaments. He was also a member of the Springwood Rifle Club.

Lou remained living with his family in Springwood, where his mother ran the family-owned Springwood Emporium, until his enlistment in the AIF on 14 May 1916, at the stated age of 181⁄4 years (adding one year to his true age). He was 5’81⁄2” tall, weighed 126 pounds and had a fresh complexion, with blue eyes and brown hair. He gave his occupation as carpenter and named his mother, Alice, as next of kin.

Lou underwent his basic training at Cootamundra and Goulburn Depots. In August 1916, a farewell evening with a musical programme was held in the Springwood Hall and Lou was presented with a ‘wristlet watch’. Lou was allotted to the 7th Reinforcements for the 56th Infantry Battalion on 28 September, which embarked from Sydney on board HMAT A11 Ascanius on 25 October, 1916.

On account of their battalion number, the 56th adopted the nickname ‘The Half Hundredweights’ (a hundredweight being 112 pounds and 56 being half that). A few days out from England, Lou was given 48 hours detention for the use of obscene language on board; a minor indiscretion which also incurred two days loss of pay. The reinforcement draft disembarked at Devonport (near Plymouth, England) on 28 December.

Upon arrival in the UK, Lou was attached to the Home Service Company, perhaps because it was discovered he was underage. In mid March 1917, Lou moved to Hurdcott on the Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, for training with the 14th Training Battalion. Five weeks later, on 25 April, 1917, he was sent to France to join the 56th Battalion in the field, doing so on 30 April. The 56th was in need of reinforcements at this time, as only four weeks before on 2-3 April, they had suffered over 200 casualties in the small, but fierce, battle to capture and hold the hamlet of Louverval, south of Bullecourt.

Lou’s first front-line action came two weeks later, when the 56th Battalion spent a gruelling week in the trenches between Bullecourt and Queant, all the while under heavy German bombardment. The 56th suffered over 200 casualties again during this ‘stunt’, and along with the rest of I Anzac Corps, it then enjoyed a lengthy period of rest, recuperation and hard training to prepare them for their next great battle in the Ypres Salient in Belgian Flanders.

Allied High Command had chosen this area east of the Belgian town of Ypres for the next big offensive, an action known as the Third Battle of Ypres (or just ‘Passchendaele’). As part of the 14th Brigade of the 5th Division AIF, the 56th Battalion, fresh from four months rest and with keen battalion spirit, fought its major battle in the Battle of Polygon Wood from 26 September to 3 October 1917, the second step of this larger campaign.

The objectives of this battle were to secure Polygon Wood with its Butte, a large high mound of a former rifle range, and to capture the main German defensive line further to the east.

It was during the fighting in Polygon Wood on 26 September, 1917, that Lou was wounded, sustaining shell wounds to  his abdomen and chest. Lou was admitted to

the 3rd Field Ambulance on 28 September, the 2nd Canadian Casualty Clearing Station on the 29th and the 32nd Stationary Hospital at Wimereux on 2 October.

Following treatment in France, Lou was placed on a hospital ship on 17 October for transport to England. The next day he was admitted to the Pavilion General Hospital, Brighton, England – the Royal Pavilion estate had been converted to a 724-bed military hospital in December 1914.
Right: The Dome, Brighton, as a hospital ward, c.1915.

Lou remained here for almost a month before being transferred to No. 1 Auxiliary Hospital at Harefield Park, Middlesex, England, which had been opened in June 1915 for wounded Australian soldiers.

Private Lou Bluhdorn did not return to the Front: he was recommended for return to Australia by a Medical Board in December 1917, having undergone two operations on his penetrating abdominal wound and sustaining permanent disability. Between 18 January and 1 February, 1918, Lou went on leave, before reporting to No. 2 Command Depot at Weymouth.

Lou sailed from Devonport on board HMAT Durham Castle on 10 March, 1918, for Cape Town, South Africa, where six weeks later, he boarded HMAT Orontes, returning home on 13 May, 1918.

While Lou was at sea, his mother had passed away on 28 March, 1918, in Nepean Cottage Hospital, Penrith, NSW. Just over a year later in May 1919, Lou’s younger brother*, King, died of pneumonic influenza in No. 4 Australian General Hospital, Randwick, NSW – the same hospital that recommended Lou for discharge and pension, after further treatment when he returned to Sydney. [* Pte 3230 Clarence Mafeking Hollingworth Bluhdorn, (Home Service/GCC Guard), d.7/5/19.]

After his discharge from the AIF in August 1918, Lou tried to resume his calling as a carpenter, working as a cabinet maker and joiner in Summer Hill, NSW. Suffering ill-health, Lou was hospitalised because of his war injuries in No. 21 Auxiliary Hospital at Georges Heights in September 1919.

Thus, began a series of periods of unemployment or casual light-work-only jobs and hospitalisations, mostly in Prince of Wales Hospital, then known as Randwick Military Hospital.

On 6 March, 1920, Lou married Lucy Lillian Parsons at St Clement’s Church of England, Marrickville, and they had six children (five sons and a daughter) between 1921 and 1932. During this time, the couple lived in Sydney’s

south-western suburbs of Lakemba and West Kogarah. Left: Bridal party included [l to r] Maurice Parsons (bride’s brother), unknown bridesmaid, Stephen Parsons (bride’s father), Louis (sitting), Lucy, Eric Bluhdorn (groom’s brother), unknown bridesmaid.

Lou’s Repatriation Dept. files throughout these years show the ongoing impact of his war injuries on his life. Lou wore a wide-ribbed abdominal belt for support and he found it difficult to stand for long periods and to lift heavy items, thereby restricting his work as a carpenter. To maintain his pension, which was set primarily at 50%, he reported to Repatriation

Department doctors regularly, complaining of the same abdominal issues time and again. In 1928, Lou moved his family to Cookamidgera, NSW, and later to Parkes, where he conducted a business for a time in furniture re-conditioning. Police Sergeant Ferris of Parkes informed the Registrar of

Pensions at Parkes during a repatriation assessment conducted in October 1933: ... that the above mentioned ex-soldier is a very sick man as a result of his war disabilities. The Sergeant states that he has employed Bluhdorn at various times and has found him a hard worker when well, but he suffers considerably from his war injuries and at times becomes depressed at which times he indulges in liquor to some extent. Taken generally he is a law abiding and respectable citizen. So far as I can ascertain he has never appeared in court charged with any offence.

In late 1933, Lucy brought the children back to Sydney. When he was able, Lou moved back to Sydney and joined his family, now living at West Kogarah. He was still struggling to find work. Repatriation pension assessments continued, but there is no record of medical intervention to treat Lou’s condition, despite an X-ray picking up many foreign bodies in the soft tissue.

By the mid 1930s, Lou’s marriage was in serious trouble. He was unable to find enough work to support his family, and his bouts of depression and drinking increased. Lucy left him in January 1936, taking their children with her and divorced Lou in 1939.

As a consequence of their divorce, Lou became estranged from his family and very little is known within the family about the remaining years of his life. Lou’s repatriation files show that he was employed by the Metropolitan Water Sewerage and Drainage Board for fifteen months during 1937 and 1938, but lost five months work due to his war injuries. His hospital records of the time record a worsening of his physical and mental health, as well as an increase in alcohol consumption.

While living in Sydney’s southern suburb of Sans Souci in April 1941, Lou again heard the call to serve his country and offered his services in World War II. He was assigned to the 16th Garrison Battalion located in Hay, Western NSW, where the battalion was charged with guarding up to 4 000 prisoners of war and civilian internees in three separate compounds, known as the Hay Internment Camps.

The camps, constructed about three kilometres from the township of Hay, consisted of 36 dormitory huts (housing around 28 men per hut) enclosed in three lines of barbed wire and guard towers. During 1941 and 1942, each camp held 1 000 internees from Italy and Germany, who were not fighting men, but civilians detained by Allied forces as a matter of precaution and national security because of a perceived security risk to the European war effort.

As with his World War I service, Lou’s conduct displayed some blemishes: periods of seven and ten days detention, as well as fines, were awarded on six occasions for drunkenness, failure to appear at place of parade when warned for guard duty, and for being absent without leave. Lou was also hospitalised twice: he spent almost a week in Cootamundra District Hospital in July 1941, suffering gastritis, and in January 1942, was admitted to Prince of Wales Hospital, Sydney, with gastritis and neurasthenia. Then after 306 days of service, Lou was ‘discharged, being medically unfit for service and not occasioned by his own default’ in February 1942. Lou returned to Sydney, living in Sans Souci, Ramsgate and Redfern, and continued his work as a joiner.

After Lou was discharged from military service, his life continued to deteriorate. In March 1946, he was hospitalised with a broken leg. His discharge papers record the need for him to be placed in a convalescent home as he has no one to look after him. The request was rejected, since the fracture was not related to his war injury and he had a history of alcoholism. A friend, William Wise, provided Lou with a home for about two years, and for several years acted as his next of kin.

In April 1948, Lou was admitted to Mental Hospital, Morisset, NSW, as an inebriate. Admission records from the Prince of Wales Hospital for 1951 state that he was drunk and noisy. Also, they documented that he was a widower and his eldest son, Rex was his next of kin, so some contact with the family appears to have been made.

Lou Bluhdorn died on 18 October, 1967, in Rydalmere Hospital, Rydalmere, NSW, aged 68 years and was buried in the Field of Mars Cemetery in Ryde [right, Lou’s headstone]. Lou’s name and those of his two brothers, Eric* and King, are listed on the Springwood District Honour Roll for their services in the Great War. Lou’s name also appears on the original Roll of Honour at the Woodford Academy. [* Private 3167/7698 Eric Hollingworth Bluhdorn, 10th Rfts/1st Bn, 26th Rfts/1st Bn & 33rd Bn.]

Lou has been described by his sister as a lovable devil who would try anything on, and by one of his nieces as a difficult man, perhaps illustrating generational perceptions.

At the age of 18 years, Lou’s life changed forever. He had served his country with honour. He came back to a government-supported social welfare system that focused on pensions rather than ongoing support and retraining; all occurring at time when a man’s life was closely linked to his ability to support his family. His later life attests to the struggles that he and many returned soldiers faced.

Lou’s military service legacy lived on with all of his children: four sons served in the Army and his daughter in the RAAF during World War II; and two sons served in the armed services (Army, RAAF and CAF) in peacetime; plus his two eldest grandsons, who enlisted in the RAN and Army, served in the Vietnam War.

Notes: (1) Frances would like to acknowledge the assistance of the following people in the compilation of her grandfather’s story: Rae Clapshaw (Woodford Academy), Craig Tibbits (AWM/56th Bn historian), Gwen MacLennan (cousin). (2) Lucy Lillian Bluhdorn passed away on 12 November, 1950.   This article was published in the DIGGER 71 (2020) pp 41-44