Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Finlay URQUHART #2423 15th Battalion

Finlay Urquhart was the youngest of three brothers born to Hugh and Margaret Urquhart. Finlay was born at Bingara on the Gwydir River west of Inverell NSW and attended Pretty Gully Public School between Casino and Tenterfield. The family would appear to have been involved in the timber industry and particularly bullock team haulage.

The extension of the Brisbane Valley Line to Moore and Linville in 1910 opened up many opportunities for timber workers and the three Urquhart brothers were probably lured to Linville at that time. Margaret Urquhart in a letter to the military authorities stated that the three brothers all enlisted while living and working in Linville.

Finlay took a train from Linville to Ipswich and then on to Brisbane to enlist on 7th May 1915. The newspapers were just beginning to report the landing by the Australians at Gallipoli and it may have been these reports that encouraged Finlay to enlist. He was just shy of his 30th birthday and described his occupation as labourer, although it is more likely he was a teamster like his two brothers. Finlay was placed in a depot battalion before being allocated as a reinforcement for the 15th Battalion.

The reinforcements sailed from Sydney on the “Shropshire” on 20th August 1915 and two months later were landing as reinforcements for the 15th battalion at Anzac Cove. Fin remained on the peninsula until the entire Anzac Force was evacuated in December. He arrived back in Egypt in January and was almost immediately hospitalised with appendicitis.

Finlay required surgery and spent almost six months in hospitals and convalescent depots before being passed fit. While Fin was recuperating in hospital, the entire Australian Infantry Forces had been sent to the Western Front in France. Rather than send Finlay directly to his battalion in France, he was destined for a stint with a training battalion in England. On 6th August, Finlay landed at Portsmouth and marched into camp at Durrington. He reported sick to the Bulford Hospital in September with a bad case of venereal disease which would keep him out of the action for the next 84 days; during which time his pay was stopped. VD was a serious issue for the AIF since the lack of effective treatments by antibiotics meant men were spending time in specialist VD wards while the disease ran its course.

Finlay was eventually passed fit and he crossed over to France to rejoin his battalion on 22nd December 1916,which was in the support lines near Albert. The battalion war diary records that there were periods of heavy snow and severe frosts which froze the ground. Men of both sides spent more time fighting the weather that winter than fighting each other.

During the winter of 1916/17, the German defenders on the Somme had been preparing a stronger and shorter defensive line well to the east of their current position. This new defensive position, the Hindenburg Line, was equipped with dense belts of barbed wire and concrete blockhouses on ground carefully selected for its uninterrupted fields of fire. The 15th, as part of the 4th Brigade, would be thrust against the Hindenburg Line at Bullecourt. The assault on the line was timed for 10th April 1917.

The 15th had to march up to the start line through driving snow. The British Commander of the 5th Army, General Gough, had been persuaded to employ a new secret weapon in the action; tanks. So enthused was Gough at the prospect of the metal monsters that he dispensed with the usual artillery barrage that would prelude an attack. The men of the brigade lay out in the snow all night waiting for the tanks to turn up. All of the tanks failed to make it to the start line either because of mechanical breakdown or they got lost in the dark. Gough called the attack off and rescheduled for the following day, having given the enemy 24 hours warning of his intentions.

The attack went forward on the 11th April, although orders had been changed so many times that some battalion and company commanders were unsure of the exact start time. The 15th Battalion advanced through a hail of enfilading machine gun and trench mortar fire to the first line of German trench. The tanks either broke down again or were easily knocked out by accurate artillery fire. The wire in front of the trenches remained intact. The artillery that Gough had dispensed with, would have been able to cut some of the wire. The 15th battalion commander kept sending runners up to the trench where his attackers were being cut up by machine gun fire. None of the runners made it to the line.

The efforts of the 4th Division, including the 4th Brigade were all in vain and by the middle of the afternoon the survivors were struggling back to the start line leaving many dead and wounded behind. The 15th Battalion war diary notes that of the 19 officers engaged in the assault, not one returned to the start line uninjured. 364 other ranks were listed as either killed, wounded or missing.

Bullecourt was an unmitigated disaster which highlighted the thorough weakness of Gough as a military planner and tactician. The failure of the tanks caused the battalion commanders of the brigade to refuse to be involved in any further adventures that might depend on them. The whole affair is best summed up by Charles bean who said “ victory (at Bullecourt) might have been sought almost as reasonably by a plan to capture the moon.”

One of the missing at Bullecourt on the 4th April was Finlay Urquhart. His parents at Mummulgum outside Casino received a telegram informing them their son was missing. It was not until a Court of Inquiry conducted by the 15th Battalion on 2nd November 1917 that it was determined that Finlay was not a POW and therefore it must be assumed he had been killed in action on 4th April.

Statements provided to the Red Cross Inquiry Service by witnesses described seeing Finlay hit by a shell during the charge to the wire. When the survivors of the attack retreated, the dead were left behind, in enemy territory.

It was not until after the end of the war that Hugh and Margaret Urquhart learned of the sons possible resting place. Returned POWs from the 15th Battalion reported that after the battle, they were tasked with collecting the Australian dead and burying them in shell holes, up to 30 at a time. Valuables were collected but identity discs were not taken. It is fairly certain that Finlay lies buried with other 15th Battalion men in an unmarked mass grave somewhere near Noreuil in Northern France.

Hugh Urquhart signed for his son’s medals, the 14/15 Star, the Empire Medal and the Victory Medal. He also received a bronze plaque and a commemorative scroll signed by the King. When the Australian National Memorial was completed in 1938 at Villers Bretonneux, Finlay’s name was added to the list of over 10,000 Australian servicemen who died in France and have no known grave.