Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

 
ANDERSON Peter #3794      4th Pioneer Battalion
 
Peter Anderson was born in Scotland and according to his wife who completed the Roll of Honour Circular after his death, attended school in the village of Bridge of Allen, Stirlingshire. He emigrated to Australia in 1912 with his wife Maggie and four children.
Peter and his family settled at Woody Point on the Redcliffe Peninsula where he worked as a farm labourer.
 
Peter had attempted to enlist earlier in the war but was rejected due to the fact that he was missing his right thumb. When he presented himself again for enlistment in April 1917 he was accepted as medically fit. This can perhaps be explained by the parlous state of recruitment in the latter stages of the war although how a man missing his right thumb could be effective in front line duties is open to debate. The flood of enlistments in 1914 and 1915 had slowed to a trickle and the Australian Government had difficulty providing sufficient number of reinforcements to keep units in the field up to strength.
 
Peter enlisted in Brisbane on 17th April 1917 and was drafted into the 10th reinforcements of the 4th Pioneer Battalion. Two months later he boarded the “Hororata” in Sydney bound for overseas. Upon arrival in Liverpool in August 1917, Peter was posted to the Pioneer Training Battalion at Sutton Veney where he would have been instructed on how to swing a pick and shovel the military way, since trench digging at the front was the primary job of the pioneers. Peter remained in the training camp until May of 1918.
 
In March of 1918, the German Commander on the Western Front launched Operation Michael which saw a substantial advance along the valley of the Somme from the strongpoint of the Hindenburg Line west towards the city of Amiens. The British 5th Army which had control of this sector was routed and there was a distinct possibility that the French and British Armies would be split and the German advance could reach the French Coast and win the war.
 
The British Commander, Haig, rushed the Australian Divisions that were at that time in Flanders south to stem the German advance which was ultimately halted at Villers Bretonneux in April. While holding the line at this point, the Australian Commander, John Monash planned a small battle just north of Villers Bretonneux at Hamel. Peter Anderson was posted overseas from England to join the 4th Pioneers in the build-up to Hamel.
 
Monash’s planning for this battle was meticulous, employing artillery, infantry, tanks and aircraft in a coordinated attack which he estimated would take 90 minutes. When the battle was launched on 4th July, the objective was reached within 93 minutes. During the battle itself the 4th Pioneers were held in reserve. Once the new front line was established, the Pioneers were deployed the following day to dig a number of communication trenches to the new front line. Sometime on the 5th July, the party of which Peter Anderson was a member were heavily shelled. The 4th Pioneer War Diary records the death and wounding of a number of ordinary ranks. Among those killed was Peter Anderson. He had originally been listed as Missing in Action but his body was located and he was “buried in a field ¾ mile west of Hamel.”
Peter’s widow was granted a widow’s pension of 2 pounds per fortnight. At the conclusion of hostilities, the Imperial War Graves Commission began to consolidate the scattered graves on the Western Front. Peter Anderson’s remains were reinterred at the Australian War Cemetery at Villers Bretonneux, within sight of the Hamel battlefield where he fell. His widow received Peter’s few personal effects, a belt containing a number of military badges and a metal chain.
 
Maggie Anderson continued to live at “Strathern” at Woody Point. In 1923 she received war medals for her late husband as well as a commemorative plaque and scroll and three photographs of Peter’s grave.

Peter came to Australia about 1913. He was married to Maggie Dewar and living at Woody Point at the time of his enlistment in 1917. He and his wife had four children and lived in a house called Strathhearn. It appears he had previously tried to enlist and had been rejected because of the loss of a thumb. Peter was killed in action in July 1918. After the War, his widow Maggie married a returned soldier, Frederick John Elliott [2167], in 1924.