Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

ANZAC Day Eulogy by Calliope RSL Sub-Branch

Robert Welch Snr was living and mining at the Tablelands Gold Fields when he met and married Emma Rosetta Dickinson in 1887. They had 4 children together, with Pte Robert James Welch being their 2nd child and only son, born on the 24th of August 1890. Everyone knew him as ‘Jim’.

In the early 1900’s, Jim’s father selected land in the Boyne Valley which became the well-known property of “Rosevale”, positioned across the Boyne River from “Boynedale”, now underwater from Awonga Dam. They raised and sold pigs, then began dairy farming on the property in 1905. Jim began working as a stockman on his father’s property

His life plans were interrupted with Australia’s entry into the war. Pte Robert James Welch, ‘Jim’, enlisted on the 26th of July 1915, one month before his 25th birthday, embarking for overseas on HMAT Seang Bee out of Brisbane on the 21st of October as part of the 11th reinforcements of the 9th Battalion. He was admitted to No 4 Australian Hospital on arrival in Cairo in December with a bout of mumps and discharged to duty in January. With the evacuation of troops from Gallipoli, new battalions and divisions were being formed. On the 29th of February 1916, Jim was reallocated to the new 49th Infantry Battalion, of the 13th Brigade, 4th Australian Division, and so began months of training and long marches in extreme heat through thick sands and a period defending the Suez Canal, before the 49th Battalion entrained to Alexandria, boarding HMT Arcadian on the 5th of June, bound for Marseille in France, arriving a week later.

After being given one day’s leave to explore the sights of Marseille, Jim’s battalion were entrained for a 60-hour journey to the front, the french countryside a stark contrast to the dessert sands of Egypt. On the 21st of June they entered the trenches for their first short stint in the front lines and was given the task of reconntoiring around VC Corner and VC Avenue trenches facing the infamous Sugar Loaf salient near Fromelle. Here Jim received his first experiences of dodging snipers and small outbursts of shell fire. Luckily for Jim, his battalion was moved slowly south to Rubempré near Amiens, and spent the month of July in training, thus avoiding the disasterous blood bath battles for Fromelle and Pozieres Village.

Having secured Pozieres Village and the German trenches of Pozieres Heights, the allies turned toward Mouquet Farm. Although the farm buildings were reduced to rubble, the Germans had incorporated the strong stone cellars into their defences. Three Australian divisions, including Jim’s, made 9 separate attacks on Mouquet Farm between the 8th of August and the 3rd of September. Enduring heavy shelling as they rotated between reserve and front-line trenches throughout August, the 49th Battalion was heavily involved in the final assault on the 3rd of September, with Jim and his mates going over the top with the beginning of the artillery barrage at 5.10am, eventually taking their given objective at a cost of 82 dead, 300 wounded, and 37 missing in action. Luckily, Jim was not one of these statistics. They were relieved 2 days later and moved back from the front to a quieter sector to regroup and train the incoming reinforcements.

The following months were reasonably quiet with the ensuing winter that bought other types of unbearable hardship for Jim and his mates. On the 30th of December he was admitted to hospital again, this time with Laryngitis. He rejoined his battalion a month later.

Coming through the battle for Noreuil village on the 2nd of April, as part of the allied advance after the German’s retreat to the Hindenberg Line, Jim next saw action as part of the well-orchestrated Battle of Messine. At 3:10 am on the 7th of June, 19 giant mines were simultaneously detonated under the German trenches along the Messine Ridge, obliterating thousands of German soldiers in the blink of an eye. This was followed up by a massive creeping barrage from allied artillery, under which the Australians advanced. Although they successfully obtained their objective, once again Jim’s battalion suffered heavily with 73 killed, 274 wounded and 20 missing in action.

Upon the battalion being relieved, Jim was detached to the rest camp near Boulogne on the 17th of June for a well-earned break, only returning to his battalion on the 1st of July. His battalion spent the month holding the front line around Deseule, with some casualties coming from enemy shellfire. In August they moved back off the front, spending the month training for the next big stunt at Polygon Wood on the 26th of September. Surviving yet another battle, Jim then endured another winter in the trenches over the coming months.

With the collapse of Russia in October 1917, a major German offensive on the Western Front started in late March 1918 and Jim’s 4th Division moved to defend positions around the Dernancourt on the River Ancre. His battalion assisted in the repulse of a large German attack on 5 April, launching a critical counterattack late in the afternoon. The 13th and 15th Brigades carried out another successful attack, dislodging the enemy from Villers-Bretonneux on Anzac Day 1918. Jim sustained a gun shot wound to the face during the german counterattack the next day and was taken by the 25th Field Ambulance to the casualty clearing station. From there he was transferred to the 2nd Canadian Hospital for treatment. After a short convalescence he returned to his mates on the 23rd of May.

By this stage the battalion had moved to the area around Sailly-le-sec on the River Somme to assist in holding the defensive line there. On the night of the 8th/9th of June the battalion moved into the front-line trenches as the 51st Battalion had extended their frontage. During the day the battalion received intermittent shelling while making reinforcements on the front-line wire and performing carrying party duties in showery weather. Jim had survived two years on the Western Front, but his number was up. Pte Robert James Welch, Jim, died on the 9th of June 1918 at the age of 27.

His name appeared in the 414th Casualty List on the 3rd of July in the Brisbane newspapers. The official telegram telling Jim’s family of his death wasn’t received until the 3rd of September. On the 26th of March 1919 Jim’s father received notification that he was burried in the Vaux-Sur-Somme Communal Cemetery Extension. A year later he received another communication saying his son’s remains had been exhumed and reinterred in the Villers-Bretonneux Military Cemetery, Plot 7 Row D Grave 2, and that the work had been carried out with every care and reverence in the presence of a chaplain. I suppose that is some comfort to a father who had lost his only son. Like so many of our local farming families of the time, Robert Snr was not alone in his grief. His brother George received the news that his eldest son Cecil was killed in action one month after Jim at the age of 23. Two young cousins answered the call; two families were left to mourn their loss.