STEELE, Robert Stewart
| Service Number: | 3496 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | Not yet discovered |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 9th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Not yet discovered |
| Home Town: | Ipswich, Queensland |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Not yet discovered |
| Died: | Killed in Action, France, 23 July 1916, age not yet discovered |
| Cemetery: |
No known grave - "Known Unto God" Villers-Bretonneux Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux, Picardie, France |
| Memorials: | Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Corinda Sherwood Shire Roll of Honor, Ebbw Vale War Memorial, Graceville War Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux Memorial (Australian National Memorial - France) |
World War 1 Service
| 5 Oct 1915: | Involvement Private, 3496, 9th Infantry Battalion, Battle for Pozières , --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '9' embarkation_place: Brisbane embarkation_ship: HMAT Warilda embarkation_ship_number: A69 public_note: '' | |
|---|---|---|
| 5 Oct 1915: | Embarked Private, 3496, 9th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Warilda, Brisbane |
Help us honour Robert Stewart Steele's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.
Add my storyBiography contributed by Faithe Jones
Robert Steele was born at Ebbw Vale near Ipswich and attended Bundamba State School. He stated his occupation as brickmaker, although the Roll of Honour Circular completed by his step mother, Florence Steele records his occupation as miner. Both occupations seem feasible as this district had both coal mining and pottery industries at the time.
When Robert enlisted on 5th August 1915 he was just 18 years old. He gave his address as Oxley and named his father, William Steele of the same address as his next of kin. Exactly two months after enlistment Robert embarked on the “Warilda” in Brisbane as part of the 11th reinforcements for the 9th Battalion. When the reinforcements arrived in Egypt plans were well advanced to withdraw all the Australians ; including the 9th Battalion, from Gallipoli. Robert would spend the next four months in Egypt while the 9th took on reinforcements and sent half of the Gallipoli veterans to form a new battalion; the 49th.
Robert arrived in Marseilles on 4th April and travelled by train to the large training camp at Etaples before finally rejoining the 9th on 14th May 1916. The 9th was originally positioned in the sector of the front around Armentieres where they could become accustomed to the routines of the front. In May the unit rotated in and out of the line at Fromelles and Petillion. In June at Sternwerk the battalion took part in a series of trench raids to, in the words of the written orders: 1) capture prisoners 2) destroy machine guns and trench mortars 3) develop espirit de corps within the battalion. The raids were according to the battalion diary quite successful although there did need to be an inquiry into the loss of 18 revolvers.
On 1st July, the Battle of the Somme began and fell well short of the expectations of Haig and his army commander Gough. To continue the offensive, Haig called three of the Australian Divisions in France to the Somme ( A fourth division, the 5th, had been put into the line at Fromelles in early July, principally as a diversion; and suffered appalling casualties)
The 9th as part of the 1st Division would be first into the fighting to capture the village of Pozieres. The battalion arrived behind the lines at Albert on 13th July and began training for their first big stunt. The first division entered the front line at Pozieres on 23rd July and succeeded in capturing the village, all the while being heavily shelled from well dug in positions further up the slope from Pozieres. During the action of 23rd July, Robert Steele was reported as killed in action.
There are no Red Cross Wounded or Missing reports into his death and his file simply states Killed in Action. No body was ever recovered, which was the fate of so many who fell at Pozieres and Mouquet Farm that summer.
Robert’s father wrote to Base Records on several occasions to enquire into the circumstances of Robert’s death but no further information was forthcoming.
The Australian Government resolved to construct a lasting memorial to those who lost their lives in France but have no known grave. The project was delayed due to a conflict over the design of the memorial and a shortage of funds. Finally on 22nd July 1938; almost twenty years since the war’s end, King George Sixth officially dedicated the Australian National Memorial at Villers Bretonneux. There are over 10,000 names on the tablets at Villers Bretonneux.
It is likely that the authorities wrote to the next of kin of those 10,000 to inform them that their loved ones would finally be commemorated as in Robert’s file there is a letter from his step mother, Florence Steele which states in part that Robert’s father is deceased and she is now an old lady of 78 years. She also states that she does not see the need to rebury Robert in the new cemetery (Florence obviously misunderstood the purpose of the letter) and that Robert’s name appears on the memorial at Ebbw Vale. Strangely Robert Steele does not appear on the Oxley Progress Association Memorial at Oxley, even though he was for a time associated with the district.
Courtesy of Ian Lang
Mango Hill