Stephen HUDDLE

HUDDLE, Stephen

Service Number: 1084
Enlisted: 26 June 1917, Queenscliff, Victoria
Last Rank: Gunner
Last Unit: 36th Heavy Artillery Group
Born: Bendigo, Victoria, November 1888
Home Town: White Hills, Bendigo, Victoria
Schooling: Not yet discovered
Occupation: Labourer
Memorials: Bendigo Great War Roll of Honor, Bendigo White Hills Arch of Triumph, Queenscliff Royal Australian Garrison Artillery Third Military District Honor Roll, White Hills Methodist Church Roll of Honor
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World War 1 Service

26 Jun 1917: Enlisted AIF WW1, Bombardier, 1084, 36th Heavy Artillery Group
26 Jun 1917: Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 1084, Queenscliff, Victoria
28 Feb 1918: Involvement AIF WW1, Gunner, 1084, 36th Heavy Artillery Group, Enlistment/Embarkation WW1, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '4' embarkation_place: Melbourne embarkation_ship: HMAT Nestor embarkation_ship_number: A71 public_note: ''
28 Feb 1918: Embarked AIF WW1, Gunner, 1084, 36th Heavy Artillery Group, HMAT Nestor, Melbourne

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Biography contributed by Jack Coyne

Stephen Huddle SN 1084

In the Bendigoian Newspaper on June 28, 1917 the following event was reported- 

PRESENTATIONS TO SOLDIERS                                                    'In the White Hills Methodist School Hall on Wednesday evening a social was tendered to Gunner Eric Borley and Lance Corporal S. Huddle, who are on final leave. There was a very large attendance representing the church and Sunday school. The Rev. W. H. Holtham presided. Each soldier was presented with a radium faced wristlet watch by the chairman, who referred to the many fine qualities of the departing soldiers. Mr A.T. Miller. J.P, also spoke on behalf of the church and Sunday school, and wished the soldiers God-speed and a safe return. The programme which consisted of songs, recitations and violin solos, was given by the Misses M. Every. F. Pratt. M. McLaren, and E. Phillips. and Masters L, and W Batcheler and E. Burnet and Mr. Les. Borley. The accompaniments were played by Miss Muriel Frazer. A duet was also given by Miss F. Pratt and Mr. S. Huddle. An excellent supper was provided by the ladies. The gathering was brought to a close with parlour games and the singing of the National Anthem and "God bless our Splendid Men.'

That duet reported in the above article between a departing soldier and his loved one, would see Lance Corporal Stephen Huddle and Miss Flora Isobel Pratt marry just 6 months later on December 28, 1917 in the Long Gully Parsonage near Bendigo. He would leave for the western front two months later.  

Stephen Huddle enlisted on July 26, 1917 in Queenscliff, on the south west coast of Victoria. Most Bendigo recruits had plenty of opportunity to enlist in their home town at this stage of the war, however, his enlistment attestation states he has had experience with the Royal Gunnery Garrison Artillery (RAGA) and was still serving in this Citizen Force. Enlisting in Queenscliff where the heavy artillery barracks were located no doubt ensured Stephen entry into the ‘Heavy Artillery Unit’ rather than the infantry battalions usually recruited in Bendigo.

On his attestations papers,(attached) Stephen declares he was born in Bendigo, that his age was 27 and his NOK (nearest of Kin) was his father Stephen Huddle who lived in the former gold mining hamlet of White Hills three miles north of Bendigo. Their actual address is not listed however; in later documents it is most likely 37 Cambridge Crescent, White Hills.

Straight after enlisting, Stephen commenced training at the camp at South Head arriving on July 1, 1917.  Two months later he would be promoted to Lance Corporal on September 1, 1917 and then by the New Year Lance Sergeant. He would be given leave to return to Bendigo to marry Flora before the new year. 

His new wife, Flora was from Grassy Flat, a farming community behind the Bendigo Race Course a short distance from White Hills. We cannot imagine the hardship wives and mother endured whilst their husbands and or sons were away at war. We read later in the Bendigoian that the White Hills Methodist church make a presentation to the new Mrs S Huddle (nee Miss Flora Pratt) of a tea set as her husband has sailed for the front. (see attached file) 

Stephen and fellow reinforcements would embark for war in Europe two months later on February 28, onboard HMAT Nestor. After nearly a two-month journey they would disembark in Liverpool, England on April 20, 1918. He would be ‘Marched In’ a Military depot known as the HQT Depot. As he now rejoins the other reinforcements in training with the 36th Heavy Artillery Brigade he reverts back to being a ‘Gunner’, the equivalent to Private. 

In early October, 1918, Stephen is "taken on Strength' into the Heavy Artillery training camp depot at Tidworth on the Salisbury Plain awaiting deployment to France. It is not known whether he hears the news at this camp that his baby daughter has been born back in White Hills, Joyce Nestor Huddle born on October 21, 1918.   

His chance to be at the front would not come till ten days after the Armistice had been signed.  On November 21, 1918 he ‘Proceeds Overseas’ to France via the port of Southampton. He would not see any action at the front and in December he would be bear witness to the strangely quiet western front and the aftermath of the carnage of this insane 4 year industrial war. He would be assigned to the 'First S battery'. 

The repatriation of over 300,000 Australian troops back to Australia was no easy task and tool considerable time where shipping availability was scarce. The armistice agreement was for some time considered fragile and significant numbers of AIF troops were kept on to maintain the peace and longer serving diggers were prioritised to return first.

In March, 1919 Stephen is promoted to 'Temporary Bombardier' and would spend a further two months in the field. Finally, in late May he would be repatriated back to England disembarking again at Southampton and be ‘Marched In’ to to 1st Training Battalion, at Sutton Veney on the Salisbury Plains. Again, there would be further frustration waiting for a passage home to become available.

On July 13, 1919 he would set sail for Australia on HMAT Persic disembarking in Melbourne on August 29, 1919. He would be home in White Hills for his daughter’s first birthday.

Bombardier Stephen Huddle is remembered by the people of White Hills. The names of the local lads who sacrificed their lives and those that were fortunate to return from the Great War are shown on the embossed copper plaques on the White Hills Arch of Triumph, at the entrance to the Botanic Gardens.

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