Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Driver Edwin Hall  SN3633 

Edwin Hall enlisted at the recruitment centre in Oaklands, Adelaide on January 14, 1915. At the time he and his wife Emma were living in Broken Hill where he was a miner. He states he was born in Bendigo and lists his contact address at his mother’s address as ‘Gotland” McCrae st, Bendigo. Edwin was 27 years of age on enlistment and is given the rank of ‘Driver’ the same as ‘Private’.

It is not known whether Edwin intentionally joined the Ambulance corp or whether he was just allotted to it. Typically Battalions reinforcement drafts provided personnel for the Field Ambulance so numbers of South Australians from the 27th Battalion served in the 7th Field Ambulance. The 7th Field Ambulance supported the 7th Brigade of the 2nd Division which comprised the 25th (Qld) 26th (Qld / Tas)  27th (SA) and 28th (WA) Battalions. (See the role of 7th Field Ambulance on this RSL Virtual Memorial website - https://rslvirtualwarmemorial.org.au/explore/units/341 )

After training in the Adelaide camp he would embark with the 27th Battalion and the other Medical units for war on May 31, 1915 on the HMAT Geelong A2.  (See farewell for 27th Battalion on - https://rslvirtualwarmemorial.org.au/explore/units/2)

After Edwin lands in Egypt, the 7th Brigade including the 7th Field Ambulance embarks from Alexandria to join the (MEF) Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, for Gallipoli on September 4, 1915.

‘The AIF 7th Brigade Field Ambulance landed at Gallipoli in early September to find in addition to enemy action, by this late stage of the campaign, poor hygiene and sanitation had begun to take its toll in the form of quite serious disease such as enteric fever (typhoid) and other maladies resulting in many evacuations, some right back to Australia. As winter approached so plans for an evacuation were put in place and the ANZAC troops were withdrawn in perhaps the most successful phase of the entire campaign in the most difficult phase of war. Effecting a clean break without detection and exploitation by the Turks was achieved masterfully.

The unit stayed on the Peninsula until ordered to evacuate in the second week of December. Edwin survived 4 and half months on those fateful cliffs serving in his valuable role. The next entry on Edwin's record has him reporting back for duty at Heliopolis in Tel el Kebir, Egypt on January 12, 1916.

He would spend 2 months back in Egypt and leave Alexandria on the troop ship ‘Minneapolis’ on March 14, a five-day sea journey bound for the southern French port of Marseilles.

As with his time in Gallipoli, there are limited entries covering Edwin's service in the 1916. We know from diaries of members of the 7th Field Ambulance that the Unit moved where they were needed and between April and October 1916 alone they set up camp at Bailleul, Bore, Renescure, Amiens, Vaux, Albert, Vignacourt, Herissart, Valdencourt, Brickfields and Becourt Chateaux. (Source - http://blogs.slq.qld.gov.au/ww1/2015/08/18/richard-keen-7th-field-ambulance/

The second Division were sent into the Somme valley in April 1916, surviving treacherous campaigns at Pozieres in August, Mouquet Farm in September and then Ypres in October. Edwin and his colleagues would endue a bitterly cold winter at the end of 1916 / 1917, the worst in living memory, and the conditions there took their toll; more than 20,000 casualties across the Australian Divisions.  Logistics were a nightmare made worse by the mud, which had come to characterise the battlefield. (Source -https://rslvirtualwarmemorial.org.au/explore/units/2

After nearly 10 months service in the some of the most horrific battles of the entire war, Edwin would be granted leave in January 1917 to sail to England and would enter hospital at the Parkhouse depot, where Army Service Corps, Engineers, Signallers and Army Medical Corps were all located (photograph). He would be in and out of hospital over the next four months being cleared to leave again for France on June 14, 1917 via Southampton. The next day, he is ‘Marched In’ at the depot town of Roulle in Northern France and rejoins the 2nd Division Army medical Corp a few days later.

He would initially have a temporary attachment to the 6th Australian Field Ambulance unit before rejoining the 7th Field Ambulance and on October 11, 1917.

Two weeks later on October 24, he would be severely ‘Wounded in Action’ in the Right thigh possibly at Reninghelst in Belgium in the protracted battle of Ypres. The exact location of where he is wounded is not recorded. The official AIF Unit diary records on that day, October 24, 1917 that a Staff Sergeant Henry John Anderson is killed and four other ranks are wounded. (see page attached) The 7th Field Ambulance diary also shows that they have taken over the Reninghelst School house for most of that October.

Following his serious wounding, Edwin is first transferred to the 5th General Hospital at the ancient French city of Rouen on the Seine river in Northern France. Four days later in transferred to a hospital in Birmingham in England. Edwin would spend the next seven and half months recuperating in various hospitals and at the Dartford, Hurdcoott and Weymouth camps in England. He would eventually be cleared to return to Australia and embark for Australia on July 31, 1918.  He would disembark at Melbourne on September 28, 1918 after nearly two months at sea for onward overland travel to Adelaide.

He would be discharged from the Army on January 7, 1919. He would be awarded all three medals including the 1914/15 Star issued to only those who served in Gallipoli.

Driver Edwin Hall 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 White Hills Botanic Gardens.

Edwin Hall died in 1955 and is buried White Hills Cemetery, Victoria.