Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Son of Harry William Darby and Sarah Brisbane Darby of Cross Road, Kingswood, South Australia, John Eustice Darby (known by friends as Jack) was a natural born British subject with an average build for a man of his time and age. He had a medium complexion, dark hair and grey eyes. He was born on the 5th of May 1894 in the coastal town of Streaky Bay, South Australia. He followed the religion of the Church of England and took the occupation of a bank clerk. John had previous military experience where he served in the citizen forces in the 14th Battalion for 6 months before he was exempted.
 
 
Darby enlisted as a Private in Adelaide on the 18th of December 1916 at the age of 23 and was single at the time. His enlistment was accepted and he was given the regimental number of 38131.
 
To train for his journey ahead, he was sent to the Mitchem Training Camp, Adelaide, as a Private. His training there lasted for a short 2 weeks between the 2nd and 16th of January 1917. After his training period ended, he was put into the 9th Reinforcements in the 48th Battalion as a Private. A matter of days later, Darby was shifted into the Field Artillery Brigade where he then gained experience at the Field Artillery Reinforcements Camp in Maribyrnong. He was put into the Field Artillery Brigade, 31st Reinforcements after roughly 7 months of training from the 10th of March 1917 to the 3rd of September 1917.
 
Darby’s training was cut short when he was infected with influenza on the 3rd of September 1917 during his time training at Maribyrnong and was admitted to Olearing Hospital in Maribyrnong. On the same day he was transferred to the 16th Australian General Hospital, Mont Park in Macleod where he was given further treatment. He was discharged from the hospital on the 24th of September 1917. Due to his sickness, he was transferred to the Invalids 3rd Military District where he remained until he was of good health once again, resulting in him being transferred back to the Field Artillery Reinforcements Camp, Maribyrnong, on the 27th of September 1917, where he trained for a further 5 weeks.
 
Less than a year after Darby’s enlistment, he embarked from Melbourne aboard the HMAT A15 Port Sydney on the 9th of November 1917, as a part of the 31st Reinforcements Field Artillery Brigade. Arriving in Suez Canal he disembarked on the 12th of December 1917. The conditions in Suez were tough on the soldiers which required them to train for 8 hours, 6 days a week. The training was fairly basic being the old British Army training, marching up and down the sand dunes (“Training camps; Egypt”, 1914-1915). The 31st Reinforcements Field Artillery Brigade then continued on their journey embarking from Alexandria, Egypt on the 18th of December 1917 to Taranto, Italy. Darby disembarked at Southampton on the 5th of January 1918 where he was promoted to Gunner. His new role as a gunner would require him to control the guns which were the most devastating weapon and biggest killer in all of the war. The last bit of training for Darby was at the Heytesbury Training Camp before travelling to France via Southampton on the 15th of April 1918.  
 
 
Darby marched into Rouelles, France with the 3rd D.A.C (Division Ammunition Column) on the 18th of April 1918. His role was to supply and feed chains of ammunition into the artillery. Ammunition was one of the most crucial things in the war so it was a very important job. In this division he stayed until the 5th of September 1918 when he was promoted to the 7th F.A.B (Field Artillery Brigade) where he stayed until the end of the war on the 11th of November 1918.
 
The 7th F.A.B was made to support the 3rd division on the 17th of March 1916. Casualties within Darby’s brigade were not heavy considering the nature of the fighting. When Darby was a part of the 7th F.A.B he was actively using artillery, making him a gunner.
 
 “Last night I was on the gun and am still here. We have had a busy day of it- have fired hundreds of rounds and am feeling very knocked up now. The noise was something frightful and my ears are tingling now from the effects. We were going hard for over three hours. These stunts don’t come to often otherwise I’m afraid that our ears would have a hard time. As it was we had to put cotton wool in them to stop them from bleeding” (Lyall, 1916)
This was a letter written by Australian gunner, Bill Lyall, to his wife on the 18th of June 1916. This letter speaks for itself in saying that life as a gunner was difficult, tiring and included hearing the constant sound of shells being fired over and over at rapid rates.
 
 
After slightly more than 8 months of service, Darby embarked for England on the 9th of April 1919. He was granted leave with pay and subsistence in England where he attended a branch of the Bank of Adelaide, in London. An arranged banking course was taken by Darby which was planned to go for a three-month period between the 25th of April 1919 to the 25th of July 1919. However, after Darby completed only five weeks of the course with the bank, the course was cancelled on the 2nd of June 1919 at his own request in view of early repatriation. Darby embarked on "The Karmala" in London back to Australia on the 1st of July 1919 and reached Australia on the 14th of August 1919. He was formally discharged from the military on the 7th of September 1919 being medically fit and without injury.
 
John Eustice Darby continued his work as a banker and was promoted to bank manager where he was required to do a lot of travelling around the Yorke and Eyre Peninsula. Darby went on to marry Mary Galdys Darby where they met while both in the military where Mary was a driver. Unfortunately, they were unable to have children which led them to seek out other options to start a family when they came across adoption. John and Mary adopted Bessie Anne Potter when she was about three to four years old, from a town on the Eyre Peninsula after a generous family who happened to be friends of theirs, gave her up as they already had a lot of children. The family of three moved to the city of Adelaide after John had retired from his bank manager position and there Bessie was sent to school. Mary died in her 70’s after being bedbound for years after an intense stroke.
 
John Eustice Darby died at the age of 86 in 1981 of natural causes and was buried at Centennial Park Cemetery, Pasadena Mitcham, South Australia. John Eustice Darby has also been mentioned on an honour board on the main street of Cleve, South Australia in the town hall.
 
John Eustice Darby showed the qualities of courage, mateship and sacrifice, all of which make up ANZAC (Australian New Zealand Army Corps) Spirit. ANZAC Spirit is the concept of the positive characteristics and attributes that the Australian and New Zealand soldiers showed when fighting during WW1.
 
Darby showed the ANZAC Spirit through his courage. He showed great courage when he enlisted in the first place. He enlisted in late 1916 meaning that it was possible that he had heard stories about the war and how deadly and dangerous it really was, however, he enlisted despite knowing this. Darby also showed courage while in his role as part of the 3rd D.A.C where he was required to collect ammunition for the artillery which was a dangerous task as especially near the front line, the ammunition dumps were priority targets for enemy’s guns.
 
Darby showed the ANZAC Spirit through his mateship. He showed great mateship when he was transferred from the 3rd D.A.C to the 7th F.A.B and being able to form new friendships despite being separated from a brigade he had been with for more than 5 months. The ANZACS were known throughout the whole war and even still today to show great mateship.
 
Darby showed the ANZAC Spirit through his endurance. He showed endurance in the sense that he pushed through difficult conditions, especially in the Winter as there was rainfall which resulted in thick mud, being very difficult to walk through and there was the risk of drowning in it. The living conditions in the trenches were terribly dirty and full of disease. Darby along with other soldiers also lived in fear of an enemy attack where he showed endurance and persistence. Conditions weren’t just bad in the trenches, the training camps and even the boats were nothing like what Darby was used to back in Australia. The training camp at Suez Canal involved long training periods without rest.
 
 
·     Darby, M 2017, John Eustice Darby, aka 'Jack', Geni, accessed 24 March 2019, <https://www.geni.com/people/John-Darby-aka-Jack/6000000070343269821#/tab/timeline>.
·     VWMA n.d., Virtual War Memorial Australia, Australian War memorial, Australia, accessed 24 March 2019, <https://vwma.org.au>.
·     UNSW Australia n.d., The AIF project, Canberra, accessed 24 March 2019, <https://www.aif.adfa.edu.au/showPerson?pid=72201>.
·     National archives of Australia 1999, Record search, Australian government, Canberra, accessed 24 March 2019, <https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/DetailsReports/ItemDetail.aspx?Barcode=3486971&isAv=N>.
·     Australian war memorial n.d., AWM4 Class 13 - Artillery, Australian government, Canberra, accessed 24 March 2019, <https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C1338644>.
·     WW1 facts n.d., Life in the trenches, accessed 24 March 2019, <http://ww1facts.net/the-land-war/life-in-the-trenches/>.
·     Pearson history S.B 2012, Rachel Ford, Melbourne, Victoria.