Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

# 4875 ROHWEDER John William                              9th / 26th Battalions
 
John Rohweder was born at Ipswich on 23rd March 1892. His Parents, Johann Wilhelm and Catharina had originally named their son Johann Wilhelm but rising anti-German sentiment at the outbreak of WW1 perhaps persuaded the family to anglicize their christian names. When John was still a boy, the Rohweder family moved to Esk where Johann worked as a carpenter and John attended Esk State School. When John left school around the age of 13, he began a four year apprenticeship with his father. Catharina Rohweder died in 1910 and was buried at Esk. By the time of the outbreak of war, Johann relocated his family to the Brisbane suburb if West End where John William continued to work as a carpenter.
 
John presented himself to the Brisbane Recruiting Depot in Adelaide Street on 2nd September 1915. He advised the officer he was 23 years old and gave his father as his next of kin. John stated he worked with his father as a carpenter. Once accepted into the AIF, John made his way to Enoggera where he was placed into the 15th reinforcements of the 9th Battalion. The reinforcements embarked in Brisbane on the “Commonwealth” on 28th March 1916. John had just turned 24. The reinforcements landed in Egypt a month later and went into camp at Tel el Kabir. In the early months of 1916, the AIF was undergoing an expansion to effectively double the size of the force from two divisions to four. This was achieved by splitting many of the original Gallipoli battalions to form the core for two battalions which would then have their numbers built up from the large pool of reinforcements.
 
While still at Tel el Kabir, John was hospitalised with mumps on 28th June, an infectious disease which was easily spread in the close confines of a troopship or barracks. He spent some time in an isolation ward before being moved to a convalescent camp at Alexandria. John was discharged on 10th July 1916, by which time most of the newly created battalions were at full strength or had already departed for the Western Front. Now surplus to requirements, John boarded the “Arcadia” in Alexandria on 29th July and arrived in England some eleven days later. While John had been at sea, the AIF had been involved in its first major action on the Somme. There would be a need for more reinforcements very soon.
 
John was sent to the 3rd Brigade Training Battalion at Perham Downs on Salisbury Plain for a month before crossing the English Channel to France and the 1st Division Infantry Base at Etaples on the French coast on 4th October. In November, John was reassigned to another battalion, the 26th Battalion, which he joined on 29th November. The severe winter of 1916/17 made offensive operations impossible and the British and German forces took the opportunity to replenish manpower and resources. Unbeknown to the British, the Germans took advantage of the lull in fighting to construct a 150 kilometre long defensive barrier, which they named the Seigfreid Position but the British labelled the Hindenburg Line, some distance to the east of their previous positions astride the Somme. With the coming of Spring, the German forces began a strategic withdrawal to this new position, the British forces, which included the Australians, cautiously followed, taking the towns of Bapaume and Noreuil along the way. At the end of March, the 7th Brigade of the AIF, which included the 26th Battalion, were ordered to take the village of Lagnicourt. John had just returned to his battalion from a Non-Commissioned Officer’s course and joined his fellow infantrymen of “A” Company.
 
The 26th Moved up to the staring tapes to be ready to move into the village at dawn on 26th March 1917. The Red Cross Wounded and Missing Inquiry Service heard from a number of witnesses who stated that John Rohweder was killed instantly when he was hit by sniper fire as he stood up. There was no report of a burial and the 26th had to withdraw later in the day leaving their dead behind. John had just turned 25.
 
Eventually, a small parcel of John’s belongings was conveyed to his father; including a gospel book, wallet, comb, photos and cards. Johann Rohweder was granted a pension of £1 per fortnight. By the time that service medals and memorial plaques were being distributed, Johann had died and John’s eldest surviving brother Heinrich received the medals and plaque. John Rohweder’s remains were never recovered. His family had an inscription commemorating John added to his mother’s headstone in the Esk cemetery.
In 1938, some 20 years after the end of the First World War, the Australian Government constructed the Australian National Memorial at Villers Bretonneux. The memorial was dedicated by the newly crowned King George VI and records the names of over 10,000 Australian soldiers who lost their lives in France and have no known grave; John Rohweder among them.