CLUCAS, Stephen
| Service Number: | 1458 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 1 December 1914, Enlisted at the Bendigo Town Hall |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 8th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Creswick , 6 August 1896 |
| Home Town: | Bendigo, Greater Bendigo, Victoria |
| Schooling: | Bendigo School (Now known as Camp Hill) |
| Occupation: | Baker |
| Memorials: | Bendigo Central School Honor Roll, Bendigo Great War Roll of Honor |
World War 1 Service
| 1 Dec 1914: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 8th Infantry Battalion, Enlisted at the Bendigo Town Hall | |
|---|---|---|
| 2 Feb 1915: | Involvement Private, 1458, 8th Infantry Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '9' embarkation_place: Melbourne embarkation_ship: HMAT Clan McGillivray embarkation_ship_number: A46 public_note: '' | |
| 2 Feb 1915: | Embarked Private, 1458, 8th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Clan McGillivray, Melbourne | |
| 21 Sep 1917: | Honoured Military Medal, Menin Road, Recommendation ‘In the operations east of HOOGE on the evening of the 21st September, 1917, when telephone communication between Cable Head and that Brigade had been out by shell fire, Pte CLUCAS volunteered to take an important message through. He successfully carried out this task and returned with the reply under very heavy shell fire.’ Military Medal Source: Source: ‘Commonwealth Gazette' No.66 Dated May 2, 1918 |
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Add my storyBiography contributed by Jack Coyne
Stephen James CLUCAS
Military Medal
Recommendation-
‘In the operations east of HOOGE on the evening of the 21st September, 1917, when telephone communication between Cable Head and that Brigade had been out by shell fire, Pte CLUCAS volunteered to take an important message through. He successfully carried out this task and returned with the reply under very heavy shell fire.’
On the prior day to Stephen Clucas undertaking his dangerous run the battle known as Menin Road took place on September 20, 1917. The AIF suffered in excess of 5000 battle casualties, about one quarter of the total British loss for the battle. As always in these great artillery battles of the Western Front many deaths were caused by shelling.
The operations east of Hooge referred to in the above recommendation was a giant crater created by British and Dominion sappers who detonated one of the war’s largest mines under the German front line in 1916. Fighting ranged around this part of Flanders fields throughout the following two years of the war.
Stephen Clucas enlisted in Bendigo very early in the war, signing on at the Town Hall on December 1, 1914. Stephen had been born at Creswick, and was educated at the Central State School, and later the Bendigo Grammar School, and at the time of enlistment was employed in the Co-operative Distribution Society's bakery at Ironbark, being apprenticed as a baker.[1]
He left Australia with the second reinforcements, for the 8th Battalion embarking on February 2, 1915. From different reports in the Bendigo newspapers we can piece together that he was at the Gallipoli landing and spent three months there, been slightly wounded with bullet wound to the scalp on July 25, 1915 and had been disembarked at Malta for treatment.
Stephen Clucas would spend 6 months in Malta recovering before rejoining his unit back in Egypt and according to local newspaper caught up with his brother Henry in Cairo.[2] Both would join the large-scale transfer of Australian troops to the western front with Stephen disembarking in France on March 31, 1916. By June he was transferred to the 1st Australian Division Signals Company as a dispatch rider.
On August 18, 1916 he was wounded for a second time with a shell wound to left arm. Following a few weeks of treatment at Estaples in Northern France he rejoined his unit at the front again dispatching messages.
Stephen undertook his heroic action on September 21, as the Australian Divisions held on to ground gained in the Menin Road battle and various dreadful battles of Ypres. He would serve through 1918 and be given priority to return to Australia early as a ‘1914 man’.
Along with his brother Henry who received both a Military Medal and Distinguished Conduct Medal, the Clucas brothers returned to Australia.
SERVICE DETAILS:
Service Number: 1458
Born: Creswick, Victoria August 6, 1896
Address on Enlistment: 106 Mount Korong Road, Bendigo,
School: Central School (Now Camp Hill) Bendigo Grammar
Occupation: Baker
Age at Enlistment: 18
Enlistment date: December 1, 1914
Served: Gallipoli & Western Front.
Unit name 8th Battalion, 2nd Reinforcements & 1st Australian Division Signals Company.
Final Rank:
Fate: Returned to Australia 14 December 1918.
Military Medal Source: Source: ‘Commonwealth Gazette' No.66
Dated May 2, 1918
East of HOOGE on the evening of the 21st September, 1917.
C.E.W Bean described this day:-
‘In a clear, fine day, after digging in, the troops waited in their successive defence lines for the German counter-attack divisions, so effectively used at Arras. But most of the waiting men saw no sign of the these. Where and when they did so, front-line leaders fired the excellent firework then given to British infantry for their S.O.S signal, calling for the fire of their artillery-a rifle grenade bursting into a string of three lights suspended from a parachute. The dense barrages thus called down broke up any counter-attack troops that got through the bombardments earlier called for by the airman. Only at two-three points could the Germans even approach the British battlefront.’[3]
[1] Bendigoian Newspaper August 19, 1915. P.13 and Oct 10, 1918. P. 21. Trove.
[2] Bendigoian Newspaper, April 13, 1916.P.10 Conscription.
[3] Anzac to Amiens, C.E.W.Bean. Penguin Books.2014. P. 366-367
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