Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Horace Waterman Unit Diaries

Introduction

Horace Waterman was born on the 14th of December 1887 in Ealing, England. Although he later moved to South Australia where he lived in  ”Sunny Side” Devonshire, Walkersville. He was next of kin to Mrs. Rosamond Waterman. He did not serve in the military before and therefore was never discharged from the military. Horace Waterman was also never convicted by civil power. His trade was as a plasterer although he did not serve apprenticeship.

Before the war

When Britain declared war on Germany in August 1914, as a dominion of the British Empire, Australia was also at war. The outbreak of hostilities were greeted with enthusiasm by the Australian public. Horace Waterman was among the more than 330,000 Australians, including 3,000 nurses, who volunteered to serve overseas between 1914 and 1918. An extraordinary number from a population of under five million. Their wartime journeys took them to far-flung battlefields at Gallipoli, on the Western Front and in the Middle East. For the ANZACs the adventure was to become a nightmare. In the quagmire that was Belgium and Northern France – where over 295,000 Australians served – 46,000 lost their lives and over 130,000 were wounded.

During the War

Horace Waterman departed Adelaide, South Australia on the troopship HMAT Aeneas on 11 April 1916, when Australia had been at war for 612 days. ‘HMAT’ stood for ‘His Majesty’s Australian Transport’ and HMAT Aeneas was one of many ships requisitioned by the government for wartime service transporting the troops, over 139,000 horses and the odd kangaroo. Horace and the

other volunteers were bound

for Egypt and beyond where they would make final preparations for war. Most had never ventured out of their home state and were looking forward to the “adventure of a lifetime”. Many of the troopships that departed from the eastern seaboard stopped at King George Sound in Albany, or further up the coast at Fremantle, where they took-on supplies. For some of the troops, the WA coastline would be their last view of Australia. The epic four-week voyage across the Indian Ocean to Egypt has been described as “the longest journey to war in the history of the world”. On-board, Officers organised rigorous training drills and exercise sessions for the men. They were expected to do their own washing, sweep the decks and carry out other chores. Three hearty meals a day were served; breakfast usually consisted of porridge, stew and tea. Lunch included soup, meat, vegetables and pudding. Meat, bread with jam and tea was served for dinner. Many of the troops experienced bouts of seasickness on the voyage. To alleviate boredom, sports carnivals were held with boxing matches, pillow fights and wheelbarrow races. The crossing the Equator ceremony, ‘Neptune’s Journey,’ was played-out on each troopship. HMAT Aeneas, with Horace and his mates on-board, arrived at Aden before sailing up the Suez Canal to Egypt – a land that had seen more armies than almost any other. It was here, in the shadow of the pyramids, that the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps would be first grouped together under the now hallowed acronym ‘ANZAC’. The Australians travelled to camps at Maadi on the Nile and Mena, situated near the pyramids of Giza. The training was arduous: marching through sand, digging and attacking trenches for eight hours a day, six days a week. From mid-1916, many of the Australian troops continued on to England where they trained at camps on the Salisbury Plains, near Stonehenge. Here they prepared for trench warfare on the Western Front, including training with new types of weapons and learning how to deal with poison gas attacks. Others completed their training in Egypt and sailed directly to Marseille, joining their units in Northern France and Belgium.

After the war

At 11am on 11 November 1918, Germany signed the Armistice that would bring the war to an end. In cities and towns across Australia people celebrated in the streets. After the war had ended Mr Waterman returned home to his  home in Walkerville where his wife and his newborn child ‘Horace Edmund Herbert Waterman’ awaited him.

Works Cited

“5th Infantry Battalion.” Vwma.org.au, 2013, vwma.org.au/explore/units/213.

“AWM4 Subclass 23/22 - 5th Infantry Battalion.” Www.awm.gov.au, www.awm.gov.au/collection/C1339163. Accessed 30 Mar. 2023.

“Horace WATERMAN.” Vwma.org.au, vwma.org.au/explore/people/193497. Accessed 30 Mar. 2023.