SADLER, Ernest Roderick
| Service Number: | 2386 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | Not yet discovered |
| Last Rank: | Sapper |
| Last Unit: | 2nd Signal Squadron, AIF |
| Born: | Surry Hills, New South Wales, Australia, 11 November 1889 |
| Home Town: | Taree, Greater Taree, New South Wales |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Railway Employee (Night Officer) |
| Died: | Pyrexia, Syria, 18 October 1918, aged 28 years |
| Cemetery: |
Damascus Commonwealth War Cemetery, Syria |
| Memorials: | Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Haymarket NSW Government Railway and Tramway Honour Board, Inverell & District Memorial Olympic Pool WW1 Honour Roll, Inverell War Memorial |
World War 1 Service
| 3 May 1916: | Involvement Private, 2386, 6th Light Horse Regiment, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '2' embarkation_place: Sydney embarkation_ship: HMAT Hymettus embarkation_ship_number: A1 public_note: '' | |
|---|---|---|
| 3 May 1916: | Embarked Private, 2386, 6th Light Horse Regiment, HMAT Hymettus, Sydney | |
| 9 Jul 1918: | Transferred AIF WW1, Sapper, 2nd Signal Squadron, AIF |
Help us honour Ernest Roderick Sadler's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.
Add my storyBiography contributed by John Oakes
Ernest Roderick SADLER (Service Number 2386) was born on 11th November 1889 at Surry Hills. He commenced work for the NSW Government Railways as a probationer in the Traffic Branch in the Junee District on 8th November 1905. The next year he had progressed to be a junior porter in which role he remained until April 1912. He then became a night officer at Bomen. In August he was a 3rd class shunter at Stockinbingal. In February he was a clerk at Taree. He returned to the role of night officer (at Taree) in November 1914. He was released from duty to join the Expeditionary Forces on 21st August 1915 although he had enlisted at Warwick Farm Depot ten days before.
On his Attestation Papers he gave his ‘Trade of Calling’ as ‘Railway Employee’ and as his next of kin, his father who was the Postmaster at Taree on the Manning River. He was allotted to the 16th Reinforcements to the 6th Light Horse. He embarked HMAT ‘Hymettus’ at Sydney on 3rd May 1916 and reached Egypt a few weeks later. He was taken on the strength of the 2nd Light Horse Training Regiment at Tel-el-Kebir on 27th June. In July he was posted to the Signallers but returned to the Light Horse in October and was then immediately posted to Schools of Instruction in Signalling at Moascar and Alexandria. In December and January he was treated at the 17th General Hospital for a venereal disease. This disrupted his study and forcied him to complete the work in the next cycle.
He was taken on the strength of the 4th Signal Troop at Ferry Post on 18th February 1917.
He was hospitalised with tonsillitis on 19th May 1917. After a series of admissions and transfers it was 7th July before he re-joined his unit.
On 14th July he was charged with creating a disturbance and refusing to obey an order given by the Military Police at Camp DaCassar. His punishment was being deprived of two days pay..
In September he was detached to General Headquarters Signal Company for training. He was taken on the strength of the Australian Airline Section, part of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force. He remained serving in this unit at Alexandria for ten months until he transferred to the 2nd Signal Squadron on 9th July 1918. On 13th October 1918 he was taken to hospital with Pyrexia NYD, [fever not yet diagnosed.
He died of Malaria at the German Hospital in Damascus (Syria) on 18th October. 1918 He was buried at Damascus West Cemetery by Chaplain H K Gordon.
Sapper W. Anderson stated:
‘Ernie was a cobber of mine and I was with him all the time for about three years and was with him just before he died. He was very bad with dysentery when I last saw him. He was going about for a long time crook and was hanging on in the hopes that he he’d get better without having to go to hospital. It wasn’t many days after he went to Hospital before he died.
L/Cpl. Higgings of the 2nd Signal Squadron was with him right through his illness and told me all about it. ‘Ernie’ thought of his home a lot and always looked forward to the time when he could go to home. He often used to talk about his home. Higgings wrote home to Ernie’s people telling them all about his death and he also collected all Ernie’s things and sent them on. I think he sent a photo of the grave too. He gave me a photo of the grave too but I lost my wallet with it in. Ernie was a medium size chap, fair, and was in the Railway at Manning. His father was in the Postal Dept as far as I can remember him saying – at Armidale, N.S.W.
Ernie was very well liked – a good sport – full of life – always happy go lucky – always had a cheery smile – and always thought a lot of home. I think he was engaged to a girl on the Manning River but I am not too sure – anyway he often used to think about a girl he left behind and was a great man for making out plans of what he was going to do when he got home.
He died at the Military Hospital at Damascus and is buried a Damascus. I never saw his grave but L/Cpl. Higgings of 2nd Signal Squadron went and saw it and took a photo of it.’
- based on the Australian War Memorial Honour Roll and notes for the Great Sydney Central Station Honour Board