Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

On August 7th 1886, fifty years after South Australia was proclaimed a colony, John and Elizabeth Hutchinson welcomed the arrival of their tenth child and sixth son, Angus George, born to them at Inman Valley in the Fleurieu Peninsula of South Australia. As he grew up, Angus became known to everyone as ‘Alec’. In 1990 he moved with his parents to live and work at Balaklava in the North of S.A.
After the First World War broke out on August 4th 1914, only three days short of his 28th birthday, Angus was soon caught up in the patriotic sentiment which swept the country and he hitch hiked from Clare, where he was then working, down to Adelaide to join the Armed Forces. Nearest to kin was listed as his sister Annie Emma Jane Porker, Lameroo SA.

Allocated Service number 1177, he embarked from Melbourne on 6th June 1916 on the ship HMAT Wandilla. The HMAS Wandilla was one of several Adelaide Steamship Company vessels requisitioned for military service. The ship was initially used as a troop transport and delivered Australian soldiers to Europe. In July 1916, the vessel was converted into a hospital ship, and while serving as a hospital ship, she was torpedoed by a U-boat in February 1918, although the torpedo failed to explode. The Wandilla was at the time manned by Australian officers and crews. It was on this ship as a member of the 3rd Pioneers, Alec went to England and France where he served as an officer’s cook.

On leave one day in England he met Miss Emily Scott from Stoke Hammond, 60 kilometres north of London. After the war years, Angus and Emily married in England on June 28th 1919. On returning to Australia, he settled with his bride back at Lower Inman Valley in the area in which he had grown up.

With assistance from the Soldiers Settlement Scheme, they built a four room house on a single concrete slab. There was no passageway, just a bedroom and kitchen on one side, then a step up wooden floor to the lounge and another bedroom. The wood stove in the kitchen performed many functions for our pioneering families. As well as warming the home, baking bread and roasts and cooking the daily meals, it always had a kettle of water heated ready for a visitors cuppa.