Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

# 1993 WEILER Albert                        15th Battalion
Albert Weiler was born at St Pancras in London to parents Arnold and Selina Weiler. At some point, Albert served in the British Navy for 18 months during which time he acquired tattoos on both forearms. It is uncertain when Albert emigrated to Queensland as his name does not appear on the data base of Queensland immigrants; either because he landed first in another state/colony or because he landed in Brisbane after 1912.
Albert was employed at the Nestle and Anglo Swiss Condensed Milk Factory in Toogoolawah when war broke out. It appears that his father was living in Hendra in Brisbane at this time and he had a brother, William, working in the hospital at Warwick. Albert enlisted in Brisbane on 16th March 1915. He told the recruiters that he was 26 years old (actually 25 and 11 months) and curiously named his mother of Castle Road, St Pancras as his next of kin, even though it appears his father was living in Brisbane. Once accepted into the AIF, Albert reported to Enoggera Camp where he was taken on by the 5th Reinforcements of the 15th Battalion. One month later, the reinforcements embarked for overseas on the “Kyarra.” The embarkation roll shows that Albert had made no allocation of his 5/- a day pay to either his parents or a bank account. This was most unusual.
The official record does not record when Albert landed in Egypt but it was probably around the middle of May 1915. The battalion war diary records that 113 ordinary ranks from the 5th reinforcements landed at Anzac Cove on 23rd June; Albert Presumedly among them. The 15th Battalion was part of the 4th Brigade which in conjunction with the New Zealand contingent made up the Australian and New Zealand Division. The brigade commander was Colonel John Monash. On 7th July, Albert reported to the Lowlands Casualty Clearing Station with diarrhoea; which was endemic throughout the Anzac front. He was evacuated to the stationary hospital on the island of Lemnos and rejoined his unit at the end of the month. In early August, Base Records in Melbourne received two letters from Messrs Ball and Munro of the Nestle Condensory at Toogoolawah asking that their correspondence be forwarded to Albert Weiler. When their letters reached the front, they were returned unopened.
The frontline in the Anzac Sector had not progressed any further than the positions occupied on the first day of the landing. Lieutenant General William Birdwood (Birdie), the British Commander at Anzac, was under some pressure to secure a breakthrough to the heights above the beach-head. The ultimate goal was the commanding hill named Chunuk Bair and in early August, a series of coordinated attacks was planned to drive the Turks from the high ground.  The first of these offensives (a diversion really) was the attack on Lone Pine followed by a second landing of British troops at Suvla to the north of the Anzac positions.
 
The main offensive was planned for the northern sector of the Anzac beachhead which entailed an advance at night along the beach road before turning inland to scale a series of ridges towards the heights of Hill 971 also known as Sari Bair. The 4th Brigade would be part of this action on 7th/8th August. As was often the case at Anzac, the planning did not live up to expectations and the 4th Brigade soon found themselves lost in the dark in a bewildering tangle of gullies; primarily due to a reliance on Greek guides rather than the maps which had been issued. Two days of skirmishing among the thorny scrub was unable to bring about a creditable outcome and with casualties mounting, Monash as Brigade Commander ordered a retirement. The 15th battalion war diary records that during the 8th August offensive, eight officers and one hundred ordinary ranks were killed, with another one hundred missing (most of whom were never seen again). Amongst those killed was Albert Weiler.
 
Albert’s body was recovered and carried to the 7th Field Ambulance Cemetery located about a kilometre north of Anzac Cove. In an administrative oversight, Albert’s date of death was recorded incorrectly as 18thAugust 1915, which became part of the official record. When the error was uncovered, it was deemed easier to accept the error than to attempt to alter an official document. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission website correctly lists the date of death as 8th August. When grave recovery teams returned to Turkey in 1919, no trace of many of the graves supposedly in the 7th FA cemetery could be found. Instead, a monument was erected with a list of names “believed to be buried in this cemetery.” The inscription on the monument reads THEIR GLORY SHALL NOT BE BLOTTED OUT.
 
In the 1920s, Selina Weiler left London to live with her husband at Hendra. In 1967, the Australian Government, rather belatedly, announced that it would issue a Gallipoli Medallion to those men who were original Anzacs or to their next of kin if no longer living. Miss Eliza Weiler (the last surviving sibling of Albert Weiler) wrote to the authorities and received a medallion (the medallion was not an official medal and therefore could not be worn) on behalf of her brother.