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Australia

Ernest was the son of William ABERNETHY & Jessie REID and was born on the 4th of January 1873
He was baptised on the 21st of March 1873 in St Paul’s Church, Pt Adelaide

His parents were married on the 18th of July 1872 at the residence of Jessie’s mother, in Lefevre Peninsula, SA.

His father was the son of Andrew ABERNETHY & Barbara JOHNSON and was born on the 24th of March 1844 in Clousta, Shetland, Shetland Isles, Scotland.
His mother was the daughter of James REID & Margaret FERGUSON and was born in 1848 in Melbourne.

Ernest was the eldest child born into this family of 5 children.

His father was a 22 year old seaman on board the Star of Hope which arrived in Port Adelaide on the 16th of October 1865 from Liverpool. Also on board was Ernest’s uncle, James (aged 30).
His father was described as being of stout build, thick neck and a brown beard.
When the ship was ready to sail in early November, the 2 brothers had deserted and a warrant was issued for there arrest.

The following year William and James had gained employment as crew on the mail boat Mercury.
On the 6th of September 1867 they were on board the Mercury with Pilot McPherson, Mr. Harvey, Abraham Hanson, Henry Sing and Edward Amory.
Edward Amory was the coxswain and in charge on the mail boat.

The south-west wind was blowing strong and there was a heavy sea just off of Semaphore.
They had sailed and set the sail with a single reef and lowered the lug, when they saw the steamer Coorong near the outer bar.
They were then about two miles from the steamer and lay to on the Port tack and approached the Coorong on the Port side.
The Coorong was west-north-west the crew of the Mercury remained hove-to until the Coorong came close to.
Pilot McPherson was steering and had charge of the Mercury.
When about 100 yards from the Coorong Pilot McPherson said “she will run through us, hoist the lug”.
The Mercury was then athwart the Coorong’s course and the crew of the Mercury saw the only chance for safety was to cross her bows to the westward. On hoisting the lug the boat did not move and the tack was not hauled down.

Some eight or ten seconds then elapsed during this time and they did not notice any one on the deck of the Coorong.
They did not hail the Coorong or notice that she was blowing off steam.
The Coorong was going seven or eight knots and they could not see anyone on her bridge.
The Coorong ran over the Mercury about 16 feet from the stern of the boat and went clean through the Mercury, even the oars were cut in two.

As a result of the accident all the crew on the Mercury were thrown into the sea with Pilot McPherson and James Abernethy being drowned.
The Coorong went ahead 200 to 300 yards before she stopped and put round.
Amory went under the ship's bottom and saw that the screw on the Coorong was not stopped and a piece was cut out of boat's stern 3 feet by 4 feet.

The Coorong’s boats picked them out of the water, Pilot McPherson was seen on a piece of the wreck inshore, but James was no where to be seen.
The bodies of Pilot McPherson and James Abernethy were never recovered.

An inquest into the accident was held on the 17th of September by the Marine Board.

William applied for wages due to his brother, but payment was refused.

Ernest’s mother was the daughter of Pilot James Read who was employed by the coast service and was in charge of small vessels.

Ernest grew up in Mead Street, Lefevre Peninsula (now Peterhead) and on completing his schooling Ernest gained employment as a labourer with Mr. John Reid.
On the 23rd of July 1887 Ernest was sent to Messrs. Harrison & Co.'s Mill to get a bag of bran.
The bag was lowered down a shute and came with such force, that Ernest could not resist it and the bag caught him just below the his knee and broke his leg.
Ernest was admitted into the Port Adelaide Casualty Hospital and had his leg set.

On the 28th of December 1902 Alexander McGorm hired a boat, from Mr W Tabor of Birkenhead and asked Roderick Grant, William Parsons and Ernest to go for a sail on the Port River.
William Parsons was the landlord of the Exmouth Hotel, Glanville.

They left the Dunniker ferry steps, on the Birkenhead side, at 3.30pm and the wind was then blowing in gusts.

Alexander McGorm was accustomed to sailing the boat for days at a time.
She was a double ended, sharp vessel, about l8 ft. long, and carried a jib and a mainsail, to which a boom was affixed and was commonly known as a “Scandinavian”.

Alexander, who was in charge of the vessel, steered her and they ran down the river without tacking.
They were in mid-channel, between the kerosene store and the torpedo station, abreast of Snowden's Beach and a stiff breeze was blowing.

The main-sheet was right out and running free at the time and the vessel was lying over a little, but nothing to speak of.
Alexander was on the port side of the tiller and William and Roderick were close alongside him, while Ernest was in the bow of the boat bending a flag on the halyards.

A slight puff came, the boat shipped a little water amidships, heeled over quickly, and capsized.
Ernest had his back to the other three when suddenly he went by the board on the starboard side and fell into the water with the others.

Ernest swam round the bow of the boat to the port side and Roderick called out, "All hang to the boat,'' as Ernest had just put his hand on her, and she sank almost immediately.

Alexander said, "I can't swim, don't leave me."
Ernest took hold of Alexander by the shoulder and struggled along for a time, but Alexander pulled him under the water twice, and Ernest then had to let go.
Ernest saw no more of Alexander and then struck out for the shore.
No boats were near them at the time of the disaster.

An inquest was held at the Port Admiral Hotel by the City Coroner (Dr. W. Ramsay Smith), the following day into the circumstances surrounding the death of William and Alexander.

The jury, without retiring, brought in a verdict of drowning by the accidental capsizing of the boat.
They added a rider commending Ernest for his heroic attempt to save the life of Alexander.

Ernest later became a horse driver and his father gained employment with the Harbours Board.

At the age of 43, Ernest enlisted into the 1st AIF on the 14th of February 1916 in Adelaide and allotted the service number 9584 and posted to C Company, 2nd Depot Battalion in Exhibition Camp.

He was then transferred to the newly raised 11th Field Company Engineers as a Driver in Mitcham Camp.
Ernest embarked from Outer Harbour, Adelaide, on board HMAT Suevic on the 31st of May 1916, along with the 11th Australian Field Ambulance.
He disembarked in Plymouth for further training before proceeding to France.

Sadly, whilst he was in France his mother died on the 9th of June 1918 at their home in Mead Street, Peterhead and the family buried her in the Cheltenham Cemetery.

Ernest suffered Bronchopneumonia in November 1918 and was invalided back to England and then returned to Australia on the 6th of May 1919.

Two days later Ernest purchased a home at 10 Ruby Street, Peterhead (known as the Gold Diggings Village) and the following month he was discharged from the AIF on the 22nd of June 1919.

Ernest gained employment as a laborer and remained in his home for the rest of his life.

In August 1950 he was admitted into the Wallingford Private Hospital, North Walkerville and was then admitted into the Adelaide Hospital on the 14th of August.

Ernest died on the 18th of August 1950 in the Adelaide Hospital and was buried 3 days later in the Cheltenham Cemetery; Section K, Drive C, Path 7(18), Site 260AS.

Military

At the age of 43, Ernest enlisted into the 1st AIF on the 14th of February 1916 in Adelaide and allotted the service number 9584 and posted to C Company, 2nd Depot Battalion in Exhibition Camp.
He listed his mother, of Mead Street, Peterhead, as his next of kin.

On the 16th of March Ernest was transferred to the newly raised 11th Field Company Engineers as a Driver in Mitcham Camp.
Headquarters and No.1 & 2 sections of the 11th Field Company Engineers were raised in South Australian with 2 sections raised in Queensland.
The sections were trained separately with QLD training at Enoggera, near Brisbane until 29th of April when the Company concentrated at Mitcham.

Work was then carried on with the full Company, at the same time stores and equipment were slowly collected. Horses were issued from the remount depot, not for overseas service but for training purposes, but proved so wild as to give the drivers more practice in colt-breaking and riding buck jumpers than in the routine of military horse mastership and drill.

They were issued with green leather infantry equipment, but this was afterwards changed in England for web.
No rifles were issued until the unit reached England.

Ernest embarked from Outer Harbour, Adelaide, on board HMAT Suevic on the 31st of May 1916, along with the 11th Australian Field Ambulance.

After a rough trip round the Lleuwin the “Suevic” arrived at Fremantle on the 6th of June and embarked the 44th Battalion.
Crossing the Indian Ocean the Suevic sprung a small leak which necessitated calling at Durban on the 21st of June for the services of a diver.
The stay was only 24 hours, but they had a route march through the town.

Cape Town was reached on the 24th of June, the yellow flag was flown and no leave was granted, but the troops had a route march and a sports meeting, before sailing 3 days later.
The next port of call was St. Vincent, which they reached on the 11th of July and again, no one was allowed on shore.
The run from there was through the submarine zone and the pontoons of the Company first saw service being installed on the boat deck as emergency lifeboats.

Unfortunately, 2 days later, Driver John Edward Norgren died of pneumonia in the ships hospital and was buried at sea.
Finally, after a long voyage, during which there was a considerable amount of sickness they disembarked on the 21st of July at Plymouth.
They entrained to Amesbury and marched to Camp 20, Lark Hill, Salisbury Plains, joining up with the 3rd Australian Division.

Before commencing training, they received 4 days disembarkation leave, which was keenly enjoyed after the confinement and discomfort of the troopship.

Work had barely started at Lark Hill before orders were received to proceed to Brightlingsea, in Essex, for pontoon training, in the Engineer depot there. As no camp was available, all ranks were billeted on the townspeople, and were the first Australians to visit the place.
The visit, originally intended to last only until efficiency had been reached in pontooning, was afterwards extended to include a full course of R.E. training, and some work on the East Coast defences, and it was not until two months had elapsed that the Company rejoined the Division at Lark Hill.

After the return to the division at Lark Hill, training in field works in conjunction with the infantry was undertaken.

Equipment was completed in every respect at Lark Hill, and horses and mules “taken on strength.”
On the 24th of November, after three months in England, they left for France with the 3rd Division.
They entrained to Southampton and embarking there on board the SS. Nirvana which reached Le Havre next morning.
In pouring rain they marched to the wretched Docks “Rest” Camp and distributed themselves among sodden tents, thoroughly wet and uncomfortable.

They entrained the following evening and reached Bailleul on the 28th of November after a very cold train ride and marched to their billets at Bleu near Vieux Berquin.
Here they were kept busy on hutments and stables for the division.

In December, when the 3rd Australian Division first went into the line east of Armentières, the 11th Field Company was in reserve and took over from the New Zealand Engineers of “Franks Force” the care of the Lys River bridges and also various jobs for the artillery covering the divisional front.
All the existing bridges over the river Lys around Armentières and Houplines had been prepared for demolition, but charges, fittings, and magazines all required a great deal of work.
A number of emergency floating bridges, both pontoon and barrel pier, also required attention and repairs.

Work for the artillery consisted in the construction of O.P.’s and of gunpits among the ruins of Houplines and the outskirts of the town.
On Christmas Eve 1916 they relieved the 9th Field Company Engineers, who were engaged in trench improvements.
In spite of the unfavourable weather large numbers of dugouts for the accommodation of the garrisons were built, new communication trenches dug, barbed wire put up, and the drainage of the trench system greatly improved.

Shortly afterwards the frosty weather commenced, which was to make this winter the coldest known for many years. The Lys river froze over so completely that it could be crossed by troops in fours and by horses and wagons; the soil was frozen as hard as iron to such a depth as to almost preclude any digging; and the very breath congealed upon the faces of those who wore moustaches.

On the 14th of March 1917 they left Armentières, crossed the river and commenced working in the Le Touquet sector.
This sector was chiefly distinguished by drainage difficulties and their time here did not permit of much improvement as on the 5thth of April they took over the Poegsteert Wood and St. Ives Hill area and started work on preparation for the attack on Messines Ridge - the so-called “Magnum Opus.”

These included a big programme of trench improvements and extensions and the building of Battalion Headquarters for the various attacking battalions.
They were also engaged in the preparation of approach routes up to and through Ploegsteert Wood, installing signboards and fixing maps throughout the area.
The maps consisted of small maps, done in waterproof ink on linen and varnished on to boards. They were erected in correct orientation at trench intersections, road and track junctions.

A great deal of work was also done fixing up the “Catacombs.”

In the early morning of the 7th of June Ernest and his Company were the reserve Company in the first stage of the attack on Messines Ridge and so marched from Pont de Nieppe to Weka Lines, in the little village of Romarin, on the road to Ploegsteert village.
The attack opened at dawn, but they saw little of the actual progress of events until the 9th, when they moved into Bunhill Row, in Plœgsteert Wood, and relieved the 10th Field Company.

In the battle area north of the River Douve and every effort was made to improve the communications through the “Crater Fields” in order to facilitate the advance of the 11th Brigade.
They then moved with the division to the 2nd Army Training Area, south-west of St. Omer for rest, refitting and training.
After 3 months here they moved to Ypres on the 30th of September and were part of the great British offensive.

For three weeks they were continuously employed in the battle area in the divisional sector north of the Zonnebeke Railway. The 3rd Australian Division delivered a very successful attack on October 4th, when the Broodseinde Ridge was captured. When it was relieved by the 66th Division, Ernest and his Company remained in the area working with this division until after its attack of October 9th.

Early in the month the weather broke and torrents of rain converted the shell-torn earth into a dreadful quagmire. Tracks across the wilderness of mud and shell holes had to be reconnoitred, marked out and duckboarded wherever possible; roads patched up to carry the guns.
Strange materials were used for road making; the dead body of a mule or two were tumbled into a shell hole and covered with the smashed up remains of some vehicle. Piles of shells were used in emergency to hurriedly fill a hole in some urgently required roadway. Causeways were built for mules and men across the bog which marked the original course of the Zonnebeke stream, and many concrete dugouts repaired and made habitable.
On all these arduous tasks they were engaged and suffered a steady drain of casualties.

They were relieved on the 22nd of October back to Recquebroeucq and rested refitted until the 12th of November when they went into the line, in Flanders.
Here they took over a camp near Wulverghem and commenced work on pipe burying, artillery positions, drainage, and the like.
After a month in the line, they were relieved and went into Corps reserve, moving into Mahutonga Camp, on Waterloo Road, near Neuve Eglise.
Training was undertaken until they took over the Armentières sector redeveloping the trench system.
Christmas 1917 was spent here and they then returned to Mahutonga Camp on the 3rd of January.

Two days later Ernest was granted 7 days leave before rejoining his Company and then moving to Le Touquet on the 31st of January.
Ernest was then granted 2 weeks leave to England and when he rejoined his Company they were resting in billets at Bainghem-le-Comte.

With the German offensive beginning their next move was to Wardrecques on the 22nd of March. From here they entrained to Doullens and marched to 6 miles to Thievres, then to Franvillers and finally to Heilly, on the river Ancre.
Here they commenced trench digging before moving to Corbie to maintain and repair bridges.
At the end of April they were issued with their first Lewis gun in this sector, for defence against low-flying aircraft.
Shortly afterwards they had an object lesson in the efficacy of the weapon when the famous German airman Von Richtofen was shot down by a Lewis gun belonging to an Australian Field Artillery Battery.
His bright red triplane crashed quite close to Ernest and his Company.

On the 10th of May they moved to Pont Noyelles on the Hallue, and took over various Corps jobs until the 21st when they moved to the Villers Brettoneux sector and into the line.
The chief work in this sector was digging deep dugouts in the chalk, trench improvements, the new support line through the town, tank blocks, tunnels under the main roads to Warfusee, and the inner defences of Villers Brettoneux.
They remained here until the 27th of June and then marched to Rivery, a suburb of Amiens.
Here they were engaged in guarding bridges and road mines around Camon, Longueau and Cagny and whilst they were here the capture of Hamel took place.

By mid July they had moved back to Corbie and were again tasked with bridge repairs.
Their next task was to clear tracks near Fouilloy and Hamelet and they made 50 bank shelters and 500 signboards in preparation for the Battle of Amiens on the 8th of August.

The breaking of the German line in the offensive marked the end of the old “sit down” trench warfare, and to no one did this represent a bigger change than to Ernest and his Company.
Work naturally changed; bridges, water supply, roads and signboards became most important; trenches and wire were rarely thought of; dugouts were now searched for booby traps and were cleaned and repaired, instead of new ones being started.

By early September they had moved to Curlu where they improved accommodation for the 11th Brigade in the area.
For the pursuit of the enemy beyond Peronne Ernest and his Company were organised as an advanced guard and were tasked with repairing a bridge at Peronne and the river crossing at Courcelles Mill leading to Cartigny.

By late October they had moved to Forceville and into training and here the Company suffered an Influenza outbreak.
Ernest was one of the men struck down with Influenza and was admitted into the 9th Australian Field Ambulance and then 2 days later he was transferred to the 3rd Australian General Hospital at Abbeville.
Whilst he was here the Armistice was signed on the 11th of November 1918.

Ernest’s condition deteriorated and he was diagnosed with Bronchopneumonia on the 5th of December and was transferred by the 36th Ambulance Train and invalided to England, where he was admitted into the Bath War Hospital on the 7th of December.
He spent Christmas 1918 here before being transferred to the 1st Australian General Hospital in Sutton Veny on the 3rd of January 1919.

Two weeks later he was discharged to 7 days furlo and then reported to No.2 Command Depot in Weymouth on the 21st.
Ernest embarked from England on board SS Port Denison on the 25th of March 1919 and disembarked in Adelaide on the 6th of May.

Ernest was discharged from the AIF on the 22nd of June 1919 and awarded the British War & Victory Medals.