AULT, Edwin Joseph
| Service Number: | 865 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 5 September 1914, Enlisted at Melbourne, Victoria |
| Last Rank: | Sergeant |
| Last Unit: | 7th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Gunbower, Pyramid, Victoria, Australia, 1889 |
| Home Town: | Kerang, Gannawarra, Victoria |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Clerk |
| Died: | Killed in Action, Gallipoli, Gallipoli, Dardanelles, Turkey, 25 April 1915 |
| Cemetery: |
No known grave - "Known Unto God" No known grave Panel 28 He was seen to attack the enemy with a shovel and was never seen again, Lone Pine Memorial, Gallipoli Peninsula, Canakkale Province, Turkey |
| Memorials: | Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Lone Pine Memorial to the Missing, Pyramid Hill RSL Honour Roll |
World War 1 Service
| 5 Sep 1914: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Sergeant, 865, Enlisted at Melbourne, Victoria | |
|---|---|---|
| 19 Oct 1914: |
Involvement
Sergeant, 865, 7th Infantry Battalion, Enlistment/Embarkation WW1, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '9' embarkation_place: Melbourne embarkation_ship: HMAT Hororata embarkation_ship_number: A20 public_note: '' |
|
| 19 Oct 1914: | Embarked Sergeant, 865, 7th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Hororata, Melbourne | |
| 25 Apr 1915: | Involvement Sergeant, 865, 7th Infantry Battalion, ANZAC / Gallipoli | |
| 25 Apr 1915: | Involvement ANZAC / Gallipoli |
Help us honour Edwin Joseph Ault's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.
Add my storyBiography contributed by Carol Foster
Son of Joseph Albert Ault and Charlotte Amelia Ault nee Aston
Husband of Phyllis Henrietta Ault nee Tuck of Kerang, Victoria. Edwin and Phyllis were married in Victoria in 1910c, Father of Lorna Ault and Mona Ault
Fellow soldiers described him as being 'excitable'
Medals: 1914-15 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal
Biography contributed by Stephen Brooks
From the Red Cross Files,
Informant was told that Ault had been shot in the face and that he then picked up an axe and dashed after the Turks with the axe in hand. That was the last that was seen of him. It is believed he went mad, and it assumed that he was killed. 783 Pte. E.S.Fisher (same Coy.)
Sergeant Ault has never been seen since the first day (April 25). He went off in a frenzy and never returned. Sgt. Major A.D. Clyne 7th Bn. AIF.
Ted Ault was listed as wounded and missing on the day of the Landing at Gallipoli 25 April 1915. He was "missing" until September 1917, almost 2 and a half years, before a Court of Enquiry found him to be killed in action.
The following passage is taken from 'Memoirs of Tilly Aston' written in 1946 and deals with the death of Edwin Ault. Edwin was Tilly’s nephew.
"....... But when the first world war broke over us, it was different matter. Six of my nephews volunteered, two Aults from the home of my eldest sister at Durham Ox, two Lintons, sons of my sister Sophia, at Carisbrook and two sons of my brother, Will. ......... Then shadows dimmed the bright outlook concerning our nephews. Edwin Ault and Will Linton were posted as missing -- most terrible announcement of all for those who wait the return of a soldier. My sisters could not accept this as final, and they searched and searched for something more definite, hoping, dreaming, praying, longing, that the lost ones would somehow, somewhere, be found and restored to their homes again. Mrs Ault never settled down, never accepted the fact that her son was dead. She would write letters to any man of whom she heard that he had been in Edwin's battalion, bidding him to brush up his memory in case some trifling spark of recollection of her own lad might be rekindled. As I recall this fruitless agony of my sister my heart overflows with pity for the thousands of women who were receiving the same bitter word, "Missing" concerning their beloved soldiers of this present war. Not until years after the war had ended did anything more definite come to hand. A man who escaped the holocaust of the landing day on Gallipoli saw Edwin surrounded by about a dozen Turks, madly laying about him with his trenching tool, and it is a foregone conclusion that he died in that hour."
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