Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Rootsweb ID: I190018 Birth Record: 21 Jan 1891 in Jamestown, South Australia

Mother  Mrs Ellen Cox, Glen Ormond Road, Parkside, South Australia

Previous service:  1 week home service at Mitcham, prior to enlisting in AIF

Described on enlisting as 24yrs 1mth old; single; 6' tall; 137 lbs;
fresh complexion; hazel eyes; dark hair; Methodist; boat tattoo on right forearm

7/3/1916      enlisted in Adelaide, SA

11/3/1916    appointed to A Company, 2nd Depot Battalion, Adelaide camp

11/4/1916    embarked from Port Adelaide, SA, onboard HMAT A60 Aeneas
                   Private in 5th Pioneer Battalion, Reinforcement 2
5/1916         disembarked into Suez

proceeded to join British Expeditionary Frces
29/5/1916     disembarked ex HT Invernia, France

20/8/1916     taken on strength of 5th Pioneer, Etaples

29/8/1916     to active service, Etaples
30/8/1916     taken on strength 5th Pioneer Battalion

22/12/1916   sick to hospital
30/4/1917     rejoined 5th Pioneer Battalion

11/5/1917     sick to hospital
30/5/1917     rejoined 5th Pioneer Battalion

27/6/1917     sick to hospital
24/7/1917     rejoined 5th Pioneer Battalion

24/9/1917     sick to hospital
11/12/1917   rejoined 5th Pioneer Battalion, France

19/4/1918     sick to hospital
27/4/1918     discharged to duty, France

2/6/1919      returned to Australia onboard HMAT Beltana, Devonport, England
11/6/1919     admitted to ships hospital - cut to scalp
15/6/1919     discharged from ship hospital
15/7/1919     disembarked into Australia

14/9/1919     discharged from service

Medals           British War medal (11125) and Victory medal (11033)

Sourced and submitted by Julianne T Ryan.  17/5/2016.  Lest we forget.

Thank you to Kaye Bottrall, Jamestown, SA for her information.

Horace was the son of John COX & Ellen Clare OGILVIE and was born on the 21st of January 1891 in Jamestown, SA.

His parents were married on the 31st of October 1874 in Clare, SA.

His father was the son of Job COX & Elizabeth BUNCOMBE and was born in 1850 in Huntspill, Somerset England and had immigrated to South Australia on the 28th of July 1851 on board the Omega with his parents.
His mother was the daughter of John William OGILVIE and was born in 1851 in Gawler, SA.

Horace was the youngest child born into this family of 7 children.

His father was a Boot maker and the family lived in Jamestown.

In December 1903 a huge flood from a thunderstorm flooded their home and a great quantity of mud was left behind.
His fathers boot making shop was in the main street and it was also flooded.

Horace was educated at the Jamestown Public School and on leaving school he followed in his fathers footsteps and became a Boot maker.
In June 1912 the family moved to 130 Glen Osmond Road, Parkside.

At the age of 24, Horace enlisted into the AIF on the 23rd of February 1916 in Adelaide, SA and was posted to Home Service in Mitcham Camp as Provost Staff.
He then discharged from Home Service on the 29th of February and enlisted into the AIF on the 7th of March 1916 in Adelaide, SA and was allotted the service number 1846 and posted to A Company, 2nd Depot Battalion in Mitcham Camp.
On the 16th of March he was transferred to 5th Pioneer Battalion, 2nd Reinforcements.

Horace embarked from Adelaide on board HMAT Aeneas on the 11th of April 1916, disembarked in Suez on the 16th of June.
He travelled to Alexandria and embarked on board the H.T Ivernia on the 21st of June, disembarking in Marseilles 8 days later.

He served overseas for 3 years before embarking from England on the 2nd of June 1919 on board HMAT Beltana, disembarking in Adelaide on the 15th of July.

Sadly just prior to his embarkation back to Australia, his father died on the 27th of May 1919.

He then returned to Jamestown for a visit where he was given a welcome home social on the 18th of August.
Horace was discharged from the AIF on the 14th of September 1919.

Horace married Edith Amelia FERGUSON on the 31st of March 1923 in St Mary’s Church of England, Caltowie, SA.
Edith was the daughter of George FERGUSON & Marie Louise Amalia MEINCK and was born on the 8th of February 1887 in Belalie, SA.

Horace and Edith then moved in with his mother at 130 Glen Osmond Road, Parkside and they welcomed their only child; Mavis Edith, on the 19th of October 1924 in Parkside.

With the outbreak of WW2, aged 48, Horace enlisted into the 2nd AIF on the 27th of September 1939 in Adelaide, SA and was allotted the service number S212089 and posted to A Company, 4th Garrison Company and promoted to Sergeant.

He was discharged from service on the 26th of January 1943.

They remained in the family home and Edith died on the 4th of July 1965 and Horace buried her in the St Saviours Cemetery, Glen Osmond; Area E, Plot 70, with his parents.

Horace died on the 6th of July 1978 and was buried in the St Saviours Cemetery, Glen Osmond; Area E, Plot 70, with his parents and wife Edith.

Horace has no headstone LHS of grave E 70.

Stanley's headstone belongs on the RHS of the grave E 71 with his mother (Horace's sister) and father.

Military

WW1

At the age of 24, Horace enlisted into the AIF on the 23rd of February 1916 in Adelaide, SA and was posted to Home Service in Mitcham Camp as Provost Staff.
He listed his mother, of Glen Osmond Road, Parkside, as his next of kin.

Horace discharged from Home Service on the 29th of February and enlisted into the AIF on the 7th of March 1916 in Adelaide, SA and was allotted the service number 1846 and posted to A Company, 2nd Depot Battalion in Mitcham Camp.

On the 16th of March he was transferred to 5th Pioneer Battalion, 2nd Reinforcements.

Horace embarked from Adelaide on board HMAT Aeneas on the 11th of April 1916, disembarked in Suez on the 16th of June.
He travelled to Alexandria and embarked on board the H.T Ivernia on the 21st of June, disembarking in Marseilles 8 days later.

He was taken on strength with the 5th Pioneer Battalion on the 30th of August and entrained to Etaples where they engaged in active service the following day, working on the Subsidiary Line and the drainage system.

On the 14th of October they moved to Neuf Berquin and then entrained a few days later at Bailleul and proceeded southwards to take its part in the Great Battle of the Somme.

Only leaving the North, the train journey was exceptionally slow, the train was overcrowded and when Pont Remy was reached it was pitch dark & raining. The station yard was ankle deep in mud and the unloading arrangements extremely crude. They then learnt that their billets were 8 miles away at Ailly-le-Haut-Clocher and each man had a full pack, a full quota of ammunition and a second blanket to carry.

After a days rest they were conveyed by a French motor convoy through Amiens to Dernancourt and the following day they marched to their first camp on the Somme near Montauban.

Here they maintained two long communication trenches, known as Turk Lane & Fish Alley – both were over 2 miles long and were the only two trenches leading to the front.
These trenches were incomplete and they were deployed to complete these trenches and just when the trenches were beginning to get into shape a continuous rain set in. After three days of rain the sides of these trenches which were quite unsupported became so loose that they fell in and both trenches became quite impassable.
Tracks were therefore made along the top beside these trenches but even these cut up badly. Experiments were made to use sledges over the mud and some success was obtained in this direction for the carriage of wounded, but no sledge was successful with loads owing to the wildly varying consistency of the mud.

They then converted the Bernafay – Longueval road from a series of lakes and mud to a properly drained road with a fairly hard surface which traffic could negotiate without risk.
They then moved to Waterlot Farm, the site of a sugar factory about half way between Longueval & Guillemont. Here they constructed trenches to the front line, as none existed in this sector and they also constructed narrow gauge trench tramways.

The digging of the trenches was extremely arduous as they involved a three mile march to and from work over the sea of mud which constituted the battlefield. This march became easier as the duckboard tracks extended, but at first they were few and far between.

It was here on the 22nd of December that Horace became quite ill with Diarrhoea and was transferred by Field Ambulance to the 38th Casualty Clearing Station at Heilly, 2 days later.
After spending Christmas 1916 here Horace was transferred by Ambulance Train on the 31st of December to the 2nd General Hospital in Le Havre.
He spent 6 weeks here before being discharged to the 4th Convalescent Depot for a further 10 weeks before rejoining his Battalion on the 30th of April 1917, in camp at Fricourt.

Here a small amount of training was carried out but attention was chiefly devoted to sport. Football and athletics were the order of the day, a fine boxing stadium was built and a ground prepared for a Divisional Horse Show near Albert.
They also constructed their own rifle range, however all these preparations were cut short by a sudden order to move to the front once again.

On the 9th of May they were conveyed by Light railway to Bapaume, marching on to a camp near Vaulx.
Two days later Horace suffered from gastritis and was admitted into the 9th Casualty Clearing Station at Lillers.
After 3 weeks recovering he rejoined his Battalion on the 30th of May at Vaulx, but 2 days later Horace was still ill and was admitted into the 3rd Casualty Clearing Station at Puchevillers, suffering from Scabies.

On the 6th of June he was transferred by Ambulance Train to 12th General Hospital in Rouen.
Horace spent 10 days here before being discharged to the 2nd Convalescent Depot on the 16th of June, but 12 days later he was admitted into the 39th General Hospital.
He spent a further 4 weeks here before being discharged to the 5th ADBD (Australian Divisional Base Depot) in Le Havre and was then granted 2 weeks leave on the 27th of August.

Horace rejoined his Battalion on the 10th of September at Pioneer Camp, near Dickebush where they were constructing a road running from Birr Cross Roads (on the main Menin Rd) to Zillebeke.
Horace was only here for 2 weeks when he suffered with Diarrhoea and was transferred and admitted into the 2nd General Hospital in Le Havre.
After 2 weeks recovering he was discharged to the 4th Convalescent Depot on the 6th of October where he remained until the 8th of November when he rejoined his Battalion at Spy Farm, near Wytschaete, Belgium.

Here they repaired the trenches, constructed duckwalks and maintained trench tramways.
On the 15th of December they moved with the rest of the Division for a thorough rest to Hesdigneul, near Boulogne, on the main railway line.
They spent Christmas 1917 here before returning to their old camp in the Messines area at the end of January.

By the middle of March the whole of the roads in the neighbourhood of Messines which had previously been impassable were open for traffic.
A large number of entrenched strong posts were built and miles of barbed wire constructed.
On the 26th of March they moved to Reninghelst and then 2 days later they entrained for Doullens and marched 10 miles to Arqueves.
Then on the 5th of April they moved through Amiens and Daours to Blangy-Tronville where they commenced burying cable and establishing roads across the marshes.

On the 19th of April Horace suffered from gastritis once again and was hospitalised for another week.
By June they had moved to a camp behind La Houssoye and trench digging was the main item but as the area was already well provided with trenches, attention was paid to improving and deepening these.

By end of July they had deepened 3½ miles of trench and they were operating a saw mill at Heilly.
Then on the 7th of August they moved to just behind Villers-Brettoneux in preparation for the attack and the following day they were tasked with making good the main road leading through Villers-Brettoneux & Warfusee within 4 hours.
Here a number of contact mines were discovered which they had to remove.

A few days later they moved to Morcourt and then march 10 miles onto Vaux-sur-Somme along a very dusty road. Here they rested for 4 days before returning Morcourt where road maintenance and deep dugout construction occupied their attention.
Their next move was on the 1st of September to Flaucourt and concentrated on load and bridge work at Peronne after its capture.
They also built and repaired huts for the infantry which also included a large hall for the Divisional Concert party which was christened the "Pioneers Palladium Palace".

On September 24th orders were received on an operation to be carried out against the Hindenburg Line, through Bellicourt and a platoon of U.S. Engineers was attached to the Battalion.
At Bellicourt a heavy ground mist made it extremely difficult to know what was going on and on approaching Bellicourt they found themselves among German infantry and were drawn into the fighting.

On the 4th of October they moved back to Roisel and after few days they moved back to Peronne where the whole Division was withdrawn to an area near Abbeville for a thorough rest.
Here training was carried out and a large amount of time devoted to athletics and sport amusements. They then received orders to be ready to move on the 10th of November but this move was then postponed to the 12th of November.
Fortunately the Armistice was signed on the 11th of November and their moved was postponed indefinitely.

Seven days later Horace was granted 2 weeks leave to England and when he rejoined his Battalion they were located at Hautrepe.
They then moved to Beaurieux where Horace spent his last Christmas away from his family and friends.
On the 7th of March they moved to Renlies and 4 weeks later they moved to Nalinnes-Haies, where on the 9th of April, as part of Quota 31, Horace marched out for return to England.

Horace embarked for England on the 16th of April and marched into No.5 Camp and then finally embarked for Australia on the 2nd of June 1919 on board HMAT Beltana.
Whilst on the voyage Horace was admitted into the ships hospital for 4 day on the 11th of June suffering from a cut to his scalp.

He disembarked in Adelaide on the 15th of July and discharged from the AIF on the 14th of September 1919 and awarded the British War & Victory Medals.

WW2

At the age of 48, Horace enlisted into the 2nd AIF on the 27th of September 1939 in Adelaide, SA and was allotted the service number S212089 and posted to A Company, 4th Garrison Company and promoted to Sergeant.
He listed his wife, of 130 Glen Osmond Road, Parkside, as his next of kin.

He attended the No.20 General Infantry Course on the 5th of August 1942 and on the 14th of December he was transferred to the 14th Training Company for 2 weeks.
He was discharged from service on the 26th of January 1943.