Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Son of Arthur Wilfred Underwood and Mary Adelaide Underwood nee Chadwick of Creek Road, Mount Gravatt, QLD. Brother of Harold Wilfred Underwood who returned to Australia on 16 Septeber 1916 having served with the 3rd Light Horse Regiment

Returned to Australia aboard HT Frankfurt disembarking on 20 August 1919 at Melbourne for onward travel to Brisbane

Medals: 1914-15 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal

On 5 April 1924 Arthur married Mira Jane Rackley in QLD

Arthur Underwood would have presented as the ideal recruit when he enlisted on 6th January 1915. He was 19 years old and employed as a farm labourer. What would have made him stand out was his height; at 5 foot 10 inches he was considerably taller than the average height at the time. His attestation papers also indicate that he had an expanded chest measurement of 38 inches.

Arthur was the elder of two sons of Arthur and Mary Underwood of Logan Road, Mount Gravatt. Being under 21, he supplied written permission from his father to “defend the nation and the mother country.”

Arthur was drafted into the newly created 25th Battalion, which was being raised at Enoggera as part of the 2nd Division of the AIF. The 25th was an exclusively Queensland Battalion. After initial training at Enoggera, the battalion marched through the streets of Brisbane city as far as Brunswick Street before embarking on the “Aeneus” at Pinkenba wharf on 29th June 1915.

The 25th arrived in Egypt in August and were transported to Gallipoli on the 11th September, disembarking in the dark to avoid Turkish artillery fire. The major battles of Gallipoli had been fought in August of that year and the 25th along with other reinforcements were deployed primarily in holding the line. As autumn approached, storms and snow made life in the trenches increasingly difficult. On the 8th November, Arthur presented to a field ambulance station sick. He was evacuated to Cairo and then a military hospital in Malta. All of the Australians still on Gallipoli would be evacuated back to Egypt before Christmas.

When Arthur returned to Egypt in early March 1916, he was transferred to the 7th Brigade Machine Gun Section. Machine gun crews of four were being trained in the use of the heavy Vickers machine gun in preparation for the Australians being deployed to the western front. Arthur arrived in Marseilles on 21st March 1916 and travelled by train to the Armentieres sector of the front; often referred to as the “nursery trenches’ where newly arrived troops were introduced to the art of war western front style. The French farmland would have been a complete contrast to the slopes of Gallipoli and the sand of Egypt and it is not surprising that the newly arrived Australians explored their surroundings. One such exploration came unstuck when Arthur was charged with trespassing on a light railway. He received 5 days of Field Punishment #2.

Arthur’s records have no entries for the rest of 1916 or 1917. It has to then be assumed that he saw action at Pozieres and Flers (Somme) in 1916; and then Menin Road, Polygon Wood and Broodseinde Ridge (Flanders) in 1917. With the hoped for breakthrough becoming stuck in the mud at Passchendaele, the campaigns in the Ypres salient were closed down for the winter. Arthur was granted two weeks leave in England.

Arthur returned to his unit which was in a rest area behind the lines in Flanders on Christmas Eve 1917. One month later he was admitted to hospital with a case of VD. While in hospital Arthur was charged with the rather curious crime of “making an entry on his bath card without permission.” Whatever the ramifications were of making this entry, Arthur was sentenced to 10 days confined to quarters.

After 56 days in the VD ward, for which he was docked pay, Arthur returned to the 7th MG Company on 3rd April 1918. March and April saw the Germans advance some 50 kilometres during Operation Michael. All of the Australian divisions, which were by this time united in a single corps under Lt. Gen John Monash were rushed to plug the gaps that appeared in the British lines on the Somme. It can be assumed that Arthur was involved in the retaking of Villers Bretonneux in late April.

On 12th June, during an advance to support the 7th Infantry brigade, Arthur received shrapnel wounds to an arm and shoulder. He spent three months recuperating and by the time he rejoined his unit in September, most of the Australian divisions had been withdrawn from fighting. Arthur was granted two weeks leave in late October and by the time he rejoined his unit, the war was almost over. As a 1915 enlistment, Arthur had a high priority for return to Australia but due to shipping shortages and the need to repatriate wounded, he did not leave England until June 1919. Arthur was discharged in Brisbane on 20th August 1919.

He applied for repatriation benefits in 1935 and died on 24th September 1962.