RAFF, Kenneth
| Service Number: | 3490 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | Not yet discovered |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 47th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Not yet discovered |
| Home Town: | Brisbane, Brisbane, Queensland |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Not yet discovered |
| Died: | Killed in Action, Belgium, 12 October 1917, age not yet discovered |
| Cemetery: |
Tyne Cot Cemetery and Memorial Tyne Cot Cemetery, Passchendaele, Flanders, Belgium, Menin Gate Memorial, Ypres, Flanders, Belgium |
| Memorials: | Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Corinda Sherwood Shire Roll of Honor, Graceville War Memorial |
World War 1 Service
| 21 Oct 1915: | Involvement Private, 3490, 15th Infantry Battalion, Third Ypres, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '11' embarkation_place: Brisbane embarkation_ship: HMAT Seang Bee embarkation_ship_number: A48 public_note: '' | |
|---|---|---|
| 21 Oct 1915: | Embarked Private, 3490, 15th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Seang Bee, Brisbane | |
| 12 Oct 1917: | Involvement Private, 3490, 47th Infantry Battalion, Third Ypres, --- :awm_ww1_roll_of_honour_import: awm_service_number: 3490 awm_unit: 47th Australian Infantry Battalion awm_rank: Private awm_died_date: 1917-10-12 |
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Add my storyBiography contributed by Faithe Jones
Ken Raff was born in Brisbane and attended the Brisbane Normal School. His father then arranged for him to have private tutoring and he qualified as an architectural draftsman, probably working in his father’s conveyance and surveying company, where his brother Eric also worked at a surveyor. The family, Harry and Clara Raff and the two boys, lived at Chelmer although Harry Raff gave his business address, Isles Love Building, Adelaide Street, for correspondence.
When Ken enlisted on 3rd August 1915 he was 25 years old and was drafted as part of the 11th reinforcements for the 15th Battalion. He embarked on the “Seang Bee” in Brisbane on 21st October and arrived in Egypt around Christmas 1915, finally joining the 15th in February 1916.
As part of the expansion of the AIF that was underway at that time, Ken was transferred to the newly created 47th Battalion on 3rd March. Unlike most other battalions in the AIF, the 47th was not strictly a state based unit; with numbers being made up from reinforcements from Victoria and Tasmania as well as some Queenslanders from the 15th Battalion. The 47th would earn a reputation in the AIF for ill discipline and poor leadership, particularly at the company level.
The 47th was one of the last battalions to leave Egypt for France; not arriving in Marseilles until June 1916. They had little time to get accustomed to trench warfare before being called in to the Somme Offensive at Pozieres and Mouquet Farm in July and August.
Ken had a period in hospital with influenza in September and was again hospitalised in November with trench feet. He rejoined the 47th in January 1917 and saw action at Bullecourt in April and then in the support lines at Messines in June.
Messines had been the opening to a series of actions in Flanders that Haig; Supreme British Commander, hoped would lead to the breaking open of the front and allow an advance on to the Belgian Ports. Plumer; The British Corps Commander in Flanders, had experienced success at Messines, Menin Road, Polygon Wood and Broodseinde. The final obstacle was the ridge on which stood the villages of Zonnebeke and Passchendaele but by that time, the weather had turned against the attackers. Constant rain turned the battlefields into seas of slush and clinging mud. The ground was so unstable that the big guns used to lay down a protective barrage could only fire a few rounds before they sank into the mud. The roads and lines of communication were so cut up that ammunition and supplies were in short supply at the front.
In spite of the obvious indications of a less than successful outcome, Haig pressured Plumer to continue to press on to Passchendaele. Many military historians would agree with the words of Charles Bean (Official Australian Historian) that Haig’s gamble would become “the most questioned of his career.”
In the early morning of 12th October 1917, the 47th Battalion; in conjunction with other units of the 4th Division crossed the jump off tapes and began a slow slog towards the red line following the Ypres-Rouliers railway line. The mud and inadequate artillery protection doomed the attack from the beginning. The attack was called off later in the day when the last unwounded officer of the battalion; Captain Gibson, was severely wounded. By nightfall the entire 4th Division was back at the start line. The 4th Division had lost 1000 men in the disaster; one of which was Ken Raff.
The bodies of the dead lay out in no man’s land until the ridge was finally taken by the Canadians in November who then set about burying the fallen Australians. Ken Raff; like so many who fell at Passchendaele, was buried at Tyne Cot Cemetery. Tyne Cot was constructed around a number of concrete blockhouses and pill boxes on the crest of the ridge, which are now integral to the cemetery. Tyne Cot is the largest Commonwealth War Cemetery in the world and contains the graves of 1400 Australians, as well as the names of 35,000 Commonwealth soldiers who have no known grave.
Ken Raff’s parents received his personal belongings almost a year after his death. They included a wallet, razor, photos and a tin of ostrich feathers. The Raff family left Chelmer in 1921 and moved to Albion.
Courtesy of Ian Lang
Mango Hill