Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Arthur G. Girdler, born in January of 1896 to mother Rachael Girdler, grew up in Stepney in South Australia. As a young adult he worked as a Laborer before enlisting in the war on the 10th of August 1915.

Before being allowed to fight in the war Arthur had to go through a 4 month training program in Egypt. Here, he trained every day in the harsh conditions from after breakfast (6am) until dinner (6:30pm). Sometimes another 2 hour march was inflicted after dinner.

After Arthur completed his training process he, on December 2nd 1915, embarked on the ‘RMS Malwa’ to fight in France. When they arrived Arthur was assigned to the 12th reinforcement of the 10th Infantry Battalion.

When the battalion arrived at the war they were a large part of establishing, and defending, the front line.

Unfortunately, later in December (1915) the winter became to harsh to allow the soldiers to safely fight so they were evacuated and sent back to Egypt.

When they sailed back to France in May, Arthur showed that he was confident and athletic enough to gain the title of ‘Lance Corporal’. Lance Corporals are the third enlisted rank, just under corporals and above the private first class members.

A month after the battalion got back (June 1916) they were sent to ‘Rouge De Bout’ just north-east of where a more major battle (the battle of Fromelles) was taking place. On the 8th of June at 4pm the battalion was severely shelled. This damaged many of the other soldiers but Arthur managed to come out unharmed.

The ‘Battle of Poziers’ was the battalion’s first named battle to fight in. Arthur and his battalion were called there on July 25th since the 9th Battalion was struggling on their own. The battle lasted until August 7th and Arthur managed to get through with no major wounds.

After the battle ended the battalion was sent to Sausage Valley. Here they took time off to heal any minor injuries. On these nights Arthur had to sleep in the cold wet trenches. For the rest of the year the battalion went to different places like the Kenorah Camp and the Ottanvya Camp to do more training.

On the 9th of February Arthur was training with his battalion. During this training, he accidentally walked into an, infected, piece of barbed wire. This caused him severe pain and doctors concluded that he had done serious damage to the connective tissue in his toe. This injury through him out of action for several months to ensure the damage healed fully and correctly. While Arthur recovered many letters were sent back and forth to his mother asking for bank details to pay the £10 bill.

In July of 1917 the battalion fought in the Third Battle of Ypres. This lasted from the 31st of July until the 10th of November. This battle was known to be one of the hardest and really show whether the soldiers possessed the ‘ANZAC Spirit’ since the battle was reported to have frequent periods of harsh weather with heavy rain. Arthur and his friends stuck together through this period and made it through with no injuries.

In early September the battalion went under harsh training to prepare an attack on Polygon Wood. For the first 2 weeks of the month the battalion trained, moving into new areas every few days. On the 19th of September the battalion prepared to attack at 11:30pm. The battalion fought strategically, splitting in half with one half attacking each side. After the battalion initiated the battle they left to go fight somewhere else and had the 49th, 50th, 51st and 52nd battalions fight in place of them. 

In June of 1918 Arthur suffered his first major wound from fighting- a bullet gash in the side of his neck. He was likely hit by one of the enemy’s 3 machine guns during a fight at Merris Sector. Arthur was rushed immediately to the nearest hospital where he was cared for. This injury did not stop Arthur fighting for too long and he was back to fighting within less than a week. 

The battle of Amiens held in August of 1918 was an all arms battle (a battle that used many different weapons) and took place on the Western Front- the area the battalion would fight if they were not assigned to a specific battle elsewhere. During this battle Arthur was shot in the lower left calf. The wound luckily did not get infected and therefore Arthur returned to fighting quite quickly. This was Arthur’s last major battle before sailing home the next year.

On the 12th of May 1919, Arthur arrived back home safely in Adelaide. He received the British War Medal, the Victory Medal and the Star Medal.

Arthur died on September 1st 1965, at age 69 of natural causes.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

·       National Archives of Australia n.d., Basic Research, National Archives of Australia, Australian Government, Canberra, <http://recordsearch.naa.gov.au>.

·       RSL Virtual War Memorial, Australian Government, <https://rslvirtualwarmemorial.org.au/education/school-resources>.

·       https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/RCDIG1000592/

·       Pozieres 1916 n.d., Great War Collection, <http://www.greatwarcollection.nl/Html/pozieres.html>.

·       The Old Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company n.d., P&O ss Malwa 1914, <http://www.pandosnco.co.uk/malwa_1914.html>.

·       National Library Of Australia n.d., Trove, Advanced Search, Australian Government, Canberra, , <http://trove.nla.gov.au/?q&adv=y>.

·       UNSW Australia n.d., AIF Project, <https://www.aif.adfa.edu.au/search>.

·       Australian War Memorial n.d., Search for a person, <https://www.awm.gov.au/people/roll-search/all/?preferred_name=&service_number=&unit=&conflict=0&op=Search>.