Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

SHIELDS Charles  #646  15th Battalion
 
Charles Shields was born in Brisbane in 1889 to Alfred and Harriet Shields. He spent his early life at Fortitude Valley and attended school there. Charles presented himself for enlistment into the AIF at the recruiting depot in Adelaide Street on 21st September 1914.
 
It is indeed surprising that Charles was accepted. In those early days of recruitment, the minimum height requirement was 5 ft 5 inches; Charles was only 5ft 1inch and weighed only 100 pounds (45 kilograms). To say that he was a small slight man was an understatement. He stated his age at the time as 24 years.
 
Prior to enlistment, Charles was employed by the Humpybong Steamship Company on the steamer “Emerald” as a cabin steward. The “Emerald” plied a regular service from the Custom’s House wharf in Brisbane to Woody Point and Redcliffe and he would have been well known to the residents of the peninsula. This association explains his inclusion on the Woody Point and Humpybong Rolls of Honour.
 
Charles was placed into the 15th Infantry Battalion which was being formed at Enoggera under the leadership of a well-known citizen soldier and business man; Lt Colonel “Bull” Cannan. While still in camp, Charles was designated as battalion bugler.
 
The 15th travelled by train to Melbourne in December of 1914 to combine with the other three battalions in the 4th Brigade under Brig John Monash. On 22nd December, the brigade boarded the Transport “Ceramic” bound for Egypt where they would join the other Australians already in camp at Mena on the outskirts of Cairo.
 
The battalion boarded a transport in Alexandria on 12th April and sailed for Mudros Harbour on the island of Lemnos where they began practicing boat drills in preparation for the landings on the Gallipoli Peninsula. The 4th brigade was being held in reserve on the 25th while the landings took place and the 15th Battalion men lining the rails of the transport for a time stood off Cape Helles and observed the British landings before sailing north to the Australian beachhead where they finally landed through the night of 25th/26th April.
 
The brigade immediately moved up a large valley which was soon named Monash Valley after their Brigadier to a part of the line which would eventually bear the name of an officer of the 15th; Quinn’s Post. Charles’ record bears no entries for the period he was at Gallipoli. The battalion war diary records intense fighting at Quinn’s Post for the first three months, including the blowing of a Turkish mine under the trenches at Quinn’s and hand to hand fighting to retake the position.
 
The 15th was also involved in action during the August offensives which occurred at the same time as Lone Pine and the Nek. In an effort to secure the heights above Anzac, the 4th brigade under Monash marched north along the Anzac beaches at night before turning inland to scale the ridges to the Sari Bari ridge. The forward companies relied on Greek guides rather than their maps and got hopelessly lost. Strong Turk defences were encountered and casualties were high, including the elder brother of the 15th’s Commanding Officer; James Cannan.
 
After the failures of August, the battalions on Gallipoli were routinely rotated out from the beach head to Lemnos for rest and reinforcements. During one of these rotations, Charles Shields went AWL for two days. He was fined 7 days pay and sentenced to 5 days detention. Such behaviour was only a prelude of what was to come.
 
Gallipoli was evacuated during December and the surviving Australians returned to Egypt; but not to the enticing camps around Cairo. New facilities were established at Ismailia on the bank of the Suez Canal in an effort to avoid the misbehaviour and drunkenness which marred the Australians first sojourn in Egypt 12 months previously. Nevertheless, Charles managed to contract syphilis during this time and he was admitted to the ill named #1 Australian Dermatological Hospital for treatment. He was hospitalised for 43 days during which time he lost all pay, including the 4 shillings a day he had allocated to his mother.
 
Upon returning to his unit, Charles went AWL again. He was admonished and lost a day’s pay. In June 1916, the 15th Battalion having reequipped and taken on reinforcements sailed from Alexandria for Marseilles; and then took a train to Le Havre. In the middle of July, Charles reported sick to a Field Ambulance. Seven days later he was on board a hospital ship having been diagnosed with rheumatic fever. On being discharged from hospital in Suffolk, Charles was transferred to the Australian training camp at Perham Downs on Salisbury Plain where he was immediately granted a furlough.
 
Unfortunately, Charles overstayed his leave and on his return to camp on 3rd October he was confined to quarters for two days and docked four days pay. A worrying pattern was developing in Charles’ behaviour. Charles was again AWL from Perham Downs on 14th October for a period of 7 days. He was arrested by the Provost Corps and returned to camp where he was held awaiting trial. Obviously, the powers that be decided that a further deduction of pay and a period of time in the guard room would be preferable to a court martial. By November of 1916, Charles had been moved on to the British Depot at Woolwich and in January 1917 to the Wareham Depot.
 
Instances of soldiers going AWL in England were uncomfortably common and the Provost Corps were kept busy doing the rounds of drinking establishments and houses of ill repute to round up the defaulters. Some of these men evaded the Provos for long periods of time and were eventually listed as deserters, who when finally apprehended were given a period of jail with hard labour by a military court.
 
The reasons for men going absent without leave are not difficult to determine. Exposure to the horrors of frontline action, poor food and conditions, disease and for many the witnessing of the shocking death of a mate were enough to convince some that they were better off out of it. For others it was perhaps a bit of reckless bravado. Many men had developed the view that they would never get out of the horror alive and unlike their life before the war, they were no longer in control of their destiny. It is little wonder that when an opportunity presented itself to have a bit of fun, they embraced it.
 
Charles was admitted to the VD Hospital at Parkhouse on 31st January 1917 with a severe case of Gonorrhoea which he admitted he contracted from a prostitute. In total he spent 36 days in the VD ward, with the usual loss of pay. What his staunchly Presbyterian family back in Brisbane thought of this behaviour does not bear thinking about.
 
Upon discharge from Parkhouse, Charles was transferred to the 69th Training Battalion back at Perham Downs in April. A week after arriving at Perham Downs, he was AWL for a period of eight days. This time he lost 17 days pay. The authorities obviously had decided to get Charles out of England before he got up to any more trouble so on 14th May, Charles left Folkstone bound for Le Havre and the huge staging camp at Etaples.
 
When Charles reported back to his battalion on 30th May, he had been in England for 10 months and had not seen action since Gallipoli. This new type of war was very different to the war against the Turks. The 15thBattalion were in a rest area behind the lines in the Ypres salient. After the opening of the Third Battle of Ypres in June, the 4th Brigade began rotating in and out of the frontline. Positions needed to be consolidated and equipment and stores brought up from the rear areas. This was dangerous work as the forward areas were constantly being shelled with heavy artillery.
 
Charles was hospitalised for a short period with influenza on 18th June and again for five days at the end of that month. His file records the reason as PUO (Pyrexia of Unknown Origin). Charles returned to his unit on 2nd July.
 
On the evening of 18/19th July, while the battalion was in camp behind the lines, Charles took a Webley revolver and one round of ammunition from the kit of Corporal Cochrane. His body was found on the boundary of the camp in the early morning with a single gunshot wound to the right temple.
 
A court of inquiry was convened two days after the event and after hearing from a number of witnesses, including the unfortunate corporal whose weapon had been used, a verdict of “a self-inflicted fatal wound during a moment of temporary insanity as a result of mental strain brought on by severe and prolonged active service conditions,” was handed down by three junior officers of the battalion. The battalion commander concurred with the findings but the brigade commander and the surgeon general rejected the findings on the grounds that there was no history of mental illness or strain. Perhaps they should have looked at his record more closely.
 
Charles was buried in the Trois Arbres Cemetery at Steenwerck in Belgium. His mother as next of kin received his few personal possessions; a testament, pocket book, letters and photos. Harriet was granted a pension of one pound a fortnight for her loss. She had already lost another son, Donald to the war.
 
At the cessation of hostilities, the Imperial War graves Commission began the huge task of erecting permanent headstones in the cemeteries scattered throughout France and Belgium. Harriet was asked if she would like a personal inscription to be placed on Charles’ headstone. She chose “Greater love hath no man than this, that he should lay down his life for his friend.” The authorities in their response advised that an inscription was limited to 66 characters including spaces and the lines Harriet had chosen exceeded the limit. There is no record of her choosing an alternative. Charles’ medals; the 14/15 Star, Victory and Empire Medals were duly despatched to his father over the course of the 1920’s.
 
Having researched many hundreds of stories in the course of my work, I have encountered only four or five instances of soldiers taking their own lives while on active service. Unfortunately, the suicide rate among veterans upon their return to Australia was much higher. Today with greater understanding of the impact of war on the human psyche, we are in a far better position to appreciate how prolonged active service can irreparably damage anyone in such an invidious position. We should not judge Charles Shields harshly.

Charles's parents were Alfred Shields and Harriet Dunn who lived at Redcliffe. Charles attended Humpybong State School and was working as a steward on the steamer Emerald when he enlisted in September 1914. His brother Donald [3637] also enlisted and uncle Donald McCarty Shields served on the Redcliffe Shire Council. Charles died in July 1917.

Mr. and Mrs. A. Shields, New Farm, have received the sad news that their eldest son, Buglcr Charles Shields, was wounded on 18th July, and died on the following day. He had been at the front, both at Anzac and in France for nearly three years. His brother Donald was killed in France on 5th May, 1916. Both were well known, in Brisbane. They were grandsons of Mrs. Janet Shields, Amelia street, Valley.

GREATER LOVE HATH NO MAN HE LAY DOWN HIS LIFE FOR HIS FRIENDS