Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

The Journey Ends at Passchendaele ...........

Private Bass died in the assault on Passchendaele, Belgium, in October 1917, when thousands of troops were consigned to their death by commanders who ordered them to attack entrenched enemy positions on the heights above a terrain saturated by weeks of rain.

Men struggled to advance in deep mud, many of them even drowned in water-filled shell holes. Their weapons were fouled by the mud and slush, leaving them as sitting ducks in front of the enemy guns.

They were never a chance and they died in their thousands. And on that terrible killing field was Private Samuel Bass, one of 12 soldiers from Gunnedah and district whose lives came to a shuddering halt on that fateful day, October 12, 1917.

The life of Samuel Bass was a poignant tale. Born at Kimbolton, Cambridgeshire, in 1878, he was four years of age when his father died. Six years later he became an orphan when his mother died but instead of being placed in an orphanage or workhouse, he went to work as a stable lad for the Earl of Manchester at Kimbolton Castle.

He eventuatually gained a position as a second horseman at another large estate, The Grange. It was her that he met Sarah Ellen (Nellie) Shelton. They married and set up a grocer's shop in the village of Netherfield.

Times were hard in the industrial north and the couple decided to strike out for a new life, selecting Australia. Samuel Bass made the first move in 1911 and after finding work as a gardner on Wandobah Station in the Curlewis district, he sent for his wife and four children in September 1913.

The family had settled into their new home on Wandobah Station and the children were attending school in Curlewis when war broke out in 1914.

Samuel Bass resisted the urge to enlist until mid-1916, signing up at the age of 37 years and 11 months. He ended up on the Western Front in May 1917, serving as an infantryman and bugler. He was originally posted as missing at Passchendaele on October 12 and it wasn’t until November 8 that he was officially listed as killed in action.

His body was never located and his name is listed on the wall of Menin Gate Memorial at Ypres, through which millions of troops passed on their way to the front lines. 

The Bass family remained in the Curlewis district for a few years after the war before returning to England.

The family had become well-known in the district and the people of Curlewis showed their gratitude for the service of Private Bass by striking a memorial plaque, an engraved shield on a wooden base which read: “In honoured memory of No 2442, Pte Samuel Bass. Enlisted 10-6-16, 34th Battalion. Killed in action in Belgium 12-10-17. Presented to his wife by the citizens of Curlewis.”

Thirty years later, the memorial plaque was passed on to his eldest grandchild, Beryl Dowsett, when she came to Australia to live in 1950.

“My grandmother (Samuel’s wife) gave the plaque to me for safekeeping when I left England,” she said.

The (Bass) family was extremely close. The children even took a photograph of themselves on Wandobah and sent a Christmas card reading, "Love and kisses to our dear Daddy for Xmas".

Samuel had written fondly to his 13 year old son Charles on September 16, 1917 less than a month before his death.

It read in part, "“Now my dearest lad. I am pleased you like your school, also that you are doing so well. Your mother says you would like a fountain pen, well I will treat you to one for your birthday.

“Tell your Ma I will pay her when my ship comes home. We have been away from the trenches for over a month and for the last 10 days I have been working for a French farmer getting the harvest in. How are you getting on with French?

“Well now Charles, I must just ask you to keep trying and do your best and always do right as far as possible and try to make a name for yourself.

“I must now close with the fondest of love and wishes from your Loving Father”.

The death of the head of the household meant that Charles had to pass up a scholarship to a boarding school in Newcastle and return to the family on Wandobah Station. He had hoped to become an engineer.

The whole family returned to the United Kingdom in April 1920.

Nellie never remarried and died in in Nottinham, England in 1960.

Author: RG McLean OAM - 2014

Births Sep 1878   Bass Samuel St. Neot's 3b 313

Age on arrival in Australia 34

Enlistment date 10 June 1916-34th Battalion, 4th Reinforcement

AWM Embarkation Roll number 23/51/2

Unit embarked from Sydney, New South Wales, on board HMAT A30 Borda on 17 October 1916.

Age at embarkation 38

Wife, Mrs Sarah Ellen Bass, Wandabah, Curlewis, New South Wales

He is remembered on the Kimbolton War Memorial.

1881 census

John Bass-Head 46 born Kimbolton, Huntingdonshire, England

Sophia Bass –Wife Aged 39 Great Staughton, Huntingdonshire, England

John W Bass  Son 19 born Kimbolton, Huntingdonshire, England

Alfred T Bass  Son 18 born Kimbolton, Huntingdonshire, England

Albert E Bass  Son 16 born Kimbolton, Huntingdonshire, England

Sarah Bass  Daughter aged 11 born Kimbolton, Huntingdonshire, England

Annie R Bass Daughter aged 9 born Kimbolton, Huntingdonshire, England

Mary A Bass  Daughter Aged 5 born  Kimbolton, Huntingdonshire, England

Samuel Bass  Son Aged 2 born Kimbolton, Huntingdonshire, England

Edith K Bass  Daughter –under 1 year old born Kimbolton, Huntingdonshire, England

He had moved to Gedling by the 1901 census where he was listed as a horseman living at the Kennels. He married Sarah Ellen Shelton, a Carlton girl, in 1903. They had 1 son and 2 daughters. In the 1911 census the family were living at 149 Lightwoods, Colwick Vale. Samuel was a greengrocer.

1911 census

Samuel Bass Aged 32 born Kimbolton, Huntingdonshire, England

Sarah Ellen Bass Wife Aged 31 born Carlton, Nottinghamshire

Charles Sydney Bass  Son Aged 6 born  Netherfield, Nottinghamshire

Agnes Francis Bass  Daughter Aged 4 born Netherfield, Nottinghamshire

Edna Bass Daughter aged 1 born  Colwick Vale, Nottinghamshire.