Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Ashley Charles[1] Mathew was one of ten children born to Charles Felton and Sarah Jane (née Pratt).  He had four brothers – John Felton, Albert Felton, James and Percy – and five sisters – Amy Vida, Muriel, Daphne, Alice and Ada.  The family home was at Pine Gully on the Coolamon Road.   

Ashley enlisted with the 19th Battalion in March 1915, the same month that Battalion was raised in Liverpool.  A large number of the 19th’s original recruits had already served with the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force (AN&MEF) in the operations to capture German New Guinea in 1914, but Charles was not amongst them.  He sailed from Sydney aboard HMAT ‘Ceramic’ on 25 June 1915, bound for Egypt.  Here, the men trained from late July until mid-August, before proceeding to Gallipoli, landing at Anzac Cove on 21 August.

At Gallipoli, Ashley participated in the last action of the August Offensive, ‘the attack on Hill 60’ before settling into defensive routine in the trenches.  From mid-September until its withdrawal from the Peninsula on 19 December, the 19th Battalion was responsible for the defence of Pope’s Hill.  The Gallipoli trenches were deep narrow alleys where the men ‘lived as completely enclosed as in the lanes of a city, having their habitations along them in niches undercut in the wall, sometimes curtained by hanging blankets or waterproof sheets’.  In such close living conditions, illnesses and ailments like lice (transmitted by close body contact with an infected person or contact with shared items like clothing, bedding, combs and brushes) were rife.

On 30 November 1915, Ashley was admitted to hospital with scabies, a mite much smaller than lice, which was a common complaint of daily life on Gallipoli (and later, in France).  Scabies was recognised by their tell-tale tracks – small lines in the skin that look like little scratches, about ¼ inch long.  The tracks were most commonly found in groups at the wrists, buttocks, underarms, groin and especially the webs between the fingers.  It caused intense itching and no doubt, discomfort.

Ashley underwent treatment at the 21st General Hospital, Alexandria, before being transferred to the Reception Hospital at Mustapha on 11 December 1915.  The treatment would have included the application of Benzyl Benzoate, hot baths and clean clothing. 

Ashley was discharged to duty on 20 December 1915. 

After further training in Egypt, the 19th Battalion proceeded to France, taking part in their first major offensive around Pozières between late July and the end of August 1916. 

In September 1916 Ashley transferred from the 19th Battalion to the 1st Light Trench Mortar Battery.  Light Trench Mortar Batteries were deployed close to the front line so that the enemy was within range, and gave the Brigades their own integral fire support.  The trench mortars were the Brigade’s own ‘artillery’ and the soldiers were generally drawn from units within the Brigade.  The light trench mortar was the Stokes 3 inch mortar, effectively not much more than a simple tube for a barrel, with a bipod to support it and a steel base plate on which to mount the tube and bear its recoil.  It fired a cylindrical bomb about 800 yards.  They were relatively mobile and could be dismantled and packed up in minutes.

In 1917 Ashley was wounded in action twice.  The second time, on 3 May, he sustained a shell wound through the sole of his left foot.  Still hospitalised in September, Ashley was unable to put weight on his foot and could not bend his toes towards the sole.  He was discharged from the 3rd Auxiliary Hospital on 24th September, and was invalided home to Australia aboard the Hospital Ship ‘Runic’ which arrived in Melbourne on 13 February 1918. 

In October 1918, Ashley’s father hosted between 70 and 80 people at the family residence at Pine Gully.  The occasion was the welcome home party for Privates William Henry Black, Charles Donald Young, William Richards and Ronald Reginald Pretty, all local soldiers.  Hosted by the members of the Pine Gully Red Cross and Welcome Home Committee, The Daily Advertiser newspaper of 17 October 1918 described the gathering as ‘splendidly catered for’.  Alderman R.J. Hurst of North Wagga presided over the event. 

All the boys affirmed that they were proud of the wounds they had received in defence of King and country.  Most of all they were proud of being Australian soldiers.  Much was said of the good work done by the Red Cross League… Not the least pleasing feature of the evening was the presentation to each of the aforementioned soldiers, and also Private Ashley Mathew, of a gold medal.  Mr Young, of the Experiment Farm School, in making the presentation, congratulated the boys on their safe return and asked them to accept the medals as a token of the great esteem with which they were regarded by the members of the Welcome Home Committee, the Red Cross, and friends.    

Ashley died in Wagga in 1965.

[1] Sometimes recorded as Charles Ashley