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War Memorial
Australia

Edward Reginald Griffiths
Enlisted 10 August 1915 – 2nd Infantry Battalion – No 4502

Reg Griffiths (known to many as Scotty) was 18 years and one month old and working as a labourer when he signed up at Liverpool near Sydney for service with the 14th Reinforcement of the 2nd Battalion of the 1st Division. Reg and his older brother Ernie had been born in the mining town of Oswestry in England on the border with Wales. They were our only family ANZACS born overseas. The war had been going for just over a year and Ernie had jumped in first and signed up on the day before Reg.
Reg’s age was always a mystery in the family as he often changed his date of birth to suit his needs. Based on a British census in 1901, he was probably only 17 years and one month old when he signed up and clearly under age. However, an apparent consent for applicants under 21 signed by his mother is on his Army file.
The smallish five foot 4 inch brown eyed and brown haired Reg had limited vision in one eye (6/20) yet he was still taken on.
His unit left Sydney on 15 January 1916 on board the troopship Osterley. He arrived in Egypt at the end of February and was put straight into hospital at Heliopolis suffering from influenza. From Egypt he travelled to Marseilles in southern France and then by train to the north of France where he joined his Battalion at Armentieres on 14 May 1916.
The first significant action by the 2nd Battalion came at the Battle of Pozieres in July 1916. It was here that Reg was shot in both his left arm and left leg and was one of the 510 casualties suffered (or 50% of the Battalion). He was evacuated and sent to a military hospital at Grantham in Lincolnshire, England. After his recovery he was sent back to the front, staying at the major base camp at the French coastal town of Etaples until he was fit to rejoin his Battalion, which he did on 29 September 1916.
The conditions in Etaples were appalling and soldiers, especially Colonial soldiers, were treated with much disrespect and contempt from the ruling British officers and staff. The camp became legendary in Australian military history when in August 1916 (about the time Reg was there) an Australian soldier from the 10th Battalion verbally abused a British sergeant after the water in his shower was cut off. As he was being taken away other soldiers stepped in to help him. All were captured, court martialed and sentenced to death for mutiny. However, Australian Army soldiers were exempted from capital punishment and their sentences were commuted but an Australian serving with the New Zealand Army was not exempted and he was shot by firing squad on 29 October 1916.
Interestingly, this and some other similar episodes marked a turning point for the Australian Battalions. From here on, no British officer or sergeant was safe from Australian soldiers and there was no surprise when some were killed in battle with bullet wounds from behind or met with fatal accidents. Eventually, Australian soldiers were put under the sole command of Australian officers.
Reg spent most of 1917 fighting with the Battalion but he was often in and out of hospitals and ambulance stations with a variety of illnesses, including trench feet, pleurisy and myalgia. As the Germans retreated to the fortified Hindenburg Line, the Battalion was involved in the Second Battle of Bullecourt in April 1917. This was followed by action at Menin Road and Polygon Wood in September 1917.
On 7 March 1918 during the German Somme offensive Reg suffered gas poisoning and was sent to Southwark and later Bermondsey Military Hospitals in London. He rejoined the 2nd Battalion on 23 July 1918. Two weeks later he received a lacerated scalp, which was described as an accidental injury. This injury caused him to miss the start of the Battle of Amiens on 8 August 1918 that turned the Germans back from Villers-Bretonneux with such devastating effect. He was only back again with the Battalion for three weeks when he was wounded in action for a third time on 18 September 1918, the Battalion’s second last day of fighting in the war.
This time he received a shell fragment to the face but he rejoined his Battalion two days later. Soldiers were usually taken off active duty after being wounded in action three times and Reg was no exception. In fact his whole Battalion returned to England after the Armistice in November 1918.
Before his discharge Reg found himself back in hospital, this time at the Military Hospital at Sutton Veny, an attractive little village in Wiltshire. It has a cemetery that has the graves of 127 Australian soldiers who died there of wounds or disease.
Reg finally returned to Sydney on board the Sudan, arriving on 30 June 1919. He was formally discharged on 25 August 1919.
He married 18 year old Daisy Mills in 1924 and had five children between 1924 and 1930 (including Narelle’s father Arthur). Daisy died in 1932 when she was 26. Reg lived until 1972 when he was 74.

Glendon O'Connor