Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

# 5959 MARTYN Charles (Charlie) George                            26th Battalion
 
Charlie Martyn was born at Thargomindah to Charles and Rose Martyn around 1895. His brother Harry was born two years later. While both boys were still young, the family moved to Goombungee where Charlie and Harry attended Goombungee State School. The official records make no mention of the fact that the Martyn family was indigenous, although the medical officer described both boys as having a dark complexion.
 
Charlie worked at labouring jobs in the Goombungee district for some time before he and Harry attended the Darling Downs Recruiting Office in Toowoomba on 11th February 1916. Both were accepted into the AIF; even though official policy was to reject anyone who was not of predominantly European descent. Charlie was then 21 years old and just short of six feet tall. Harry was 19. Both boys took a train to Brisbane and then on to Enoggera Camp where they were placed in a depot battalion before being allocated to the 16threinforcements of the 26th Battalion on the 14th April.
 
In July 1916, Charlie was sent to the isolation compound at Fort Lytton with a case of gonorrhoea, being discharged ten days before embarking for overseas. The embarkation roll for the 16th reinforcements shows Charlie embarking on the “Boonah” on 21st October 1916. He allocated 3/- of his daily pay of 5/- to his mother. For reasons not stated in the files, younger brother Harry did not embark. Instead, he remained in camp at Enoggera where he was reallocated to the 18th and then 19th reinforcements of the 26th Battalion. He eventually embarked on 24th January 1917 as a reinforcement for the 15th Battalion. Charlie and Harry may not have ever seen each other again.
 
Charlie and the rest of the 16th reinforcements landed at Plymouth on 10th January 1917 and proceeded to the 7th Brigade Training Battalion at Rollestone near Stonehenge. Charlie spent a week in hospital with mumps, a common complaint at the time due to crowded conditions on the troopships. On Anzac Day 1917, Charlie landed at the large British Training and Transport Camp at Etaples on the coast of France and in the first week of May, marched in to the 26th Battalion lines in the rear areas of the Somme.
 
The 26th Battalion was part of the 7th Infantry Brigade, 2nd Division AIF. For the battalion, May and June were spent resting, training, taking on new reinforcements and repairing equipment. There was also time for sports and recreation, as well as visits to the divisional baths to have uniforms cleaned and new underwear issued. In July, the battalion relocated to Bapaume where they began to practice battle techniques which would be used when the division was called back to the front. In August, with the entire division re-equipped and at full strength and fit, the British Commander on the Western Front, General Douglas Haig, came to inspect the troops. Such activity was a sure indicator that the 2nd Division would be soon be on its way to the war once more.
 
In September, the entire 2nd Division began to relocate north to the Steenvoorde / Poperinghe area of Belgian Flanders in preparation for moving up to the ruined city of Ypres. After assembling around the eastern gate of the old city walls, the troops marched out to take up positions on the northern side of the Menin Road. The ensuing battle, known as the Battle of Menin Road was planned to be one of a succession of small advances using a “bite and hold” technique which would progress the British advance along the line of the Menin Road to a low ridge upon which lay the villages of Zonnebeke and Passchendaele.
 
The men of the 26th, in conjunction with the other three battalions which comprised the 7th Infantry Brigade, set off on 20th September 1917, under the protection of a creeping artillery barrage to take the Gheluvelt Plateau and Westhoek Ridge. Battalions advanced and dug in on a designated line to be leapfrogged by a following wave from another battalion. In this way the front advanced to the edge of Polygon Wood. The battle was a great success but with the loss of 5,000 Australian casualties; one of whom was Charlie Martyn.
 
Witnesses told the Red Cross Wounded and Missing Service that Charlie had been hit in the head by a shell splinter. He was carried by stretcher bearers to a dressing station but by the time he arrived he had already died. Corporal James Montgomery, a member of the 26th battalion and a resident of Goombungee, wrote to Charlie’s mother. James was not involved with the attack at Menin Road as he was sick with bronchitis. He returned to the battalion two days after Menin Road. By that time Charlie had already been buried but James was able to promise Rose Martyn that he would ensure that her son’s grave was properly marked and his few personal effects returned.
 
A small parcel of Charlie’s effects was delivered to Rose Martyn; letters, cards and a wallet. A second parcel containing letters, coins and a pipe was lost at sea when the transport ship “Barunga” was sunk by an enemy submarine. At the conclusion of the war, scattered battlefield burials were consolidated into larger permanent cemeteries. Charlie Martyn’s remains were exhumed and reburied in the Hooge Crater Cemetery at Zillebeke. His mother chose the following inscription for his headstone: HIS HEART WAS GOOD; SPIRIT BRAVE; RESTING PLACE A SOLDIER’S GRAVE.
 
In December 1920, the Goombungee War Memorial was dedicated by Maj Gen Thomas Glasgow. It was recorded that as the names of the fallen were read out, Rose Martyn stood inconsolably at the rear of the crowd, apparently ostracised by the community. Corporal Montgomery’s name is also on the memorial. Charlie’s brother Harry survived the war and returned to Goombungee.