Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

SMITH John William Arthur  #5427  9th Battalion
 
John Smith’s association with the Gracemere district is difficult to determine from the available records. He stated he was born in Mount Morgan to William George and Emma Johanna Smith but his enlistment papers show his address, and that of his parents as “Ferndale” Marmor.
 
John presented himself for enlistment to the Rockhampton recruiting depot on 25th January 1916. He stated his age as 23 years and his occupation as labourer. Upon arriving at Enoggera Camp he was placed into the 11th Depot Battalion before being assigned as a reinforcement for the 9th Battalion. John embarked on the “Hawkes Bay” in Sydney on 20th April 1916. The embarkation roll shows he had allocated 4/- of his 5/- daily pay to his mother.
 
After a brief stopover in Egypt, John continued his journey arriving in England on 9th August before being sent to join his battalion in France. The 9th Battalion had endured a severe mauling at Pozieres and Mouquet Farm during July and August and had been taken out of the line for rest and reorganisation.
 
The 9th Battalion and rest of the 3rd Brigade were transferred from the Somme north into Belgium for training during September and October. They also spent time in the line adjacent to Hill 60, which six months later would be blown apart by one of 19 mines placed under the German defences. November and December saw the brigade back on the Somme holding the line at Flers. The front had been virtually closed down for the winter but the Australians had to endure heavy rain which filled the trenches with mud.
 
On 14th January, John presented to a casualty clearing station with a case of trench foot. Trench foot was caused by a combination of sustained immersion in mud or water and a loss of circulation to the lower limbs. Severe cases could result in gangrene and amputation. John was admitted to the Australian Hospital in Rouen some four days later before being put aboard a hospital ship for England where he was admitted to the Northampton War Hospital on 20th January 1917.
 
John spent three months recovering in England before being discharged and being granted a 14 day furlough. After reporting to the training depot at Wareham, he was passed fit and took a boat at Folkstone for Le Havre. John was back with his mates in the 9th Battalion on 15th June 1917.
 
The summer offensives of 1917 would take place in Belgian Flanders. The 2nd, 4th and 5th Divisions of the AIF were sent to the area around Ypres for the start of the battles in June 1917. In addition, the 3rd Division, which had spent most of 1916 training in England under the new divisional commander, Maj General John Monash, was also added to order of battle. John Smith and the rest of the 1st Division would remain in France facing the Germans on the Hindenburg Line until September when they would also be called to Flanders.
 
The first major action by the 1st Division was the Battle of Menin Road. The following month the division was again in action at Broodseinde Ridge. On the 6th October, John was leading a fatigue party carrying supplies and rations up to the front line when a high explosive shell landed among the party. John acted selflessly to get the wounded back to a field ambulance before returning to carry the rest of the supplies to the waiting troops. For this action he was recommended for the Military Medal by his battalion and brigade commander. While waiting for the award to promulgated, John wrote to his mother stating that he would have some good news for her, and hinted that he was in line for a MM. This award would continue to be a source of frequent communication between Emma Smith and the authorities, as the recommendation was certainly forwarded on to divisional headquarters but John’s file shows it was not awarded.
 
Less than one month later, John Smith was killed by an artillery shell while his company was manning the trenches at Celtic Wood Ridge close to the village of Passchendaele. There are extensive reports of this incident in the Red Cross wounded and Missing files held by the Australian War Memorial; the most reliable of which is an account by Sergeant J Keaney (from Rockhampton, he may have been well known to the Smith family) which relates that John and four others were killed by the same shell, all died instantly. Keaney had the four buried in a grave on the battlefield and he removed the pay books and ID tags from the four men to hand to the platoon Lieutenant. The graves were marked with wooden crosses.
 
Emma Smith was granted a war pension of 2 pounds a fortnight. She wrote to the authorities on several occasions throughout 1918 asking about the location of John’s grave and most probably initiated the request through the Red Cross which led to their enquiries. Sadly her quest was to no avail. The grave of John Smith was never located.
 
Emma also continued to enquire about John’s personal effects and it would appear that she was in contact with former Sergeant Keaney who had an address of Railway Workshops, Rockhampton. No personal effects were ever located.
 
In 1922, Emma and William, who had moved to Yeppoon by then, received John’s medals and memorial plaque and scroll. Emma completed the Roll of Honour Circular for the AWM.
In 1927, Emma was advised that a memorial would be erected at the Menin Gate in Ypres to honour the more than 50,000 British and Dominion Troops who perished in Flanders and have no known grave. Since 1928, with only a brief halt during German occupation in WWII, the inhabitants of Ypres (now Iper) conduct a ceremony to honour the missing, including the playing of the last post.
 
Emma continued to write to the authorities regarding John’s Military Medal, her last letter being dated 1944 from Sandgate near Brisbane. The replies were always the same; there is no record of such an award. What they did not say was that there is a record (it can be found on the AWM website under John’s name) but the decoration was never approved.