Ernest Howard (Ern) SMITH

SMITH, Ernest Howard

Service Number: 2484
Enlisted: 14 July 1916, Bendigo, Victoria
Last Rank: Private
Last Unit: 60th Infantry Battalion
Born: Brunswick, Victoria, 1894
Home Town: White Hills, Bendigo, Victoria
Schooling: Not yet discovered
Occupation: Labourer
Died: Natural causes, Victoria, 3 March 1978
Cemetery: Echuca Cemetery, Victoria, Australia
Memorial ID 172108495
Memorials: Bendigo Central School Honor Roll, Bendigo White Hills Arch of Triumph, Bendigo White Hills Baptist Church Honour Roll
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World War 1 Service

14 Jul 1916: Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 2484, Bendigo, Victoria
25 Sep 1916: Involvement AIF WW1, Private, 2484, 60th Infantry Battalion, Enlistment/Embarkation WW1, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '20' embarkation_place: Melbourne embarkation_ship: HMAT Shropshire embarkation_ship_number: A9 public_note: ''
25 Sep 1916: Embarked AIF WW1, Private, 2484, 60th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Shropshire, Melbourne
16 Oct 1917: Wounded AIF WW1, Private, 2484, 60th Infantry Battalion, Third Ypres, Gassed
19 Jul 1918: Discharged AIF WW1, Private, 2484, 60th Infantry Battalion

Help us honour Ernest Howard Smith's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.

Biography contributed by Jack Coyne

Ernest Howard Smith  SN 2484

Ernest (Ern) was born in Brunswick, Melbourne in 1894. His family had moved to White Hills former gold mining hamlet three miles north of Bendigo. They lived in Raglan street, White Hills. 

Ern enlisted formerly in Bendigo on July 14, 1916 at the age of 23 and listed ‘Labourer’ as his occupation. Ern stated he had spent 9 months in the 17th Light Horse Brigade prior to the war. Before the war begins, Ern is charged in April 1914, with not returning equipment belonging to the Light horse. His mother defends him in court. (see newspaper report)

His service record indicates he had spent 3 weeks already at the 20th Depot Battalion at Castlemaine before formerly enlisting. He does say he was rejected earlier when enlisting because of his teeth.

During the first year of the war approximately 33 percent of all volunteers were rejected. The requirements to join the Expeditionary force in August 1914 were 19–38 years, height of 5ft 6in and chest measurement of 34 inches. In June 1915 the age range and minimum height requirements were changed to 18–45 years and 5ft 2in, with the minimum height being lowered again to 5ft in April 1917. (Source - https://www.awm.gov.au/articles/encyclopedia/enlistment  )

Following formal enlistment on July 14, he would be transferred to the Bendigo camp. Located in Epsom, the Bendigo camp was at the racecourse not far from the Smith family home in White Hills. Ern along with many of Northern Victorian boys are transferred to the 5th reinforcements for another new battalion, the 60th Battalion, part of the 15th Brigade of the 5th Australian Division. He would be joined by over twnety Bendigo men and in particular two other White Hills lads assigned to the 60th, boot maker Norman Jewell and gardener Victor Cahill. Two months training in Bendigo would be fairly basic and they are heading to war in no time.

On September 25, 1916 they would embark from Port Melbourne on HMAT Shropshire A9. They would share the Shropshire with the 38th battalion, the Bendigo battalion, so there would have plenty of familiar faces on board. After nearly 6 weeks at sea, stopping at Cape Town for a few days they land at Plymouth on the South coast of England on November 11, 1916.

Arriving in wintry England, would have come as quite a shock to Ern and the other Bendigo district lads and they found themselves transported to various training camps across Southern England. They were certainly not alone during this time, as records indicate in late 1916 over 90,000 Australian troops were in training in Great Britain. Ten days after landing, Ern and the other members of the 60th Battalion are marched into the 15th Training unit at the Hurdcott camp on the Salisbury Plains.  

In late November, Ern and the 5th reinforcements are marched out of the camp to join the thousands of British and Commonwealth troops on the east coast of England awaiting transfer to the western front. On New Years eve, 1916 Ern embarks for France from Folkestone on the Princess Clementine most likely landing at Le Havre on the French northern coast.

Ern would not be ‘Marched In’ to the 60th Battalion till February 10, 1917 at Estaples the main base camp for the British and Dominion forces. The 60th had suffered many casualties in July 1916 especially at the Battle of Fromelles. During the course of this battle, the battalion suffered 757 casualties and was almost destroyed.

Throughout 1917, as the Germans began to withdraw towards the Hindenburg Line, the battalion took part in the Allied advance. In late February, just a few weeks after arriving in France, Ern would be admitted to the 45th casualty Clearing Station and then taken behind the line, admitted to the 3rd General Hospital on March 2, 1917 suffering from Laryngitis. Two days later, this is adjudged as acute and he would be transferred to Dieppe then Calais for a passage back to England.

Ern would be treated back in the main AIF depot at Perham Downs. when he recovers enough he is given two weeks furlough in May and is ready for transfer back to the front by July. On July 5 he embarks via Folkestone again for Le Havre again. After a few weeks he rejoins his unit on August 1, 1917.

The 60th battalion and most AIF forces have moved north to the Ypres sector of Belgium.

As a part of the continuing Third Battle of Ypres on the Western Front, Australian, New Zealand and British troops were involved in an unsuccessful attempt to seize the Passchendaele Ridge from the defending Germans on 12 October 1917. The vicious fighting took place in the most appalling of waterlogged conditions, which helped render the name Passchendaele a synonym for slaughter. 

British Field Marshall Haig is largely blamed for this senseless loss of life on the Flanders killing fields. Haig went on with this battle, even though the rain and bitter cold had set in and on October the 12th. He ordered another attack, which was fated to fail miserably, with men struggling up to their knees and waists in the dreadful stinking mud and with their rifles and machine guns clogged with it. The only solid objects in this endless waste of cratered mud were the German concrete pillboxes with their machine guns which were protected from the mud and which operated only too well.

This attack cost 7000 casualties. The exhausted Australians were at last withdrawn but Haig was still pathologically obsessed with capturing Passchendaele Village and ordered the Canadians to take over the battle. However the Canadian General Currie, who retained his common sense and refused to move until the weather had eased and adequate supplies were available.

All up, the first and second battles of Passchendaele cost over half a million lives in 3 months. The Germans lost 250,000 lives and the British Imperial forces and French 300,000 of whom 36,500 were Australian.

Unfortunately for Ern Smith, he was ‘Wounded in Action’ being gassed on October 16, 1917.

Poison gases had become widespread, particularly on the Western Front. Three forms of gas remained the most widely used: chlorine, phosgene and mustard.

 The most widely used, mustard gas, could kill by blistering the lungs and throat if inhaled in large quantities. Its effect on masked soldiers, however, was to produce terrible blisters all over the body as it soaked into their woollen uniforms. Contaminated uniforms had to be stripped off as fast as possible and washed - not exactly easy for men under attack on the front line.  (Source -http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-31042472 ) 

The death toll from gas warfare was never accurately reflected as many more men died prematurely after the war due to weakened lungs that left them susceptible to respiratory problems.  (Source -https://infogram.com/effects-of-gas-during-wwi-1gdk8pdw5xee2q0 )

Ern would be taken back to the Casaulty Clearing Station, and then he was transferred by Ambulance train to behind the lines the next day.  Four days after being gassed he would again embark for England as a patient, this time on the HT St Andrews and be admitted to the 1st Birmingham War Hospital at Rednal in the West Midlands.

He would be here at birmingham for two months transferred to Dartford on the east coast and closer to the AIF bases in southern England. He would spend Christmas at Dartford at the 3rd Australian Army Hospital. Ern would be given two weeks Furlough on January 10, 1918 and told to report to the main AIF staging camp at Weymouth at the end of the month.  

The Number 2 AIF Command depot camp at Weymouth, was in the Dorset seaside town on the south coast of England. Here soldiers deemed no longer fit for active service and waiting for repatriation to Australia were accommodated. It is estimated that during the years 1915-1919 over 120,000 Australian and New Zealand troops passed through the seaside town of Weymouth. (Source - https://anzac-22nd-battalion.com/training-camps-england/)

Ern would be classified as being medically unfit to continue the fight. The report saying he is suffering from Broncho pneumonia (severe) and needs to return to Australia ‘ for a change’.

On April 15, 1918, Ern Smith would leave Engkand on board the HMAT Marathon A74.  He would disembark on June 12, 1918.

In the Bendigoian Newspaper on June 27, 1918 the following articel was reported - 

WELCOME TO WHITE HILLS SOLDIER.

On Wednesday week there was a large attendance of White Hills citizens at the Public Hall to do honor to another returned hero, Private Ern Smith, who, after two years' service, was invalided home, having been gassed at Ypres. Mr. F. Benson, president of the committee, was in the chair, and when he announced the arrival of Private Smith, the assemblage rose and gave him a right hearty welcome. Private Smith's father thanked the people of White Hills for the splendid reception they had given his son, and he asked them to give a royal welcome to one who had left here with his son and returned together, Private Arthur Yuille. (Source – The Bendigoian Newspaper – June 27, 1918 )

Private Ernest Smith is remembered by the people of White Hills. The names of the local lads who sacrificed their lives and those that were fortunate to return from the Great War are shown on the embossed copper plaques on the White Hills Arch of Triumph, at the entrance to the Botanic Gardens.

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