Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Charles Alick Irwin was born and raised in Epsom, a small farming community based on the junction of the Bendigo and Piccaninny Creeks, just north of White Hills.

Gold mining was the main industry of Epsom from the mid 1850s until the late 1880s when the diggings were nearly all worked out. Selectors then took up farms, including vineyards and orchards. In the 1911 census, there were 318 people registered as living in Epsom. 

When Charles enlisted on July 8, 1915 he was 19 years of age and listed his occupation as a market gardener.

Early in the First World War, the Australian Army's enlistment age was 21 years or 18 years with the permission of a parent or guardian. Charles’s mother Annie Irwin writes a letter to the Recruiting Authorities two days earlier on July 6,

I herby give Charles Irwin (my son) my consent to join the Expeditionary Force. He is intending to send one pound per week towards my support as he is my sole support.                           Yours etc. Annie Irwin

Young Charles would write on the bottom of this letter –

I certify that the above signature is genuine and that my father is a cripple and cannot write.                                                                 C. Irwin

Keen to join the Artillery rather than the Infantry, Charles took the long journey to Melbourne enlisting in Maribynong near where the Field Artillery Brigades (FAB) had established their training base.

From July until February 1916, Charles would train with the A company, 10th  brigade at Ascot Vale until he is taken into the FAB Reinforcements on February 18, 1916.  Back at Maribynong, Charles is now called a ‘Gunner’ rather than, Private.  

Charles would embark for war on HMAT Medic on the May 20, 1916.  After nearly two months at sea they would disembark on the south coast of England at Plymouth on July 18, 1916.

Further training in Field Artillery takes place in England at the Larkhill Garrison on the Salisbury Plain. Charles would spend a month in the nearby Fargo Military Hospital suffering from Pneumonia. The Fargo hospital had just been established in 1914 and eventually had 1200 beds serving the growing number of British and Commonwealth troops awaiting transfer to the western front.  

On November 1, 1916, Charles is appointed ‘Diver’ which was a military rank used in the British Army and the armies of other Commonwealth countries. It was equivalent to the rank of private. The rank was initially used in the Royal Artillery for the men who drove the teams of horses which pulled the guns.

The 8th Field Artillery Brigade (FAB) initially formed in Egypt as part of the 'doubling' of the AIF to create the 4th and 5th Divisions.  However unlike its counterpart 8th Infantry Brigade the 8th FAB was allocated to the Third Division. In July 1916, the division's artillery component was formed, consisting of three batteries of 18-pounders and one 4.5 inch howitzer battery.[7] The process of raising and training took some time and consequently the division was not transferred to France until mid November 1916.[5]  (Wikipedia)

Finally on the last day of 1916, New Years Eve, Charles would embark from Southampton for France. Arriving at northern French port of Le Havre, Charles would be ‘Taken on Strength’ (TOS) into the 8th FAB and his active war service would begin. 

In January 1917 the 3rd Division's artillery had been reorganised so that it consisted of two field artillery brigades, each of which consisted of three six-gun 18-pounder batteries and twelve 4.5 inch howitzers. These brigades were the 7th (consisting of the 25th, 26th, 27th and 107th Batteries) and the 8th (29th, 30th, 31st and 108th Batteries).

In April 1917 the division was moved to the Messines–Wytschaete Ridge section of the line in Belgium, taking up a position on the extreme right of II ANZAC Corps, with the New Zealand Division to its left. It was here, in early June 1917, that the division undertook its first major engagement of the war when it was committed to the fighting during the Battle of Messines.(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3rd_Division_(Australia)

Although not a frontline role, the Drivers job was crucial. War Correspondent C.E .W Bean wrote,

'These Australians had won themselves a special name on this battlefield for the way in which they went straight through the nightmare barrages laid on the well known tracks which they and their horses had to follow.  Where many might hesitate, these men realised that the loss would be less, and the job better done, if they pushed on without hesitation. This comment was justified.  It was undoubtedly through the conduct of the drivers, as well as through that of the gun-crews and observers, that the Australian divisional artilleries in this battle - as General Gough wrote when they left his army in September – ‘earned the admiration and praise of all.'          (Source - C. E. W. Bean’s Official History online, Volume IV, pp 729-730  )

Charles served throughout 1917 year being admitted to hospital in September for three weeks suffering scabies. He would serve through the winter of 1917/18 being again admitted to Hospital at the front suffering Trench fever. His condition obviously did not improve and on April 22, 1918 he was transferred back across the English channel and hospitalized in Birmingham. By June he was better and given two weeks furlough and in August was able to rejoin the AIF Overseas Training Brigade based at Sutton Veny in Wiltshire.

On October 2, Charles was well enough to embark 'Overseas for France' and rejoined his unit on October 10.  Here he would serve until Armistice is declared on November 11.   

Charles would stay with his unit in northern France through another northern winter until March 19, 1919 when he would sail to England disembarking at Weymouth and join the thousands of other AIF soldiers waiting on the Salisbury Plain to be returned to Australia.

He would wait another 3 months, and leave England on June 23 on HMAT Orita and disembark at Port Melbourne on August 6, 1919. He would not be discharged from the AIF until January 1920.

Charles’s  service in the AIF was just over 4 years. It is not known whether he returned to Epsom briefly with his military records showing his new address as McMahon’s Creek in the Yarra Ranges.

Driver Charles Irwin is remembered by the people of White Hills and Epsom. 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 White Hills Botanic Gardens.