Virtual
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Australia

From François Berthout

Pte 4797 Arthur Gilmour Harvie 
50th Australian Infantry Battalion,
13th Brigade, 4th Australian Division
 
Through the old battlefields of the Somme, silent and solemn, proudly stand thousands of young men who, among the poppies, more than a hundred years ago, for peace and freedom, for their country and for France , for the future of mankind gathered and marched to reach the trenches and to face their fates through the barbed wire and the mud oceans of the great war on which were mown down a whole generation of young boys whose white graves remind us of their courage and the sacrifice of their youth and their innocence in the mud and the blood which they shed side by side in the brotherhood and the comradeship that unites them today and in which they still stand in front of us to tell us who they were and what they did for us, for the peace in which they rest and in which we will always watch over them so that their sacrifices are not never forgotten and so that their names, their faces live forever in the remembrance that unites us.

Today, it is with the utmost respect and the deepest gratitude that I would like to honor the memory of one of these young men, one of my boys of the Somme who gave his today for our tomorrow. I would like to pay a very respectful tribute to Private number 4797 Arthur Gilmour Harvie who fought in the 50th Australian Infantry Battalion, 13th Brigade, 4th Australian Division, and who was killed in action 105 years ago, on November 19, 1916 at the age of 29 on the Somme front.

Arthur Gilmour Harvie was born on August 18, 1887 in Gumeracha, South Australia, and was the youngest son of James Harvie (1850-1907), and Elizabeth Jane Harvie (née Godfree, 1857-1902), of Mannanarie, South Australia , and had two brothers, James Matthew Harvie (1885-1949) and John Godfree Harvie. Arthur was educated at Mannanarie and Port Pirie State Schools then at Prince Alfred College, Adelaide, South Australia. After graduation he lived at Grant Avenue , Rose Park, South Australia and was employed in January 1901 as a bank clerk for Messrs Todd and Samuel and in July 1905 joined the staff of the Bank of Australasia for which he worked at Broken Hill, New South Wales, Wellington, New Zealand, Port Lincoln, Port Pirie, Wirrabara and Adelaide.

At the outbreak of the war, Arthur was in Wellington, New Zealand, and returned to Australia then enlisted on November 4, 1915 in Adelaide, South Australia, in the 50th Australian Infantry Battalion, battalion which was dubbed "Hurcombe's Hungry Half Hundred", after its first Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Colonel Frederick Hurcombe.After a period of three months of training, Arthur embarked with his unit from Adelaide, on board RMS Mongolia on March 9, 1916 and sailed for Egypt where he arrived on June 7 and embarked the same day from Alexandria with his battalion on board "Huntspill" and proceeded overseas for France.

After a one week journey without inconvenience on the Mediterranean Sea, Arthur arrived in France and was disembarked in Marseilles on June 14, 1916 and taken on strength in Steenvoorde (Hauts-De-France) on September 6 in the 50th Battalion which was exhausted and almost wiped out after being involved in furious fighting at Mouquet Farm, Pozieres, Somme, between August 13 and 15, then during a last disastrous attack on September 3.

Mouquet Farm was the scene of intensive fighting during the First World War, from July through to early September 1916. A German stronghold, just 1000 yards to the west of Pozières, the capture of this site was seen as a prelude to the Allies' objective of capturing Thiepval. Mouquet Farm, otherwise known to the Aussie troops as "Moo Cow Farm", protected the rear of Thiepval. The well-held belief was if the farm was seized, then the capture of Thiepval would ensue.

For just over six weeks, as part of the Battle of the Somme, between July 23 and September 4, 1916 three Australian divisions,the First, Second and Fourth, including 36 individual infantry battalions, fought the Germans at Pozières, on the Pozières heights and then along the ridge towards Mouquet Farm.

in this six-week period, the Australians Divisions mounted 19 attacks on the German positions that surrounded Mouquet Farm, none of which resulted in capturing this position.

On July 23, Pozières fell to the First Australian Division, then on August 4, the Windmill site was captured. The fighting continued, and attack after attack, small gains were sometimes made, but the advance north towards Mouquet Farm and Thiepval was frustratingly slow, often a mere crawling pace.

The German troops, realising they could attack on three sides, were able to concentrate their fire on the narrow front that the Australian troops were operating on. Each approach that was made on the farm was visible to the German artillery observers. The Australians were perilously exposed to enemy fire, and the shelling they received was brutal.

Tactically, Mouquet Farm was a significant location. Beneath the farm were a series of cellars, and by incorporating these cellars into their trench system the German forces were able to establish a full underground network of interconnecting rooms. Above the ground was an impressive vantage point and below the ground was the ideal protection from the shelling ripping through the air above.

The Germans were so heavily bombarding the area that Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Murray Ross ( August 16, 1867-November 15, 1933), commanding officer of the 51st Australian Infantry Battalion, wrote to his Brigadier that "it is my genuine (not depressed) opinion that it would be a mistake to further press the offensive in this salient until communications and supplies of food and ammunition could be improved."
The Australian troops attacked again on the 12th and 13th of August, and the Fourth Australian Division mounted an ambitious plan to take the farm on 14th August. Three battalions were to be involved, and although already so depleted in numbers and exhausted, they advanced, but to no avail and by early September, Mouquet Farm was still under a German stronghold.

Through the series of operations to capture Mouquet Farm, the Australian Divisions kept rotating around, and in the end, more than 50,000 men were involved in the assaults on the farm.

In just over 40 days of fighting around Pozières and Mouquet farm, the Australian casualties registered a shocking number: 23,000. Of these, 11,000 casualties were suffered by the First, Second and Fourth Australian Divisions in the series of attacks mounted on Mouquet Farm alone.

It was not until the end of September, that Mouquet Farm was secured by the British troops, when their advance bypassed the farm, capturing Thiepval and leaving it as an isolated outpost.

The horrific loss of life and what ended up as a mostly futile attack on Mouquet Farm, is perhaps best articulated in the official 21st Australian Infantry Battalion history:

"We have been in hotter holes since then but never has the Battalion suffered under intense shellfire for such long periods and with such little movement. The casualty lists bear this out. The conditions were vile. The weather being hot and everyone fully occupied on other tasks, the dead lay unburied for weeks and the stench was frightful. To come through a period such as this and then go on fighting is evidence of the temper of the British armies in general and of our unit in particular…under the heading of the First Battle of the Somme is told the story of our first and heaviest try out. The time which is vividly imprinted in the memories of those who saw the whole show through."

From September 9 to 17, 1916, Arthur and the 50th Australian Infantry Battalion were billeted in Steenvoorde then joined Tatinghem (Pas-De-Calais) on September 18 where they alternated between periods of exercises and rest, then a few weeks later, on October 9, were sent to Dickebusch, in the Ypres salient then fought at Reninghelst and on October 25, the battalion embarked by train for the Somme and arrived at St Riquier on October 26.

After arriving at St Riquier, Arthur and the 50th Australian Infantry Battalion joined Bussus-Bussuel on October 27 then marched through Brucamps, Vignacourt, Buire, Fricourt and on November 13, entered the front line trenches at Flers, near Gueudecourt and under a deluge of German shells but it was there that unfortunately, six days later,on november 19, 1916, while in a position called "Gird Trench", that Arthur was killed in action by a shell explosion, he was 29 years old.

Captain Roy George Baynes, 50th Australian Infantry, who witnessed Arthur's death declared:
"I saw Harvie killed in Gird Trench on the Somme,in front of Flers, by the explosion of a shell. He had a shocking wound in the back, quite a foot long. He was evacuated on a stretcher and died before we got to the regimental aid post."

Today, Arthur Gilmour Harvie rests in peace with his friends, comrades and brothers in arms at Caterpillar Valley Cemetery, Longueval, Somme, and his grave bears the following inscription: "Ever remembered for a duty so nobly done but sadly missed."

Arthur Gilmour Harvie had a cousin who fought during the First World War, Private number 2147 Bruce Lyle Godfree, unfortunately Bruce was killed in action on June 28, 1916 at the age of 19 in Messines, Belgium, and now rests in peace at La Plus Douve Farm Cemetery. His grave bears the following inscription: "A faithful soldier of Jesus Christ."

Arthur, you who were in the prime of your life, at the dawn of promises and hopes stretching at your feet, it is with conviction and loyalty that you answered the call of duty and took a step forward to join your comrades with whom you walked with incredible determination behind the bugles and drums guiding the steps of a whole generation of young boys towards their destinies which awaited them beyond the horizon line broken by the lightning and the thunder of the artillery whose flames were spat out from the earth but without fear and with faith in their hearts, with the deep desire to fight and to do their duty, they went through fields of poppies and wheat whose sweetness caressed their feet and their hands, the last moment of a peace which, in the trenches, was shattered by the dismal howls of the shells which poured death and desolation on once green fields which turned red blood on an ocean of mud in which already fell thousands of men who were pulverized by metal, by shrapnels and grenades and who, too early, too young, were stopped and tortured by the bites of barbed wire and that the machine guns did not spare on these fields of death and execution on which nothing and no one could survive.In the cold, in the frozen water, their knees deep in the mud and their faces blackened by the grime and the despair of the trenches,these men held on with exceptional courage despite their fears, despite the hunger and thirst that gripped them,despite the lice that gnawed at them and the rats that ran between their legs, they never complained and did their duty with determination alongside their pals and their brothers in arms with whom they shared the sufferings and pains, tears and the horrible sight of the battlefields on which the smell of death hovered as foul as the poison gas that burned lungs and skin but but they never took a step back, they stayed together and ready to do what brought them together in this hell on earth.They stood up under storms of fire and steel for common causes, for peace and freedom they gave their youth, the best years of their lives, they found in themselves and in each other, in mateship and brotherhood, the strength to stand and fight, they found in this indestructible bond the courage to climb the wooden ladders behind their officers and charged bravely to capture the enemy trenches while watching over each other under a deluge of bullets and steel under which they stood tall and showed the determination, perseverance, courage of a whole generation of men who, bayonets forward, in the last steps of a too short life, gave their all and paid the supreme sacrifices of their lives but who today, forever young, are still standing in front of us in the remembrance in which they will never cease to live and be remembered for what they always will be, heroes with young smiling faces who stand among the poppies, always united in the mateship in which they fought and in which they watch over their friends and the sacred lands of the Somme on which I would always walk with respect to honor the memory of these young boys, my boys of the Somme whom I would always carry in my heart to keep their memory alive, so that their names live forever, I will always watch over them with devotion so that they are never forgotten.Thank you so much Arthur, for everything. At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember him, we will remember them.