Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

#2750 (A) LAMONT Reginald                         9th Battalion
 
Reg Lamont was born at Cateford in Kent to Cuthbert and Clara Lamont. As a boy he attended the Modern Grammar School at Croydon in London. Reg emigrated to Australia at the age of 17 and began working as a farm hand in Toogoolawah.
 
Reg presented himself to the Brisbane Recruiting Depot on 17th August 1915. He stated his age as 18 years and 9 months and named his father as his next of kin. Once accepted into the AIF, Reg reported to Enoggera Camp where he was placed into the 6th reinforcements of the 25th Battalion. The reinforcements embarked on the “Seang Bee” in Brisbane on 21st October 1915 and arrived in Egypt a month later. The reinforcements were marched into a camp at Tel el Kabir where they were soon joined by the original 25th Battalion men who had recently been evacuated from Gallipoli when that campaign was abandoned.
 
Plans were in place to double the size of the AIF by splitting existing battalions and then bringing this core of experienced soldiers up to strength by the addition of reinforcements. During this reorganisation, Reg was reassigned to the 9th Battalion, one of four battalions that made up the 3rd brigade of the 1st Division AIF. One month after being transferred, Reg and the rest of the 9th embarked on a ship at Alexandria that would take them to Marseilles. The battalion disembarked at the docks at Marseilles and boarded trains that would take them north into France and their ultimate destination, the Western Front.
 
By the first week of April 1916, the 3rd Brigade was in billets around the town of Strazeele beginning training and attending to equipment. In May, the brigade moved to Sailly to continue training and be issued with steel helmets. The commander of the Anzac forces, General William Birdwood and the 1st Division senior staff inspected the troops before the battalion moved up to the firing line in the Fromelles sector. The 9th began a routine of time in the front line, in support and on fatigue duty. A small number of trench raids were carried out as an introduction to the methods of warfare employed on the Western Front.
 
General Haig, Supreme British commander on the Western Front planned a big offensive in the south of the British sector through the Somme River valley for the summer of 1916. It was the largest battle of the war so far, timed to commence on the 1st of July 1916.
Things did not go well with the British suffering 60,000 casualties on the first day alone; 20,000 of whom were killed. Haig was determined to push on and by the 10th July had resolved to commit his reserves to the fight. This included three Australian divisions; the 1st,2nd and 4th. The 1st Division arrived at the rail junction of Doullens and began a series of route marches across the cobbled French roads to the assembly areas near Albert.
 
A critical point on the Somme battlefield was the village of Pozieres, halfway between Albert and Bapaume. The village occupied a position on the highest point of a ridge which afforded the occupiers an uninterrupted view of the surrounding countryside. Haig ordered the commander of the 5th Army to take Pozieres and the high ground behind the village on which stood a blockhouse that originally had been a windmill. The first phase of the battle required the taking of Pozieres village and the 1st Division was given that task.
 
Three brigades of the 1st Division were to attack the village in three waves, supported by British units on the flanks. On the night of 20th July under a protective artillery barrage, the men of the 9th Battalion set off to take the first objective, Pozieres Trench, where they dug in and were leapfrogged by the second wave who went on to take two more trench lines. Not all objectives were taken and after a brief rest, the attack was renewed with fresh reinforcements. The fighting, much of it hand to hand raged on for 5 days which culminated in a titanic hand grenade fight in which the 9thand 10th Battalions ultimately won the day. The 1st Division was relieved by the 2nd Division on 26th July and returned to the relative safety of Tara Hill camp.
 
It was reported that during the five days in the line, Private Reginald Lamont, aged 19, was killed in action on 23rd July 1916. The official file has no record of a burial and it is likely that his body was destroyed or covered during the artillery barrages. His body was never recovered. A small parcel containing a tobacco pouch, a safety razor in a case, photos and letters was despatched to Reg’s father who in due course also received his son’s medals; 14/15 Star, Empire Medal and Victory Medal.
 
In 1938, some 20 years after the end of the First World War, the Australian Government constructed the Australian National Memorial at Villers Bretonneux, across the Somme River from Pozieres. The memorial, dedicated by the newly crowned King George VI, records the names of over 10,000 Australian soldiers who lost their lives in France and have no known grave; Reginald Lamont among them.
 
On the site of the Pozieres windmill today is a commemorative stone which reads:
“The ruin of the Pozieres windmill which lies here was the centre of the struggle on this part of the Somme Battlefield in July and August 1916. It was captured by Australian troops who fell more thickly on this ridge than on any other battlefields of the war.”