RICHARDS, Gordon James
| Service Number: | 132 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | Not yet discovered |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 8th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Not yet discovered |
| Home Town: | Not yet discovered |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Not yet discovered |
| Memorials: |
World War 1 Service
| 19 Oct 1914: | Involvement Private, 132, 8th Infantry Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '9' embarkation_place: Melbourne embarkation_ship: HMAT Benalla embarkation_ship_number: A24 public_note: '' | |
|---|---|---|
| 19 Oct 1914: | Embarked Private, 132, 8th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Benalla, Melbourne |
Pte Gordon James Richards
From Ballarat & District in the Great War
'...There were five of us in an observation post, and a shell came and took two chaps' heads right off. All I got was a crack on the head with a sandbag and a piece of skin off my nose. Young Hockey McCallum had black spots all over his face from the powder, and Jim Robertson had the dead men's brains bespattered all over his face. He looked awful, but after he had a wash there was not a scratch on him, so I reckon we were lucky…'
Private Gordon Richards, wrote these shocking words to a friend in Ballarat. He had just returned to the trenches at ANZAC, having been wounded early in the Gallipoli campaign. The three boys - Gordon Richards, Clem McCallum and Jim Robertson - were all serving with the 8th Infantry Battalion.
The first time that I read the extract of this letter I remember wondering how people coped with such graphic descriptions when their sons were away at the Front - and how different newspaper content was nearly 100 years later. I also wondered how the men actually dealt with the memories of what they had seen...
Gordon Richards and Jim Robertson both returned home at the end of the war; Clem McCallum nearly made it through, too. Sadly, he was killed in action on 11 August 1918.
Submitted 30 July 2019 by Evan Evans