Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Lieutenant SPREADBOROUGH Ernest William                                  31st Battalion
 
Ernest Spreadborough was born in Warwick on 12th December 1874. He was the eldest of John and Elizabeth Spreadborough’s ten children. The Spreadborough family was well known in the Warwick and Killarney districts. John Spreadborough was the Town Clerk in Warwick.
 
Ernest attended the Boy’s School in Warwick and his schoolwork impressed the head teacher, Mr Porter. Ernest was selected to be a pupil – teacher; a scheme whereby promising students around the age of 14 would be under the guidance and supervision of the head teacher with the aim of passing a series of examinations to become a teacher. There were no teacher training institutions in Queensland at the time. Once qualified as a teacher, Ernest continued to teach under the tutelage of Mr Porter, gaining valuable experience. At that time, he qualified as an instructor in the Junior Cadet Corps, part of the scheme of universal military training introduced soon after the Boer War. Eventually, Ernest was posted to Brandon State School in the Burdekin district of North Queensland. This may have been a one teacher school.
 
In 1900, Ernest at the age of 26 married Edith Margaret Brundrit (formerly Hamilton). Edith was living in the home of her step parents at Clayfield. She may also have been a teacher. In 1911, Ernest was posted to Mount Beppo State School as Head Teacher, a two teacher school with the added incentive of a Head Teacher’s residence. Perhaps Edith joined him there. Mount Beppo was a farming district near Toogoolawah in the Brisbane Valley.
 
Ernest travelled to Brisbane by train on 5th June 1915 to enlist, at the age of 41. Ernest named his wife of Clayfield as his next of kin and agreed to allocate 40% of his pay to his wife. Ernest completed an application for an officer’s commission and while awaiting confirmation proceeded to Enoggera where a new battalion, the 31st, was being assembled. Ernest used his considerable knowledge of military training in the role of Acting Company Sergeant Major. His commission was confirmed and Ernest was appointed as a 2nd Lieutenant attached to “B” Company of the 31stBattalion.
 
The 31st Battalion was being raised as part of the 8th Brigade of the 5th Division AIF. The 31st comprised two companies raised in Queensland and two companies from Victoria. The other three 8th Brigade battalions were from NSW, Victoria and a combined SA and WA battalion. With such a widespread recruitment, it was not possible for the constituent battalions to train and exercise as a complete brigade. The two Queensland companies of the 31st travelled to Broadmeadows camp outside Melbourne so that the 31st could at least train as a full battalion. On 9th November 1915, the bulk of the 31st under the command of Lt Col Toll embarked on the “Wandilla” at Port Melbourne and sailed to Fremantle where a convoy was being assembled for the crossing of the Indian Ocean. The 31st landed at Suez on 7thDecember and then travelled by train to Heliopolis, a Cairo suburb. Over the next month, the units that had been evacuated from Gallipoli in late 1915 returned to Egypt.
 
There were then a large number of Australian troops in Egypt; Gallipoli Veterans, reinforcements from Australia, and complete units like the 8th Brigade. A reorganization and expansion of the AIF effectively doubled the size of the AIF with new battalions being created from a core of experienced men. The 5th Division however, had arrived in Egypt complete without the addition of some experienced Gallipoli veterans. This lack of experience would be a telling factor in the division’s future. While reorganisation continued, the men of the 8th Brigade were despatched to the Canal Zone to meet an expected Turkish threat from the Sinai. On 21st March 1916, Ernest received a promotion to Lieutenant.
 
Over the next three months, the AIF was gradually shipped to France and the “real” war on the Western Front. The 8thBrigade was one of the last units to leave Egypt on 16th June 1916; arriving in Marseilles on 23rd June. From the southern French port, the 31st and 30th Battalions boarded trains for the long journey to the northern sector of the front around the city of Armentieres. The battalions marched into billets at Morbecque on 26th June. This sector was referred to as the nursery sector where newly arrived troops could be slowly exposed to the rigours and routines of trench warfare. The ground was flat and boggy and any earthworks would quickly fill with water so the front line consisted of built up earthen breastworks supported by wicker panels with the floor covered with wooden duck boards.
 
On 11th July, the 31st Battalion went into action for the first time on the Bois Grenier Line, relieving the 15th Battalion. The British command was pushing for more aggressive actions along the front than the small trench raids that had been the usual activity. One company of the 31st took part in a raid on 13th July with limited success and some casualties. The battalion was relieved on the 15th July and went into billets around the ruined village of Fleurbaix. Those three days constituted the sum total of exposure to offensive action for the 8th Brigade. The next action would not be so easy.
 
General Douglas Haig, Supreme British Commander in France, launched a huge summer offensive along the valley of the Somme River on 1st July 1916. Haig was trusting in the sheer weight of numbers of his army to drive the Germans back. The British government had introduced conscription in late 1915 and the increased force was often referred to as Kitchener’s New Army. History records that the British suffered 60,000 casualties on the first day. It was apparent that barbed wire and machine guns were more than a match for straight lines of soldiers marching with bayonets fixed towards heavily defended positions, yet Haig was committed to the fight. In an effort to delay German reinforcements in the northern sector of the front being repositioned to the Somme, Haig ordered a feint to be directed at the Germans manning Aubers Ridge in front of the village of Fromelles, south of Armentieres. The general given the task, Lt Gen Haking, had two divisions at his disposal with which to carry out a plan to take Aubers Ridge and divert German Forces. Haking had attempted a similar scheme in May using the 1st Division of the AIF, but without success. For the second attempt, the General had the British 61st Division and the Australian 5th Division. He had originally planned to use the 1st Division as he had in May but the divisional commander “Hookey” Walker refused point blank to take part. Walker was lucky he was in the AIF; if he had been a British general, he would probably have been court martialled.
 
Haking began his plans for the assault to commence on 17th July. Part of the plan was to distribute to every soldier who was to take part a document outlining the timetable for the attack and to reiterate that the attack would only have limited objectives as it was a feint. The document ended with a plea that these plans were to be kept secret. Men who partook of the refreshments in the estaminets in the rear area discussed this openly which naturally found its way to the enemy.
 
Haking postponed the attack due to rain. He was concerned that the artillery he had from the 4th and 5th Australian Divisions would not be able to register their shots in the inclement weather. Most of the gunners were inexperienced and some had never fired their 18 pounders due to a shortage of ammunition. With a German counterattack apparently imminent on the Somme, Haig wanted the attack on Aubers ridge to proceed in the hope that it would tie down the Germans in that sector. The 6th Bavarian Division had been in possession of Aubers Ridge for more than a year and were well prepared for the British and Australian assault as they had easily repelled the previous assault back in May. The German front line breastworks consisted of a sandbag wall more than two metres high and more than 6 metres thick capable of withstanding all but the heaviest artillery, of which Haking had none.
 
At dawn on the 19th July, the four battalions of the 8th Brigade began to move into the front line trenches. In front of them lay dead flat marshy ground intersected by drainage channels. The Germans on Aubers Ridge; though only 25 metres high, had a commanding view of the British and Australians moving up. They displayed a sign which read “Why so long, you are twenty-four hours late.” A Previous sign read “Advance Australia – If you can!” So much for secrecy! The much maligned Australian artillery began to pour fire on the first German line but due to inexperience, many of the rounds dropped short, killing a number of men and wounding many more with friendly fire. The German artillery, which had twelve months to get their ranging right, added to the carnage. At 6:00pm, with two hours of daylight remaining, the whistles blew signalling the charge.
 
The 31st Battalion was positioned opposite a bulge or salient in the German line, occupied by a concrete gun emplacement marked on the maps as the Sugarloaf. The company commander of “B” Company, Captain Sharpe, had been wounded in the preliminary artillery barrage and Lieutenant Spreadborough assumed command of the company. Ernest led the charge but had only gone about 30 metres (according to an eye witness) when he was felled by machine gun fire from the Sugarloaf. Several witnesses passed his body as they moved forward and all were sure he was dead. The 31st Battalion men who had made it to the first line of the German defences were some of the few 5th Division troops to have done so. All along the front, the advance was met with enfilading artillery and machine gun fire. Ammunition began to run low and the British 61st Division that was supposed to be protecting the 31st Battalion’s advance could not move forward, leaving the right flank of the 31st open. With ammunition critical and no more reserve troops available, a withdrawal was ordered by the 5th Division Commander, Maj Gen McCay. In places the withdrawal turned into a rout which resulted in more casualties as men ran for the shelter of the starting trenches. By the morning of the 20th July, it was all over.
 
The Germans offered a truce to gather the wounded but McCay, aware that British policy was against such a practice, rejected the offer. It was recorded that some Australians went out into no man’s land anyway. One such man was Sergeant Simon Fraser who while scouring the battlefield heard a wounded man call out “don’t forget me, Cobber.” Fraser carried the man over his shoulder back to safety. A statue depicting this incident was unveiled in the Australian Memorial Park, established on the old German front line.
 
For Australians, the battle fought on 19th and 20th July 1916 is referred to as Fromelles. The 5th Division sustained 5,533 casualties in that single night. For the 31st Battalion, the figures were just as sobering; 66 killed, 80 missing and 420 wounded, from a battalion strength of 900. One of the missing was Lt Spreadbrough. On 9th September 1916, a British recovery party located Ernest’s remains which were so badly decomposed that they could not recover the body. Instead, Ernest’s identity disc was recovered and eventually returned to his widow.
 
Around the time of Ernest’s death, Edith Spreadborough relocated to Gympie to live with her step sister. She was granted a war pension of £3/10/- a fortnight. Over the next few years, Edith moved to Cooroy and then to Woody Point on the Redcliffe Peninsula. Her last known address was Humpybong State School, Redcliffe.
 
At the end of the war, the Australian authorities resolved to construct permanent memorials to those who had lost their lives at Fromelles. VC Corner cemetery contains the remains of 410 Fromelles dead whose remains could not be identified. Additionally, the names of 1,299 men who fell at Fromelles and have no known grave are inscribed on a stone screen at the rear of the cemetery, Ernest Spreadborough’s name is here.
 
In the 1990s, a Victorian School Teacher, Lambis Englezos, began to campaign for exploratory work to be conducted in an area near the village of Fromelles named Pheasant Wood. Lambis and his group, the Friends of the 15th Brigade, after years of lobbying and media were able to have a survey of the wood conducted which revealed the location of an undiscovered mass grave. The Unrecovered War Casualties – Army unit began a painstaking exhumation of the remains and where possible took DNA evidence to assist in identification. Descendants of Fromelles War Dead provided DNA in the hope of identifying lost relatives; including descendants of Ernest Spreadborough. To date, Ernest remains missing.