Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

 
DRANEY  Ronald Owen  #3035  9th/49th Battalion
 
Ronald Draney was born in Warwick, the son of Richard and Jessie Draney. Ronald’s father was a Postmaster with the Post Master General’s Department and as a consequence of promotions, Ronald attended primary school at St Lawrence. Upon completeing the scholarship examination, Ronald attended a private college in Toowoomba which would prepare him for entry into the public service. When Ronald presented himself for enlistment in Brisbane on 14th June 1915, he was a Clerk Grade 5 with the Australian Taxation Office; Land Tax Division.
 
At enlistment, Ronald advised his home address as Post Office Caboolture, where his father was then Postmaster. Ronald was 22 years old and single. He was allocated as part of the 10th reinforcements for the 9th Battalion which at that time had been fighting on Gallipoli since the landings on the 25th April.
 
Ronald boarded the “Warilda” in Brisbane on 5th October 1915 for overseas. He allotted 3/- of his daily pay to his father to be held in trust. The “Warilda” stopped at Sydney and Melbourne to take on reinforcements for other battalions and arrived in Egypt in January 1916. The Australians had been evacuated from Gallipoli a month earlier and the AIF in Egypt was in the process of expanding from 2 divisions to 4. Another division, the 3rd, would be raised in England. The expansion of the AIF was achieved by splitting existing battalions into two cores of Gallipoli veterans and then making up numbers from reinforcements. Ronald found himself a member of the newly formed 49th Battalion, part of the 12th Brigade of the 4th Division. While still in camp Tel el Kabir, Ronald was promoted to Lance Corporal.
 
The 4th Division arrived in France in the middle of June and was sent to the so called “nursery trenches’ in the Armentieres sector to become acclimatized to trench warfare. On 25th July, Ronald reported sick to a casualty clearing station with abdominal pain. He was diagnosed with appendicitis and transferred to hospital at Etaples, then via hospital ship to Frensham Hill Hospital. While Ronald was in England, the 49thwere thrust into the line at Pozieres and Mouquet Farm, suffering huge casualties. Ronald did not rejoin his battalion until December 1916. The next month he was promoted to Corporal.
Ronald again reported sick on 7th April 1917, this time the diagnosis was influenza. He followed the now familiar route to a hospital in Boulogne, hospital ship across the channel and finally the Northampton War Hospital. Once recovered, Ronald was granted a two week furlough after which he reported to the Australian Training Battalion at Sutton Veney. Once again, he fell ill, this time with trench fever. Ronald finally rejoined his battalion in the rest areas behind Ypres on 26th January 1918. He had been in England for almost 10 months and had missed the entire Passchendaele campaign. In spite of Ronald’s lack of combat experience, he was promoted to Sergeant on 24th February and immediately sent off to a school of instruction to learn about gas countermeasures.
 
When Ronald returned from his training course, the battalion was sitting down to a delayed Christmas Dinner on 23rd March. The illustrated menu for the dinner is included in the battalion’s war diary held at the Australian War Memorial. Battalion sports followed the dinner but these activities were interrupted by orders from Brigade HQ to prepare for immediate departure for the Somme.
 
With the coming of spring in 1918, the German commander Ludendorff took advantage of a numerical superiority of troops to launch a surprise offensive against the British on the Somme. So successful was this offensive that in a few days the Germans had retaken all of the ground surrendered earlier in the war during 1916 and 1917; and were even threatening the vital communication hub of Amiens.
 
In response, Haig ordered the 3rd and 4th Australian Divisions to be rushed south. The first units to be mobilized were battalions of the 12th and 13th Brigades; which included the 49th Battalion. The 49th boarded buses and trucks for the journey south on 25th March but only got about half way to their destination before orders were changed and they spent 24 hours awaiting new orders.
 
The 12th and 13th brigades were ordered to make their way to Dernacourt, a small village on the railway line between Amiens and Albert. This deployment required a forced march of almost 30 kilometres through the night with the entire German army somewhere out on the left. There were reports that German armoured cars were on the roads but the cars proved to be French farm machinery.
 
 Upon arrival at the assigned position, the 49th were ordered to take up positions on a ridge facing the gathering Germans on the other side of the railway line. There were no trenches and the men of the 49th had to dig shallow pits while under enemy artillery fire. Ronald’s file indicates that he was killed in action on 28thMarch; the day the battalion arrived at its position on the ridge. The Battalion war diary records only one death on that day, presumably that of Ronald Draney. A peculiar report from a Red Cross visitor to the Northampton War Hospital (where Ronald was well known as he spent many months there in 1917) relates that a 49th Battalion man told her that Ronald had been killed two months later and that he had been killed with 8 other men by a shell. This account, like many witness accounts in the Red Cross files, must be discredited.
 
It was reported that Ronald was buried in the Point 106 Cemetery outside Albert. Ronald’s father was advised of his death and a small parcel of personal belongings was forwarded to him. Richard Draney wrote to the authorities enquiring about some valuable items such as a watch and a fountain pen which his son had with him but which were not included in the parcel. The authorities, acting only on cable communications were unable to help. Richard wrote again to the authorities in Melbourne this time stating that his son had given the items to Lieutenant Ninian Murchison for safe keeping and that the Lieutenant had himself been killed three days later. Could the missing items be contained in the effects of Lt Murchison? Base records were able to confirm that this was the case but unfortunately the ship carrying the effects of Murchison and a number of other deceased soldiers had been torpedoed off the Scilly Isles and all cargo was lost.
 
Ronald’s remains were reinterred twice before a final resting place was determined and Richard Draney was somewhat annoyed at the way his son was being treated. To add to the mix up, incorrect photographs of the grave were supplied. By the time that war medals were being sent to next of kin, Richard Draney had moved from Caboolture to Toowong as the Postmaster.