Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Private Arthur Ray Preston  SN 4581

Arthur Ray Preston signed on to join the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) on July 8, 1915, however his enlistment with the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) was not completed until July 16, 1916.

Arthur would have been much older than most recruits at this time, he was 36 years of age, married to Jessie and they had two children. He listed his occupation as a ‘Farmer’ and they lived at Plumridge Street, in White Hills a former gold mining hamlet north of Bendigo. Both Arthur’s parents were deceased.

On enlisting, Arthur would be assigned to the 14th Reinforcements of the AIF 6th Infantry Battalion and his first five months of training was spent at the Bendigo Camp at the Epsom Racecourse, not far from his home in White Hills. The unit was known as the 16th Depot Battalion.

No long after Arthur arrives at the camp, the camp would suffer an outbreak of meningitis in August 1915. Large numbers of recruits were sent to Broadmeadows for training from then on, however, Arthur would stay at the Bendigo camp until December 9 when he would be transferred officially into the 14th Reinforcements of the 6th battalion and start preparation for their upcoming sea journey to the front.

The 6th Battalion was one of the initial AIF Battalions formed in late 1914, recruiting from Victoria, drawing from Melbourne and the surrounding suburbs to the north.

The initial 6th battalion recruits had earlier taken part in the landing at Anzac Cove and was digging in on the cliffs of the Gallipoli peninsula when Arthur signed on.

Arthur and fellow recruits would have been expecting to be joining the 6th in the Dardanelles fighting the Ottoman forces, however, by the time they would leave Australia the surviving AIF troops had been withdrawn from the disaster on the Gallipoli peninsula to regroup and rebuild in the sands of Egypt.

Arthur would embark from Port Melbourne on HMAT Themistocles on February 28, 1916 landing in Alexandria, Egypt in late February after a month a sea. These sea journeys usually had one stop over at Colombo, on the island of Ceylon, now Sri Lanka.

After a relatively short stay in Egypt, (one month) they would leave the Port of Alexandria disembarking in Marseilles, Southern France on April 4, 1916.

Landing in Marseilles would have been the reinforcements first sight of Europe. “The harbour in spring was a beautiful site after our long stay in desolate Egypt” wrote Private Roy Ramsey of the AIF 3rd Field Ambulance. We all hoped for a few days in Marseilles but the authorities were reluctant to let us loose on the city, no doubt on account of our doubtful reputation earned in Egypt.”

The Australians journeyed by troop train up the Rhone valley heading for Calais, then eastwards to the western front in French Flanders, 200 km north of Paris. Estaples, the British and Commonwealth staging depot in Northern France was their destination close to the Belgium border.

In late April whilst still in the Estaples depot he would be admitted to the No. 26 General Hospital in Estaples suffering Influenza spending 15 days in there.

In late July, (30th) Arthur would be TOS ‘Taken on strength’ and join the 6th Battalion Galipoli veterans and other reinforcements at the battalion's first major action in France, at Pozieres.

Pozieres, a small village in the Somme valley in France, was the scene of bitter and costly fighting for the 1st, 2nd and 4th Australian Divisions in mid 1916. The village was captured initially by the 1st Division on 23 July 1916. The division clung to its gains despite almost continuous artillery fire and repeated German counter-attacks but suffered heavily. By the time it was relieved on 27 July it had suffered 5,285 casualties.                                                          

The 2nd Division took over from the 1st and mounted two further attacks - the first, on 29 July, was a costly failure; the second, on 2 August, resulted in the seizure of further German positions beyond the village. Again, the Australians suffered heavily from retaliatory bombardments. They were relieved on 6 August, having suffered 6,848 casualties.

The 4th Division was next into the line at Pozieres. It too endured a massive artillery bombardment, and defeated a German counter-attack on 7 August; this was the last attempt by the Germans to retake Pozieres. (Source – The 6th Battalion – AWM Web site)

The following descriptive letter of the terrible struggle for Pozieres is from the pen of Private George V. Carter, 6th Battalion and formerly of the Lake Meran district, near Kerang.

'Pozieres is a mass of bricks, logs, gun pits, unfired German shells, wagon timbers, wheels, timber and soldiers in one big grave, and as I left Pozieres the big German shells were still falling in it, but it was ours, with great trenches running through it. I'm afraid you will be tired of this, but it is as I have seen it and been through without a scratch — fifteen days of hell. I must tell you that the 6th Battalion got special mention for the great work done by their working parties. Men died as they worked, with sleeves rolled up and the pick in their hands — soldiers and men every one of them'.

(Source - TROVE - SOLDIER'S LETTER. THE FIGHT AT POZIERES.)

Following the capture of Pozières and the German lines at the windmill east of the village in late July and early August 1916, the three Australian divisions of I Anzac Corps attacked northwards along the Pozières Heights towards the site known as Mouquet Farm. 

Between 8 August and 3 September 1916, the Australians launched nine separate attacks to capture the heavily defended German position which lay half way between Pozières and Thiepval, with the aim of driving a wedge behind the salient held by the Germans. 
Although the Australians managed to occupy the farm several times, they were forced back each time due to fierce German counterattacks. The site was still in enemy hands by the time I Anzac Corps was withdrawn from the Somme on 5 September. 
The 1st, 2nd, and 4th Australian Divisions suffered around 11,000 casualties in the fighting.  (Source - Wikipedia -the 6th battalion AIF) 

Just two days after the Mouquet Farm battles, Arthur is wounded on September 7, 1916.  He receives a Gun Shot Wound (GSW) to the leg and is taken behind the lines to the 2nd Field Ambulance station. The wound is considered serious and he is transferred to the 8th Stationary Hospital at Wimeaux, on the coast in the Hauts-de-France region of Northern France.

With a GSW to the left tibia, Arthur’s wound needs operating and he embarks on the Hospital Ship, the HS Jan Breydell which is constantly ferrying the wounded from the channel port of Boulonge to England.

Arthur is admitted to the Central Military Hospital Eastbourne, Sussex.  He wound is adjudged as ‘Severe’ and categorised as a ’60 day case’. His wife Jessie is advised, with not other detail by telegram on October 3, nearly a month after his wounding.

Arthur would spend Christmas and the bulk of winter at Eastbourne hospital. In mid February 1917 he is transferred to York Place Hospital for further treatment and recuperation. Jessie would be advised at the end of March that he is progressing favourably, again without any further details.

It is here that it is decided that Arthur would be medically unfit to return to active service.

On September 11, a full year after being wounded Arthur is well enough to be given 14 days furlough and told to report to the AIF Depot at Weymouth on September 25. Jessie is advised by telegram issued September 18, he is now ‘Convalescent’ .

The Number 2 AIF Command depot camp at Weymouth, was in the Dorset seaside town on the south coast of England. Here soldiers deemed no longer fit for active service and waiting for repatriation to Australia were accommodated. It is estimated that during the years 1915-1919 over 120,000 Australian and New Zealand troops passed through the seaside town of Weymouth. (Source - https://anzac-22nd-battalion.com/training-camps-england/)

On October 5, Arthur would be further classified as permanently unfit for general service and unfit for home serve for a period of six months by Medical officer, Colonel Ryan. Arthur would now be eligible for ‘Return to Australia’ (RTA) and discharge.  

On November 1, Arthur would embark on HMAT Anchises A68, spending two months at sea, disembarking at Melbourne on January 3, 1918.

Initial medical reports back in Melbourne state Arthur ‘can use leg in walking with a stick however, very difficult’.

In the Bendigo Independent Newspaper on January 19, the following Welcome Home for a White Hills soldier is reported- 

On Thursday night Pte. Arthur R Preston was welcomed home to White Hills. As Pte. Preston is but the sixth to return of some fifty or sixty soldiers from White Hills, the committee were anxious of retaining interest in the 'Welcomes," which up to the present have been all that could be desired. Apart from the pleasure of welcoming back to the community one of those men who have dared everything for the freedom and safety of the community, doubtless, the highly attractive programmes which have characterised these functions, have been responsible for the increasing interest and enthusiasm. The hall was crowded to standing on Thursday, and the programme was received in a manner which it truly merited. As the returned hero, accompanied by his wife and two children, entered the hall, they received a great ovation, culminating in the singing of "He's a Jolly Good Fellow."

Later on in the report – Private Preston was presented with the gold medal that read                                                               "Presented to Pte. A. R. Preston on his return from Active Service, by the White Hills residents." And on the front, "A.R.P. Ypres 4/1/18.   Pte Preston, in responding, thanked the residents for their great kindness, and said "if you want to cheer the boys over there send them plenty of tobacco and cigarettes; they don’t get nearly enough. (Source - Trove - Bendigo Independent January 19, 1918) 

Private Arthur Ray Preston is remembered by the people of White Hills. The names of the local lads who sacrificed their lives and those that were fortunate to return from the Great War are shown on the embossed copper plaques on the White Hills Arch of Triumph, at the entrance to the Botanic Gardens.