Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

John Patrick Fallon, known as Jock, was my first cousin twice removed and the only member in my maternal family line to have been killed in World War One. Jock was a young man with a full life ahead of him when he enlisted. He served his country as a soldier and went with the 4th Battalion Australian Imperial Force (A.I.F) to France and then Belgium. Sadly, within sixteen months he lay dead in the trenches of the Western Front in Passchendaele, Belgium. This is his war time journey.

John was the second eldest son of eight children born to Michael and Mary Catherine Fallon, who were living in a small house in Moore Park, New South Wales (NSW). Michael was a carpenter, the same trade that Jock followed.
Jock enlisted on 17th July 1916, nearly two years after Britain declared war on Germany. His reasons for enlistment are undocumented, although his cousin Sylvester had enlisted a year earlier in April 1915. Interestingly, his elder brother Joseph did not enlist, which was common for the time, as only thirty percent of Australian males signed up.

Jock’s Attestation Papers state that he was born in Surry Hills, Sydney and he was therefore natural born. He was 22 years and eleven months on enlistment and was unmarried. His parents’ names and addresses were given as his Next of Kin. His rate of pay was 5 shillings per day. He has written his own name and signed the form. His height was documented as 5 feet 6 ¾ inches with a chest measurement of 34 ½ inches. He weighed 132 lbs . His measurements were over the minimum recruitment standards in the early war years . He was subsequently found Fit for Active Service .

SS Port Nicholson originally known as the SS Makarini - she had accommodation for 750-steerage class passengers. She was launched on 3rd Feb.1912 and in 1914 Tyser's was taken over by the Commonwealth & Dominion Line (Port Line) and she was renamed SS Port Nicholson. Mined and sunk 15 miles West of Dunkirk 1917

Jock departed Sydney, NSW on the SS Port Nicholson on 8 November 1916 . In a letter to his aunt and uncle, Kate and William Fallon, dated February 1917 from the training camp at Lark Hill, Salisbury Plains, England, he mentioned that the voyage took nine weeks in mostly calm seas. He described getting off at several ports in Africa – Durban, Cape Town, Sierra Leone and Dakar and what there was to see in each place. Also, he wrote that after Dakar they joined a convoy and “things got serious as there were no lights at night and if one was caught smoking on deck after dark one could get shot”. Another interesting comment he made was how unusual it was to see so few men about in England and women working on the station platforms. Susan Grayzel stated that women in the workforce changed the English wartime landscape.

Jock wrote that he expected to stay at Lark Hill for three months training, but his Service Record identifies that six weeks later he proceeded overseas to France.
Jock was assigned to the 4th Infantry Battalion, 22nd Reinforcement Unit.

The 4th Battalion was among the first infantry units raised for the A.I.F. during World War One and was recruited from New South Wales. The Battalion was raised within a fortnight of the declaration of war in August 1914 and embarked just two months later. The Battalion took part in the ANZAC landing on 25 April 1915 and with the 1st Brigade, led the charge at Lone Pine. The Battalion served at ANZAC until the evacuation in December. After the withdrawal from Gallipoli, the Battalion returned to Egypt. In March 1916, it sailed for France and the Western Front. From then until 1918 the Battalion took part in operations against the German Army, principally in the Somme Valley in France and around Ypres in Belgium. The Battalion’s first major action in France was at Pozières in the Somme valley in July 1916. Later the Battalion fought at Ypres, in Flanders, before returning to the Somme for winter. The Battalion participated in a short period of mobile operations following the German withdrawal to the Hindenburg Line in early 1917 but spent much of that year fighting in increasingly difficult conditions around Ypres, Belgium.

On 20 March 1917, Jock’s 22nd Reinforcement Unit left Larkhill, for the port of Folkestone, England for France. Upon landing he marched to the Army Base Camp at Etapes, the largest ever established overseas by the British. Two days later he marched again to join the 4th Battalion on was on the battlefield.
Three weeks later Jock received gunshot wounds to his arms and face and was taken from the Front to the 3rd Field Ambulance. This was a casualty evacuation point which received injured from 'First Line' Regimental Aid Posts (RAP) of the
4th Battalion. He was subsequently transferred for further treatment to Number 9 Casualty Clearing Station Lillers, France, further from the front line. Here, men were treated to be able to either return to duty or evacuated to a Base Hospital. Jock was then transported to the 11 Ambulance Train, where carriages were adapted to carry stretchers. The Nursing Staff of this train was composed of 11 British Red Cross trained Nurses, but the Sister-in-Charge was a member of the Regular Service.

He remained on the Ambulance Train for three weeks before being sent to the number 2 Convalescent Depot in Rouen, France. Divisional rest stations began to be established in France in early 1915. Their aim was to care for the sick and lightly wounded. Here, a man would usually stay no more than ten days before being returned to his unit. Three days later Jock was discharged.
On 17 May 1917 he marched out again to Etapes to join the Australian Divisional Base Depot and on 24th May 1917 he re-joined his 4th Battalion .
The most famous battles for the A.I.F. between August – November 1917 were at the Western Front where mud and trench warfare were the norm. The battles in Belgium in the latter half of 1917 – Menin Road, Polygon Wood, Broodeseinde and Passchendaele - were some of the most costly ever fought by Australian soldiers. Jock fought here at Passchendaele, in the Third Battle of Ypres as well as around Menin Road, Polygon Wood. On 4th October 1917 Battle Honours were awarded for their involvement in the successful assault and capture, as part of the Third Battle of Ypres, of the high ground around the village of Broodseinde. This was a significant defeat for the German forces, which allowed for the Allied occupation of the entire ridge south of the Passchendaele sector. Sadly, on this day, Jock was killed here at Broodseinde Ridge, Passchendaele, by a mortar shell while in the trenches.
His death was at great cost to our family as well as to thousands of other grieving families who lost their loved ones. In 1917 alone, 76,000 Australians were either dead or wounded. This was one third of all our war dead.

Australian Infantry attack in Polygon Wood 1917
To tell this story, the Australian Government has contributed towards the fitting out and exhibition development of a major new gallery at the ‘Memorial Museum Passchendaele, 1917’ at Zonnebeke. A section of the gallery will feature the role of the Australian Imperial Force during those battles and the commemoration of those events in Australia after the war. Many original objects will be on display generously lent by the Australian War Memorial, the Australian Army and private individuals. The new gallery was officially opened on 12 July 2013.
His body was buried by his mate at Broodseinde Ridge and later exhumed and buried at Tyne Cot Cemetery, Belgium in a marked grave, which has been visited by many of our current generations.
May He Rest In Heavenly Peace.
Lest We Forget