Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

#3069 POTTER Daniel            9th Battalion
Daniel Potter was the son of Joseph and Jean Potter. The family lived at Kunioon near Nanango and in all likelihood, Daniel attended school there before working on the family farm.
Daniel travelled to Brisbane to enlist on 24th June 1915. He informed the recruiters he was 23 years old and stated his occupation as labourer. After a brief period in a depot battalion at Enoggera, Daniel was allocated to the 10th reinforcements of the 9th Battalion. The reinforcements departed for overseas on 5th October and landed in Egypt just before Christmas.
After the evacuation of the AIF from Gallipoli in late 1915, there were a large number of Australians in the camps at Cairo. The intention was to create a force that was double in size from the Gallipoli Expedition and this organisation task was under way when the 9th Battalion reinforcements landed in Egypt. On 5th January 1916, Daniel reported to hospital with a case of syphilis. Venereal disease was a huge problem for the AIF, particularly in Egypt where the strain of syphilis was extremely virulent. Daniel spent almost 6 months in various VD wards during which time his pay was stopped. This was particularly hard on Daniel’ mother, to whom he had allocated three shillings of the five shillings of his daily pay, as according to a letter in Daniel’s file, Jane Potter was caring for 8 children under the age of 14 without support from her husband.
Daniel was discharged from hospital at the end of June 1916; by which time the bulk of the newly expanded AIF was already in France in preparation for going into action on the Western Front. Daniel remained at the AIF depot at Tel el Kabir until the end of July when he was shipped to the French port of Marseilles and then made his way to the Infantry Depot at Etaples.
The 9th Battalion had been in action from the first day at Gallipoli and once relocated to France was one of the first units to go into action at Pozieres during the Battle of the Somme in July and August 1916. In September, the 9th Battalion and the rest of the 1st Division AIF were relieved from the front and went into rest areas in Belgium around the city of Poperinghe. On 6th September 1916, Daniel joined up with the 9th in the rest camp. In October, the battalion was put back into the front line at Hill 60, just outside the city of Ypres in Belgian Flanders.
The winter of 1916/17 was particularly severe on troops in the forward areas where there was no shelter from the freezing conditions. In November 1916, Daniel reported sick and was transported first to a hospital in Rouen and then to England. There is no indication in Daniel’s file regarding his condition save for the catchall phrase, general debility. He was discharged to a two week furlough in January 1917 and then reported to the infantry depot at Perham Downs where he remained until 16th March when he proceeded across the English Channel to the Infantry depot at Etaples. On 10th April, Daniel rejoined his battalion.
After the less than outstanding results achieved by the British forces on the Somme in 1916, the British commander’s attention shifted to Belgian Flanders. Haig planned for a series of engagements in what was known as the Ypres salient; the first of which was an assault on the Messines Ridge in June 1917. Two Australian divisions were involved at Messines and a further two divisions, the 1st and 2nd , which included the 9th Battalion of the 3rd brigade would be put into the line at the battle of Menin Road.
Preparations for Menin Road were well planned. A scale model of the ground to be taken was constructed and the men who would take part were walked through to familiarise themselves with their objectives. The AIF battalions rehearsed their tasks over several days with staff officers observing and altering plans when necessary. Message forms were printed with maps on the reverse for ease of communication and objectives for each battalion were limited to advances of 250 yards or less. At 5:40am on 20th September, the 9thBattalion set off from the jump off tapes under a concentrated artillery barrage. This was Daniel’s first major action. He unfortunately did not survive the day, being one of 75 men either killed in action or missing.
Daniel’s remains were never located. He is one of 56,000 men, including 6,178 Australians, who served in the Ypres campaign and who have no known grave. Their names are inscribed on the Portland Stone Tablets under the arches of the Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing in Ypres.
Since the 1930s, with the brief interval of the German occupation in the Second World War, the City of Ypres has conducted a ceremony at the Memorial at dusk each evening to commemorate those who died in the Ypres campaign. The ceremony concludes with the laying of wreaths, the recitation of the ode, and the playing of the Last Post by the city’s bugle corps.