Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

From Ballarat & District in the Great War

When it comes to “haunting” me, no-one did a better job than Owen Eason. Many years ago, when I first began building a photographic database of Ballarat and district’s Great War dead, I had the help of the irrepressible Judy Cahill. She tracked down multiple families who then happily provided photographs for the database. I remember her saying to me, “Don’t worry about Owen Eason, my friend has a photograph of him and she will get it to me.” Then, for some reason, everywhere I looked Owen popped up. I would wind on a microfilm and when the mechanism stopped its auto-rolling, his name would be on the screen. When I opened the circular for the Roll of Honour for Charles Marshall Lippiatt, in the section asking if any family had died or distinguished themselves in the AIF – there was “Owen W. Eason, cousin, Killed in Action.”

Okay, so that all seemed quite coincidental and nothing too out of the ordinary. However, it didn’t end there…

I had at the time recently returned from my second trip to the Western Front, where I would travel to the various cemeteries and memorials taking photos to add to the files for each local boy – or to give to their families. I was going through my shots from the Australian National Memorial at Villers-Bretonneux, putting names to each file.

Now, the plan was always to stick to the list of those that had photos already located…trust me, it was always a very long list! At Villers-Bretonneux, I took a photograph of the name of Alfred George Dudley. It was that file that I opened to check and change the name appropriately. And there it was, at the bottom of the shot, just two below Dudley: O. W. Eason. I immediately rang Judy and said, “We need to get Owen Eason’s photo in straight away!” Which we did. And, after that, Owen seemed to disappear back into the fabric of time and there were no further unexpected or strange “coincidences”.

This is his story.

Born at Scotsburn on 28 August 1893, Owen William Eason was the second son of Buninyong-born, George Eason, and Mary Williams, who came from Winter’s Flat, west of the township. By standards of the era, the Eason family was relatively small, with Owen being one of just four children born to the couple.

George Eason was very well-known in the district. In a relatively short time, he had become a successful grazier and market gardener with land holdings at both Scotsburn and Cororooke, near Colac. The orchard at the home estate of “Cararooki” at Scotsburn, was said to be quite magnificent. He was also commitment to the community as a long-standing councillor with the Shire of Buninyong and held the posts of both president and mayor.

As a boy, Owen attended the State Schools in both Scotsburn and Cororooke. He was a Sunday School scholar at the Scotsburn Anglican Church, and that certainly fostered a strong connection to his faith – as a young adult, he would travel into Buninyong to attend the Holy Trinity Church.

After graduating from State School, Owen continued his education at the highly regarded Grenville College in Ballarat. Whilst studying there, he also took part in sporting fixtures, proving to be a very handy footballer.

It was Owen’s affinity with horses that was to become his true passion in life. He quickly became noted as a fine horseman, and was also an expert driver. On the local agricultural show circuit, Owen was a formidable competitor and won many prizes in the show ring working with horses owned by his father. Their draughthorse stock, plus their Galloways and carriage horses were highly regarded in the district. But it was Owen’s own horse, a black gelding named Scotsburn, that brought him his greatest successes.

When he wasn’t training the horses, Owen carried out general farming duties on the family properties working alongside his father. The pair appear to have been remarkably close.

Despite having received no military training, Owen was still determined to do his bit when Australia went to war. He enlisted at Ballarat on 9 July 1915. Doctor F. B. Crawford, who was responsible for conducting Owen’s medical examination, noted that the young recruit had a good physical development – he was 5-feet 8½-inches tall, weighed 9-stone 12-pounds, and expanded his chest to 35-inches. In photographs taken at this time, Owen’s dark good looks are clearly evident – Dr Crawford recorded the young man’s brown eyes and straight black hair as a further way of identifying him.

As had quickly become customary with departing soldiers, a farewell social had been arranged for Owen Eason and Harold Yates, from Buninyong. The special evening was held on at the Scotsburn Hall on 9 October. Mr John Chatham MLA, chaired the proceedings, and, following a concert performed by several of the locals, both boys were presented with a wristlet watch. Mr Chatham also shared a few words of advice, ‘especially on the evils of alcohol,’ after which both boys responded. The hall was then cleared and ‘the young people’ took part in dancing and games.

Having successfully “passed the doctor”, Owen went into camp at Seymour – where the light horse regiments were raised. Given his obvious horsemanship, it would have seemed logical that he would join a suitable unit. With this notwithstanding, after training at Seymour, Bendigo and then Ballarat, Owen was transferred to the camp at Williamstown, where on 25 November, he was finally posted to the 13th reinforcements assigned to the 14th Infantry Battalion.

At the beginning of December, Owen was transferred to the Broadmeadows Camp in preparation for embarkation at the end of the month. He sailed from Melbourne on 19 December onboard the troopship Demosthenes. Even though news had now been received of the evacuation of the Gallipoli Peninsula, the destination for Owen and the other reinforcements was still Egypt.

Writing home to his parents shortly after arriving at Port Suez, Owen was at great pains to point out ‘the splendid treatment accorded our soldiers onboard the troopship…’ He also mentioned that Doctor Longden, the ship’s medical officer ‘was very popular with the men, assisting in all the movements for the amusement of the troops and doing his duty cheerfully day and night for the sick…’

Owen had been in Egypt only a matter of weeks when he himself became ill with mumps. Initially, after having been admitted to the 4th Auxiliary Hospital in Cairo, the case appeared to be mild, but he was still kept in isolation to prevent infecting others. However, after eleven days in hospital, it became necessary to transfer him to the No1 General Hospital as the mumps had worsened and was causing deafness. Fortunately, his youthful constitution brought him through, and, on 19 March, he was discharged to duty at Zeitoun.

The 14th Battalion (that was to earn the epithet “Jacka’s Mob”) was stationed at Serapeum defending the Suez Canal against possible Turkish attacks, when Owen Eason joined their ranks on 2 April. Two months later, on 1 June, the men of the 14th gathered on the quayside at Alexandria in preparation for boarding the transport Transylvania. The ship cast off at 10am the following morning making for Marseilles. The sea was calm for the whole voyage, and no submarines were sighted, which made for a quick and uneventful trip. They docked in France on 7 June and completed disembarkation the following morning.

After nearly three days on a train travelling through France, Owen and his mates arrived in Bailleul near the Belgian border and settled into billets. They remained behind the lines until the 28 June, when they moved into the line at Bois-Grenier – by midnight they had completed a take-over from the 19th Battalion.

The coming days brought a variety of experiences for Owen – enough to prompt him to write home to his parents that ‘the fighting is full of surprises.’ Their line of trenches was inspected by General William Birdwood at 10am on 29 June, the enemy responded with a little light shelling during the day before unleashing a full-scale bombardment around midnight. The Australians replied in kind.

At around 11:40pm on 2 July, a raiding party of the 14th Battalion, led in part by Ballarat’s Harold Wanliss, crossed No Man’s Land to attack the German trenches. Despite numerous problems encountered during the raid – including finding the barbed wire entanglements uncut by their preceding bombardment and suffering a number of casualties – the exercise was deemed a success. Retaliation was expected and came in the form of heavy bombardments by the German artillery and an eventual enemy trench raid, which was successfully repulsed by the 14th.

Owen’s first experience of trench warfare was long and eventful. They were finally relieved on 12 July after ten exhausting days, and retired to billets on Jesus Farm at Erquinghem.

With the major offensive on the Somme continuing to push ahead, Australian troops were brought into the line at Pozieres on 23 July. The 14th Battalion arrived at Warloy-Baillon on 27 July in preparation for deployment.

On 6 August, the 14th moved through Sausage Valley and into the frontline trenches at Pozieres, completing the take over from the 26th and 28th Battalions shortly before 2pm. Knowing that the line was unsettled with the change, the enemy kept up a constant bombardment throughout the first night.

The following day was one of the most momentous the men of the 14th Battalion would experience, and would see Victoria Cross winner, Albert Jacka, become a legend.

‘…On the morning of 7 August 1916, after a night of heavy shelling, the Germans began to overrun a portion of the line which included Jacka's dug-out. Jacka had just completed a reconnaissance, and had gone to his dug-out when two Germans appeared at its entrance and rolled a bomb down the doorway, killing two of his men. Emerging from the dug-out, Jacka came upon a large number of Germans rounding up some forty Australians as prisoners [a party of men from the 48th Battalion].

Only seven men from his platoon had recovered from the blast; rallying these few, he charged at the enemy. Heavy hand-to-hand fighting ensued, as the Australian prisoners turned on their captors. Every member of the platoon was wounded, including Jacka who was wounded seven times; including an injury from a bullet that passed through his body under his right shoulder, and two head wounds. Fifty Germans were captured and the line was retaken; Jacka was personally credited with killing between twelve and twenty Germans during the engagement…’

Despite the casualties, the men of the 14th had an aura of almost invincibility because of Jacka. Unfortunately, they were just as vulnerable as any other soldiers in the trenches of the Western Front.

After a week in the trenches of Pozieres, the 14th Battalion was finally relieved and moved back to Warloy for a well-earned break.

Meanwhile, back in Scotsburn, Owen’s father was having his own brush with danger. On 3 August, George was riding a young pony over his estate inspecting his sheep and current crop of lambs, when a lamb ‘gambolling near the pony’s heels’ causing it to rear and throw George to the ground. The pony then bolted, with George’s foot caught in the stirrup. He was dragged some considerable distance through the wattle trees by the galloping pony before his boot gave way and his foot was released. Luckily, other than a good bruising, he was able to continue with his commitments.

With the Australians continuing to push the enemy back at Pozieres, troops were rotated frequently, and the 14th Battalion returned to the line on 26 August and moved into position in front of the strongly defended Mouquet Farm.

On 29 August, a partial relief by the 16th Battalion saw A and B Companies of the 14th remain in the line. Shelling during the day caused a number of casualties, with twelve men, including four from Ballarat and district, being killed in action. Although there were no eye-witnesses to his death, Owen Eason was one of those who died that day.

Lance-Sergeant Dave Drummond, from Sebastopol, was the only man to offer any clue as to what had become of Owen. In providing information to the Red Cross Wounded and Missing Bureau into the death of Private Valentine Graham, he recalled that Corporal Eric Fulton had told him he saw the bodies of four 14th Battalion men, who it appeared had all been killed by the same shell blast – one of those men was Owen Eason.

Other statements said that the shell had landed on the men as they went over the top around dusk on 29 August. The bodies of Privates Val Graham and Herbert Herring were said to have been cut up very badly by the blast, and they, along with the remains of Lance-Corporal Sydney McCarthy and Owen Eason, were left where they fell. None of the four were ever recovered from the battlefield. Their names were all later commemorated on the Australian National Memorial at Villers-Bretonneux.

It took six weeks for the news of Owen’s death to be relayed to his family at Scotsburn. Reverend William Reed, vicar of All Saints Church, Ballarat, was tasked with delivering the news to the boy’s parents. As they came to terms with their grief, the Eason family received great support from the surrounding community. Letters of condolence, including one from the Buninyong Shire Council, were deeply appreciated as the realisation set in…

The family then suffered a second loss with the news that Owen’s cousin, Charlie Lippiatt, had been killed in fighting around Messines on 29 May 1917. No family remained untouched by this war – the fingers of grief made their way into every home in one way or another.

George Eason, who had taken over the care of his son’s beloved horse, Scotsburn, was prompted to make a more public memorial to Owen. On 27 August 1917, he presented a large portrait of the boy to the Buninyong branch of the Australian Native’s Association, where Owen had been a member. Then, on 18 November 1917, a special dedication service, conducted by Reverend G. S. Home, was held at the Holy Trinity Church. During the service a memorial lectern was presented to the church in memory of Owen Eason – a young man who showed such promise, who was loved, admired and respected by everyone.

And he certainly made sure I would not forget him!