Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Andrew Walter Tremlett was born in Durban, Natal, South Africa in 1898 (around April) to Mabel Tremlett. It is unclear when he moved to South Australia, but as his mother was living in South Africa at the time of his enlistment, it can be presumed that he travelled to South Australia when he was old enough to live by himself. There is some uncertanity  about his early life and employment. Some sources refer to him as a seaman, and others as a clerk. It may be possible that the sources are referring to Tremlett’s jobs at different points in his life.

During the winter of 1917 Tremlett was in Adelaide, and on the 13th of July he attested to join the Australian Imperial Force [VC1] at Port Adelaide. On the 23rd of July he was given the rank of Private and was located at Mitcham for training until the 31st of that month. There is some discrepancy over the date of his enlistment with most sources saying it was the 13th but others recording that it was the 15th of August. Considering he was entered in Imperial Force records in July it is more likely he enlisted on the earlier date.

The available records do not document his movement to Melbourne, but on the 30th of October 1917 he embarked from Melbourne on the H.M.A.T. Aeneas. Tremlett disembarked on the 27th of December, just before the end of the year, in Devonport, England. He then remained in England for a while, to undergo training. About three months later Tremlett was transferred from the 27th battalion to the 48th battalion, and also from England to France to serve as a reserve.

Tremlett’s first day in his battalion was at Millencourt. His battalion had fortified their position up on high ground, having to shelter themselves under oilskins due to the heavy rain. The rain seeped into all their possessions and many soldiers had to clean their clothes and oil their weapons. There was some enemy activity in the general area and the enemy troops shelled the Allied/English headquarters. However, the headquarters was some distance from the troops, and this attack was very ineffective. In fact, the 48th battalion suffered no casualties. Later a company of troops called C company moved up to reinforce the 48th. As Tremlett was a reserve he likely arrived with this company.

The next significant date in Tremlett’s calendar would have to be his first wounding in action. The 3rd of May 1918 (the date of his wounding) was a significant day for the battalion. On this day the battalion split into three forces A, B, and C companies. B and C companies were supposed to be the main assaulting companies, while A company manoeuvred around them to flank the enemy, killing anyone that had survived the attack by companies B and C. During the early hours of the morning, under the cover of darkness, B company attacked the enemy in conjunction with the French forces. This wasn’t very effective as the artillery they used to try and weaken the enemy wasn’t very effective.

Meanwhile C company was trying to move forward to their objective, but they faced serious difficulties and their Captain was killed. Faced with defeat, they had to withdraw. Although they captured enemy soldiers as they did so. The whole operation wasn’t a total disaster as when they were withdrawing they managed to do a whole lot of damage to the enemy. They were helped by their tank which was put to excellent use until its crew was captured. Tremlett most likely arrived with C company, so he was likely in this company on the day of the battle. This is supported by the fact that C company experienced major difficulties during the battle, so Tremlett could easily have been wounded in action in C company. It is not certain what happened to Tremlett other than he was injured while fighting.

Tremlett took about a month to recover and on the 15th of June he was discharged from hospital. He took ten days to get back to his unit.  On the 25th he would have arrived to see an encouraging sight. His unit had successfully raided enemy trenches and, even though they experienced “backwash” from enemy grenades, they took no casualties. The enemy shelled the unit intermittently, but this was not very effective. Although the allied French mortars were very effective against the enemy, and so were their Lewis machine guns.

On the 30th of June, just five days after returning to his battalion, Tremlett was wounded again. Given that it was the end of the month there was a comprehensive rundown of the overall camp condition. This gives us a pretty clear idea of what this day was like. In a very brief overview, the food and clothing situation was considered very good and so was the sanitation of the camp. Although the battalion had had to do some significant work to make it that way as the previous battalion had left the area in a pretty bad condition. An interesting thing to notice is that there was an outbreak of influenza which was becoming increasingly serious. Some 70-80 men had got it originally, but only one needed hospitalisation. Later another 30 men succumbed to it and many more needed medical attention. This could have been an early outbreak of the Spanish Flu. There was only a bit of shelling on this day and Tremlett was probably wounded during this time.

Tremlett was taken to a casualty clearing station on the 1st of July, a day after his wounding. He was then taken to hospital on the 3rd and transferred to Fulham Mill Hospital in England (which at the time was a specialised military hospital). Around this time the records get a little hazy. Tremlett went back to France, but was declared an invalid on the 19th of July. As he was not wounded again he likely was on his way to re-join his unit when his invalidity became apparent.

Tremlett served in the A.I.F. for a total of one year and 311 days and served abroad for a year and 178 of those days. In all that time Tremlett only spent some 38 days fighting. Tremlett was returned to Australia on the 19th of May 1919 and was discharged from the Australian Imperial Force.

Tremlett was lucky to have survived the war, but perhaps even luckier to have escaped the Spanish Flu . He died on the 1st of July, 1939 at just 41 years of age. He is buried at Dudley Park Cemetery, 80 Exeter Terrace in Adelaide.