Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Glen Lumsden was a quiet and unassuming young man when he enlisted at the age of 21 years. He was from Beaumont in the Valley, the son of Robert and Harriet Lumsden and listed his occupation as a farmer.

As was the case with many of the men that enlisted from the Valley he was originally assigned to the 13th Battalion (A Coy) and embarked from Sydney on 9 April 1916 on the HMAT Nestor.

Glen had attempted to join “The Waratahs” recruiting march in December 1915 but was rejected due to bad teeth. He must have wondered if the army expected him to bite the enemy. Undeterred by the rebuff he had his bad teeth pulled and offered himself again for service on 2 February 1916 armed with an upper set of false teeth.

Glen arrived in Marseilles France on 14 June 1916 and was taken into the field on 19 July amongst 41 new reinforcements. The battalion was in billets at Berteaucourt and was under orders to be ready to move at short notice. There they trained in tactical fighting in a wood at St. Ouen and in the close work of grenade and bayonet fighting. This gave everyone a strong indication they would be in the thick of battle in a short time.

At Berteaucourt the Australians had made many friends amongst the French people, who were deeply saddened to see the many battalions march out in great spirits, only to return a few weeks later with many familiar faces missing.

Lumsden had been re-assigned to B Coy of the 45th Battalion which was called on almost immediately to enter the fighting to take the small but strategic French village of Pozières. The Germans had decided in early 1915 that their chances of a sweeping victory across France were now unlikely and so dug in for a defensive war. They did, after all, occupy large tranches of France and Belgium and it was for the British and French forces to displace them.

The Germans chose their ground carefully - the elevated ridges, the more easily worked soils, and the benefits of any natural barriers. They looked down on their enemy from most of these positions and built formidable and strong trench systems here with luxuries such as electricity and hardened bunkers.
The Australians succeeded in capturing the Pozières village within an hour but the strategic heights of the Pozières Ridge were still the main objective. Later on that first day the Australians were joined at the north-west approach to Pozières village by the British regiments and almost two weeks of bitter and relentless fighting ensued.

The Australian advance had created a salient (bulge) in the line and the Germans now shelled them mercilessly with high explosive and shrapnel from three sides. This bombardment is widely acknowledged as the most savage and spiteful of any in the entire war.

Glen marched with the 45th into Albert on 2 August as the whole battalion made preparations for its turn in the offensive. They marched the roads and into the trenches at Tara Hill past dead and bloated horses, smashed wagons, war debris and bodies cast about the ground in absurd postures. They were likely heartened at the sight of men of the 1st Division A.I.F. returning down the road with German spiked helmets and other war souvenirs of their victory.

The 45th’s neighbours in the line were the 48th Battalion on the left and a British regiment of Yorkshires on the right. This relief took place under heavy and hostile artillery fire and was made more difficult by the congestion of the communication trenches with the wounded of the 5th Brigade A.I.F. that was being relieved. The 45th front extended for 600 yards from Munster Alley to the Bapaume Road and B Coy under Captain Knox held the far right flank.
The ridge had fallen on 4 August but the Australians were pressed to push further north-west from the height of the hard-won narrow salient towards Mouquet Farm and Thiepval. They were eventually heavily repulsed by German artillery fire and infantry counter attacks, with the heavy loss of Australian troops.
The Operations Report for the battalion at this time records:
“On afternoon of the 6th “B” Company assisted the British in the attack on Munster Alley. The operation was successful.”

Fred Wright noted of the fighting at Pozières:
”It was like being in hell for 3 days. The dead and wounded of both sides were lying thick and getting buried alive with shells.”

The eye witness accounts of Glen’s death are both graphic and touching.
Pte. Rose offered from his hospital bed in London:
”As the Yorkshires had called for help (volunteers) from the Australians, Lumsden went to assist and was opening boxes, passing the bombs when he put his head above the parapet and a sniper got him. He was killed at once.”

L. Cpl. Hugh McCusker from Tyrone Ireland and serving in B Company of the 45th also gave the following account to the Red Cross in February 1917:
“Your letter of the 5th December 1916 just to hand and it is with the greatest pleasure I write to the best of my knowledge …concerning the death of my comrade, hoping in some way to comfort those who have been bereaved.
This boy was a close chum of mine ever since leaving Australia, and I cannot speak too highly of him. He was a fine fellow and died doing his duty.
He was killed … during a bombing raid made by our Battalion, while holding Pozières Ridge, he was sniped and died instantly. Well hoping these few details will foot the bill, and thanking you for the opportunity of soothing someone’s sorrow, please excuse this outbreak but I have had a taste of it myself.”

McCusker, awarded the Military Medal for bravery in previous action, was to be killed at Messines on 7 June 1917.

Glen’s grieving parents received these vivid Red Cross accounts and wrote several times seeking his possessions and any reassurance that their son died without suffering.

Glen was buried in a shell hole behind the trench the next morning on 8 August 1916. The shellfire was still too dangerous for men to be in the open and so a cross was not erected nor was a service conducted by a Chaplain.

Those that remained called the site Casualty Corner but that did nothing to assist with the discovery, recovery and re-interment of his body despite his Attestation Papers including a notation:
“Buried. Buried in vicinity of Pozières Sheet 57D SE X.4.” This map reference actually constitutes a large area of the SE corner of the Pozières village. Without a grave marker Glen Lumsden’s remains were lost and as such he has no known grave.

Since 22 July 1938 his name has appeared on the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial. At home he is also remembered on the Honour Rolls of the Berry School of Arts, the St Luke’s Church Berry, and the Kangaroo Valley War Memorial.

Tragically also for the extended family, three cousins were killed in the war, one at Pozières also. Australian War Correspondent Charles Bean wrote that Pozières was:
“ .. more densely sown with Australian sacrifice than any other place on earth.”

Glen Lumsden’s name appears under “Killed in Action” on the 209/210th Casualty Lists in the Sydney Morning Herald of 12 September 1916. 85 other NSW servicemen appear on this list, most lost in the taking of Pozières.

Glen’s father Robert Lumsden was the Shire President at the time and in his duties routinely organised farewell functions for the Valley recruits. His last moments with his son were at such a ceremony during Glen’s home leave in late March 1916. Six years later in 1922 he was signing to accept Glen’s Memorial Plaque. The large bronze medallion was mockingly called the “Dead Man’s Penny”, and many families returned them in disgust, the next-of-kin considering it poor consolation for the loss of their sons.

To the A.I.F. he was a soldier, but to his parents he had meant the world. The grief of Glen’s loss never left his parents with In Memoriam notices appearing on the anniversary of his death in the Sydney Morning Herald for over 20 years after he fell on that foreign field.