Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Eric Lyle Randell was born on the 11th of August 1888 to his father Henry Arthur and mother Julia Antonia. He had four siblings. Their names were Cecil, Gordon, Roy and Grace, whose nickname was midge. They lived at Cheltenham, Port Adelaide Enfield in South Australia. In his youth, Eric used to go down to the rigs at Murray River with a couple of his brothers and hunt for tiger snakes. 

Eric Lyle enlisted with the AIF at Broken Hill on the 24th of August 1914, less than three weeks after Australia joined Great Britain in declaring war on Germany. He joined H company of the 10th Battalion, 1st Division Australian Imperial Armed Forces as a Private and was given the service number 531. He was 26 years old.  

After training at Morphetville Camp in South Australia he embarked on the HMAT Ascanius in October 1914. The Ascanius joined a convoy off the coast of Fremantle bound for Egypt. In the same month Lyle was promoted to Lance Corporal. After 5 months training in Egypt, Lance Corporal Randell boarded ship along with his battalion for Gallipoli.  

At 4am and the 25th of April 1915 Lance Corporal Randell was on the first wave of boats to hit the Gallipoli shore, with the 10th Battalion acting as a covering party for the broader landing. He fought through those hellish first days and weeks clinging to the Gallipoli peninsula at Suvla and Sari Bair and was promoted first to Corporal on the 6th of May 1915, and then Sargeant on the 1st of July. He formed part of a covering party for the fateful charge on the Nek by the 1st Light Horse Division. 

 
Sargent Randell joined the evacuation of Gallipoli on the 20th of December 1915, arriving back in Alexandria on the 29th of December having celebrated Christmas at sea. During rest and retraining in Alexandria he was again promoted, this time to Armory Sargeant.  

On the 27th March 1916 Armory Sgt Randell left Egypt along with the 10th Battalion for the Western Front, disembarking in Marseille on the 3rd of April. They proceeded to join the front but Sgt Randell was wounded 3 weeks after arrival when a bullet went through the bridge of his nose and had to be evacuated to 3rd Australian Hospital in Cairo. He was declared fit for active duty less than a week later but it took a month before he could be properly discharged and get transport to the front. He arrived back in France in late June 1916 just in time for a new offensive on the western front – at the Somme.  

From 1st July 1916 to the 23rd July Sgt Randell fought in the harsh conditions of the Somme salient. In August and September he fought at Pozieres and in the battle of Mouquet Farm. He stayed on the Somme until late November, when the unit was finally given a rest behind the lines. He rejoined the battalion in January 1917.   

On the 9th of April he received a Special Mention in Dispatches from Field Marshall Douglas Haig, and less than a month later moved with the Battalion to Bullecourt where they participated in the second battle of Bullecourt. Just over a month later he fought in the third battle of Ypres in Belgium. Finally, after 9 months in the line the battalion was given blighty leave, and on the 5th of September Sgt Randell proceeded to England. The respite was not long – he rejoined the battalion in France 11 days later on the 16th of September, 1917.  

The following months were a parade of horror, with Sgt Randell participating in some of the bloodiest battles of the war. Names that would still be remembered with awe 100 years later. He re-joined the 3rd battle of Ypres and fought at Menin Road. A week later it was Polygon Wood, and on the 4th of October Broodseine Ridge. On the 9th of October he fought at Pelcapelle and for the next 3 days at Passchendale. He continued to fight in the cold and mud of the Somme for another 2 months, where men froze and drowned if they were fortunate to have not been bombed or shot. Finally on the 4th of December he was given leave behind the lines, but again it was short lived and he rejoined the Battalion on the 16th of December for another Christmas in the trenches.  

In February 1918 Sgt Randell was attached for duty as Armory Sgt to the 1st Division Army Ordinance Corp. He fought again on the Somme through March and early April. From the 9th to the 29th of April he participated in the Lys Offensive in Belgium, including Hazebrouk from the 12th to the 15th and in Kemmel for the Spring Offensive. On the 28th of June 1918 he was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal for conspicuous bravery in the field. Four days earlier his brother Roy had been killed in action at Villers Bretonneux in France. Roy had been part of a ration party that was hit by a stray shell.  

On the 26th of July 1918 Sgt Randell was transferred to an Army Instruction School but 5 days later returned to the Battalion. He participated in the successful battle of Amiens under General Monash, the first time Australians had fought under their own command, and he fought throughout August at Albert, Bapaume and St Quentin. On the 12th of September 1918 Sgt Randell and his battalion attacked the Hindenberg line. 2 days later he was granted special leave to return to Australia – part of an initiative to send back original 1915 veterans to help with the recruitment drive at home. There weren’t many of the originals left.  

On the 24th of September 1918, Sgt Randell embarked on ship for Australia. He was at sea when the armistice was declared and arrived home on the 23rd of November, 1918. Shortly afterwards he was discharged.   

He had been at war for 4 years, 152 days.   

Eric was awarded four medals, those being the 1914-15 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal and Meritorious Service Medal. He did not talk about the war much.  The only horror story from the war he told was about someone down the trench from him in Somme who got badly injured. When he went to pick him up, Eric’s hands went straight inside him. 

He eventually got married to Lorna May Nickels and had two children of his own. James (“Jim”) and Roy Randell. Lorna died in 1931. Eric then married Olive Lloyd and had a third child, Kenneth (“Ken”) Randell. Eric enlisted for World War 2 on the 8th of April 1942.  

Eric died in his hometown in September 1972 at the age of 84.