Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

The Vivian family had been one of the early settlers of South Australia. James Peter and Mary Ann Vivian arrived in Sydney on the "Navarino" in December 1837. James then travelled overland to South Australia with a flock of sheep and reputedly encountered troublesome times on the journey. John Peter Vivian was their second son, born at Harrowgate in South Australia in April 1859. In 1883 he married Louisa Jane Vivian with the two arriving in Mannum where they had a family of six sons and four daughters.
Edwin, affectionately known as ‘Eddie’ or ‘Sam’ was the last child of the family, being born in the River town of Mannum on the 7th June, 1908 to John and Louisa Jane. Eddie’s brothers included Victor Rhodes, Alec, Wally, Seymour Roy and sisters included Mary Louisa, Lillian May, Eve and Doris (Ivy). The children attended the Pellaring Flat School, about five miles from Mannum. The small school was well supported by local families, particularly with fund raising for various causes. Strawberry Fetes were popular in November each year with the Groth and Vivian families being amongst the willing volunteers, including the Vivian girls who created floral buttonholes. The Australia Day Fund raiser of September 1917 was slightly affected when several performers were unable to attend because of the rising levels of the River. However, Eddie’s sisters contributed with recitations while Eddie and his friend Leslie Groth also contributed. (Sadly, lack of numbers caused the small school to close at the end of 1936.)
Eddie was just eight when his oldest brother, Victor Rhodes, a horse driver, enlisted to serve in WWI as Number 3188 in the 3rd Lighthorse Regiment. Victor first attended a School of Instruction in Egypt, but by September ’17 he had contracted diphtheria and was hospitalised. In March the following year he was again hospitalised with pleurisy at Port Said, followed in October in Jerusalem by more ill health. However, he managed to survive the war, returning to Australia in June ’19. He had earned the 1914/15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal.
Within three years, when Eddie was just thirteen, his 63-year-old father died in March ’22. The local ‘Mount Barker Courier and Onkaparinga and Gumeracha Advertiser’ published an obituary which included ‘He was an active member of the A.W.U. since its foundation as a Shearers' Union, and has shorn sheep for 42 consecutive years, when a stroke attacked him. He was a ringer in many sheds. He has walked hundreds of miles to carry out his occupation.’
Typical of country children, Eddie was a competent rifle shooter and was also part of the local football team. Post school, he worked as a farm hand for neighbouring farmers, but with the Depression affecting the availability of on-going work, having just turned 32, Eddie enlisted to serve in WWII on the 6th July 1940, following in the footsteps of his oldest brother, Victor. Eddie was allocated to the 2/48th Battalion with the number SX8204. He was to become part of the highly regarded 2/48th Battalion. His first days were spent in the cold of the Pavilions, now part of the Royal Adelaide Showgrounds. However, soon after enlistment, it was noticed that Eddie had a growth of the conjunctiva of his eye, called bilateral pterygium. This was probably caused by his time working outdoors in gritty, windy conditions, but he was effectively treated at the Royal Adelaide Hospital in October. He was then able to re-join his battalion in Woodside in the Adelaide Hills for preliminary training.
All too soon, Eddie and his fellow members of the 2/48th Battalion then embarked on the Stratheden for the Middle East, on the 7th November 1940, arriving on the 19th December 1940 where the battalion completed a few months training in Cyrenaica. During those early days in the Middle East, the men settled into camps, but besides regular army duties was the need to quickly adapt to the locals. The new soldiers were soon involved in intense conflicts where the reputation of the 2/48th Battalion for being the most highly decorated but decimated battalion was earned.
Eddie initially enjoyed exploring the very different country, but ignored health advice and was soon paying the price with complications to his well-being and requiring on-going treatment. By August ‘41 he was charged with neglecting to obey an order and forfeited three days of precious pay. The following year he worked in the Kit store in February ’42. Unfortunately, the desert conditions caused a series of health issues including a skin rash (pityriasis rosea) and a return of his eye infection first picked up when he enlisted, called (pterygium). Food and general poor sanitation resulted in Eddie having three weeks in hospital in July ’42. This developed into an inflammation of his small intestine (acute enteritis) in the following two months. Sadly, within four months of being discharged, Eddie was killed in action on the 31st October ‘42. He was 34 years old.
At that time, fierce fighting was underway in the massive assault to take Trig 29. Described in ‘Tobruk to Tarakan’ by John Glenn that day was the ‘bloodiest fighting in the history of the 2/48th Battalion’ with ‘only forty-one weary troops remaining in the field’ that night was pronounced as the climax of the Alamein Battle. He continued: “At zero hour, 1 a.m. 31st October, the artillery opened up with a receding barrage – one that creeps back on itself. The attack was towards the guns themselves, the enemy being between the troops and the guns… Added to this, the troops came under heavy shell fire as they were forming up, and suffered casualties before they commenced their attack… One gun was landing shells right amongst the men. As soon as the main road was reached the two leading companies came under murderous fire, and from then until they reached their objective, 2,250 yards from the start line, the whole advance was fought in fierce hand-to-hand fighting.” His final summing up was ‘Truly it can be said of these men, “They fought themselves and their enemy to a standstill until flesh and blood could stand no more, then they went on fighting.” ‘When next the sun drove away those shadows from the desert, death would have reaped a rich harvest of gallant men.’ This was all that remained of these proud Rats of Tobruk. In total 48 men from the 2/48th lost their lives in this battle. In added high praise about those who tended the wounded and collected those killed in action “It says much for them that not one man was missing in their search over the four thousand yards from Trig 29 to the Blockhouse, or in the attack of 3,600 yards to Ring Contour 25.” An horrific battle for the proud and very brave 2/48th Battalion.
A soldier, describing the action to a war correspondent, mentioned the names of several soldiers who took part, many of whom were killed. The name of Sgt. Ron Ide, formerly of Pinnaroo, appeared among those mentioned, and we publish brief extracts from the article. The soldier stated: “On the night of October 30-31 our job was to cut west across Thompson’s Post, take the railway, straddle the coast road, and then work back cleaning up enemy pockets and strongposts. We straddled the road all right, and then started to work east, D Company cleaning up between the road and the sea. It was easy at first, but then we ran into real opposition. We saw a couple of lights shoot up from a there were two humps, one on the left and one on the right, with a saddle between. We got within 50 yards and then they opened fire—and how! “A burst from a Spandau killed Captain Robbins and another got his batman, ‘Chuck’ Fowler, of Port Pirie. Another got Doug. Whyte, from St. Peters. Arthur Wilson, of Granville, was killed, and Sgt. Ron Ide, of Lameroo, and Eric Montgomery, from the West Coast. “It wasn’t until two days later that we had an opportunity to go out and look for our dead. When we got to the place they had disappeared. We spent ten days searching before we found them. They were all lying together in one grave. We took them out and did the job properly, burying them in a row—Bill Kibby, Peter Robbins, Ron Ide, Doug. Whyte, Chuck Fowler, with Eric Montgomery just behind. We couldn’t say much, but I guess we all knew, every man of us, that if it hadn’t been for Bill Kibby we might have been lying there with them.”
An exceptionally thoughtful letter written by Lt/Colonel Hammer, described how Eddie was killed instantly by heavy machine gun fire whilst attacking a strong German position near the coast. Hammer added that Eddie and a small group of men had penetrated deep into the German rear lines when he met his death. Of comfort to the family was that the battalion’s own padre buried Clyde near where he fell, with the grave being marked with “white stones and a cross bearing his number, name and unit.”
Back home, newspapers continued to publish the names of the men who were killed or wounded. The Chronicle in December included a third list which included Eddie and others from his decimated 2/48th Battalion. Third List Killed In Action.— SX8385 Pte. George S. R. Fowler, Prospect; SX8344 Cpl. Ronald M. Ide, Naracoorte; SX7695 Pte. Ernest S. J. Schubert, Mt. Gambier; SX8204 Pte. Edwin W. Vivian, Mannum; Killed Accidentally. — SX9308 Pte. Lyndsay H C. Graetz, Inf., Murray Bridge. Wounded In Action — SX13584 Pte. William H. J. Keon, New Queenstown; SX7615 A/Cpl. Albert T. King, Minlaton; SX7056 L/Sgt. Francis. B. Pearson. Angle Vale. Missing, Believed Killed. — SX11785 Pte John O. Evans. Arno Bay.
Eddie’s family and friends also placed tributes to him in the December issue of the Advertiser.
VIVIAN.—A tribute of love to our dear brother and uncle, Pte. E. W. Vivian, killed in action in Egypt on October 31. —Will always be remembered by Roy, Pattie and Peter. VIVIAN.—In loving memory of our dear son and brother, Sam, killed in action, Egypt, Oct. 31, aged 34. His memory hallowed in the land he loved.—inserted by loving mother, sisters Ivy and Lil. VIVIAN.—A tribute of love to Pte. E. W. (Sam) Vivian, killed in action in Egypt on Oct. 31.—Ever remembered by his friend Ella. VIVIAN.—A tribute of love to our dear brother, uncle Sam, killed in action, Egypt Oct. 31. A broken link we can never replace.—Lovingly remembered by sister Eve, brother-in-law Fred, nieces. VIVIAN. Pte. E. W. (Sam) Killed In action Oct. 31. In life beloved, In death revered. Proudly we honor his name.— Last tribute from Jack. Dora and family. Port Lincoln VIVIAN.—Loving tribute of our Uncle Sam, killed In action in Egypt. Oct. 31. His duty nobly done. —Remembered by Bobbie and Vic. VIVIAN.—A tribute to the memory of Pte. E. W. (Sam) Vivian, killed In action in Egypt on October 31, His duty nobly done.—Will always be remembered by his friends Thelma and Charlie. MRS L. J Vivian and family Mannum sincerely thank all kind relatives and friends for expressions of sympathy in the sad loss of their son and brother Sam, killed in action In Egypt.

Initially Eddie and those killed with him were buried in the field on the 4th November. Eddie now permanently rests in the El Alamein War Cemetery Plot XVI, Row A Grave 21. His family chose the inscription ‘His Memory Hallowed in the Land He Loved’. Nearby are two others from his battalion, 39-year-old Sergeant Bill Kibby and 22-year-old Corporal Jack Pitcher as well as other soldiers from the 2/8th, 2/24th 2/28th and 2/32rd. In Row C more of his fellow soldiers, 23-year-old Corporal Eric L. Montgomerie SX948830, 31-year-old Private George S.R. Fowler SX8385 and 22-year-old Captain Peter Robbins, all from the 2/48th Battalion who died in the same battle, also lie.
Eddie’s mother, Louisa died that same year on the 4th December, ‘45 aged 83. She now also rests with her husband in the Mannum Cemetery.
Eddie’s precious medals, the 1939/45 Star, Africa Star, Defence Medal, War Medal and Australian Service Medal were posted to the family via Doris (Ivy) McGlashan in February, ’53. Aged 40, she had died unexpectedly on the 2nd July ‘44 leaving a mystery of the where-abouts of the medals. In the ensuing years, Eddie’s, nephew and great nephew continued to honour Eddie’s sacrifice and seek to unwind the mystery of the original medals.
Researched and written by Kaye Lee, daughter of Bryan Holmes SX8133, 2/48th Battalion.