Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

 
# 2152 CAMPBELL Commerce                        49th Battalion
Commerce Campbell was born at Lismore on the Richmond River. The family moved around often and another brother, Jack, was born at Crow’s Nest near Toowoomba. By the time that both boys were ready to attend school, the family was living in Atherton, North Queensland. The boys’ father abandoned them and their mother, Jane Ellen Campbell, around 1910. By the time of the outbreak of the Great War, Jane and the two boys were living in King Street, Kingaroy.
Commerce attended the Brisbane recruiting Depot at Adelaide Street in Brisbane on 28th January 1916. He stated his age as 22 and occupation as farmer. Commerce was placed in the 11th depot Battalion at Enoggera and then allotted to a signals unit in April. On 1st May 1916, Commerce was allocated to the 4threinforcements of the 49th Battalion. The reinforcements boarded the “Boorara” in Brisbane on 16th August. The embarkation roll shows that Commerce had allocated 80% of his pay to his mother in Kingaroy. The troopship took two months to reach England, sailing via South Africa and Sierra Leone.
Upon landing at Plymouth on 13th October, the reinforcements moved by train to the 13th Brigade Training Battalion at Rollestone. Training continued until December when the reinforcements were sent across to France to join up with the 49th Battalion which was at that time billeted in camp at Buire on the Somme. The fearsome winter of January and February 1917 prevented any advancement by either side. While in winter camp, Commerce may have learnt of the death of his brother Jack who had died of wounds on 1st January in the Sinai serving with the 5th Light Horse.
In late February of 1917, the German Army in northern France retreated to pre-prepared positions on the Hindenburg Line in order to shorten the line and thereby establish a more defensible position. In March, British and dominion troops immediately followed-up this withdrawal. By the beginning of April, the 49th was assigned to support an attack by the 13th Brigade at Noreuil. Noreuil was only a short distance from the more heavily defended village of Bullecourt.
The attack against the Hindenburg defences at Noreuil began on 2nd April and one company of the 49thBattalion had established a series of forward posts along a railway embankment. On 5th April, the 49th was ordered to advance in company with two other battalions from the brigade which allowed for a successful consolidation of the ground taken. During this action, the 13th brigade suffered 142 casualties killed, one of whom was Commerce Campbell.
There is no record of Commerce’s body being recovered or buried. Jane Campbell, upon being notified of Commerce’s death had now lost two sons to the war. Although the official file does not have any record, it is almost certain that Jane would have received a substantial pension for her loss. In 1938, some 20 years after the end of the First World War, the Australian Government completed construction of the Australian National Memorial at Villers Bretonneux. The memorial was dedicated by the newly crowned King George VI. The memorial records the names of over 10,000 Australian soldiers who lost their lives in France and have no known grave; Commerce Campbell, Killed 5th April 1917 aged 23, among them.