Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Ambrose’s brother Thomas has just returned to Australia and Edward was stationed in Egypt when Ambrose enlisted on 9th March, 1916 at the age of 23 years and 6 months. Born at Hammond on the 20th September 1892, Ambrose was the third son of Thomas and Ellen Griffin and motor mechanic by trade. On enlistment he was immediately posted to A Coy 2nd Depot Battalion AIF but by the end of the month had been transferred to 18th Reinforcements 10th Battalion at Mitcham Camp. In May he was moved to Base Light Horse and then in August to 21st Reinforcements 9th Light Horse and then to 22nd Reinforcements 9th Light Horse. On the 16th September he marched in to Field Artillery Reinforcements based at Maribyrnong. Maribyrnong is about 8 kilometres northwest of Melbourne and during World War 1 was the site of a munitions factory producing .303 rounds for the army. On the 1st November he was appointed to 11th Reinforcements 6 Field Artillery Brigade with the rank of Driver. Ambrose embarked from Melbourne on the 23rd November 1916 aboard HMAT A20 Hororata and disembarked at Plymouth, England on the 29th January, 1917. He was at sea for 10 weeks. The following day Ambrose marched into the Australian Details Camp at Perham Down, a small village on the edge of the Salisbury Plain. This camp was designated to receive troops fit to be drafted to their units at the front. On the 18th March Ambrose was transferred to hospital. His records simply state that he was “sick”. After his stay of 7 days in hospital Ambrose marched back into the Details Camp at Perham Down. The following day he marched out to Reserve Brigade Australian Army at Larkhill. Ambrose proceeded overseas to France from Southhampton on 15th August 1917 as part of the 11th Reinforcement 6th Field Artillery Brigade. After two weeks in the Australian General Base Depot at Rouelles Ambrose, like his brother Edward, was taken on strength of a Division Ammunition Column. For Ambrose it was to be the 3rd Division Ammunition Column. A Divisional Ammunition Column consisted of 15 officers and about 700 men, arranged in an HQ and four sections. The Divisional Ammunition Column was responsible for transporting all the ammunition, both artillery and small arms, for the Division. It used horse-drawn ammunition wagons to collect ammo from the lorry-drawn Divisional Ammunition Parks and take it as far forward as road conditions permitted, where it would be collected by the batteries and infantry brigades in the front lines. At any one time, a Divisional Ammunition Column, together with the tactical units of the Division held one scale (the designated allocation of ammunition for the division). A second scale of ammunition was stored in the Divisional Ammunition Park whilst a third scale was stored in the Ordnance Depot. A Divisional Ammunition Column comprised 4 Sections, namely, No’s 1, 2 and 3 Sections which handled 18-pounder and small-arms ammunition, and No 4 Section which handled 4.5 inch ammunition for the Howitzers. The 3rd Division was at Ypres on the 4th October when Ambrose must have been very close to an exploding bomb or enemy artillery shell. He was admitted to the 2nd Casualty Clearing Station suffering from concussion. This was the unit to which his cousin Martin Kain had been posted. Did they meet each other here? It is unknown if Ambrose returned to his unit but less than a week later he was admitted to the 16th Casualty Clearing Station where his diagnosis was shell shock. He was then admitted to the 35th General Hospital in Calais. Eleven days later he was transferred to the 32nd Stationary Hospital at Wimereux, near Bolougne. After several days he was again transferred, this time to the 12th Convalescent Depot. Obviously showing no improvement after a month, Ambrose was again admitted to the 32nd Stationary Hospital with the diagnosis being neurasthenia. Soldiers who were diagnosed with 'shell shock', 'neurasthenia', and 'war neurosis' in the hospitals and casualty stations on or near the battlefields, were sent back Britain for treatment. The War Office used the term 'shell shock' to describe soldiers who were so traumatised that they were unable to carry out their duties on the battlefield. Early in the war, these soldiers were accused of being 'cowards' or 'deserters' and were shot, but by 1918 the War Office had eradicated the term from its documents. On the 13th December Ambrose was invalided back to England aboard the hospital ship “St Patrick” and admitted to 4th London General Hospital. 5 days later he was transferred to the 1st Auxillary Hospital at Harefield where he was granted 2 weeks furlough from Christmas Eve until the 7th January, 1918. After furlough Ambrose reported to 2 Convalescent Depot at Weymouth where he rested for a month before embarking aboard the troopship “Balmoral Castle” on the 1st February. Ambrose embarked in Australia on the 22nd March and was discharged in Adelaide on the 12th July 1918. Ambrose immediately entered into a farming partnership with his brothers Thomas and Edward under an oral agreement to share the profits. The brothers acquired a farm under the soldier’s repatriation scheme. The farm consisted of 5 sections (334, 335, 336, 337 and 411) at Polish Hill River, about 4 kilometres north of Mintaro. Owing to illness he had to relinquish this in 1919 and then found employment in Adelaide with various motoring firms. He married Millicent Adelaide Sanders at St. Bartholomeus, Norwood, on 26 April 1921 and the couple had a daughter, Yvonne Denyer, born on 14 August ,1922. Edward died on 7 June 1973 and is buried in the Centennial Park Cemetery