Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

William was born in Keyneton, South Australia between December 1st and 31st in 1881. Amy Brazely was his wife and they had one child.

Before the war, Wilfred had studied at the University of Adelaide, and as of November 1899, had passed his final exams in Latin, Law of Property and English Language and Literature. These qualifications allowed him to work at several newspapers around Australia.

There is not much known information about Wilfred during the war, apart from the number of times he went to hospital and his rank. On the 6th of March, 1917, he enlisted and embarked around 3 months later on the 23rd of June, 1917 on HMAT A30 Borda. He was a private, the lowest rank of the military, so had no heavy responsibilities within his infantry battalion, the 43rd. During the war he went to hospital multiple times, including the possibility of influenza, tonsillitis, being sick in general, influenza, gastritis, typhoid fever and wounded, staying in hospital for 6 days before returning. After all of these difficulties, Wilfred still survived, leaving to return home on the 4th of December 1919, after 2 ½ years of battle.

According to Wilfred’s service records, he was also taken on strength to the 11th Australian Light Trench Mortar Battery from the 4th September 1918 to an unknown date, and served in the Australian Imperial Force Head Quarters until the 31st December 1918. He then returned on the 7th January 1919 and continued serving in the Australian Imperial Force Head Quarters until the 22nd April 1919, where he then returned to the Australian Light Trench Mortar Battery from the 23rd April 1919 until the 10th August 1919.

After the war, little to no information is known. We do know he was 38/39 years of age when he got home, discharging on the 4th December 1919, but date and age of death is not known. Wilfred was awarded two medals, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal. 

1. RSL Virtual War Memorial 2018, Returned & Services League of Australia SA Branch, accessed 25 February 2018, <https://rslvirtualwarmemorial.org.au/explore/people/67958>.

2. Australian War Memorial 2018, accessed 25 February 2018, <https://www.awm.gov.au/advanced-search/people?roll=First%20World%20War%20Embarkation%20Roll&people_preferred_name=Wilfred%20Fewkes%20Partridge&people_service_number=3152>

3. 43rd Australian Infantry Battalion 1916, Photograph, Australian War Memorial, accessed 25 February 2018, <https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C1013892>.

4. AIF Project 2016, accessed 25 February 2018, <https://aif.adfa.edu.au/showPerson?pid=234689>.

5. National Australian Archives 2018, Australian Government, accessed 25 February 2018, <https://discoveringanzacs.naa.gov.au/browse/records/309960/5>.

6. ‘University Examinations’ 1899, The Express and Telegraph, 24 November, accessed 25 February 2018, <https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/209518185?searchTerm=(Wilfred%20Fewkes%20Partridge)%20&searchLimits=q-field0|||q-type0=all|||q-term0=Wilfred+Fewkes+Partridge|||q-field1=title%3A|||q-type1=all|||q-term1|||q-field2=creator%3A|||q-type2=all|||q-term2|||q-field3=subject%3A|||q-type3=all|||q-term3|||q-year1-date|||q-year2-date>.

7. ‘Personal’ 1914, The Mail, 28 February, accessed 25 February 2018, <https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/59648544?>.

8. First World War 1914-18 2018, accessed 25 February 2018, <https://www.awm.gov.au/articles/atwar/first-world-war>.

9. Anzac spirit 2018, accessed 25 February 2018, <https://www.awm.gov.au/articles/encyclopedia/anzac/spirit>.

10. Intelligence Summary 1918, Photograph, Australian War Memorial, accessed 26 February 2018, <https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C1344155?image=14>. 

Wilfred was the son of Matthew PARTRIDGE & Caroline SMITH and was born on the 11th of December 1880 in Keyneton, SA.
Wilfred was known as Mick.

His parents were married on the 8th of August 1877 at the residence of Caroline’s parents in Tantunga, North Rhine, SA.

His father was the son of Reuben PARTRIDGE & Sarah FEWKES and was born on the 12th of July 1850 in Shoreditch, Middlesex, England.
His mother was the daughter of William Thomas SMITH & Caroline CRABB and was born on the 31st of July 1854 in Tantunga, North Rhine, SA.

Wilfred was the second child born into this family of 7 children.

His father was an infant when the family decided to immigrate to South Australia.
They departed from Plymouth on the 25th of May 1851 on board the Ballengeich and after 87 days at sea they arrived in Port Phillip, Melbourne on the 20th of August 1851.
Their stop at Port Phillip was longer than anticipated as the ships crew deserted and went to the goldfields.
It took 7 days to find a new crew before they sailed for Pt Adelaide on the 29th of August and finally arrived on the 22nd of September 1851.

Wilfred’s father was an agent and store keeper and owned the general store in Keyneton, which had been built by Wilfred’s grandfather, Reuben.
The business was named Partridge & Co. General Store.

Wilfred attended the Keyneton School, which was located 2 miles east of the township. In 1887 a traveller described the site of the school as being very undesirable. The closet was minus 2 side walls and a door and was exposed to all the winds of heaven.
To reach the school Wilfred had to travel through muddy roads and creeks.

In January 1889 his father sold the store and purchased a store in Saddleworth and moved his business and the family there.
He father became a prominent figure in the town, holding the positions of local councillor, the Registrar of Birth, Death & Marriages, Justice of the Peace and coroner in inquest cases.

Wilfred attended the Saddleworth School and then boarded in Adelaide in 1892 to attend the Way College, on Greenhill Road, Wayville.
He then studied at the University of Adelaide, and as of November 1899, had passed his final exams in Latin, Law of Property and English Language and Literature.
These qualifications allowed him to follow his passion of journalism and he gained an apprenticeship with the “Renmark Pioneer” in the early 1900’s.

Whilst here, he met a young lady by the name of Miss Amy Bazley CRABB.
Amy was the daughter of Benjamin William CRABB & Martha Alice Maud TEASDALE and was born on the 19th of October 1883 in Craigies Plains, SA.
Amy was previously married to Alexander Stewart MCDONALD on the 26th of January 1911 and had a daughter; Alexandra Bazley MCDONALD (25.12.1908).

In April 1912 Wilfred and Amy left Renmark and he took up the position of relieving editor of the “New Times’ at Kerang, Victoria.
After 2 months he secured employment as the sub-editor of the ‘Northern Star’ in Lismore, NSW in June 1912.

Wilfred felt marriage was bourgeois and unnecessary so they lived under common law marriage and welcomed Wilfred Gordon McDonald into the family on the 28th of August 1912.

Eighteen months later, on the 23rd of January 1914, a farewell was held for Wilfred at the office of the ‘Northern Star’ and Wilfred was presented with a fountain pen and an enlarged photograph of his little son.

Wilfred had gained employment as the editor of the ‘Daily Telegraph’ in Charters Towers, Queensland.
Within a week of his arrival he was struck down with Typhoid Fever and spent 2 months in the Charters Towers Hospital.
He also became the editor of the “Evening Telegraph” in Charters Towers and the “Northern Queensland Telegraph” and they lived in Hackett Terrace.

Wilfred was a strong advocate of conscription and after the referendum was defeated on the 28th of October 1916, Wilfred began thinking of enlistment himself.
His mother then became very ill and Wilfred resigned from the paper to move back home to South Australia.
Unfortunately he never made it back to Saddleworth in time to see his mother before she died on the 19th of January 1917.
The following day Wilfred and his family left Charters Towers and embarked on board the Canberra.

They made their home at 77 Osmond Terrace, Norwood and at the age of 36, Wilfred enlisted into the AIF on the 6th of March 1917 in Adelaide and was allotted the service number 3152 and posted to B Company in Mitcham Camp.

He was then posted to the 43rd Battalion, 7th Reinforcements, C Company and embarked from Adelaide on board HMAT A30 Borda on the 23rd of June 1917.

He was appointed editor of the ship's paper on the voyage, but was beaten by Pleurisy.

Wilfred disembarked in Plymouth for further training and proceeded to France on the 27th of December 1917 for 12 months.
He served with the 43rd Battalion and was then transferred to the 11th Light Trench Mortar Battery.

He was then transferred back to the AIF Administration Headquarters in England and attached to the Education Services where he became the editor of the Educational Gazette in connection with the A.I.F educational scheme in London.

Wilfred finished his appointment with the Education Services on the 10th of August and the following day he was posted to Tidworth for Demobilization.

Wilfred embarked from England on the 3rd of September 1919 on board HT Barambah, disembarked in Melbourne on the 25th of October and entrained to Adelaide.

Wilfred was discharged from the AIF on the 4th of December 1919.
Whilst Wilfred was serving overseas, Amy went back to school teaching and was in charge of a converted German school at Palmer.

After his discharged Wilfred became the editor of the Returned Soldiers paper in Adelaide, “The Diggers Gazette” and they moved to Mildura where he was employed as the sub editor for the “Sunraysia Daily” for a few years.

In May 1922 they moved to Berri with his cousin James and his sister Sarah and they purchased a 45 acre fruit block in Toorak Valley.
On the 27th of October they planted vines and cotton and he continued to contribute his results in the Murray Pioneer.

After 2 years Wilfred had had enough of the land and in December 1924 he purchased 50% the “Circular Head Chronicle,” in Stanley, Tasmania.
This paper was now owned by Partridge and Campbell.

Wilfred then married Katherine Emily BIRKS on the 3rd of January 1925 at Katherine’s mother’s residence, 7 Kensington Road, Norwood, SA.
Katherine was the daughter of Walter Richard BIRKS & Jemima Scott CROOKS and was born on the 17th of May 1881 in Glenelg, SA.

Katherine had enlisted as a Masseuse in the Australian Army Massage Reserve on the 1st of November 1915 and served as a Staff Nurse on Home Service.

They moved to Stanley, Tasmania and Wilfred filled a multitude of public positions both courageously and conscientiously.
For 11 years he was Chairman of Justices at Stanley, and on him fell the bulk of court work, for he has a particularly wide legal knowledge, as was appreciated both by his fellow justices and by the police officers.

His abilities as Coroner are also well known, and he served a long term in this capacity.

With the outbreak of WW2 his son Wilfred enlisted into the RAAF on the 24th of May 1943 (129812).

Following Wilfred’s retirement from business in 1944, he took over, for a short period, the duties of Clerk of Courts.
Wilfred’s willingness to accept the responsibilities of good citizenship was shown by the great number of public positions which he held at one time or another in Stanley.

For many years he was President of the local R.S.L. Sub-Branch and Chairman of the Circular Head Show Committee.
He was President of the Stanley Parents’ Association, Secretary to the Oddfellows’ Lodge and a member of the Stanley Water Committee.

He was also a Master of the Monatteh Masonic Ledge and for several years was secretary.
As editor of “The Chronicle” he was well-known for his fearless attacks on what he regarded as unfairness or mal admininistration, and threats of action against him in no way deterred him from advancing his opinions.
His attacks on the war-time Curtin Government were widely read, drawing comment from the “Sydney Bulletin” and a personal letter from the late Mr. John Curtin.

Among his several successful battles on behalf of Stanley, his fight for lighting rate reductions was probably the best known.
He was known as a mine of information regarding Circular Head’s early history and was much sought after by tourists in search of stories of the early days.
At least one Circular Head road owes its name to him, for “No Mans Road” was the subject of one of his pleas for improved road communications for Stanley, and the name stuck.

Katherine suffered from an illness which confined her to her home and in mid 1946 she moved back to South Australia and purchased a home for them at 11 Norman Street, Woodville.

Wilfred joined her on the 7th of October 1946.

Katherine died on the 3rd of August 1957 and Wilfred buried her in the Payneham Cemetery; Section SE, Path 10, Plot 281, with her parents.

Wilfred died of pneumonia on the 28th of May 1977 in the Helping Hand Centre, Molesworth Street, North Adelaide and was buried in the Hindmarsh Cemetery; Section Eastern O 12/3 N/E.

He was known as one of the most brilliant of the younger school of Australian journalists.

Merrion Frances (Mem) FOX OAM nee PARTRIDGE is his granddaughter and she has Wilfred’s War Medals.

Her book; Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge (her father’s name) was based on her memories of her grandfather; Wilfred Fewkes Partridge.

Military

At the age of 36, Wilfred enlisted into the AIF on the 6th of March 1917 in Adelaide and was allotted the service number 3152 and posted to B Company in Mitcham Camp.
He listed his wife, of 77 Osmond Terrace, Norwood, as his next of kin.

On the 30th of March Wilfred suffered from acute Gastritis and was admitted into the 7th Australian General Hospital in Keswick
He described his treatment as fine and his diet included fish, chicken and poached eggs, plenty of milk and beef-tea.
He said that those men on a full diet generally had their choice of three meats and two puddings and almost every day ladies came around with unlimited supplies of fruit and cigarettes.

In the next bed to Wilfred was an old chap who admitted to having been 43 for 20 years and who, he gathered, had cadged tucker at sheep stations half over the continent.
He had given Mitcham Camp a very bad name, though he was there less than a week when he reported sick with rheumatism. Since then he had put in four months at Keswick, and at the magnificent convalescent home at Torrens Park, and now he was awaiting his discharge, admitting that he has had the time of his life and has a nice cheque coming to him.

He was much aggrieved at the hospital because they gave him too much fish and not enough chicken! He actually went on strike against fish at last and next morning was put on full diet and you should have heard his lamentations!
However, every night when he went to bed with his hot water bag he used to say "God bless father and mother – and Captain Cook for finding this country".

Another old chap, when the sister remonstrated with him for closing a window, told her roundly that he had slept in the open for 28 years, never with anything more than a bag over him and generally without that, and had had more fresh air than everyone in that hospital put together.

On the 23rd of April Wilfred was transferred to the 17th Auxiliary Hospital in Torrens Park and then discharged to duty back at Mitcham Camp on the 1st of May and posted to the 43rd Battalion, 7th Reinforcements, C Company.

From Mitcham Camp Wilfred could see the sea and the Adelaide Hills.
The huts had board floors, iron roofs and ends and no sides.
Wilfred was given 4 blankets but did not have a mattress. Each hut contained 4 sections of about a dozen men each with tables for each section and a locker for each man to keep his belongings in.

Wilfred said the food was good and well cooked and there was plenty of it. He had sausages and potatoes for breakfast, roast mutton, potatoes and cabbage for dinner and stew or bread and jam for tea. The recruits even have milk in their tea.

At the Garrison Institute a cup of tea, coffee or cocoa, with milk and sugar, could be had for 2d and other things were proportionately cheap.
He described the work as light, but spread well over the day and they also granted general leave (with a free railway ticket to Adelaide and back!) on Tuesday and Friday evenings, and from noon on Saturday to midnight on Sunday.

He described his fellow recruits as being of all sorts; mere boys alongside men, who were 45 (and had been for years), dudes alongside persons who might smell sweeter by some other name (if they had a wash) and university graduates alongside kangaroo shooters.

Wilfred did not like the saluting and also said that nobody did.
He described it as a survival of class distinctions which were meaningless there and it wasn’t necessary to discipline.
Wilfred scrubbed black and greasy pots and pans, and picked up used matches around the huts, which he I did not mind, but he did resent being sent by an officer to get him a packet of cigarettes.
However, he went and admitted that it was good for discipline!

Wilfred embarked from Adelaide on board HMAT A30 Borda on the 23rd of June 1917 and sailed to Fremantle to pick up more reinforcements.
They sailed for England on the 29th of June and made a stop at Capetown where they ate in the ''Brave Boys Welcome Hall".
This Hall fed 2,000 troops gratis every evening and would quite often feed 48,000 meals in one week.

He was appointed editor of the ship's paper on the voyage, but was beaten by Pleurisy.

Wilfred disembarked in Plymouth on the 25th of August and marched into the 11th Training Battalion at West Farm Camp, Fovant, and delegated to No.6 Hut.
This was the training area for the 43rd Battalion prior to its departure for the front.
On the 20th of September Wilfred suffered from Influenza and Tonsillitis and was admitted into the Fargo Military Hospital in Durrington for 4 days.

On the 5th of November he was transferred to the 10th Training Battalion in Sutton Mandeville, where he spent Christmas 1917 before proceeding to France on the 27th of December 1917.
He was taken on strength with the 43rd Battalion on the 4th of January 1918 at Waterlands Camp, 1 mile west of Erquinghem.
The following day they were bussed to Locre and into their billets at Doncaster Huts.
They remained here, training in the snow, until they marched to Romarin Camp, near Neuve Eglise, on the 27th of January and then into Le Rossignol Camp, the following day.

General Birdwood visited them here to watch them train on the morning of the 5th of February. That afternoon they marched to Oosthove Farm where they entrained on the light railway to Delennelle Farm and relieved the 57th English Division in the front line trenches at Le Bizet.
Here, on the 12th of February, Wilfred was detached to 11th Light Trench Mortar Battery at Nieppe.
This Battery was also attached to the 11th Brigade of the 3rd Division, son Wilfred was now involved in supporting his old Infantry Battalion.

By April they had moved to Ploegsteert Wood and then to Bonnay Wood before moving into billets at Franvilliers, Somme, on the 1st of May.
After 8 days here they moved to Blagny-Tronville into the front line system where they remained until the end of June when they moved to Allonville and rested in the Wood.

Their next major engagement was at the Battle of Hamel on the 4th of July before they moved back to Allonville.
Five days later Wilfred suffered from Influenza and was admitted into the 11th Australian Field Ambulance fro 3 days before being transferred to the 12th Casualty Clearing Station at Longpré.
He spent a further 3 days here before rejoining his Battery and on the 31st of July they moved to Vaux and relieved the 9th Light Trench Mortar Battery.

Four days later they moved back to billets at Corbie before taking up a defensive line west of Cerissy.
Wilfred suffered a Gun Shot Wound to his finger on the 25th of August, had it dressed at the 11th Australian Field Ambulance and remained on duty.
On the 4th of September he was permanently transferred to the 11th Light Trench Mortar Battery and their next major engagement was the attack on Hamelet and Roisel in late September.

By the 6th of October they had entrained to Warlow-Baillon for training and 2 days later Wilfred suffered from an Alveolar Abscess (dental abscess) and was admitted into the 11th Australian Field Ambulance for 5 days.
Their next move was to Metigny for further training and they were still here on the 11th of November when the Armistice was signed and the guns fell silent.

They then moved to Warlus and on the 4th of December Wilfred was granted 2 weeks leave to England and was then detached to the AIF Administration Headquarters in London as part of the Repatriation and Demobilization area.
On the 23rd of April 1919 he was promoted to WO Class I and detached to the Education Services.

In July 1919 he was appointed editor of the Educational Gazette in connection with the A.I.F educational scheme in London.
Wilfred finished his appointment with the Education Services on the 10th of August and the following day he was posted to Tidworth for Demobilization.

Wilfred embarked from England on the 3rd of September 1919 on board HT Barambah, disembarked in Melbourne on the 25th of October and entrained to Adelaide.

Wilfred was discharged from the AIF on the 4th of December 1919 and awarded the British War & Victory Medals.

Letters from Wilfred

The Evening Telegraph (Charters Towers, Qld. : 1901 - 1921), Thu 24 May 1917 , Page 4 

Soldiers Letter

Mr. W. F. Partridge, formerly editor of this paper, and now a private in the A.I.F., writes to Mr. J. A. Miller, of Charters Towers, from Mitcham Camp, South Australia.

This life suits me immensely and I am happy as a sandboy in spite of having spent one month out of two I have been in the A.I.F. in hospital. Mitcham is the pick suburb of Adelaide. Part of it is on the famous Adelaide plain and parts extend into the foothills of the Mount Lofty Ranges.

We can see the sea from the camp.

The huts have board floors, iron roofs and ends and no sides. We have four blankets each, but no mattresses. Each hut contains four sections of about a dozen men each with tables for each section and a locker for each man to keep his belongings in.

The food is good and well cooked and there is plenty of it, say sausages and potatoes for breakfast, roast mutton, potatoes and cabbage for dinner, and stew or bread and jam for tea. The recruits even have milk in their tea but I have not seen any since being transferred to a unit.

At the Garrison Institute a cup of tea, coffee or cocoa, with milk and sugar, may be had for 2d and other things are proportionately cheap.

The work is light, but spread well over the day and we get general leave (with a free railway ticket to Adelaide and back!) on Tuesday and Friday evenings, and from noon on Saturday to midnight on Sunday.

Most of the growling, I notice, is done not by the educated men, but by those who are perhaps better treated in camp than they were outside.

Of course, there are all sorts, mere boys alongside men, who are 45— and have been for years— , dudes alongside persons who might smell sweeter by some other name— if they had a wash—, university graduates alongside kangaroo shooters.

After I had been in camp sometime, one of the officers of my company introduced himself as a brother of one of my father's employees. He is a very fine officer and knows his work thoroughly.

Still I don't like this saluting.

Nobody does.

It is a survival of class distinctions which are meaningless here, even if not in Britain also by now. Nor is it necessary to discipline. A second lieutenant, who is saluted, does not get better discipline than a sergeant-major who is not. Rather the reverse in fact.

I have scrubbed black and greasy pots and pans, and have been put on picking up used matches around the huts and these things I did not mind, but I did resent being sent by an officer to get him a packet of cigarettes.

However, I went and must admit that was good for discipline!

In the military hospital at Keswick, the treatment was very fine.

My diet included fish, chicken and poached eggs, plenty of milk and beef-tea, and those on full diet generally had their choice of three meats and two puddings and almost every day ladies came around with unlimited supplies of fruit and cigarettes.

In the next bed to mine was an old chap who admitted to having been 43 for 20 years and who, I gathered, had cadged tucker at sheep stations half over the continent.

He gave Mitcham camp a very bad name, though he was here less than a week when he reported sick with rheumatism. Since then he has put in four months at Keswick, and at the magnificent convalescent home at Torrens Park, and now he is awaiting his discharge, admitting that he has had the time of his life and has a nice cheque coming to him.

He was much aggrieved at the hospital because they gave him too much fish and not enough chicken! He actually went on strike against fish at last and next morning was put on full diet. Then you should have heard his lamentations!

However, every night when he went to bed— with a hot water bag— he used to say "God bless father and mother— and Captain Cook for finding this country".

Another old chap, when the sister remonstrated with him for closing a window, told her roundly that he had slept in the open for 28 years, never with anything more than a bag over him and generally without that, and had had more fresh air than everyone in that hospital put together.

The leading articles in the daily papers here strike me as being very pappy and seem to be written chiefly with the object of offending nobody. Their war news too is dished up in such a way, especially as regards headlines, as to give the idea that the Allies are winning, sweeping victories every day and that the war must end very shortly.

I really believe it would have ended this year but for the practical defection of Russia, for we are on the offensive even with Russia doing nothing, but to look for victory this year under such circumstances would be altogether unreasonable.

We may even have to wait until Americans can reach the front, and of course the question is: What will Germany submarines be doing meanwhile?

Will they improve as much in the next twelve months as they have in the last twelve?

The German retreat in France was evidently a great tactical success and has been a big advantage to them. Don't believe anything about the smashing of the Hindenburg line till you hear of the capture of Cambrai or St. Quentin.

Meanwhile with the Russians quiescent in Armenia the Turks can concentrate against us in Mesopotamia and Palestine. It is evident they have a strong line of modern entrenchments from Gaza to Beersheba, which will not be forced until the British and Australians, there are reinforced considerably.

No victory will be of any moment in that theatre until one or other of these towns is captured.

War is abhorrent to my disposition and upbringing and I fervently hope it is over before I reach the front, but do not for one moment expect that it will be.

I have no desire to do dirty work, but when there is dirty work to be done, I don't want to shirk my share.

Letters from France

The Evening Telegraph (Charters Towers, Qld. : 1901 - 1921), Sat 2 March 1918 , Page 3 

PTE. W. F. PARTRIDGE

Mr. J. W. Ward has received a letter from Pte. W. F. Partridge, at one time editor of the "Telegraph", dated 23/12/17, in which he states;

We should have left for the front today; will probably tomorrow.

Sorry conscription was turned down again.

Looks bad, however, remember we have done marvellously in raising 8 per cent, of our Population by voluntary methods.

The feeling in this camp was strongly “no”.

Cannot say whether that is typical.

None of them could give a decent reason. Favourites were that ''they can't feed what they've got here now," and “they treat us like dogs”.

If these reach Australia you may say on my authority that they are both d— lies. There was a shortage of food for a week or two, but a forcible though orderly protest brought about immediate improvement, showing that the ration is sufficient if only the men get it.

With this exception the food has been ample and of good quality and well cooked. As for general treatment it is not nearly so bad as I expected it to be.

The nom-coms and officers as a rule are capable, patient, and friendly, especially those who have been at the front. Contrary to general report, there is less "gyver" here than in "Ausy" and, by all accounts, less at the front than here.

The military outlook is far, from promising.

Returned men all tell the same story. The Fritzes will not stand up to our follows, but hold up their hands for all the world like the pictures in the comic papers, and shout "Kamerad"

Why then have we not done better?

Yet, so far as I can gather there is n general demand in this country for peace without victory. These people are magnificent— bravo, patient, modest, and courteous and friendly to strangers. They have much to put up with, not merely the casualties and the cost of living but married men making good livings, called up, put on 1/2 a day and set, instead of at work which they arc admirably fitted at washing dishes or something of chat sort.

Personally I still hold that the war should not last a day after Germany is prepared to yield up all the territory she has occupied, but that it should last till then, even if it be a hundred years.

The Evening Telegraph (Charters Towers, Qld. : 1901 - 1921), Mon 8 Apr 1918 , Page 4 

PTE. W. F. PARTRIDGE

Pte. W. F. Partridge, late editor of the "Telegraph" writes from France under date January, 3: —

There is a fine, friendly joint poked away in a railway yard at this town — somewhere in Europe—with sawdust on the floor, tables to eat off, stacks of good tucker to which you help yourself, tea with milk and sugar in it, jolly, good natured blokes to look after you, and a jovial old sergeant-major to see they do it well.

All this may not strike you us luxury, but circumstances alter cases. It is homelike — not just exactly the sort of home Mrs. P would run by any manner of means, but with a homelike feeling about it none the less. And as I was drinking my tea there in the grey dawn this morning one of the blokes who run the joint began telling me what a fine send-off he had in Charters Towers, and what a great old chap Freddy Johnson was.

Then he was called away and I had to scoot too, and we are moving for parts unknown — save to Rumor, who is omniscient — and I do not even know his name.

That is just like the Army — and like life itself for that matter. He looked like a hard doer, typical North Queenslander; not a Sir Garabad of course, but it would do me to be beside him in a scrap.

When in the Towers I took these send-offs as a matter of course. Since then I've moved about "Ausy" a good deal and the world a bit, and yarned with men from the uttermost parts of "Ausy" and the earth, and have never seen or heard of any thing to come anywhere within coo-ee of them.

Fred Johnson started them and worked up the whole system, and the credit is his.

I know he likes a little bit of kudos, and by Heaven in this case he deserves all he's had and a good deal more.

As Aubrey Beardsley puts it —

Yet with no pride his heart was moved;

He was so modest in his ways,

His daily task was all he loved

And now and then a little praise.

And we do.

It is an awful pity conscription was not carried. Looks bad, but don't any of you fellow's in your natural resentment got running down Australia.

In raising over eight per cent of the population by voluntary methods — or lack of method — equipping them and transporting them to the other side of the world she has achieved a magnificent record that in all human probability will never be matched in the world's history.

So don't you say anything against Australia.

It is the best country in the world, and has the best people.

We know love, don't we all love her, aren't we all proud of her, and aren't we all longing to get back.

That all should be now in this grey, glassy ice bound land, where the silly old sun is as powerless as a tallow candle, is not strange.

But we did no less amid the wonderful charm and beauty of a Wiltshire summer.

Oh, yes, but in love, with England too, and very proud to belong to the British nation.

The English people are very brave, modest, patient, and courteous. Certainly not braver than Australians.

I think not so brave; but truth compels the admission that they eclipse us in modesty, patience and courtesy.

(Perhaps in war it would be better if they didn't).

They seem somehow well bred compared with us — the ''lower classes'' that is.

I've seen nothing of the "uppish classes" save for a walk through Hyde Park and an evening at Drury Lane Theatre —when I was too taken up with three charming Adelaide girls to notice much else — but my impression was of uppishness, vulgarity.

These people have never quite grown out of the time when a few of them were lords of the Manor, and the rest were servs.

You walk into one of these dear solid old Norman churches, beautiful in their severe simplicity and you gather from the walls that the descendants of Sir Roger Paunch de Belly were lords of the Manor of Humbreton from the time of the Baron's war to that of the Reform Bill, and you feel a sort of sentimental regret at learning from the vicar that there is no representative of the old family in the district now.

But the idea of Lords of the Manor as a social institution and you — if you are an Australian — with a sort of impatience and rage.

I have been surprised — and delighted — to find the Army merely democratic. Of course it calls itself "Labor.'' What it will do when it returns and finds that the Labor party has gone to the pack and policies generally to the devil,— goodness knows.

Join the I.W.W. perhaps.

Realy if they find politics a barren tree can you blame them if they say "why cumbereth it the ground," and join an anti-political body?

If you do not want the Russian mess over again in Australia give us some sane businesslike reorganisation of society. That is your little job — you people back in

Australia — while we are amusing ourselves at this little Sunday School picnic over here.

That Towers Chamber of Commerce scheme for universal national service is the idea, and it will be needed not merely during the war, but after the bill is paid.

We cannot afford — and will not be able to for a long time — to have anyone employed or engaged as useless work. By the way, who originated that Chamber of Commerce scheme?

He was a statesman.

I thought about it a great deal in England, where, of course, it is needed much more than in Australia.

The Evening Telegraph (Charters Towers, Qld. : 1901 - 1921), Tue 15 Oct 1918 , Page 2 

LETTER FROM PRIVATE PARTRIDGE.

Private F. W. Partridge, former Editor of the "Evening Telegraph," writes on 30th July from France that he had been in a fine push, and also a field ambulance (with "dog's disease"). He had had very few 'N.Q.T.'s" and commented that they must be worth stealing.

Things are going pretty good here now, and as usual the boys reckon it will be all over in a few months; but I cannot see the Germans well licked before about October 1919, and hope to goodness we shall not make peace until they are.

It all depends on how they take their gruel, when things are going against them. The general opinion is that they will get their tails down, and so they may; but, not only in this war, but in many another right back to the Caesars, they have made many a stubborn fight under adverse circumstances, and may again.

Anyhow, I like to give the devil his due, and to over-estimate rather than under-estimate the enemy.

In any case there is not the faintest shadow of a ghost of a chance of their licking us now. And that in itself is a big thing.

The Yanks are great fellows, wonderfully keen yet very modest — no "swank" or blow about them at all. They will give Fritz hell—are doing so already in fact.

We get on fine with them.

It seems to me that the chief danger now is that the general war weariness may lead to peace being arranged on the basis of an accommodation of the interests of British and German big bugs, instead of on a basis of the recognition of the right of all nations, great or small, to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

But if President Wilson is the man he seems to be he will put the "kybosh" on that.

The trouble is that while the chief need in conducting a war is energy, the chief need in arranging peace is wisdom, and while no doubt Lloyd George is our best man for the former, the latter will need Mr Balfour and Lord (Sir E.) Grey.

No doubt you have seen Lord Grey's fine pamphlet on the League of Nations. Such a league will not put an end to war, any more than policemen put an end to crime; but we owe it to civilisation to establish something of the sort, and with the slow lapse of time, as the nations accustom themselves to the new order, wars will become as infrequent and as unimportant, compared with the previous state of affairs, as examples of individual violence have.

The Evening Telegraph (Charters Towers, Qld. : 1901 - 1921), Sat 16 Aug 1919 , Page 2 

A.I.F Education Services

Warrant Officer W. F. Partridge, one time editor of tho "Evening Telegraph," sends us a copy of the "A.I.F. Education Service Journal," published at A.I.F. Administrative Headquarters, London, and of which he is the editor. 

The paper gives very interesting information of what has been done in the matter of providing technical education for our men during the time they were awaiting repatriation.