Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

The reasons that compel a young man to leave his family and home to fight in a war over 16000 kilometres away defy logic in contemporary Australian society. Albert John Rhall, fondly known as “Bert”[1], voluntarily enlisted in the Australian Imperial Forces in December 1915[2]. This biography will detail Bert’s service during World War 1, and examine possible motives for his willingness to enlist.

Bert was born on 9th September 1897[3], the fourth of six children born to Michael and Mary Rhall. The family lived in Young New South Wales, descendants of Young district pioneers[4], and involved in the Lambing Flats Riots when gold was discovered in the region in 1860[5]. Bert worked as a labourer at the time of enlistment and spent his entire 18 years living with his family in Wombat Street, Young before applying to enlist in the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) in late 1915[6].

Bert passed his preliminary medical examination, along with elder brother Rupert[7], on 15th December 1915 [8]. His application was accepted by recruiting officers in Cootamundra on 27th December 1915.[9] Brother Septimus shortly followed, enlisting on 6th January 1916[10], and the three brothers allocated into different battalions. Sending three sons to war may have been distressing for Michael and Mary, however recruiting propaganda and the public response to the large number of lives lost during Australia’s Gallipoli campaign may suggest they had a moral obligation to encourage eligible sons to participate, and a sense of civic pride[11].

After the Gallipoli campaign, the number of volunteers enlisting in the AIF dramatically decreased[12]. Effective publicity campaigns boosted enlistment numbers and recruitment committees organised marches through many areas of New South Wales[13]. The “Kangaroos’ Recruiting March” passed through the Young region at the time the Rhall brothers enlisted, certainly placing a great amount of pressure on eligible candidates to enlist[14]. Additionally, a severe drought that affected much of south eastern Australia the previous year would have forced many to look for alternative work and income sources [15]. Lingering racial tensions from the Lambing Flats’ Riots of the 1860’s, and the introduction of the Immigration Restriction Act of 1901 would have perpetuated a willingness to enlist in a war fighting a foreign enemy[16]. This ideology was commonplace across Australia, not just unique to Bert’s hometown[17], and many foreign cultures were viewed as the enemy by members of the Commonwealth.

Bert was assigned to the 54th Battalion, a regiment born from restructured serving AIF forces composed of approximately 50% of Gallipoli survivors.[18]. Disembarking Sydney on the HMAT A4 “Ceramic” on 16th April 1916, Bert arrived several weeks later at the AIF 14th training battalion, located at Tel el Kebir, Egypt[19]. After intensive training, he was to Marseilles, France, arriving 3rd August 1916[20]. Bert was a Lewis machine gunner[21], and spent several months of heavy fighting in bitterly cold trenches at Fromelles, before advancing on the enemy line in early 1917[22].

The 54th battalion joined allies in an offence that caused the German Army to retreat beyond the Hindenburg Line. The regiment also participated in the Second Battle of Bullecourt from 3rd May to 17th May 1917. A heavy counterattack by the German Army on 15th May proved to be a fateful day for Bert, who was now 20 years of age[23]. On this day, Private P J Kennedy was operating a Lewis Machine gun alongside Bert in the trenches at Bullecourt.[24] Approximately 8am, Kennedy saw Bert “severely injured” by a pineapple bomb[25]. Kennedy was in the same trench at the time Bert was hit by the grenade, and noted despite Bert being barely conscious, he was able to ask Kennedy for assistance to bandage his wounds[26]. According to Kennedy’s statement, Bert was placed on a stretched and relocated to another trench with other injured soldiers awaiting safe evacuation.[27]

Bert was transported to the 29th Casualty Clearing Station, where he died later that day from his injures. According to a letter from the Roman Catholic Chaplin assigned to that Clearing Station, Bert arrived at the station “in a state of collapse”, suffering injuries to his “right arm and abdomen”[28]. The Chaplin noted Bert received his final sacraments “with great piety and resignation”, conscious and likely fully aware he had little chance of recovering from his wounds[29]. The Chaplin noted Bert seemed happy in his final moments and suffered “very little pain”[30]. Bert is commemorated at Greviller's British Cemetery in France, approximately 15 kilometres from where he was killed. His grave is located in plot 3, row A, grave 2, next to other members from his battalion, and is inscribed "HAVE MERCY UPON HIM LORD AND LET PERPETUAL LIGHT SHINE UPON HIM"[31].  

While we will never know the true motive behind Bert’s enlistment, it is likely a strong sense of civic duty, national patriotism, and pressure from communities strongly contributed to many young men joining the AIF. Bert’s brothers Rupert and Septimus returned home, although Septimus was wounded similarly to the same injuries that took Bert’s life, and Rupert spent many months in British hospitals suffering from poor kidney health[32][33]. Their father Michael died a few years before his youngest son Norman enlisted in World War 2, so Michael was spared the anguish of seeing another son head off to war[34].

[1] Australian Red Cross Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau files for Albert John Rhall, 1914-1918, Australian War Memorial, 1DRL/0428, 5437 Private Albert John Rhall, https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/R1499479 

p. 6. accessed 20 August 2020.

3 Service record of Albert Rhall, p. 36, National Archives of Australia, B2455, accessed 20 August 2020.33

4 Birth certificate for Albert John Rhall, born 9 September 1897, Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages, New South Wales, 37195/1897.

5 Allwynd’s Blog Spot, “Sunday Obituary’, http://allwynds.blogspot.com/2013/10/sundays-obituary-mary-ann-rhall-c1838.html, Accessed 20 August 2020.
 
 
 
[5] Lambing Flat Riots, “Britannia”, https://www.britannica.com/event/Lambing-Flat-Riots accessed 20 August 2020.
[6] Service record of Albert Rhall, p.7.
[7] Service record of Rupert Rhall, p. 2, National Archives of Australia, B2455, accessed 20 August 2020.
[8] Service record of Albert Rhall, p.36.
[9] Service record of Albert Rhall, p.36.
[10] Service record of Septimus Rhall, p. 2, National Archives of Australia, B2455, accessed 20 August 2020.
[11] https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/propaganda_at_home_australia
[12] Gammage, Bill, The Broken Years: Australian Soldiers in the Great War, Canberra, 1974. https://mylo.utas.edu.au/content/enforced/388219-AW_HUM_20S2_23845_0_0_0_1_1/WeeklyContent/Week02/B%20Gammage%2c%20The%20Broken%20Years.pdf?_&d2lSessionVal=gdN5b2fTSBb3I8Z2beRsXRsvQ&ou=388219, p. 14
[13] Australian War Memorial, ‘Recruiting Marches 1915 - 1916’, https://www.awm.gov.au/articles/encyclopedia/recruiting_march, Accessed 20 August 2020.
[14] Australian War Memorial, ‘Kangaroos recruiting march”, https://www.awm.gov.au/articles/encyclopedia/recruiting_march/kangaroos, Accessed 20 August 2020.
[15] Australian National University, ‘A monument to drought’, https://history.cass.anu.edu.au/news/1914-monument-drought, Accessed 20 August 2020.
[16] Peoples, Sharon, ‘Very peaceful for the ancestors: Chinese memories in the Lambing Flats Folk Museum’,
https://garlandmag.com/article/lambing-flats-folk-museum/, Accessed 20 August 2020.
[17] 1914 – 1918 Online, ‘International Encyclopedia of the First World War’, https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/propaganda_at_home_australia, Accessed 20 August 2020.
[18] Australian War Memorial, ‘54th Australian Infantry Battalion’, https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/U51494, Accessed 20 August 2020.
[19] Service record of Albert Rhall, p.2 and 36.
[20] Service record of Albert Rhall, p.2.
[21] Australian Red Cross Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau files for Albert John Rhall, p.7.
[22] Australian War Memorial, ‘54th Australian Infantry Battalion’.
[23]  Australian War Memorial, ‘54th Australian Infantry Battalion’.
[24] Australian Red Cross Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau files for Albert John Rhall, p.7.
[25] Australian Red Cross Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau files for Albert John Rhall, p.7.
[26] Australian Red Cross Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau files for Albert John Rhall, p.7.
[27] Australian Red Cross Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau files for Albert John Rhall, p.7.
[28] Australian Red Cross Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau files for Albert John Rhall, p.3.
[29] Australian Red Cross Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau files for Albert John Rhall, p.3.
[30] Australian Red Cross Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau files for Albert John Rhall, p.3.
[31] Albert John Rhall, ‘Commonwealth War Graves’.
[32] Service record of Rupert Rhall, p.2.
[33] Service record of Septimus Rhall, p.2.
[34] Service record of Norman Rhall, p.2.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1914 – 1918 Online, ‘International Encyclopedia of the First World War’, https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/propaganda_at_home_australia, Accessed 20 August 2020.

Albert John Rhall, ‘Commonwealth War Graves’, https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/290937/RHALL,%20ALBERT%20JOHN/, Accessed 20 August 2020.

Allwynds Blog Spot, 'Military Monday', Tracing Family Branches, 21 October 2013, http://allwynds.blogspot.com/2013/10/military-monday-albert-john-rhall.html  accessed 20 August 2020.

Australian National University, ‘A monument to drought’, https://history.cass.anu.edu.au/news/1914-monument-drought, Accessed 20 August 2020.

Australian Red Cross wounded and missing Enquiry Bureau files, 1914-1918, Australian War Memorial, 1DRL/0428, 5437 Private Albert John Rhall, https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/awm-media/collection/RCDIG1050547/document/5638218.PDF  p. 1-12. accessed 20 August 2020.

Australian War Memorial, ‘54th Australian Infantry Battalion’, https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/U51494, Accessed 20 August 2020.

Australian War Memorial, ‘Kangaroos recruiting march”, https://www.awm.gov.au/articles/encyclopedia/recruiting_march/kangaroos, Accessed 20 August 2020.

Australian War Memorial, ‘Recruiting Marches 1915 - 1916’, https://www.awm.gov.au/articles/encyclopedia/recruiting_march, Accessed 20 August 2020.

Casualty details of Albert John Rhall, Commonwealth War Graves Commission, 2020, https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/290937/RHALL,%20ALBERT%20JOHN/, accessed 20 August 2020.

Gammage, Bill, The Broken Years: Australian Soldiers in the Great War, Canberra, 1974. https://mylo.utas.edu.au/content/enforced/388219-AW_HUM_20S2_23845_0_0_0_1_1/WeeklyContent/Week02/B%20Gammage%2c%20The%20Broken%20Years.pdf?_&d2lSessionVal=gdN5b2fTSBb3I8Z2beRsXRsvQ&ou=388219, p. 14.

Grevillers British Cemetery, Photograph, date unknown, Commonwealth War Graves Commission. http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/290937/RHALL,%20ALBERT%20JOHN, accessed 20 August 2020.

Peoples, Sharon. ‘Very peaceful for the ancestors: Chinese memories in the Lambing Flats Folk Museum’,
https://garlandmag.com/article/lambing-flats-folk-museum/, Accessed 20 August 2020.

Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages, New South Wales.

Rhall, Albert John, Photograph, 1916, Virtual War Memorial Australia, https://rslvwm.s3.amazonaws.com/I/images/54218/photo/profile_pic_image.jpg , Accessed 20 August 2020.

Service record of Albert Rhall, First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920, National Archives of Australia, B2455, RHALL ALBERT JOHN, p. 1-44. https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=8029337&S=1,  accessed 20 August 2020.

Service record of Norman Rhall, 1939-1948, National Archives of Australia, B884, RHALL NORMAN FRANCIS, p. 1-10. https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=8029337&S=1,  accessed 20 August 2020.

Service record of Rupert Rhall, First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920, National Archives of Australia, B2455, RHALL RUPERT JAMES, p. 1-31. https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=8029338, accessed 20 August 2020.

Service record of Septimus Rhall, First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920, National Archives of Australia, B2455, RHALL SEPTIMUS MICHAEL, p. 1-12.

https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=8029339, accessed 20 August 2020.