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Australia

Graham was the son of Thomas Drury SMEATON & Selena WITT and was born on the 21st of December 1877 in Medindie, SA.

His parents were married on the 24th of January 1867 in the Congregational Church, West Melbourne, Victoria.

His father was the son of John & Mary Ann SMEATON and was born in 1832 in Clerkenwell, London, England.
His mother was the daughter of James George WITT & Jane COMPTON and was born in 1839 in Fordingbridge, Hampshire, England.

Graham was the youngest child born into this marriage of 6 children.

His father and originally trained as an engineer in England. He was sponsored by the South Australian Company to immigrate to South Australia, but finding no opening for an engineer Thomas joined the Company's financial institution, the Bank of South Australia as a clerk sometime before 1856, later as the bank's accountant.

His father had then married Graham’s mothers sister; Jane WITT on the 20th of August 1855 in Adelaide and they had 4 children.
In 1864 he was appointed manager of the newly formed branch in Robe, where he was an active as President of the Robe Institute, and where his wife Jane, a popular Sunday-school teacher, died in childbirth on the 16th of December 1865 in Robe, SA.

Graham’s mother had gone to live with his father to raise the 3 children and then they married in Melbourne and returned to Robe.
They then returned to Adelaide in 1870 and his father returned to the Adelaide head office as assistant manager and served as manager on numerous occasions between 1870 and 1884.

When his father retired in 1884 the family moved to their newly built 14 room home "Dalebank" in Blakiston and Graham and his siblings attended the St. James' School in Blakiston.

On finishing school Graham became a farmer and gained employment as a manager for Mr C Wright’s Estate, on the Bay Road, Glenelg (ANZAC Highway) and was living in Black Forset.

Around May 1906 his parents moved to Mount Lofty, where his father died after some months in poor health, on the 18th of February 1908.
After the death of his father his mother moved to Brunswick Road, Dulwich.

By 1911 Graham had moved to Renmark and was a Gardener.
In 1913 his brother Bronte moved his family from Mt Barker to Tynte Street, North Adelaide and the following year Graham had moved back to Adelaide and was living with Bronte and his young family.

At the age of 37, Graham enlisted into the 1st AIF on the 19th of August 1914 in Morphettville and allotted the service number 99 and posted to the newly raised A Squadron, 3rd Light Horse Regiment in Morphettville Camp.

Graham embarked from Adelaide on board HMAT A17 Port Lincoln on the 22nd of October 1914 and he served in Gallipoli and Egypt and was overseas for more than 4 years.

During this time his brother Bronte enlisted into the Australian Army Medical Corps on the 14th of July 1915. He was appointed Major and served on the Hospital Ships.
One of his nephew’s; Drury Luscombe WRIGHT enlisted into the 48th Battalion (2510), but sadly he was Killed in Action on the 11th of April 1917 in the attack on Bullecourt.

Then another nephew; Herbert Keith LOCK enlisted into the 11th Field Ambulance (12631).

Graham finally embarked from Suez on board HT Devon the 13th of October 1918 and just prior to him disembarking in Adelaide on the 23rd of November, the Armistice was signed 12 days earlier.

Graham was discharged from the AIF on the 22nd of January 1919.

Graham married Helene Winifred MAYNARD on the 9th of October 1920 at the residence of Melville Rankine, “Woodburn”, near Strathalbyn (Belvidere), SA.
Helene was the daughter of John Thomas MAYNARD & Emily Jane BUDD and was born on the 22nd of November 1889 in Knightsbridge, SA.

By 1939 Graham was a mercantile clerk and they were living at 273 Esplanade, Henley Beach with her Helene’s Walter.

By 1946 they had moved to Melbourne Street, North Adelaide.

Graham died in a Private Hospital on the 26th of April 1949.
His funeral was held in the Epiphany Church in Crafers the following day and he was buried in the Stirling Cemetery; General, Section C, Row 9, Plot 199N, with his parents.

After Graham’s death Helene remarried to Vincent Henry YARDLEY on the 26th of February 1958 in Queensland.

Helene died on the 4th of May 1973.

They didn’t have children.

Military

At the age of 37, Graham enlisted into the 1st AIF on the 19th of August 1914 in Morphettville and allotted the service number 99 and posted to the newly raised A Squadron, 3rd Light Horse Regiment in Morphettville Camp.
He listed his mother, of Brunswick Street, Dulwich, as his next of kin.

They trained at Morphettville Camp and on the 21st of September they marched through the streets of Adelaide.
On the 4th of October they moved camp to north of Bay Road in Mr A Morphett’s paddock.
On the 21st of October they marched out at 2.30pm for Outer Harbour for embarkation the following day.

Graham embarked from Adelaide on board HMAT A17 Port Lincoln on the 22nd of October 1914 and on board were 19 officers, 347 men and 338 horses.
They arrived in Albany four days later at 6.30am on the 26th and on the 1st of November the convoy of 26 Australian transports and 10 New Zealand transports were escorted out of Albany at 6.am by HMS Minatour, HMAS Sydney and Melbourne.

After two weeks at sea they arrived in Colombo at 2pm on the 15th of November and after re coaling they left Colombo on the 17th at 11am.
They arrived in Aden on the 25th at 5pm and left at 6am the following morning and had reached the Red Sea three days later where they received their instructions that they would complete their training in Cairo and proceed from there to the front. They received their first inoculations for Typhoid on the same day.

On the 1st of December they arrived at Suez and they following day they sailed for Port Said, arriving at 7am on the 3rd.
After two days anchored here they sailed for Alexandria and arrived at 10am on the morning of the 6th. After two days anchored in the harbour they came alongside the wharf at 4.40pm but did not embark until 7am the following day.

They were then entrained to Cairo and then marched into Ma’adi Camp on the 10th at 8am.
Christmas 1914 was spent here and then they moved to Aerodrome Camp at Heliopolis on the 31st of January 1915 to be near the rest of the Division for Divisional training.
All of March and April were spent here and then on the 9th of May the Regiment left Heliopolis Camp and entrained from Pailais Kubba for Alexandria and embarked on board the Grantully Castle for the Dardanelles at 7pm.

On the 12th of May they arrived at Cape Hellas at day break and then at Gaba Tepe (ANZAC Cove) at 7.45pm.
They had disembarked by 10pm and moved to Monash Valley the following afternoon. The were immediately employed on fatigue duty to circumvent sniping and dogging fire and communication trenches on Popes Hill and Quinn’s Post.

They came out of the trenches 2 weeks later and went into General Reserve behind Headquarters and bivouacked at the foot of Pope’s Hill.
After a weeks rest they took over garrison duty at Pope’s Hill and then rotated week about for the rest of June and into July.

On the 6th of August Graham and his Squadron came down from Pope’s Hill to Pope’s Reserve Gully and then 3 days later they took over Quinns Post for all of August.

On the 6th of September B Squadron relieved a party of Welsh Pioneers on Camel Hump, C Squadron relieved a party on Destroyer Hill and A Squadron went into reserve in Rowell Gully.
While they were here Graham became unwell and was admitted into the field hospital 2 days later and after 6 days he rejoined his Regiment.

They all then spent October & November strengthening defences and patrolling at Destroyer Hill and Camel Post.

On the 12th of December they received orders to be ready to embark for Imbros and the following day they moved to No.2 Post at 8pm and they began their embarkation on board HMT Abbassia at midnight.

They arrived in Mudros Bay at 1pm on the 15th of December and were transferred to HMAT Karoo and proceeded to Egypt. They arrived in Alexandria at 12.30pm on the 19th and disembarked the following day and entrained to Aerodrome Camp in Heliopolis.

After their return to Egypt, the Regiment, along with the rest of the 1st Light Horse Brigade, became part of the ANZAC Mounted Division and was given responsibility for the defence of the Suez Canal from raiding Senussi Arabs.

On the 24th of December they received Christmas Billy Can from Australia and then received orders to equip and proceed to west of Nile as early as possible in advance of the Brigade. They left 6 days later and moved to Wadi Natrum via Barrage, Wardan and Khatatba.
By the 17th of January they had moved to Light Horse Wells, near Lake Beida and continued training in heavy winds and dust storms and patrolled the area daily.
Whilst they were here Graham was promoted to Lance Corporal.
On the 5th of February they moved to El Gaar and El Zawia where they sunk wells for the horses and continued patrolling the area for enemy movement.

They then moved back to Khatatba on the 7th of March and by the end of March had moved to Qara, Beit Khalaf and then Girga.
They had moved to Kantara by the 17th of May then onto Hill 70 and then Romani by the 26th.
Whilst they were in camp at Romani a Turkish Aeroplane dropped 10 bombs on them on the 1st of June killing 5 men and wounding 20 others. It also killed 36 horses and wounded 9 horses and caused a stampede in the camp.

July was spent as support for the 2nd Australian Light Horse Brigade who were carrying out reconnaissance around Bir Salmana and they then moved onto Romani in August and supplied patrols every 3rd day the Hill 110.
They fought in the Battle of Romani on the 4th of August 1916, before being withdrawn to rest and refit before rejoining the Allied advance across the Sinai in November.

By December they had moved to Gererat and were engaged in patrolling the area before they moved to El Magdhaba on the 23rd of December and took part in the Battle of Magdhaba against the entrenched Ottoman Army garrison.
During the day's fierce fighting, the mounted infantry tactics of riding as close to the front line as possible and then dismounting to make their attack with the bayonet supported by artillery and machine guns prevailed, assisted by aircraft reconnaissance. All of the well-camouflaged redoubts were eventually located and captured and the Ottoman defenders surrendered in the late afternoon.

Christmas 1916 was spent at El Risa before they moved to Shiekh Zowaid on the 31st and by the 9th of January they were involved on the Battle of Rafa.
After this a stint of protective duty along the line of communications through the Sinai followed.
Their next major engagement was the abortive second battle of Gaza on the 17th of April. The tanks and the gas were both dismal failures and the attacking forces could make little headway against well-sited Turkish redoubts. After three days of fighting the attack was called off, having not gained any significant ground.

In June they were at Abasan El Kebir in training before moving to Fukhari, Ghari and Shauth in July and by mid August they were in Marakeb.
They then moved forward to Kilo 9 in September and by October 1917 they were in Rafa Beach Rest Camp and on the 20th Graham was detached to the 3rd Light Horse Regiment Headquarters in Cairo.
Then on the 13th of December he was posted to the Mo’ascar Isolation Camp in Ismalia, on duty.

He completed his detachment here on the 15th of July 1918 and returned to the 3rd Light Horse Regiment Headquarters in Cairo.
In August 1918 the medical board classified Graham as “A” (fit for duty), but it was recommended he be returned to Australia.

Graham finally embarked from Suez on board HT Devon the 13th of October 1918 and just prior to him disembarking in Adelaide on the 23rd of November, the Armistice was signed 12 days earlier.

Graham was discharged from the AIF on the 22nd of January 1919 and awarded the 1914/15 Star, British War & Victory Medals.