Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Stephen Gilbert was born on the 13th of May 1878 at Broadwater, England. He was the son (and second child) of John and Harriet Gilbert of Sussex. His father had died in January of 1898 and his mother died in 1918. He was, for a time, employed as a gardener. He had three siblings, Harriet (1876), Walter (1882) and Alfred (1890).

Stephen joined the Royal Navy on the 28th of January 1895 and signed on for 12 years’ service. He had a long and distinguished career with the Royal Navy on various ships including his first stint on submarines in 1905. He was discharged from the Royal Navy in April 1913 with a “discharged Shore – Free discharge having completed sixteen years’ service” certificate.

He had been married to Emily however she died in 1900. He married Beatrice in 1905 and they had a daughter Florence Beatrice Edith Gilbert born 19th of March 1907. After discharge from the Royal Navy, Stephen re-enlisted into the Royal Australian Navy on the 15th of April 1913 for five years service and was assigned to one of the first two submarines commissioned by the Royal Australian Navy, the HMA Submarine AE2.

When he enlisted, Stephen was described as being five feet eight inches tall, with brown hair, hazel eyes and a fresh complexion.

The submarine AE2 and her sister submarine AE1 were both built in England and crewed by 34 men. The AE2 was launched in 1913 and Commanded by a Royal Navy skipper, Lieutenant Henry Stoker. With the obvious inexperience of the Australian Navy in submarine operations, the crew consisted of a mixed Royal Navy and Royal Australian Navy Crew.  Stephen was of course ex-Royal Navy, as were some of the other crew members.

After commissioning the crew had to get both submarines to Australia and the only way to do so was to sail them there. No other submarines had made such an extensive journey before. Departing on the 2nd of March 1914 they arrived in Sydney on the 23rd of May 1914. It is assumed that Beatrice and their Daughter Florence transited to Australia soon after as she is recorded as living in Sydney during this time.

At the outbreak of the Great War, the AE2 (and the AE1) were sent North to what was German New Guinea. This is where the AE1 disappeared with all hands, the wreck only located in 2017. Following this short campaign, the AE2 was sent back to the European theatre to take part in the Dardanelles campaign. Arriving in January 1915, the AE2 with Stephen on-board commenced operations. Stephen took part in various operations in the region.

On the morning of the invasion at Gallipoli the AE2 crept through the Dardanelles into the Sea of Marmara. This was not uneventful with the ship being spotted and shelled by shore artillery, dodging moored mines, and running aground. The AE2 torpedoed a Turkish gunboat and scared off a Turkish Battleship before submerging and waiting for nightfall. Stephen’s role as a Petty Officer would have been operating the systems of the submarine, standing watch, and supervising more junior crewmen. It would have been a hectic time with little sleep and no time for recovery.

During the next five days the AE2 generally caused trouble in the Sea of Marmara before, on the 30th of April 1915 she experienced a series of mechanical failures that resulted in the Turkish gunboat the Sultanhisar puncturing the pressure hull with high explosive shells. The AE2 was scuttled and Stephen and his crewmates taken into captivity.

Stephen and the crew of the AE2 were paraded through the streets of Constantinople before being moved to a POW camp to work on the Berlin-Baghdad Railway. On the 8th of May 1915 they were moved from Constantinople to Afyon Kara Hissar where they were placed into huts in the freezing cold.  This camp was supposed to be a general holding area but Stephen and the crew of AE2 were here for months working on roads and railways.  Later they were split up and some moved to Belemedik. 

Belemedik was under control of a German construction company and the prisoners were free labour. It was considered to be a model POW camp with wooden accommodation and reasonable food although their Red Cross parcels were stolen more often than not.

Regardless of the type of camp, communicable diseases were rife where there were groups of men, bed bugs, lice, and vermin. In October 1916 a Typus outbreak occurred at Belemedik, Stephen caught Typhus and was hospitalised. On the 9th of October 1916 he died aged 39 of a combination of Malaria and Typhus and was buried at Belemedik.

7296 Petty Officer Cecil Bray of the AE2 was witness to Stephen’s death and burial:

                “Varcoe (8275), Gilbert and Knaggs (7893) died from Malaria. They were buried by our own men, crosses were erected and graves fenced round. They were buried in a cemetery at Belemedik, Bozanti. I was at the burial”

Another source from a personal friend of Stephen’s stated that he died on the 26th of September 1916. This friend sent a photo of Stephen’s grave to Beatrice in Sydney. Unfortunately this record was barely readable and as such the name of his friend could not be determined.

Post war, his widow Beatrice had moved back to England and in 1920 she received One Hundred and Thirty-Four Pounds in back pay owed to Stephen. She also commenced receiving a war widow’s pension of Five Pounds, Four Shillings per fortnight in 1921.

In 1927 during the consolidation of smaller War Cemeteries, Stephen’s remains were exhumed and reinterred in Baghdad’s North Gate Cemetery. He lies in Plot 21, Row O, Grave 5.