Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

CHADDOCK  Robert Gordon   #2773  47th Battalion
 
Robert Chaddock was born and raised in Caboolture, the son of Robert and Alice Chaddock of King Street. When Robert presented himself for enlistment at Adelaide Street in Brisbane on 14th January 1916, he reported that he was 21 years old and single. Robert gave his occupation as labourer.
 
Robert reported to Bell’s Paddock Enoggera and was placed into the 11th Depot Battalion. He was originally listed as a reinforcement for the 31st Battalion but it appears that while waiting to be shipped overseas he contracted syphilis. Robert was moved to the Fort Lytton Camp where he spent a total of 69 days in hospital. During this time, his pay was stopped.
 
Robert was released from hospital just five days before boarding the “Marathon” on 27th October 1916 in Brisbane as a member of the 47th Battalion. He disembarked in Plymouth on 10th January 1917 and was marched into the training depot at Codworth.
 
Soon after his arrival in England, Robert attended the School of Farriery where he qualified as a shoeing smith. He was shipped across the channel to be finally taken on strength by the 47th on 16th September 1917. The 47th, as part of the 12th brigade of the 4th Division had been in rotating in and out of the line in Belgian Flanders through a series of battles which were referred to as 3rd Ypres or more commonly Passchendaele. When Robert arrived in the battalion lines, the brigade was in a rest area preparing for an attack on the Passchendaele Ridge.
 
The Passchendaele campaign is widely associated with deplorable conditions. Rain had been falling steadily for almost three weeks as the 47th moved up to the line. The roads and tracks were almost impassable due to the boggy conditions and troops were exhausted just making it to the jumping off trenches. The attack on the ridge on 12th October began with the 47th and 48th Battalions advancing in the vicinity of the Ypres Roulier railway line. During this attack; Robert sustained gunshot wounds to his neck, elbow and thigh. He had been with his battalion less than a month.
 
Over the next few days, Robert passed through a casualty clearing station and a number of hospitals before being loaded onto the Hospital Ship “Dennis” for transport to the Military Hospital at Larkingham. Robert would spend two months in hospital before being discharged to the convalescent depot at Hurdcott. While at Hurdcott, he was charged with being absent without leave for 4 days and was fined 16 day’s pay.
 
It is possible that during those four days Robert was married as his file indicates a change in his next of kin to Ethel Robson of Staffordshire. On 21st February 1918, Robert again crossed the channel to join up with the 47th which was at that time in winter rest camp to the rear of Ypres in Belgium.
 
On 23rd March, news reached the Australian Divisions in camp in Belgium that the Germans had launched a massive attack in the region of the Somme in France and were advancing at an incredible rate. The British 5th Army under General Gough collapsed in front of the onslaught and the vital city of Amiens was threatened. In an effort to plug the gaps in the line, Haig ordered the 3rd and 4th Australian Divisions to be rushed south. The first units to be mobilized were battalions of the 12th and 13th Brigades; which included the 47th Battalion. The 47th boarded buses and trucks for the journey south on 25th March but only got about half way to their destination before orders were changed and they spent 24 hours awaiting new orders.
 
The 12th and 13th brigades were ordered to make their way to Dernacourt, a small village on the railway line between Amiens and Albert. This deployment required a forced march of almost 30 kilometres through the night with the entire German army somewhere out on the left. Upon arrival at the assigned position, the 47thwere ordered to take up positions half way down an exposed slope facing the gathering Germans on the other side of the railway line. There were no trenches and the men of the 47th had to dig shallow pits while under enemy artillery fire. It is most likely that during this action on 29th March, Robert Chaddock was killed.
 
Robert was buried in a battlefield grave with suitable marker. The battle of Dernacourt would continue for another 7 days in which the two Australian brigades faced the equivalent of three German divisions.
 
Robert’s wife in England was notified of his death and in due course received a parcel of his personal effects. When the Imperial War Graves Commission began to consolidate scattered burials across the battlefields of France at the end of the war, Robert’s remains were reinterred in the Dernacourt Communal Cemetery Extension.
 
By the time that service medals were being issued for deceased soldiers, Robert’s widow Ethel advised that she had emigrated to Australia and was living at Caboolture where she remarried to become Mrs E Collins.