The Melbourne Town Hall
The Melbourne Town Hall was alive with music, Union Jack flags, excitement and speeches. The meeting was in August 1914 and the British Empire had just declared war. As a result, Australia also entered the First World War.
The evening had been organised to garner support for Victorian men to enlist. Thousands of people queued along Swanson Street and up Collins St, eager to gain entry and be part of the historic meeting.
‘Land of Hope and Glory’ was being played on the impressive Town Hall organ. There was a sense of patriotism, pride, sacrifice and adventure – to come to the aid of the Mother country in her moment of need. The war would soon be over. Would I get there in time was a question swirling in the minds of the young Victorian men. Colourful posters decorated the walls: ‘The Empire Calls’. ‘You are wanted’ with a piercing finger pointing to them. There was no time to lose.
The evening worked. Over the next four years, 112,000 Victorians enlisted, amongst them Harold Underwood McDonald, from Arthur’s Creek, a small rural town 26 miles north east from Melbourne. Harold was my Great Uncle.
A total of 469 enlisted from the Shire of Eltham, a high proportion of the Shire’s population. Most came from the farms – they were strong, upright young men.
Family life at Arthur’s Creek
Harold’s ancestors came from the Scottish Highlands near Inverness. His grandparents arrived in Melbourne in 1852. They were part of the large wave of Scottish arrivals who immigrated to Victoria 1852-60. They were anxious to improve their life, maintain the family unit and, through hard work, own land. They fitted into the district well and were proud of their Scottish ancestry.
Glen Donald at Arthur’s Creek was the family home and orchard – the centre of a happy, but hard working close knit family. Harold was one of eight children.
Harold’s sisters were getting married to local farmers before and around the time of the outbreak of war. Harold was best man at the wedding of his sister Ruby McDonald who married Robert White from Kangaroo Ground in 1914.
Maybe we can guess the special relationship Susan McDonald, the matriarch of the family, had with her son Harold in that he wore her maiden name, Underwood, as his middle name.
The outbreak of war had shocked the small town of Arthur’s Creek. Community life, which Harold knew so well, revolved around the Methodist Church, Mechanics Institute, Post Office, Primary School and the sports oval. This would be put on hold for 4 years. The world as he knew it had changed.
Pressure to enlist.
Harold’s cousins had already departed in one of the early shipping convoys from Port Melbourne. They were the Hardy brothers, Harold Federal Hardy, clerk aged 18 and Robert Hardy, bricklayer, aged 31 from “ Warrenheip’ 184 Moreland Road, East Brunswick – relations from Harold’s mother, Susan McDonald. Other men in the district had signed up and some had left for Gallipoli. Harold’s younger brother had the responsibility of staying on the orchard to ensure that the apples, peaches, plumbs and apricots were tended to. Increasingly Harold felt a personal responsibility and duty to enlist.
The decision was difficult as he had a sweetheart, Pearl Murphy the attractive postmistress of the Arthur’s Creek Post Office to whom he was engaged.
Enlisting and Departure
Calls were being made from the authorities for extra Australian men to enlist. The Arthur’s Creek Mechanics Institute, in the centre of the town, was well located to receive and enlist the locals. AIF recruitment agents set up at the hall. Respective church informers from the Protestant and Catholic faiths were staked out around the hall and behind trees, reporting back to the churches on who was signing up. There were bitter inter religious divisions for and against participation in the war and soon a divisive referendum on conscription would take place. Arthur’s Creek was patriotic to the Empire and many loyal friends to the Mother country would proudly wear the ‘Yes’ button on their lapel. The antiwar sentiments would also be evident and two constables from Hurstbridge would be present to control the ‘warm atmosphere’ as emotions were running high.
A decision had to be made. Harold held out – but then acquiesced. He enlisted on 22 July 1916, aged 24, two years after the British Empire declared war. By then Gallipoli was over and the Battle of the Somme at Fromelles and Pozieres had begun, all in the month of July 1916. News was coming back of the appalling number of dead and wounded, which dampened any sense of adventure, common with the early troops, amongst those now leaving for the war.
From Pearl’s diary we can glean what happened in the last days before Harold’s departure from Port Melbourne on the troopship HMAT A71 ‘Nestor’. He received basic training at the Broadmeadows Army Camp and a photo in full uniform would be taken.
Harold’s striking face shows concern – a worry that he must do his patriotic duty and not be regarded as a “shirker”. “Enlist and Fight for the Dear Old Flag” was on his mind. Working the orchard had made him fit and strong – the personal description on his enlistment states: ‘height 5ft 10’; chest measurement 35-37 inches; blue eyes; fair hair; distinctive features – scars on left side of left knee and on left thigh’
Now it was time to bid his farewells. As Harold left Glen Donald on his last day before departure, he walked past the family orchard. Spring was approaching – the early green and red tips of blossom bathed in gentle sunlight. Mementos from his friends at Arthur’s Creek were arriving, wrapped in parcels – a shaving outfit from the tennis club, two scarves, knitted mittens, wristlet watch, fountain pen, money belt, bible, two lead pencils.
To War – New Railway Pier (Princes Pier) Port Melbourne
New Railway Pier, Port Melbourne on 2 October 1916 was bubbling with enormous crowds. HMAT Nestor was loading troops, nurses, supplies and ammunitions bound for the battlefields of Western Front Europe. Horses were lifted in slings via a crane on to the ship.
Soldiers had proudly marched down Swanston Street, in front of the Town Hall and Melbourne’s gold era architecture as a final farewell to the sounds of clapping and cheering; Melbournians were enthralled with military parades.
Hundreds of troops aboard the Nestor waved goodbye – some were jammed in the lifeboats waiving their hats, other dangling their feet over the ship’s side; some scaled the mast. Crowds pushed the barricades to get closer, bands played and drums rolled. The proud captain of the Nestor posed for photographs with nurses and uniformed soldiers aboard.
The only connection now between Harold and Pearl was a thin, inch-wide streamer held tightly. The ship would be four hours late leaving port. But then the boisterous noise on the pier quietened – a more sombre feeling swept through the crowd – the Nestor departed.
The band played ‘Abide with Me ‘. Women cried, others threw a flower into the choppy Port Melbourne sea as a symbol of love. The thin streamer snapped. The silhouette of Harold and the departing ship on 2 October 1916 was forever engraved in Pearl’s mind.
Sheer Hell -The Battle of Bullecourt, France
Action arrived quickly. The troop ship ‘Nestor ‘made good time arriving in Plymouth, England, only 46 days since it left Melbourne. There was no delay since the war effort in France had got bogged down and AIF causalities in the early battles of the Somme were high. Harold, by 4 January 1917, was marching into active service in France, only three months since leaving Melbourne.
He would be drafted as a private in the 57th Battalion, 6 Reinforcements, a battalion of the 15th Brigade, 5th Division.
The battalion had already endured the terrible 1916 -17 winter in Europe, one of the worst on record. The most formidable enemy, in addition to the German army, was the winter- driving rain, the frost, the slush and mud, hunger and cold. Men were being carried into the medical aid post with dreaded ‘trench- feet’- swollen, frost bitten, painful feet wrapped in cotton wool.
As the battalion prepared for battle, some ominous clouds appeared. The First Battle of Bullecourt had been a terrible disaster, and almost unbelievably, the high command was preparing to repeat the attack a month later, known as the Second Battle of Bullecourt, Fraaaaance.
Coming from the family farm, Harold had shown his AIF superiors sureness of sight and aim with the rifle. It was not surprising that in France he was appointed as a Lewis machine gun instructor. This would place him in extreme danger in close trench warfare since the machine gunners were often quickly pinpointed by the enemy and despatched.
Even more worrying was that their commanding British officer, General Gough, had a reputation as a brazen risk taker who lacked the methodical, thorough planning required in formulating a sound battle strategy.
General Gough’s track record in previous engagements with Australian Regiments was of concern – huge losses and causalities were sustained. With this reputation and with some of the Australian commanders not speaking their mind and arguing their case to British High Command meant the approaching battle looked very risky indeed.
An open, bare field with no shelter, no indentations confronted Harold and his Battalion. The British plan was for an assault on the heavily fortified Hindenburg Line and to capture the small village of Bullecourt. There were wide belts of barbed wire to be crossed and the trench lines of the opposing armies were almost parallel and only 500 yards apart. There would be two attempts to take the village.
A ferocious counterattack by the German army was under way – deafening artillery, shell-bursts, sandbagged parapets, men buried in dirt and craters – but still the 57th Battalion remained pinned down in trenches hoping their number was not up before being ordered to go over the top. Mortifying German machine gun fire at 600 rounds per minute, deafening shelling and shrapnel bursts opened up on three sides of the two mile front.
On the 12 May 1917 a high explosive shell landed in the midst of the battle. In the explosion hundreds of pieces of shrapnel splintered and splattered men nearby in a withering arc of deadly steel. In addition, the right hand flank of the AIF 5th Division’s advance was exposed to enemy machine gun fire. Harold was badly wounded. He was transferred to 29th Clearance Station and died of wounds received in action 15 May 1917.
The Australians counted 10,000 causalities at Bullecourt in the two attempts to capture the village. As if a sign about the futility of war, when they did capture it on the same day that Harold died, they discovered it was a ‘small, tactically useless village’ reduced to rubble. Yet all this suffering and agony was somehow secondary to the high command – General Gough could report that the town of Bullecourt was captured and the battle won.
Terrible news and grief
A laconic cable from the war records office arrived – “Harold Underwood McDonald Regiment No 2701 died of wounds 15 May 1917 at 29th Clearing Station France”.
Informing the family was usually the job of the local clergyman. Although there was a Parish Minister at Diamond Creek, it was felt that the message should be delivered by Hugh Macmillan, a family friend and neighbour of the McDonald’s who was Superintendent at the Arthur’s Creek Primitive Methodist Sunday school at the time.
The Macmillan and McDonald families were close friends – they both came from the Scottish Highlands near Inverness and both were indentured to a Captain MacPherson of Lower Plenty, a pastoralist who employed newly arrived Scottish immigrants to assist them to paid off their ship voyage to Melbourne.
Furthermore Hugh Macmillan taught young Harold at Sunday School, had seen him grow up and presented him with a ‘prize book’ when he was 10 called “The Heir of Elmdale”.The book would assist Harold and other Sunday School pupils – keep them on the right path, and enable them to learn from the experiences of a young boy who encountered many setbacks but ultimately won through.
It was a horrendous duty to put on the shoulders on the clergy, a burden many of them will come to dread. The Church Superintendent walked down the long drive of Glen Donald and into the spacious drawing room of Susan and John McDonald and delivered the devastating news. But even worse, did the overseas cable come directly to Pearl, Harold’s fiancee at the Arthur’s Creek Post office where she worked?
Terrible pain was felt but, in the meantime, the grief had to be contained and somehow overcome. There were few details –the tragedy occurring in a distant land accentuated the grief. How and where was our dear son killed and buried? What can we do so far away in Australia which would give a vestige of comfort – put an entry in The Age: “In Memoriam”; wait to receive his personal effects such as his comb; cherish the few cards he sent home from France; request a photograph of his grave which would give some proof?
Harold’s mother started to wear black. There was no body returned to bury but the family would erect a memorial grave at the Arthur’s Creek Cemetery with a round bronze memorial plaque – commonly called a ‘dead man’s penny’ given to the family of the soldiers killed – displayed at the front of the memorial .
It took 4 to 5 years after Harold’s death before the final information and mementos of Harold’s service and sacrifice would be received. The family would sign for each consignment from Base Records Office, Victorian Barracks: three copies of the photograph of the grave, one memorial scroll and King’s message, the memorial plaque, the British War medal and the Victory medal.
Any connection with Harold would be treasured by the family such as small mauve flower which he gave to his mother before departing for the war. She would treasure it even more now and as she did not know the name of it – it was just called Harold’s plant. Cuttings from the plant at Glen Donald would be put in a pot and given to family members. One such cutting was passed down the family and given by Norma Brock (nee McDonald) of “Blue Hills” Doreen to her cousin Harold Underwood McDonald, named after his fallen uncle.
The Arthur’s Creek people rallied. They wanted to express their sympathy and disbelief. A memorial service for Harold and another fallen soldier was arranged in the Mechanics Institute. The Hall was crowded. It was only five weeks previously that the Honour Roll with these two names had been unveiled. Neighbours would repeat “Oh Harold! “over and over for years to come as a mark of their grief, memories, admiration and hope – emotions that never really left them.
The grief was not confined to one son. News had also come through that the two cousins, Robert and Harold Hardy, the brothers from Brunswick, had also been killed in France. Robert Hardy of the 14th AIF battalion fought in the First Battle of Bullecourt , a month earlier, but the result was the same – the attack which was ‘dauntingly ambitious’ suffered dreadful losses.
It was left to the Susan Underwood McDonald, the stoic matriarch of Glen Donald, Arthur’s Creek to place the death notice in the paper for the three members of the family, ending with the words:
“God requires the sacrifice of the very best “
The loss of Harold was traumatic also for his sister Ruby. She remembered her brother only a few years ago as best man at their wedding.
Ruby and her husband Robert would respond by donating a section of their land for the Kangaroo Ground War Memorial Tower. Ruby along with others, in tears and sadness would collect local stones to be used for the erection of the Memorial Tower. In this way they would contribute to honouring the local men of the Shire of Eltham who did not return. H. U. McDonald would appear in brass letters, along with all the other fallen soldiers on the Honour Roll to the east side of the Memorial Tower.
Conclusion
There was very little written by the family on the sad subject. They were part of the generation overcome with grief. They had no emotional distance and their sadness did not allow them to write it all down. This was left to a generation – 100 years later.
This has now changed, as if to catch up on lost time. Through piecing together Harold’s moving story, family connections and anecdotes have been discovered, brought to light and shared. Stories surfaced at family reunions, a trip to Bapaume, France to visit the grave, information unearthed through the Friends of the Kangaroo Ground War Memorial Tower and a chance encounter with the daughter of Pearl, after a family reunion, led us to her mother’s moving diary of Harold’s last days in Australia.
Harold, a country lad from a peaceful orchard, gets caught up in the horrors of war under a bleak sky in an open, cold, war-ravaged countryside far away from home, dying a lonely death in the trenches of France, leaving behind grieving loved ones.
Harold’s story is told. Thus we honour and give a human face to the many thousands of lonely deaths on the battle fields and think of all the sad families in the 1920’s and 30’s trying to cope with their grief.
by Ross McDonald
This story first appeared in “Fine Spirit and Pluck: World War One Stories from Banyule, Nillumbik and Whittlesea” published by Yarra Plenty Regional Library, August 2016
Sources
Anzac Commemorative Events, Anzac Centenary, Melbourne Town Hall Commemoration (Monday 4 August 2014) and First Convoy Embarkation Commemoration (Sunday 19 October 2014) State Government Victoria.
The Hon Ted Baillieu, Chairman Anzac Centenary Committee – address Arthur’s Creek Mechanics Institute, 20 July 2014 and Montmorency Eltham RSL, 6 Nov 2014.
Harry Gilham. Statistics of Residents from the Shire of Eltham known to have enlisted to serve in World War One – Remembrance Day Service , Kangaroo Ground War Memorial, 11 November 2014
World War One History, Victoria’s story, Anzac Centenary 2014-18, State Government Victoria
National Archives of Australia, Canberra World War 1, Personal Records Service, Harold Underwood McDonald, Regimental no 2701
Extracts from Pearl’s Diary, complements Fay Findlay, daughter of Pearl Murphy
W. Devine, The Story of a Battalion, published by Melville and Mullen Pty Ltd, Melbourne 1919.
Family Histories: Pam Goodey, Seeds of Yesterday; the Fruit of Tomorrow, 2010 and Ross McDonald, From Laggan to Arthur’s Creek, The McDonald and Draper family history, 2010.
Helena Ruth Macmillan, A Diary of Interesting Events, Volume 1 , 1913-29, Editors Ross Macmillan and David Bollen, 2012
Peter Stanley, A wedding 1914 – photographs that reflect life during the First World War, National Library of Australia Magazine, June 2014.
Dr Bart Ziino, Deakin University Melbourne address to Brunswick Community History Group, at their Nov 2014 meeting ‘A Distant Grief‘
Norma Brock (nee McDonald), Blue Hills’ Doreen. Letter to Harold Underwood McDonald, Vermont, Victoria, 14 May 1987.
Michael McKernan, address to Friends of State Library of Victoria Annual Dinner: Writing about the Great War 100 years later, 13 November 2014
Ross Coulthard, Charles Bean: If people Really Knew, Harper and Collins, October 2014
Robin Corefield, Hold Hard Cobbers. The Story of the 57th and 60th Battalion, Volume 1, 1912-1990
Photo: Arthur’s Creek War Memorial Garden, 2017
The Commemorative Garden was opened on 17th April 2016. The ACMI Management Committee wanted a garden to not only recognise those members of the local community who served in World War One (and recognising the ANZAC centenary) but also to establish a space that could be a focal point for all commemorations and celebrations into the future.
Photograher: Kev Howlett
