by Jillian Durance
Frederick George Starling was ‘best man’ at my grandparents’ wedding in October 1919. The wedding photo shows Fred Starling with just a glimmer of a smile on his face. A brave smile perhaps. I never knew Fred Starling, nor do I remember my grandfather Herbert Godber speaking of him, but then again, Fred died in 1948, only two years after I was born. I have often looked at his face in the wedding photo, noticed that smile, that gentle face, and wondered: what did Fred Starling do in the war?
Fred George Starling was one of a large number of children. Like my grandfather, Herbert Godber, Fred grew up in Diamond Creek or Nillumbik, as it was also known. Like Grandpa, Fred followed in his father’s footsteps to become an orchardist. They both knew how to prune a fruit tree, graft a new variety onto root stock, and deal with pests like codling moth. Fred could also plough, and as the eldest was entrusted with feeding the hay into the chaff cutter while a younger sibling turned the handle. The family lived at ‘Hazeldeane’, a homestead on the Yan Yean Road in Diamond Creek.
Fred’s father, George Starling, was a prominent Diamond Creek identity who was a member of the Progress Association, chairman of the bazaar committee and a member of the Nillumbik Horticultural Society. Like the Godbers, the Starlings had lived in the district for a couple of generations, long before Fred and Herbert were born and both families were members of the local Methodist Church. Both men were musical. Fred must have had a lovely voice as he was often chosen as a soloist in musical performances. I can just imagine Fred and Herbert standing in church together, side by side and belting out some of the good old Methodist hymns: ‘O for a thousand tongues to sing’ and ‘All people that on earth do dwell’.
Fred was older than Herbert by more than eight years, but as an only child the outgoing Herbert may have been welcomed into that larger family. Perhaps Fred was like an older brother to him. Fred’s siblings were all younger and some, like Walter, Mary and Isa were closer to Herbert in age. Like many close friends at the outbreak of the Great War, Fred and Herbert joined up on the same day, 16 July 1915, but they were soon to be separated. While Fred went into the 8th Battalion, Herbert went into the 21st Battalion. Herbert made many friends during his service overseas, but at war’s end, it was Fred Starling he chose to be his ‘best man’ at his wedding to Ivy Partington. But that is skipping ahead a little.
Fred Starling embarked on HMAT ‘Ulysses’ and sailed for the Western Front on October 1915.
In France he joined the remnants of the 8th Battalion that had been part of the Gallipoli landings, the Battle of Krithia and Lone Pine, where it had lost many men. The battalion was then evacuated in December 1915 and waited in northern France for more reinforcements. In June 1916, the battalion was sent south to prepare for the Battle of the Somme near the French village of Pozières. It was a key position on the Western Front and in July 1916 it was in the hands of the British forces. The Germans were determined to take it back. At times the Australian troops were bombarded with four shells a minute, destroying their trenches and burying the men alive. The dead lay everywhere , ‘all distorted and frozen looks of horror on their faces’. Some were ‘blown to pieces’. Shells rained down ‘like hail during a storm’. ‘Some of the men went mad.’ The village itself was razed to the ground with all its surrounding orchards and hedges uprooted and ruined. This was how the men remembered Pozières. This was Fred’s first battle of the war.
During the battle the 8th Battalion advanced and seized an area known as the ‘K’ trench and the Pozières Cemetery. As the Germans increased their bombardment on the village, Fred and a number of others held their ground in an extraordinarily dangerous position in the firing line. Fred was a ‘runner’ whose job it was to convey messages from Headquarters to the front line and back again. Telephone communications were often cut or impossible to establish in the first place. He and others performing this task must have had ‘nerves of steel’. Private Fred Starling was recommended for a Military Medal. He ‘showed great courage and devotion to duty and never hesitated a moment with the result that the battalion headquarters and brigade H.Q. were kept informed of their positions. He also rendered valuable assistance guiding parties of the relieving Battalion to their positions.’
Fred’s Commanding Officer praised the courage of many of his men. Their ‘devotion to duty was a thing to marvel at’, he wrote. ‘The work of runners and stretcher bearers is the most dangerous of all… how any survived the hell fury of Pozières is a wonder’. The runners and stretcher bearers had worked without cover and were continually exposed to machine gunfire and bursting shells. The soldiers of the 8th Battalion had endured three days of constant bombardment. Many Australian soldiers were killed or wounded. Those who watched as the survivors of the relieved battalions walked out of the devastated village of Pozières were struck by the men’s appearance: they looked ‘like men who had been in hell’, wrote Sergeant E.J. Rule of the 14th Battalion, ‘drawn and haggard and so dazed that they appeared to be walking in a dream and their eyes looked all glassy and starey’.
Fred Starling was one of those men who survived Pozières and his service record shows how that action cost him and many others very dearly. Soon afterwards he was diagnosed as having ‘shell shock’. Shell shock affected many soldiers during the Great War. The condition affected soldiers both physically and mentally and varied in severity. Despite the extreme nature of warfare soldiers endured, there was still a stigma attached to having such a diagnosis. In some cases it was described as a want of ‘backbone’ or courage. Hopefully, Fred did not have to worry about that. He had proved his courage.
After his recovery in hospital in England, Fred returned to France. In a ceremony on 17 January 1917, General Birdwood awarded Fred Starling the Military Medal he had earned for his bravery nine months earlier at Pozières. He had survived, he had recovered. But he was soon to go into action again. In the next three months the 8th Battalion was ‘holding the line’ near a place called Gueudecourt, north of the Somme. They were living in deep trenches facing the enemy across No Man’s Land, always on the alert for an imminent attack. The ground was covered in snow and the duck boards along the trench were slippery with ice. A far cry though from the frosts Fred had known in Diamond Creek.
During these days in 1917 preceding the Battle of Bullecourt, Fred was ‘company scout’, liaising between the front line and headquarters. On 2 April he was a member of the attacking party that captured an enemy strong post in front of a place called Quéant. Another medal citation describes what happened:
‘As [Private Starling] had been previously a member of a patrol who had reconnoitered and engaged the post he assisted the Commanding Officer in maintaining direction and showed great courage and initiative in finding the gaps and leading the way through enemy wire. He continued to do splendid work on entering the post. When the post was being very heavily shelled with concentrated fire he was one of the volunteers who stayed in the danger zone with Captain Yates to observe. Private Starling was previously awarded the Military Medal for gallant conduct as a runner at Pozières and is one of the most reliable and courageous men in the battalion.’
This was high praise as the 8th Battalion had a record of many awards for bravery including three Victoria Crosses. Considering Fred had only just recovered from his shell shock, it was an extraordinary effort. He was awarded his Distinguished Conduct Medal on 18 July 1917. Fred Starling was promoted to Sergeant in recognition of his leadership abilities. With the 8th Battalion Fred took part in the Allied offensive of Ypres until, on 21 September, he received a gunshot wound to the left hand, that sent him to England for treatment. That was the last Fred would see of the fighting, but it was not the end of his war.
In May 1918, while Fred was still in England, news came that his younger brother Walter had been severely wounded in France. Walter, a motor driver, had enlisted on 4 April 1916, as part of the 29th Battalion. He was brought to England and was still very ill on admission to the King George Hospital in London. A gunshot had penetrated his spine, a dangerous wound that had rendered him paraplegic. Walter did not survive for very long and his brother ‘was with him when he died’.
Fred also supervised his brother’s funeral arrangements. Walter was buried with full military honours in the Brookwood Military Cemetery at Pirbright in Surrey. His polished elm coffin was ‘draped with the Australian flag and surmounted by many beautiful wreaths’, including one from the other patients in his hospital ward. An armed party of soldiers fired a salute, a chaplain read the burial service and a bugler played the Last Post. After the war the original oak cross was replaced with a headstone inscribed with his name and battalion, and date of death, 18 May 1918. The family also chose the inscription: IN THE CAUSE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. These words reflect the belief of many at the time, that they were all fighting ‘for King, Country’ and ‘In Freedom’s Cause’. Walter Starling was 27 and left a widow, Eveline, and a four-year-old son, Raymond Walter Starling.
Fred Starling returned home in September 1918 aboard the ‘Medic’. It would be nearly another year before his friend Herbert Godber from Diamond Creek would arrive back from France. Fred may have been very pleased and honoured to be ‘best man’ at Herbert’s marriage to Ivy Partington. At the wedding on 4 October 1919, the two men chose to wear their AIF uniform, even though both by that time had been officially discharged from the army. Was it a matter of pride or was it because, as in Herbert’s case, Fred did not yet have a ‘best suit’? His glimmer of a smile in the wedding photo seems extraordinary, considering everything that he had been through.
Looking at his record, Fred Starling was a remarkable Australian soldier who survived the terrible ordeals of battle, and performed incredible feats of courage. Those of us who have never been in battle cannot hope to imagine what goes on in the minds of such soldiers as Fred Starling and Herbert Godber. Like my grandfather Herbert, Fred was a member of the Methodist church. How did they both reconcile their duty as soldiers, and their duty to kill if necessary with their Christian faith and its strong Commandments? Both men would have known those commandments off by heart and both would have taken their bibles onto the battlefield. ’Thou Shalt Not Kill’ says the Seventh Commandment in the Old Testament. Fred and Herbert were also sensitive, artistic, musical men. Fred probably sang in the church choir as well as performing his solo work. Grandpa Herbert played in the battalion band. How did they survive? Both carried the physical wounds of war. But how did their spirits heal and what part did their strong faith play a role in all that? Did their love of music help? Did the support of their families? The memories of their friends? Did the mateship of others who returned sustain them? So many questions I would love to have asked.
After the war, Fred stayed in the Diamond Creek area. In July 1919, not long after his demobilisation his presence was noted at a community working bee, helping to build a fence for Mrs. Gilbert, an old resident on the Main Road at Greensborough. His sense of service was not left behind on the battlefield. He also found his way back into the cultural life of the district. In April 1921 Fred sang a duet in a concert with the district’s popular G.P., Dr. Cordner, ‘Where the Milestones End’. And in 1924, still in Diamond Creek, he was reported as performing a ‘minor’ solo as part of the Diamond Creek Musical Society’s recital, held in the parish hall. It was Stainer’s cantata, ’The Crucifixion’, a beautiful piece, popular then, but even now traditionally sung on Good Friday. Based on scriptural texts, it holds a message of Christ’s own sacrifice, of hope and belief in resurrection and everlasting life. Did those words restore Fred’s faith? Did they shield him from the memories of the hell that was Pozières, from the deep sorrow of his last farewell to his brother Walter? Or were these memories always a part of his life? To be able to sing, as a local ‘artist’, in such a work of exquisite beauty and to have integrated back into some kind of normal life seems an extraordinary feat of resilience. Fred was still living in the district in nearby Briar Hill and still singing in 1932 at Church gatherings. He married Eleanor Sims in 1922 and they had two daughters, Margaret and Sheila.
Fred Starling died in 1948. He wasn’t that old, only 64. He was my grandfather’s friend through childhood, through war and beyond. He had an incredible record of dutiful service and courage. Fred was brave, talented, dutiful and committed to helping others. He would return regularly to ‘Hazeldeane’ to prune the fruit trees. I would love to have met him. There is so much more to his story of course, but for the time being, I feel honoured to have glimpsed something of my grandfather’s good friend and best man, Fred Starling.
References used in the preparation of this story:
Family details from the family history of the Starling and Stewart families by Greg Neumann. Many thanks.
Service details from the Australian War Memorial website:
Roll of Honour and Circular, AWM 131/3004
Unit Embarkation Roll, AWM 8
Recommendations for Honours and Awards, AWM 28 (RCDIG1067911,RCDIG1068617, RCDIG1068439.
Red Cross Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau, AWM DRL/0428.
Personnel dossiers for Walter and Fred Starling, NAA, B2455/2789 and 3004. (B2455 series)
Cemetery details for Walter Starling: Commonwealth War Graves Commission, www.cwgc.org
The Methodist Hymn Book
Newspaper articles, 17 May, 1912; (Eltham and Whittlesea Shires Advertiser and Diamond Creek Valley Advertiser) and Church News Diamond Creek Methodist Circuit, 30 Sept 1932
Ron Austin, Cobbers in Khaki: the History of the 8th Battalion, 1914-1918, Slouch Hat Productions,1997.
C.E.W. Bean, Anzac to Amiens, Australian War Memorial Canberra, 1983
Bill Gammage, The Broken Years, Penguin Books 1980.
Marina Larsson, Shattered Anzacs, UNSW Press, 2009.
Peter Stanley, Men of Mont St. Quentin, between victory and death, Scribe 2009.
This story was first published in “Fine Spirit and Pluck: World War One Stories from Banyule, Nillumbik and Whittlesea” published by Yarra Plenty Regional Library, August 2016
Photo: Author’s private collection
