A somewhat bizarre case of a serviceman enlisting under his nephew’s name, the deception seemingly unknown to the A.I.F. until a letter from his father clarified the situation after his death.
His sacrifice was commemorated on both the Eltham and Research War Memorials under the name of Meadows, but confusing the issue further is the inclusion on both of an Alfred Cassell who may have been a cousin of Meadows.
He was another of the hundreds posted as Missing after the first night of the attack at Fromelles on 19 July, 1916; in his case declared Killed In Action as at that date at a Court of Enquiry on 4 August, 1917. There are no surviving eyewitness accounts of his death – he is commemorated in the VC Corner Cemetery and Memorial.
The A.I.F. appear to have first been aware of the subterfuge after a letter from his father threw some light on the situation, but not his motives …
“… his proper name is Robert Meadows and I claim him as my son, Allen Cassell is my grandson on my daughter’s side. Whatever made him do such a thing, I don’t know. He was born at Eltham, Victoria where I was born also …”.
The grandson and namesake referred to was Robert Allen Cassell, born in Eltham in 1902).
Link to the history of Robert Meadows (aka Allan Cassell)
Link to ozsportshistory.com downloads for WW1
Robert Meadows was my Great Great Uncle and a ne’er-do-well who from the research I’ve done caused considerable grief to his family and in particular to his sisters. He had only been released from Pentridge Reformatory Prison on the 4 August 1914 and I believe that he signed up probably for the adventure and to get away from his defacto wife and 3 children (who are yet to be fully researched by me) and his family in general. He used my grandfather’s name Allan Cassell (born Robert Allan Cassell) who was his sister Eliza’s son. Alfred Cassell was Allan Cassell’s first cousin, no relative of Robert Meadows but they would have known each other as several members of both families lived in the Eltham/Research area. Robert’s prison record, including photos has been digitised and is available online at PROV There are several newspaper articles regarding his criminal history available on TROVE.
I forgot to also mention that another possible reason he would have used his nephew Allan Cassell’s name would have been to hide the fact as one judge put it he was a “habitual criminal”. For many years I could not fathom why he didn’t sign up under his own name, it is only with the recent discovery of his criminal background that it has all started to make sense.