Destination – Gallipoli.

A guard of the 5th Battalion on board HMAT Orvieto.  Photo courtesy of the Australian War Memorial.

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Have you visited the Department of Veterans’ Affairs official Anzac Centenary 2014-18 site? Stop by for a peek at what is happening around the nation. Be sure to visit our resource section for a list of other important Anzac Centenary sites. 

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Back on home soil.

Soldiers in Collins Street, Melbourne, after the war. Photo courtesy of the State Library of Victoria.

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Sue Carroll shares her family connection to World War I.

Roy Lyndon Piercey, a cousin of my Grandmother, enlisted as a private in the 5th Battalion and boarded the Orvieto on 21 August 1914. Roy was guard to Prince Franz Joseph Hohenzollern, the Kaiser’s nephew, from the captured German cruiser Emden.

Roy fought at Gallipoli and also saw fierce fighting at Cape Helles and was promoted to Corporal in May. He was transferred to the 7th Battalion and promoted to 2nd Lieutenant and later to a Lieutenant. He suffered Enteric fever several times. In January 1917 he was given the rank of ‘acting temporary Captain’ in Weymouth Camp where he prepared 1,500 men for transport. Roy fought in France through heavy fighting at Menin Road and Broodseinde Ridge, Ypres.

After further illness he was back fighting at the Somme and on the 9 of August was fighting at Lihons and then in the Herleville Woods attack where he was awarded the Military Cross for gallantry on the 23rd of August 1918 at St. Martin’s wood. He then suffered Gas poisoning. His Captaincy was confirmed in November 1918.

He married in London and after discharge he returned to Wales where he became a successful business man. He and his wife had three children.

Coo-ee, won’t you come? A call from the Dardanelles. Australian WWI propaganda circa 1915.  Photo courtesy of the National Library of Australia.

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During the war years, every Victorian – man , woman or child – knew someone fighting for the cause.  A brother or son, a husband, a work colleague, a boy from just down the street – perhaps a mother, sister or daughter who had travelled to support the cause in hospitals near the front line.

There was anxiety and concern for each and every one of them.  Casualty lists were regularly published in the newspapers and were also displayed in churches or left hanging from the gates of railway stations.

Read WWI history

Minister for Veterans’ Affairs Damian Drum and Minister for the Arts Heidi Victoria have announced joint funding to ensure that important World War I memorabilia will continue to be preserved and made available to the public.

The Ministers jointly announced $114,000 in Victorian Coalition Government funding to help Victorian RSL Sub-Branches to digitise their historical collections and place them online throughout 2014, as part of the Victorian Collections website. The RSL has also contributed $24,500 in-kind support. 

HMAT Orvieto…one of the largest troopships to embark from Port Melbourne as part of Australia’s first WWI convoy – she carried 1,457 Victorians to war. Photo courtesy of the Australian War Memorial

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Patricia Di Stefano shares the story of her Great Uncle, William Patrick Harris.

My Great Uncle, William Patrick Harris, was on the first voyage of the Orvieto from Port Melbourne to Egypt in 1914.

He sadly lost his life on the Gallipoli landing on 25 April 1915 – he was only 25.

He was the only son of Thomas and Rosa Harris of West Melbourne. My mother was named Orvieto in his memory when she was born in 1916. I have a postcard photo of Great Uncle William (he is the one on the left) and a soldier friend taken when they were out of the trenches. It was sent to his sister, my grandmother. The writing on the back of the card has faded somewhat but it basically says “you can see I’m pretty thin but I will soon pick up now we are out of the trenches”. That was the last contact my grandmother had with her brother.

At 12.45pm on Tuesday 5 August 2014, a single shot will be fired from Point Nepean on the Mornington Penninsula to mark the exact location where, 100 years prior, the British Empire’s very first shot was fired at the start of World War I.

Learn more about this historical event and the commemorations planned at  www.thefirstshot.com.au