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Pte. James Robertson
Australian Imperial Force 14th Field Artillery Brigade
from:Beaudesert, Queensland
My grandfather James Robertson emigrated from Glasgow to Queensland in 1909 aged 16, together with his widowed father and younger brother. He married in 1913 and his first daughter was born in 1914. Both he and his younger brother volunteered and enlisted in September 1915. They were first shipped to Egypt aboard the "Kyarra" in January 1916, disembarking at Alexandria in February 1916. Both were 'taken on strength' at Serapum. I believe that they took part in what's described as the 'never-to-be-forgotten' march from Tel-el-Kebir to Ferry's Post. They were shipped to France in August 1916 and the records suggest James fought at Fromelles. In January 1917 James was reported having 'oedema of the foot' and was shipped to England. He was at Southwark Military Hospital from 1st February until 17th February 1917 and then taken to Larkhill on Salilsbury Plain. Altogether he was out of action for 18 months and only returned to France toward the end of the war. On 31st January 1918 it is reported he was a gunner attached for duty with Permanent Cadre of Reserve Brigade Australian Army, Heytesbury, Wiltshire.
On 8th October 1918 he left Southampton for France, on 2nd November 1918 he was wounded in action and reported as being gassed. As we all know, nine days later the war ended. However, not until 30th March 1919 did he leave France for England. And not until 15th May 1919 did he finally sail, aboard the Orontes back to Australia. My mother was born in 1923.
In 1946 my grandfather obviously had not had enough of war and he put his age down by nine years and volunteered again. This time he was made a POW of the Japanese in Singapore and shipped to Siam where I can only assume he took part in helping to build the Siam-Burma railway. Amazingly, he survived WW2 also and lived to be 66 years old. He never lost his strong Glaswegian accent and, to my knowledge, he never spoke about what he'd seen or done.
The postscript to this story is that I moved from Australia to England in 1973 and have lived in East Dulwich since 1991. I had no idea that my grandfather had been in East Dulwich until a year ago and still can't quite believe it.
