Lance Corporal Edwin Hutchinson Taylor AIF

[dorrie]

Edwin Hutchinson Taylor attended King edward V1School in Retford. His granparents lived in Retford. Edwin joined the Australian Imperial Force on 27th August 1914 levaing his employment as a Bush Labourer. 20th October 1914 he embarked on the Euripides with the rest of his Battalion the 4th Infantry (D Company) from Sydney. I believe he died at Lone Pine between 6/8/1915 and 9/8/1915. He is remembered on the 36th Special Memorial of 36 at Johnstons Jolly Cemetery Gallipoli. Can any body shed any light why it is classed as a Special Memorial? Is it just he has no known grave or is there soemthing else.?

[Hugh Pattenden]

A special memorial generally takes the form of a headstone with either the inscription 'Known to be buried in this cemetery', or 'Believed to be buried in this cemetery'. There are other types, but these are the most common.

At Gallipoli, one will find many such memorials, as due to the nature of the campaign (i.e. the fact the it never really got off the beaches) it was not easy to devote time to making clear markers for graves (everywhere was in constant danger - there were no out-of-battle areas). Owing to this and the evacuation of allied troops in January 1916, the War Graves Registration Units were unable to come in as they did in France and Belgium, and do their job of marking graves with longer-lasting materials - also, many bodies lay out on the battleifelds until after the war. Also, some cemeteries no doubt suffered from battle damage. As such, after the war, whilst the authorities may have known that a man was buried in a cemetery, it was often not possible to be certain of which grave he occupied.

Secondly, if you want to access the archives of the King Edward VI Grammar School, Retford, you should write to the Local Studies Librarian at Denman Library, Retford. - The school magazine has some photographs and obituaries.

Hope this is of help,

Hugh

[Andrew P]

Dorrie

Have you checked the passage in the Official Australian history regarding the 4th Battalions role at Lone Pine?

Andrew

[dorrie]

Thanks for your help

[Auimfo]

Dorrie,

I'm not sure if you've searched the National Australian Archives website before but if not you will find Edwin Hutchinson Taylor's service records are there to be viewed. If you follow this link National Archives it will show you the list for all the Edwin Taylor's. About halfway down the page you will find the correct one and just click on 'View Digital Copy'. There are 21 pages in his service record.

You are quite correct that he was KIA between 6/9th Aug, 1915 at Lone Pine but initially he was listed as wounded.

There is also a notation on one of the pages that he was buried at the time at Lone Pine. I imagine that when the Graves Registration Unit returned after the war that his grave was unable to be exactly located and the memorial tablet was erected. In fact one of the pages in the file (see image below) lists the position of this tablet and a handwritten notation on the page states "Believed to be".

I hope this helps,

Tim L.

[dorrie]

Thanks for your help thatys great