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Who is This ? ? ?


Stoppage Drill

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Yes! Ernie Lee: "reputedly Australias youngest soldier, Victor Ernest Lee, known locally at Bruthen in the far east of Victoria as Ernie, was just 14 when he signed up...

"Several times he was charged with being absent without leave, although it was said he was trying to find brother John, somewhere else in the lines.

"They never did find each other...He never came across his older brother...who was killed a month before war's end."

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On 2015/03/08 at 00:19, Wigwhammer said:

But whilst looking for UG's man I have found some interesting and scurrilous characters and tales, scurrious being the apposite word for this photo:

 

I doubt anybody knows their individual names, but who are they?

Cheers

Colin

'Meet the Gang coz the boys are here!'

Are these the concert party the Anzac Coves?

"The Anzac Coves

Dispensers of joy and jollity

Fun and frivolity"

http://ww1.sl.nsw.gov.au/stories/anzac-coves

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'Meet the Gang coz the boys are here!'

Are these the concert party the Anzac Coves?

"The Anzac Coves

Dispensers of joy and jollity

Fun and frivolity"

http://ww1.sl.nsw.gov.au/stories/anzac-coves

No - these diggers, much as we might chuckle about it today, certainly did not dispense joy and jollity at the time. More likely they provoked fury, indignation and blown tops.... They may well have been responsible for Haig renewing his efforts to have death sentences actually carried out in the AIF.

Cheers

Colin

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No - these diggers, much as we might chuckle about it today, certainly did not dispense joy and jollity at the time. More likely they provoked fury, indignation and blown tops.... They may well have been responsible for Haig renewing his efforts to have death sentences actually carried out in the AIF.

Cheers

Colin

"These were the men who went absent and deserted, caught or concealed VD, got drunk and fought their comrades, who stole, malingered, behaved insolently toward officers or committed more serious offences, including rape and murder.''

http://www.smh.com.au/national/portrait-of-the-anzacs-deserters-more-interested-in-booze-brawls-and-sex-20100801-111f3.html

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Is it Robert Hines,"The souvenir King"?

EDIT:

OOps. Perhaps I could have saved face by pretending that my suggestion was for Colin`s post, but I must be honest and say that it was directed at U.G.`s man.

Didn`t spot that it had been solved. Sorry Colin.

Great find, UG.

Colin. Are they the Victoria cross winners hijacked to help with recruitment?

Edited by neverforget
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"These were the men who went absent and deserted, caught or concealed VD, got drunk and fought their comrades, who stole, malingered, behaved insolently toward officers or committed more serious offences, including rape and murder.''

http://www.smh.com.au/national/portrait-of-the-anzacs-deserters-more-interested-in-booze-brawls-and-sex-20100801-111f3.html

Is it Robert Hines,"The souvenir King"?

EDIT:

OOps. Perhaps I could have saved face by pretending that my suggestion was for Colin`s post, but I must be honest and say that it was directed at U.G.`s man.

Didn`t spot that it had been solved. Sorry Colin.

Great find, UG.

Colin. Are they the Victoria cross winners hijacked to help with recruitment?

UG has got them, but more specifically it was a group of Aussie deserters who presumably went along to a village photographer, had their picture taken and printed as a postcard. They then wrote a loving message on the card and sent it to the Assistant Provost Marshal in Le Havre, before going their several ways never to be heard of again.

I'd like to have been a fly on the wall when he saw his post!

More details and the exact text they wrote can be seen here:

http://static.booktopia.com.au/pdf/9781741964806-1.pdf

Cheers

Colin

EDIT: You've got to hand it to the Aussies!

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UG has got them

Flippin `eck, I`m losing the plot!

Another great find, Colin. Well solved by an on fire UG.

What is this ? ? ?

Judging by what looks like a clasp on the back, I would say it`s a broach of some kind.

The inlay looks like bone. In fact it strikes me as a pretty gruesome object, and I wouldn`t be surprised if the bone was taken as some kind of grisly trophy, a la "Here`s a sweetheart broach, made from the first hun I killed".?

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Just a bit of fun here, but if you think the Aussies were an ill-disciplined lot, take a look at this rabble. Only one of them can manage a proper salute.

Who is he???post-95959-0-51345500-1425758004_thumb.j

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Judging by what looks like a clasp on the back, I would say it`s a broach of some kind.

The inlay looks like bone. In fact it strikes me as a pretty gruesome object, and I wouldn`t be surprised if the bone was taken as some kind of grisly trophy, a la "Here`s a sweetheart broach, made from the first hun I killed".?

You have so very nearly got to the right answer, NF. It is not quite so unpleasant as you guess, however,

"A First World War soldier whose left leg was shattered during the Battle of the Somme, used part of his thigh bone to fashion a brooch for his girlfriend Lizzie Hunter."

Sergeant Thomas Kitching was serving with the 12th Battalion, Durham Light Infantry. Sgt Kitching and Lizzie got married after the war.

http://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/incredible-story-ww1-soldier-made-brooch-sweetheart-thigh-bone-left-leg-shattered-battle-somme.html

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You have so very nearly got to the right answer, NF. It is not quite so unpleasant as you guess, however,

"A First World War soldier whose left leg was shattered during the Battle of the Somme, used part of his thigh bone to fashion a brooch for his girlfriend Lizzie Hunter."

Sergeant Thomas Kitching was serving with the 12th Battalion, Durham Light Infantry. Sgt Kitching and Lizzie got married after the war.

http://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/incredible-story-ww1-soldier-made-brooch-sweetheart-thigh-bone-left-leg-shattered-battle-somme.html

And they say romance is dead eh.

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So, now we have WITLGOAF?!?

:blink:

Or even WTFAITA?

Something I often ask myself.

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On 2015/03/08 at 05:53, neverforget said:

Just a bit of fun here, but if you think the Aussies were an ill-disciplined lot, take a look at this rabble. Only one of them can manage a proper salute.

 

It took a Field Marshal to show how not to do it:

post-108430-0-31048200-1425760615_thumb.

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It took a Field Marshal to show how not to do it:

Yes, and also, in his case, how not to salute.

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On 2015/03/08 at 05:53, neverforget said:

Just a bit of fun here, but if you think the Aussies were an ill-disciplined lot, take a look at this rabble. Only one of them can manage a proper salute.

 

Jackie, the mascot of 3 South African Infanty Brigade

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It took a Field Marshal to show how not to do it:

That is Sir John French, landing in France in August 1914.

Ron

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Jackie, the mascot of 3 South African Infanty Brigade

The very same, Michelle. Well played. http://www.samvoa.org/jackie.html

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To keep us going, someone who commanded 5000 men.

An author, who wrote a book that inspired three different films.post-95959-0-57733800-1425768177_thumb.j

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On 2015/03/08 at 08:47, neverforget said:

To keep us going, someone who commanded 5000 men.

 

Is this AEW Mason, author of 'The Four Feathers'? He served in the Manchester Regiment, and, apparently, the RMLI and Naval Intelligence during the GW.

(There have been three film versions of that book. I don't get the 5000 men clue, however. Duke? York?)

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Is this AEW Mason, author of 'The Four Feathers'? He served in the Manchester Regiment, and, apparently, the RMLI and Naval Intelligence during the GW.

(There have been three film versions of that book. I don't get the 5000 men clue, however. Duke? York?)

Great suggestion uncle, but not Mason.

The 5000 men would allude to the amount of battalions he was in command of. 4000 being the norm for a Brigadier General.

The book/films would seem to drag us down once more into the macabre, as their subject matter is the devourment of human flesh.

EDIT>

His book is auto-biographical, and the men he commanded were surely the most stubborn of all troops.

Uncle, is your man Boris Sergievsky by any chance?

Edited by neverforget
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Uncle, is your man Boris Sergievsky by any chance?

Not him, no.

My splendidly-named chap was, amongst a whole lot of other things, a major in the US Army Air Corps Reserve.

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and the men he commanded were surely the most stubborn of all troops.

Is he the commander of the Zion Mule Corps, Lieutenant-Colonel John Henry Patterson?

EDIT - yes it must be him - I see he wrote 'Man-Eaters of Tsavo'!

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