Scrapbook of odds and ends in no particular order.

Pte Edward Felix Tardent a farmer from Roma, was part of the 42nd Battalion, Infantry. He was eighteen years and six months old when he was killed by hand grenades during action against the Germans, on 31 July 1917.

The Western Star, Roma, 25 August 1917
Our Volunteer Forces, Roll of Honour "Mr. and Mrs. Tardent, Ormonts, Wynnum, have just received the sad tidings that their youngest son, Corporal Felix Edward (Ted) Tardent, has been killed in action. Corporal Tardent enlisted over 18 months ago, and was made a corporal the day he left Australia. He has been almost constantly in the firing line for the last seven or eight months." (Editors note. The Battalion records show Tardent as a Private. The promotion may have been 'Acting' or 'Temporary'. Another Tardent, a Jules Louis, C de G, also from Roma was discharged as a Lieutenant. Read his story at Old Diggers.) Another Tardent, L/Cpl Emile Augusta was awarded the MM. The 3 were brothers. They were of Swiss decent.

PUGGAREE (Hat Band) The Defence Act of 1903 ... badges were backed with a distinctive cloth rosette in the corps or regimental colour. A stripe of the same colour was later added to the new seven-fold puggaree. The introduction of compulsory military training in 1912 brought further changes. The folded puggaree was replaced with a series of coloured woollen bands, each denoting an arm of service. ... By 1918 these bands were reduced in width and the numerals centred on the front. 6th Light Horse Regiment (Tasmania) used wallaby fur puggarees.

With the raising of the 1st AIF in 1914 further standardisation occurred. Plain khaki hat bands were adopted, ...

Although the white-striped folded puggaree worn by militia light horse units had been replaced by the plain khaki band, AIF light horse units were later allowed to wear the original; evidence of its use can be seen in period photographs. Approval was later rescinded; directions for AIF units to adopt a plain khaki puggaree soon followed.

The reorganisation of the Australian military forces in 1922 brought further changes. Coloured hat bands returned .... Several years later the Light Horse reverted to the folded khaki puggaree, with central white stripe, which they had originally adopted in 1903. The introduction of the voluntary militia force in 1930 meant more change. A new series of regimental badges and colourful puggarees were introduced.

Following the call for volunteers in 1939, the "rising sun" badge and plain khaki coloured band were again chosen as the uniform of the 2nd AIF. This woollen band was slowly replaced by a seven-fold puggaree in khaki cotton. From 1940 both styles of bands could be adorned on the right side with a colour patch identifying the wearer's unit.

Pte JOHN KISSOCK McDOWELL, M.M.

On 30th March, 1918, in Sailly le Sec, South of Albert, Private McDowell was engaged in preparing a hot meal for the troops in the trenches. His position was heavily shelled and his comrades sought shelter. This man continued to prepare the meal and make arrangements for its distribution, which owing to his devotion to duty and courage was possible even during the lulls in the enemy attack His conduct was much admired by the men of his company and it was only due to his example and fine soldierly bearing that the hot meal was able to be served to the troops immediately the enemy's attack had been defeated. There was no officer or N.C.O. who could supervise this important duty, and his example to the other men of his kitchen is worthy of commendation. (McDowell was KIA 26 May 1918. Details)

Co-incidence #1. My son recently moved from the big city to a tiny (really tiny) town on the Darling Downs called Freestone. Freestone has a school and a hall and NOTHING else. No shop, no garage, no post office. But in the Hall is an Honour Board from WWI & WWII. Listed on it is Bert Tucker of the 42nd Battalion who was KIA 24 Aug 1918 near Amiens. I cannot at this stage locate any reference to Bert Tucker in the Battalion History or with War Graves. Perhaps he served under a different name. That was not uncommon.

LEGACY-Uniquely Australian-Unique in the world. Started by a Third Division man. Some of the men who returned from those battlefields felt their colleagues in business were failing to assist other returned men adequately. One of them who lived in Hobart decided to do something about it. His name was General Sir John Gellibrand. Click for details.

'Colonel Bogey' is arguably the most famous march ever written. First published in 1914. By the early Thirties it had sold well over a million copies. In 1958 it was chosen as the theme tune for the splendid film The Bridge on the River Kwai . It is of course a fine march whose opening has proved totally irresistible for the best part of a century. Its composer was Lieutenant F.J.Ricketts (1881-1945), a military bandmaster who was Director of Music for the Royal Marines at Plymouth. Because at that time Service personnel were not encouraged to have professional lives, Ricketts published 'Colonel Bogey' and his other compositions under the pseudonym Kenneth Alford.

So much for the composer – but who in fact was Colonel Bogey? The story goes that this was a nickname by which a certain fiery colonel was known just before the 1914 War when Ricketts was stationed at Fort George near Inverness in Scotland. One of the composer's recreations was playing golf and it was on the local course that he sometimes encountered the eccentric colonel. One of the latter's peculiarities was that instead of shouting 'Fore' to warn of an impending drive, he preferred to whistle a descending minor third. This little musical tag stayed and germinated in the mind of the receptive Ricketts – and so the opening of a memorable march was born. Copyright © Richard Graves, April 7th 1999

$2.5 billion were loaned by US banks to Allied forces in 1917, as opposed to $45 million loaned to Germany.

Co-incidence #2. My great/uncle served at the Siege of Tobruk and was MID in New Guinea. On his death I requested that I be custodian of his medals. T'was not to be. Several years later after other deaths they did come to me to hold in trust. In the bag containing them were two WWI medals (The War Medal & The Victory Medal) from someone who has absolutely no connection with my family that I can discover. They belong to Pte Wilfred Moore, KIA in 1917. His family were in England. My G/uncle was not a medal collector or dealer. What is the co-incidence? Pte Moore served with the 42nd Bn. Details

Greatest Grenade Battle of the War Undoubtedly the greatest grenade battle of the war occurred on the Pozieres Heights on the night of 26-27 July 1916.Lasting for twelve-and-a-half hours without a break the Australians, with British support, exchanged grenades with their German foes (who threw multiple types of grenade: sticks, cricket balls, egg bombs and rifle grenades). The allied contingent alone threw some 15,000 Mills bombs during the night. Many grenadiers were killed that night, while many others simply fell down due to complete exhaustion.

AIF DESERTER. AIF soldier Walter Lesley Schwarz enlisted with the AIF in 1915, but felt he was being discriminated against because of his name. He deserted in England and joined the Royal Fusiliers. He became a Lieutenant winning an MC and Bar and was mentioned three times in despatches. In 1921 King George V granted him a pardon on the desertion charge.

"Don’t forget me, cobber". The sight of the wounded lying helpless within a stone’s throw from safety so affected Major A W Murdoch of the 29^th Battalion that he improvised a flag of truce, crossed no-man’s land to the German lines, and asked a Lieutenant if an informal truce could be declared so the wounded could be rescued. The German officer received permission from his HQ for the truce but Murdoch was told that the Allied General HQ had given orders that "no negotiations of any kind, and on any subject, were to be had with the enemy". So the Australian stretcher bearers were stopped from going out. Bean wrote: "Then was seen along the whole front of the Australian 5^th Division that magnificent tribute of devotion which the Australian soldier never failed to pay to his mates. "For three days and nights, risking death or wounding, single men and parties continued to go out to help the wounded. On the night of July 20, 300 men were rescued. One of those who went to help was Lieutenant (then Sergeant) Fraser. He found one man who was too heavy for him to lift on his own. He was just about to go back for a stretcher party when another man called out from 30 metres away: "Don’t forget me, cobber". Fraser and his stretcher parties rescued both men. Fraser was killed a year later at the second battle of Bullecourt and has no known grave.

Britain had signed an agreement that guaranteed Britain would support Belgium if she was attacked. The Kaiser believed that no one would get involved in a war for "a little scrap of paper". Once more the Germans failed to understand the English. These are the flags of the principal nations that fought on the British side. Britain, France, Belgium, Russia, Japan, Australia, Canada, Cape Colony (Sth Africa), New Zealand. There were others who took a smaller role.

When is a Sergeant a Serjeant? Normally in military and police contexts it is spelt sergeant (hence sergeant-major), but in older use often written as serjeant. 'The spelling serjeant is now usually restricted to legal and ceremonial offices, except in historical and in certain official contexts' (New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary). The New Fowler's Modern English Usage, © Oxford University Press 1968

Grenades. Hand held bombs were called grenades. The soldiers who trained to use them were called 'grenadiers' until the Grenadier Guards complained that that useage would reflect badly on them and their name. So King George V "requested" a change and the grenades became 'bombs' and the soldiers that used them were referred to as 'bombers'.

WILSON, Private David, No. 146, B Squadron, 5th Australian Light Horse Regiment
Age at enlistment: 32. Religion: Pres. Married. Dairy farmer, of Stoker's Siding, Tweed River, NSW.
Next of kin: Wife; A Wilson, of Foxground, Gerringong, NSW.
Source: Original, joined Regiment 08 Dec 1914. Trooper - Private.
Transferred to Australia, 29 Aug 1915. Transferred to 42nd Battalion, 22 May 1917.
Wounded September 6 1915
Discharged
Notes: Subsequently served as No. 2409, Private (Acting Corporal), 42nd Battalion. Appears on embarkation roll for 4th Reinforcements of 42nd Bn. NOK address appears as: 'Fox Ground, Gerriugong, N.S.W.' Note in 'Remarks' column states: Acting Corporal. Previously served as No. 146, 5th A.L.H.