Ambrose and Juan Montana, born in Coburg in the 1890s

Studio portrait of 99 Private (Pte) Ambrose Montana, 14th Battalion from Coburg, Victoria. A 21 year old surveyor prior to enlisting on 18 September 1914, he embarked for overseas with A Company from Melbourne on 22 December 1914 aboard HMAT Ulysses. While serving at Gallipoli, he was wounded in action in August 1915 and evacuated to Egypt before returning to Australia on 26 November 1915 for further medical treatment. After recovering from his wounds, he re-embarked for overseas on 7 September 1916 and re-joined the 14th Battalion in France on 12 December 1916. He was captured by the Germans at Bapaume, France on 11 April 1917 and held as a prisoner of war in camps at Wahn and Limburg, Germany. After being repatriated to England on 29 November 1918, he returned to Australia on 7 May 1919. Image courtesy AWM. Image H01614.

I came across this story because I noticed that the Australian War Memorial had recorded that Ambrose Montana was 'from Coburg', yet I had never come across his name in any of the Coburg lists or in any of my research, so I was curious to learn more.

I soon discovered that after Juan Montana (an American and Roman Catholic) married Jane Smythe (an Irish woman and Protestant) in 1890, the family lived for a few years in Sydney Road, Coburg, next to Monsignor Charles O'Hea, and in one of O'Hea's many Coburg properties.

The three sons of the marriage were born while the family were living in Coburg - Juan in 1892, George in 1893 and Ambrose in 1895. 

Not long after Ambrose's birth, the family moved to Hawthorn where Juan senior worked as a fruiterer. So the boys' connection to Coburg did not outlive their infancy, but because theirs is an interesting story and illustrates the Protestant/Catholic divide of the time, I'm writing about it here.

The father Juan Montana is something of an enigmatic presence in the family story. There are few references to him in the public record, except around the time that he left the marital home, citing religious differences as a major reason for the marital breakup - he was Catholic, she was Protestant and her friends were stirring up trouble between them. 

Herald, 24 September 1912

He then disappears from view and I have not been able to locate him anywhere in Australia. So maybe he returned to America. We'll never know.

The same can be said for the middle son George. Apart from his birth and one other mention around the time of the marital breakup, I have found no reference to him.

Of the other two sons, more can be said. Juan, the eldest, moved to Sydney where he worked as a clerk and when he enlisted in January 1915, he gave his religion as Church of England - his mother's religion. He gave his mother as his next of kin and strangely, gave her address as Larne, County Antrim, Ireland. So despite his Spanish?/Mexican?/American? sounding name, he clearly identified as an Irishman (and an Orangeman at that). He survived the war and returned to live in Sydney.

2077 Sapper Juan Montana, 2^nd Btn from Sydney. Image H01613. Courtesy AWM. 

Ambrose Montana, the youngest of the three Montana boys, was educated at Hawthorn College and worked as a surveyor for the Railway Construction Branch before and after the war. With his Irish given name and his educational background, I thought that he might have identified as Irish Protestant (like his mother) when he enlisted, but he put down his religion as Roman Catholic. 

Of Ambrose, more can be told. He enlisted in Melbourne in October 1914 and left Australia with the 14th Battalion (A Company) on 14 December on board HMAT Ulysses. They were part of the second contingent to leave Australia and on board the Ulysses were a number of Coburg men - 883 Pte Frederick Walter Janes, 425 Pte Frederick Barker (also a POW, captured on the same day as Ambrose Montana), Lieutenant Colonel Richard Edmond Courtney, Captain (Adjutant) Charles Moreland Montague Dare, 450 Cpl Telford Gordon Greig.

I wonder if these men ever met and whether their connection to Coburg was ever mentioned. Ambrose probably had no reason to chat with Courtney, who commanded the 14th at that stage, or with Captain Charles Dare, the 14th's diarist and Courtney's friend and neighbour. But it would be interesting to have been a fly on the wall and see whether Coburg even existed still in Montanta's consciousness. 

Ambrose Montana was wounded at Lone Pine and returned to Australia with gunshot wounds and enteritis in November 1915. He was well enough to return to the front a year later, this time joining his comrades in France where he was captured at Bapaume on 11 April 1917 and became a POW at Limburg until he was repatriated to England on 29 November 1918.

Red Cross Missing and Wounded file, AWM.

Red Cross Missing and Wounded file, AWM.

Mrs Montana's wish that her 'Lovely brown eyed Boy' be returned to her was granted and in May 1919 Ambrose Montana returned to Victoria and resumed his work for the Railway Construction Branch. 

Ambrose lived and worked in camps all around Victoria until 1932. He married Desma Waller in 1920 and they lived in Glen Iris then Frankston before moving to Queensland where Ambrose died in 1974.

His mother, Jean Montana, died at Ararat in 1959 aged 90.