William Cooper and his brother Edgar, members of Coburg Cycling Club, enlist

William Knox Cooper, born Hotham (North Melbourne) in 1893 and his younger brother Edgar Robert, born Hotham in 1898 were both members of the Coburg Cycling Club, although they came from Fitzroy.

When 3712 Pte William Knox Cooper, 6th Battalion, 12th Reinforcements, enlisted on 7 July 1915 he was 22 year old bootmaker living in Fitzroy. He embarked on 23 November 1915 on board HMAT A40 Ceramic. There were Coburg servicemen sailing on the same ship - William Irons, Cyril Jolley (KIA September 1917), Frederick Buzaglo, Jack Sheehan, Gerald Roberts, Frederick Atkinson (DOW March 1917) and William Alexander (DOW August 1918). It's just possible, then, that these men met on the ship and had a chat about the suburb they had in common - Coburg. 

Troops embarking at Port Melbourne on A40 HMAT Ceramic, c1915. The wharf is crowded with soldiers waiting to board the troopship. William Cooper was probably one of those men. Image courtesy AWM. Image H19500.

Cooper sustained gunshot injuries in August 1916 and was sent from France to England to the Trent War Hospital (at Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire). 

Stoke-on-Trent War Hospital. (By coincidence, my father was a student at Hanley High School (part of Stoke-on-Trent) during the years of World War One. He vividly remembered zeppelin raids in the area in early 1916 when he was 11 years old. He and his friends thought they were very exciting. No doubt the adults had different ideas.) 

Returned to Australia in November 1916, William Cooper was discharged the following February. One part of his record says he was injured in the leg, another in the feet and yet another in his arm. Whatever the case, on his return it appears he did not go back to cycling. He returned to his former trade of shoemaker, married Ruth Lerwill in 1931 and died in 1973 aged 80.

From William Knox Cooper's WW1 file, courtesy NAA.

When William's brother 6243 Pte Edgar Robert Cooper, 6th Battalion, 20th Reinforcements, enlisted on 11 January 1916 he was an 18 year old tailor living in Fitzroy. He embarked on HMAT A14 Euripides on 11 September 1916. Victor Rogers and William Pascoe (KIA May 1917), both Coburg men, were also on board. 

Troops on board HMAT Euripides (A14) prior to departure, May 1915. A group of nurses stand at the rail, centre foreground. Image courtesy AWM. Image PB0381.

In September 1917 Edgar suffered from gunshot wounds (his left clavicle was broken) and shell shock (he'd been buried alive). He was 19 and had already survived considerable neck trauma from a knife wound inflicted by his mother during a pyschotic episode when he was three years old.

Edgar was sent home and discharged in June 1918. It appears that, like his brother William, he did not return to the Coburg Cycling Club. He lived at home in Fitzroy until 1937 then moved to Kew. He married Kathleen Colger in 1947 and died at Newtown, Geelong in 1986 aged 88.

Their older brother 7460 Pte Francis Henry Cooper, 5th Battalion, 25th Reinforcements, enlisted on 2 July 1917. He was a 26 year old labourer who was born in Preston and like his brothers gave their mother, Mrs Sarah Jane Flett of 9 Leicester Street, Fitzroy as his next of kin. He survived the war, returning to Australia in July 1919. Written on his record at a later date, but undated 'Soldier stated to have been killed in a railway accident.' I searched the TROVE newspaper collection for a report of this event without success. The Victorian Death Index states that he died at Melbourne East (so most likely in hospital) in 1928 aged 38.

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The Cooper brothers' mother was born Sarah Jane Knox, daughter of James Knox JP of Union Avenue, Northcote who died in July 1901 aged 69 and was buried at Coburg Cemetery.

Not long after Knox's death, in late August 1901, Sarah Jane Cooper was taken from her home in North Melbourne (with her youngest child Edgar) to stay at the Knox family home in Northcote because the family was concerned about what they saw as 'signs of approaching insanity'. Here she was looked after by her brother Thomas and mother Eliza. There had been no symptoms until three weeks earlier, just after her father's death. Now, she had cut her son's throat and it was only through the intervention of her brother and mother that the child's life was saved. Later she remembered nothing of the incident, but she was admitted to Yarra Bend Asylum where she eventually recovered and was released in March 1902. (Argus, 26 August 1901, Herald, 2 September 1901, Bendigo Independent, 3 September 1901, Yarra Bend Asylum records)

After her husband Edmund Cooper's death in 1904, Sarah married again (in 1911) to James Flett. Despite the dramatic events in their early lives, the Cooper brothers lived at home with their mother and step-father until they enlisted. Their mother Sarah died in 1930 at Cheltenham aged 69.

Charles Sullivan, teacher at Coburg High School

Studio portrait of 15195 Staff Sergeant (SSgt) Charles Frederic Sullivan, 14th Australian General Hospital, Australian Army Medical Corps of Flemington, Victoria. A school teacher prior to enlisting, he embarked from Melbourne aboard HMAT Karoola (A63) on 19 August 1916. While stationed with his unit at Port Said, Egypt, he contracted pneumonia and died of the disease at Gaza, Palestine on 15 November 1918, aged 37. He is buried in the Gaza War Cemetery, Israel. Image P05248.132. Courtesy Australian War Memorial. 

Thirty-four year old Charles Sullivan had been married for six years when he enlisted in February 1916. He and his wife Ellen lived in Flemington but his work as a teacher had taken him to various Victorian schools, including Enoch's Point and Big River before he entered the Training College in Carlton and studied at Melbourne University, gaining his Bachelor of Science degree. He worked briefly at the Training College in Carlton, at Williamstown High School and Coburg High School, where he was a temporary assistant for a month before he went on leave with the AIF.

From Charles Sullivan's WW1 dossier outlining his academic qualifications.

We are told in the Education Department's Record of War Service (see below) that after graduation he was offered a position in the Forestry Department but decided to enlist and was placed in the ‘bacteriological branch of hospital work’ based at Cairo then Port Said. 

He served in Cairo with the 14 AGH until 31 October 1918 when he contracted pneumonia. 

Group portrait of members of No 14 Australian General Hospital. See alternate images for positions of those named in this caption. Those identified by numbers: include 15195 SSgt Charles Frederick Sullivan (died of disease in Palestine on 15 November 1918 as Lieutenant Pathologist). Image A01350. Image courtesy AWM. 

Charles Sullivan is the soldier marked in the second row.

Charles Sullivan, a man who showed such promise, died at Gaza on 15 November 1918 and was buried at Gaza Military Cemetery, Palestine. He had been suffering from malaria as well as pneumonia. He had been at Coburg High School for a short time only, probably not long enough to make an impression on his pupils. 

Ellen Sullivan received three packages containing her late husband's belongings and they reveal something of the man and his interests. I don't think I've ever found such a long list, but then Sullivan was based at the one hospital for the whole of his time in Egypt, unlike men at the Front who would have had to travel light.

You can find out more about Sullivan, and other family members, on Lenore Frost's website, the Empire Called and I Answered. 

Arthur Broom, Coburg cyclist and WW1 soldier changes his name

Arthur Clarence Broom was brought up in Davis Street, Coburg (and later in Bell Street west) by Robert Broom (born in Coburg in 1852) and his wife Johanna Wark. The Brooms had three children of their own - Catherine, Lena, Robert Leslie (known as Les) and two 'adopted' sons - Arthur and William. 

Arthur's brother Les was a rising star in the local cricket and football world, but in November 1915 he died of pneumonia, aged 23. So Arthur and William were the only brothers left - and they both enlisted.

Like his brother Les, Arthur was a promising sportsman. He played football for Fawkner and was a member of the Coburg Cycling Club. Newspaper reports in the year leading to his enlistment note that he had been in 'striking form' as a cyclist. (Brunswick and Coburg Leader, 13 February 1914)

A milk carter by trade, he worked for Edwin Parker of DeCarle Street, Brunswick and had had a few run-ins with Coburg's sanitary inspector W.H. Budds regarding the sale of adulterated milk and it was noted by the inspector that he 'seemed to be of a defiant disposition.' (He'd tried to avoid the inspector by speeding off.)

On 2 July 1915, 2786 Private Arthur Clarence Broom enlisted in the 6th Infantry Battalion, 9th Reinforcements. He was 20 years old. He embarked in September and served in France where he was hospitalised a number of time with cellulitis in the leg. He was later wounded, but it was not a severe wound and he was able to remain on duty. He had a number of run-ins with the authorities but even so, was promoted to Lance Corporal in August 1917. He returned to Australia in March 1919 and was discharged in July.

At this point, he changed his name to Arthur Clarence O'Brien, later stating that he was an adopted son of the Brooms. 

The claim that he was alone in the world might well have been true in 1956 when he was living in far off Western Australia, but this was not always the case. Up until the 1940s he was living in Coburg and working at his old trade of milk carter. He had married (to Grace Healey) in 1926 and they had four children. 

His return to civilian life had not been smooth. In 1920, at Wirrabara Police Court (in the southern Flinders Ranges), he was found guilty of stealing clothing and supplies and sentenced to three months in prison. That his was an unsettled existence is evidenced by the fact that he was known to the court under four names - Arthur Clarence O'Brien, Larry O'Brien, Donald Fenwick and Arthur Clarence Broom. (Laura Standard and Crystal Brook Courier, 3 December 1920)

But after his marriage to Grace Healey in 1926, his name disappeared from the newspapers - until December 1941 when he and another man were involved in a fracas at a picket at Leeming's dairy in Victoria Street, Brunswick. Accused of assault, the men were sentence to a month's imprisonment. (Herald, 7 December 1941)

Arthur and Grace O'Brien divorced in 1949. She remained in the local area for the rest of her life, but Arthur moved to West Australia. In December 1956 his address was Warriedar Station via Wubin, WA and it was from there that he wrote that he had 'no one in this world to fall back on.' (Letter of application for the age pension, December 1956).

He died in Perth in 1970 aged 85.

Arthur Broom/O'Brien's 'brother' William Broom served as 501 (1864) Sapper William Broom in the 5th Infantry Battalion. He enlisted in January 1915 aged 22 and like Arthur, he was a milkman. He served in France and was sent to England with appendicitis in June 1916. Later that year, on 11 November 1916, he married 18 year old Gladys Morton at Peckham. After a period in England and many run-ins with the authorities, he returned to France where he was wounded in the right knee in May 1918, a wound that saw him return to Australia in January 1919.

Like Arthur, William Broom changed his name after the war. As William O'Meara, he married Esther Davis in July 1919. The problem was that he was still married to Gladys Morton, who had remained in England and was receiving a military pension. In 1925 he was found guilty of bigamy and given a 6 months' suspended sentence. Things can't have gone well for the O'Mearas, because in April 1927 William, now a resident of Port Melbourne, was released from gaol having agreed to pay off arrears owning for the maintenance of his child. By July he was back in prison, having failed to pay.

The final sighting of William O'Meara is in July 1935. He was living in Musswellbrook, NSW and had applied for a replacement discharge certificate - needed so he could apply for work. 

So it appears that life was not kind to the 'Broom' brothers who served in World War One. They were not alone, of course, but those without family support must have found life very tough indeed, especially through the Depression years of the 1930s.

John Cook, a woodwork teacher, enlists

This is John Cook's entry in the Education Department's Record of War Service. 

The book is a fantastic resource for anyone like me who is interested in collecting the stories of Victoria's teachers, especially those who taught in the first half of the twentieth century. It combines the stories of their teaching careers with outlines of their war service. 

5456 Acting-Corporal John Bruce Cook of the 21st Battalion was a married man aged 42 when he enlisted in February 1916. He and his wife Edith had been married for 12 years. They lived at 40 Victoria Street, Coburg with their two children, Dorothy aged 10 and Alison aged 2.

Cook's teaching service began in 1889 when he was 16. A Bendigo boy, his first school was Camp Hill State School. He became a certificated teacher in 1895, the year he gained his Matriculation. When he took leave to join the AIF in February 1916, he was working at the Armadale Woodwork Centre.

His teaching life included work with the cadets. He'd been 9 years in the Reserve of Officers of the Commonwealth Cadets and also served 6 years as a Lieutenant in the Junior Cadets and 3 years as an Adjutant in the Junior Cadets. This experience, his training as a teacher and his age were probably the reasons he was based at Royal Park until July 1916 when he sailed for England on board HMAT A32 Themistocles. From there he was sent to the 6th Training Battalion at Larkhill in England where he remained until he returned to Australia with defective vision in June 1918. 

He was discharged from the AIF in Melbourne on 1 August 1918 and at the end of the month resumed duty as a teacher at his old school. He remained at Armadale for a number of years, but his final appointment was in his home suburb of Coburg. In 1934 he began work at 484 Bell Street, Coburg and retired from there in June 1938.

The Cook family lived in Coburg during the 1920s but moved to Camberwell North (later known as Deepdene) in the 1930s. John Cook died in 1963 aged 90.

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If you'd like to know more about the school cadet program in Australia and New Zealand, you should read Max Waugh's book Soldier Boys, published by Melbourne Publishing in 2014.

And if you'd like to know more about Victorian State Schools and World War One, read Rosalie Triolo's book Our Schools and the War, published by Australian Scholarly Publishing in 2012.

Claude Jones, a promising cyclist, enlists

I began this story with very little information. From a newspaper article in the Brunswick and Coburg Leader on 23 June 1916, I knew that C. Jones of the Coburg Cycling Club had enlisted in July 1915 and that he had been wounded in late May 1916:

C. Jones, a very popular member of the club, has, we are sorry to learn, received gun wounds in the head in a night encounter on May 30th 1916. He enlisted in July last and went into camp on French day (July 14th).

But who was C. Jones and how was I going to track down his story? Jones is such a common surname that I thought I'd never find him. However, I found a further lead in another article in the Brunswick and Coburg Leader, published on 4 August 1916 under the headline 'Coburg Cycling Club':

Recently we announced that Pte C. Jones, our great champion, had been 'seriously wounded' receiving a bullet in the head. We are now pleased to report that he has been through a successful operation and is on the road to recovery. He will be remembered as one of our foremost road and track champions, representing the club in Nella Shields and road premierships, gaining 2nd place in the 25-mile premiership, and other races too numerous to mention. His cheerful, willing disposition, his good nature, gained for him many friends in the ranks, as it did in the Coburg Cycling Club. He enlisted in July 1915, in company with J. Sheppard and W. Cooper, who, we are pleased to report, are in the best of health.

 So now I knew that he enlisted with J. Sheppard and W. Cooper, also members of CCC.

Before long I had the information I needed: C. Jones was 3821 Pte Claude Jones, 6th Battalion, 12th Reinforcements. He enlisted on 7 July 1915 and was a 21 year old engine driver who lived in Colebrook Street, Brunswick. He was dangerously wounded in France at the end of May 1916 and sent to England.

From Claude Jones's service record. Courtesy National Archives of Australia.

And so ended Claude Jones's war. He was repatriated to Australia in 1917 and it was not long before the newspapers reported that that he was hoping to race again:

Winner, 2 May 1917

However, in August 1918, Claude suffered another health setback. The admission register of Fairfield Infectious Diseases Hospital, Admissions Register shows that Claude Jones, 26, a soldier of 25 Colebrook Street, Brunswick was admitted on 16 August 1918 with diptheria. He was declared cured after 18 days and discharged on 2 September 1918. He'd been sent by Captain Graham of No.16 AGH, Mont Park.

He married Margaret Teresa Eginton in 1921, the same year in which he suffered yet another health setback - he was knocked off a ladder by a falling beam while working at the paper mills in Fairfield and was taken to hospital with a fractured skull.

It's not surprising then that Claude Jones is not mentioned in the main sporting newspapers - Winner and the Sporting Globe - after his return from the war.

He lived locally (in Gordon Street, Coburg) until the 1950s when he and his wife moved to Moorabbin. 

Amazingly, Claude Jones lived until 1981. He was 89 years old when he died, having survived two major head traumas and a serious infectious disease in his early adulthood. 

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I've been unable to find an image of Claude Jones, but I can add a little information about the Nella Shield - the second article I quoted here tells us that Claude represented the Coburg Cycling Club in the Nella Shield.

Thanks to Lenore Frost, whose grandfather Thomas Eynon was a CCC rider and also represented the Club in Nella Shield races, I know that The Nella Shield competition commenced in 1908 and was sponsored by a businessman named Allen (Nella is Allen backwards). By the 1921 cycling season, two clubs had won the shield twice - Coburg and Prahran-South Yarra.

Coburg's Nella Shield team, 1911. Image courtesy Lenore Frost.

In this photograph, Lenore's grandfather Thomas Eynon is sitting on the left and she believes that William Thomson, another Club member who served in World War One, is the rider standing on the right. That leaves four team members to identify. I wonder if one of them is Claude Jones?

The Gardiner brothers of Chandos Street, Coburg

There were actually four members of the Gardiner family who were involved in the war - father Alexander and three of his sons Reginald, Raymond and Claude. 

Alexander, a carpenter aged in his 50s, was engaged in war work in England for the duration of the war and I've yet to discover whether records exist that might tell us what he did.

Reginald and Raymond Gardiner were teachers, so their war experiences were outlined in the Education Department's 'Record of War Service', published just after the war.

303 Pte Reginald Scott Gardiner, 55^th Btn

Reginald Gardiner was born at Casterton in 1893, the son of Alexander and Agnes Montgomery (Wilson) Gardiner. He became a Junior Teacher with the Victorian Education Department in October 1908, his first school being at Yarragon in Gippsland. He taught until the start of 1913 then entered the Training College in Carlton. He was doing well when he applied for leave to enlist in August 1914, just after war was declared.

Extract from Reginald's Career Record, Teacher number 16370, Public Record Office of Victoria.

Reginald left Melbourne with the first troop convoy on 21 October 1914. He was on board HMAT A3 Orvieto, the convoy's flagship. There were 16 ships in that convoy and there were quite a few Coburg men on board - 70 on HMAT A20 Hororata alone. There were 1,400 service personnel on board the Orvieto, 28 of them from Brunswick and 15 from Coburg. Reginald Gardiner was then part of the Army Medical Corps.

We are fortunate that extracts from some of his letters home to his mother were collected, the circumstances explained in the following memo:

(Courtesy AWM)

So, here's what Reginald had to say about the voyage:

He also wrote about the Gallipoli landing in a letter dated 5 October 1915.

And on 30 November 1915, he wrote about the cold weather they had endured.

And finally, in his Christmas Day letter home in 1915, he wrote about the evacuation of the Gallipoli Peninsula.

To begin with, Reginald was stationed at Divisional HQ, but later joined the 55th Battalion. He was ill with influenza in 1915 at Gallipoli and was gassed while serving in France in November 1917, but survived the war, was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal and returned to Australia in June 1919.

He did not returned to teaching and in July 1920 the Education Department granted him indefinite leave. A newspaper report in March 1922 reveals that he had resumed university studies and was one of fifteen young barristers admitted to the Full Court. (Herald, 1 March 1922)

Reginald's career as a lawyer was very short. He died in November 1922 aged just 29. It seems that he succumbed to the effects of his wartime bout of influenza and gassing. 

2325 Pte Raymond Aubrey Gardiner, 38^th Btn.

Image courtesy AWM. Image PO5248.0447.

Ray Gardiner was born in 1891 at Casterton. He was appointed a Junior Teacher at 1794 Bulumwaal, East Gippsland in March 1907. By the time he enlisted, he was Head Teacher at 3316 Cocoroc in the Werribee area. He showed promise as a teacher, as the following Inspector's report indicates:

He enlisted on 22 July 1916 aged 25 years and embarked on A17 Port Lincoln on 20 October 1916, just days before the first conscription referendum.

 Raymond Gardiner, the eldest son of the family, was killed in action at Passchendaele on 4 October 1917. The Roll of Honour Circular gives the following details:

(Courtesy AWM)

3303 Claude Montgomery Gardiner, 4^th Btn.

The third brother to serve was Claude, born at Bulumwaal, East Gippsland in 1899. He was working as a printer when he enlisted on 30 July 1917 aged 18 yrs. At first he was stationed at Broadmeadows but embarked from Sydney on 2 February 1918 and served in France from July 1918. He had permission to join from his mother as his father was in England on war work. He was wounded (GSW thigh) on 27 August 1918 and returned to Australia in January 1919. He died at Preston East in 1973.

Another brother, Norman Wilson Gardiner, born in 1895 at Casterton, was a carpenter like his father. He was living in Loch St, Coburg during WW2 when he joined the Civil Construction Corps.

Their sister Enid Victoria, born in 1897 at Sea Lake, married John Murray McKay in 1926 and  died 1976. 

Coburg cyclists Ben Ogle and Jim O'Farrell and the war

Image courtesy Coburg Historical Society

This story began with the photo you see here of 6273 Private James Patrick O’Farrell, 22nd Infantry Battalion. 

I was interested because the label that has been added to this image by a long-ago volunteer at Coburg Historical Society claims that Jim O'Farrell rode in the Tour de France in 1922.

So I set out to find out more ...

Jim O'Farrell was the son of warder Patrick O'Farrell who lived in Champ Street, Coburg, right next to his workplace, Pentridge Prison. He was a talented cyclist and member of the Coburg Cycling Club. 

Winner, 8 March 1916

In 1916 Jim tried a number of times to pass the medical to join the AIF but was rejected on account of his eyesight. After 11 months of home service, he was accepted finally and in November 1916 embarked for the Front on HMAT A20 Hororota. He served in France from September 1917 and was awarded the Military Medal a year later.

Courtesy Australian War Memorial

 After the war Jim remained with the Graves Department in London until his return to Australia in September 1919. 

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I now went off on my search for Jim O'Farrell, Tour de France participant. The Tour de France began in 1914, but of course it fell into abeyance for the duration of the war. The race resumed in 1919, so I began my search on a website that lists all the participants from 1914 to the present day. No Jim O'Farrell. The first Australians competed in 1928, including Coburg man Ernest Bainbridge, but Jim O'Farrell was nowhere to be found.

So I went back to look through newspaper articles on TROVE and what I found were a number of references in September 1922 to two Coburg cyclists Ben Ogle and Jim O'Farrell returning from France.

Sporting Globe, 9 September 1922. 

The article that accompanied these photographs tells us that the two riders had enjoyed their six months in France, that they cycled with the Alcyon Company and rode in the Paris-Tours and the Paris-Brussels races but had little success. It seems, then, that the Historical Society member who wrote the labels for several of the Society's photos featuring Jim O'Farrell misinterpreted the information he'd been given and the Paris-Tours race (from Paris to the city of Tours in the west of France) became the Tour de France. How easily history can be altered by a simple misunderstanding!

Both cyclists were ex-servicemen (9130 Gunner Joseph Benjamin Ogle, a 23 year old saddler from O'Hea's Road, Coburg, embarked on 16 November 1915 per HMAT A39  Port Macquarie. He was in 2 Divisional Ammunition Column. He served mostly in Egypt and returned to Australia in August 1919) and both were eager to get back to riding once the war was over. So in February 1922 they headed for Europe. Destination France.

Sporting Globe, 9 September 1922

France must have seemed like a huge adventure, but it must also have been quite strange and more than a little confronting to return to the area where a little over three years earlier deadly warfare had devastated large parts of Europe. 

Ypres salient, 1917. Image A02653. Courtesy Australian War Memorial.

As well as competitive cycling in France, Ogle and O'Farrell holidayed in Germany 'where they were both treated extremely well, and formed a high opinion of the calibre of the German cyclists...' The journalist who wrote this article continued 'Both O'Farrell and Ogle are "diggers" and saw much of the country over which they fought not long before. That they both enjoyed their trip is certain, but Ben Ogle summed up their feelings when he said as he landed ... "Australia will do me every time."' (Sporting Globe, 9 September 1922)

On their return, Jim O'Farrell joined the staff of Pentridge Prison and worked as a warder, just as his father had done. He married in 1928 but his wife Ada died the following year. Later, in 1944, he married again. There were no children from either marriage. His second wife Juanita died in 1967. Jim died in 1974 aged 83.

Ben Ogle, 1914. He had just won the 33 mile Traders' Race. 

Winner, 30 September 1914.

Ben Ogle continued to ride for another decade and the press often used the description 'international rider' when writing about him. He married a Coburg girl, Cecily Thickins, in 1926. They remained in Coburg where he worked for the Coburg Council until the late 1930s then moved to Tallangatta in Victoria's north where he worked as Avon Shire Secretary. In the 1950s he was Assistant Shire Secretary at Geelong West and his final appointment was in the 1960s as Bet Bet Shire Secretary. He died at Maryborough in 1970 aged 77.