Fifty-six of the names on the Dimboola town Honour Rolls represent those who volunteered for service overseas in World War One from the district who did not return.
Many of these took part in the Australian Imperial Force’s first major engagement at Gallipoli, and were among the more than 65,000 Australians who served in this campaign, but unfortunately, some were included in the 18,500 wounded and 8,700 killed. A total of 490,000 British Empire and France personnel took part, up against around 316,000 Ottoman Empire and German troops.
The Dimboola community was fortunate not to lose large numbers in any one engagement, but across eight months of fighting, which included such significant confrontations as the landings on 25 April, the fighting at Karithia, and the August Offensive, including the famous battles at the Nek and Lone Pine, seven of them did not see the evacuation.
The following seven of those immortalised on the stone tablets on Dimboola’s memorial paid the supreme sacrifice on the shores, gullies, ridges, and waters of the Gallipoli peninsula.
There were others from the Dimboola district to fall in this campaign, but they appear on the honour rolls of neighbouring communities.
Henry D’Alton Before the War, Henry was employed as the Secretary of the Shire of Dimboola and had been a long-time member of the Dimboola Rifle Club, representing Victoria in competition shooting, so he was proficient in the shooting.
The 8th Battalion, of which Henry was a member, spent the first day on Gallipoli defending Bolton’s Ridge, and Henry was hit by a sniper while resting in a trench. He succumbed to his wound the next day, April 26, on the hospital ship Seang Choon while being evacuated back to Egypt and was buried at sea.
He is remembered on the Lone Pine Memorial at Gallipoli, the place where all those who fell at Gallipoli who don’t have a grave are listed, including those buried at sea.
Arthur Walker fell during the fighting on the first few days after the landings while defending the area known as the Wheat Field on Bolton’s Ridge on 29 April.
He was initially buried in the nearby Artillery Road East Cemetery but was later moved to the Shell Green Cemetery when several small cemeteries were consolidated into a larger one.
Before the War he was working as a farm labourer.
Arthur Anderson was farming a property in the Dimboola district when War was declared, and he was one of the first from the district to volunteer.
He landed as part of the 8th Battalion on the first morning and managed to survive the several major engagements they undertook in the first few months, but he received gunshot wounds to his back and neck while they were guarding Steel’s Post on 28 June and was evacuated to Egypt where he succumbed to his injuries in a Hospital at Alexandria. He is buried in the Chatby War Memorial Cemetery at Alexandria in Egypt.
Charles Edward D’Alton, Henry’s brother, was a surveyor in civilian life, also landed on the first day at Gallipoli and survived the early fighting but received a gunshot wound to his elbow on May 4, which resulted in him being sent back to Egypt, to convalesce.
He returned to his unit in mid-June and was promoted to Lance Corporal at the end of July.
While his 8th Battalion was in reserve on August 8 and not taking any direct part in the fighting of the August Offensive, their positions still came under fire, and Eddy was amongst the eighteen killed in a particularly heavy artillery barrage.
He was buried in Shrapnel Valley Cemetery at Anzac, Gallipoli.
Thomas Foley had also been injured in early August and had only just returned to the battle on August 21 when he failed to return from the fighting near Hill 60.
He fell during the fighting, but when his comrades were ordered to retreat, they were unable to take their dead and badly wounded, so his body was not recovered, and he is commemorated on the Lone Pine Memorial.
Foley worked for the railways as a track labourer before the War.
William James Johnson was a private in the 23rd Battalion that was part of the Second Australian Division that was sent from Egypt to Gallipoli to cover the horrendous losses suffered during the unsuccessful August Offensive.
While en route one of their troopships, the ‘Sutherland” was torpedoed on 2 September, and Johnson was one of fourteen men killed in this attack. He is buried in the East Murdros Military Cemetary on the Greek island of Lemnos.
Hugh Chisholm Ross was the last fatal casualty at Gallipoli who appears on the Dimboola rolls.
On 2 November, he was admitted to hospital with appendicitis and died of this illness while being evacuated to Egypt on 8 November and was buried at sea, and his name appears on the Lone Pine Memorial.
The irony of his dying of this illness, rather than a direct battle-related injury, was that in the lead-up to enlisting in October 1914, Ross was a student at the University of Melbourne and had completed two years of a medical degree.
After serving as an instructor at the Broadmeadows military camp, he refused a commission and joined the First Reinforcements, which sailed in June 1915. At the time of his death, he had achieved the rank of sergeant.
There was some angst after his death as his mother was incorrectly informed that his date of death was 8 October, and she subsequently received a letter written by Hugh when he was in the trenches at Lonesome Pine, dated 20 October, creating some confusion around his passing.
Unfortunately for his family, when the source of this error was identified and corrected, it simply confirmed that he had passed.
Many others who appear on the Dimboola honour rolls also served at Gallipoli but did not make it home, as they did not survive the even more horrendous fighting they would encounter when the Battalions of the 1st AIF were transferred to the Western Front in France and Belgium.
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