Seejay wrote:
2 years 114 days on the Western Front................!!My mind cannot encompass what your Grandfather went through in that hell hole during that period. Just staggering.
I knew very little, gleaned some information from my Dad but my aunt was able to supply information and stories as she shared an interest in family history. She gave me a "file" that the Grandfather had (mostly all his enlistment and service documents but a handwritten list detailing his Army time). When I contacted the Household Cavalry Museum, I sent a copy of that list. They supplied me with a copy of his service file (basically what my Grandfather had) but they were very happy to have his list as very few of their former members had ever thought to do that (an individuals precise of battles involved in). A number of those battles listed involved Australian troops. His list was:
Trooper R E Mackenzie
11 November 1914 – Enlisted 2nd Lifeguards.
15 October 1915 – Embarked for France.
October – November 1915 - Trenches Ypres.
November- December 1915 – 1st Canadian Casualty Clearing Station – Aire.
January – February 1916 – Trenches Hoheuz ollean Redoubt. Recommended for Commission rank (Infantry).
June – July 1916 – Battle of Somme (Albert – Cerisy) plus Canadians?
July – August 1916 – Beaumont Hamel – Thiepval).
March 1917 – Battle of Arras (Monchy-le-Preux) plus Canadians?
June 1917 – Cambrai.
July – August 1917 – St Quentin (extreme Right of British Line).
November – December 1917 – Trenches Outposts south extreme of Hindenburg Line. Recommended for Commission (Tank Corp).
February 1918 – Returned to England for special training Tank Corp.
June 1918 – February 1919 – 24th OCB Winchester.
March 1919 – Gazetted 2nd Lieutenant Tank Corp.
September 1921 – Gazetted out (remaining rank of 2nd Lieutenant).
Have not been able to find out why he was recommended for commission (either infantry or Tank Corp), he had two horses shot out from under him and told my aunt the most devastating task that they would get, as cavalry, was to go out and bury horses. His stay in the Clearing Station was after being found delirious in No Mans Land.
After the war he was involved in reducing war inventory (until 1924), went into business for a time making Mackenzie Bennett crystal radios (he was the Mackenzie) then joined an organisation responsible for the rehabilitation of former military personnel affected by shell shock (PTSD). He remained with Thermega until his retirement as the task was made altogether bigger with the influx of those affected during WWII (ended up as the Company Secretary for Thermega). The organisation worked out of the Frederick Milne industrial colony at Leatherhead. During the Second World War they expanded and manufactured heated flying suits for bomber crews. During WWII he was also a member of the Home Guard.
There was an article on what the organisation did in a Brisbane newspaper in 1924:
SHOCKED
What Science is Doing for Them
Some recent reports of shell-shocked soldiers being either struck dumb or having their speech restored by a sudden explosion have been reported from other Australian States, and have aroused interest as to the extent to which shell-shocked victims of the war still survive among us and as to what care or treatment they receive. In Great Britain, where at first the care of such persons was by no means all that it should have been, the best efforts now being made on their behalf are operated by an Ex-service Welfare Society. The Society has at its command forty consulting, neurologists and other specialists. If a patient has crossed the border-line of insanity he is relinquished to a mental hospital; the work of rebuilding begins. He is sent first to a fine old country house standing in large grounds where there are thirty or a few more men in the first stages of treatment. At first the treatment consists of fresh air, light work in the house and garden, regular meals, and regular sleep, less of the bromides with which often is the case to keep himself going, and more of the opportunities to explain his nightmare which he has really needed. He sleeps in large, comfortable, airy room, which does not look like a ward and which never has more than five beds in it, and mostly less After a time, if he is well enough, he goes across the wide lawns, the stream, and the fields to a secondary establishment where another thirty men are going through the second stage of cure ? Here are- fields of cabbage and potatoes, pigs and chickens, an orchard, and 'a carpenter's shop. The men are stronger now, and they work in the fields or garden with more vigor. In both homes they do their own housework, and can play tennis, bowls, or clock golf, and many of them go home for Christmas. The society also takes worry off the men's shoulders by looking after their families when that is necessary. When the men are fit to do normal work once more they go to a pleasant industrial centre at Leatherhead. a place of large trees, green hedges, and stately gardens, to the factory of Thermega Ltd., where about forty men do a full day's work for a full day's pay, making electric blankets, pads, and motor mats, or working in the woodwork shop. Outside in the grounds about twenty other men grow vegetables for the community and for sale.
There are twelve semi-detached cottages for married men ; others live off the estate, and -about thirty in the house itself. This is the stage where the recovering patient regains confidence in himself and his power to work and earn. After a time ho goes back to the unsheltered world again. Sometimes the stress of things is too great, a relapse occurs, and the process begins again. In more cases he holds his own, is cured and happy. There is a relief department associated with the society's work; cured cases are not lost sight of, and the society spends from £3000 to £4000 a year on grants. It spends £10,000 on maintaining its homes. During fifteen years of existence it has helped 16,850 ex soldiers of all ranks, and has provided treatment for 1500 of them. A patient may be recommended through the British Red Cross, or some similar body, or he may write himself for help, or the information may be supplied by his wife, his doctor, or a friend. Sometimes he may be found by a police court missionary suffering inarticulately when charged 'with petty theft or violent exhibitions of temper. Each year brings its own cases, and the society expects the demand for its services to remain for many years longer. In Australia, too, the stress of latter times has brought a return of their hysteria to man- ex-soldiers whose cases had responded to treatment in the military hospitals. There is, too, the certainty almost that badly shell- shocked soldiers will have transmitted some of their trouble to their off- spring. . The curse, the black, incurable curse of war.
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