44th Battalion

44th Battalion

Shoulder patch

Voting in 1917 Referendum at Neuve Eglise. AWM photo E01605

Brief History

Raised at Claremont, Western Australia, in February 1916, the battalion formed part of the 11th Brigade, which in turn was part of the 3rd Division. Following some initial training in Australia the battalion embarked on 6 Jun 1916 aboard HMAT A29 Suevic for England where the battalion spent a further four months training before moving to France on 27 November 1916.

During the very cold winter of 1916-17 they alternated between manning front line positions and providing men for working details when in the rear. Prior to their first real taste of battle which came at Messines (7-10 Jun 1917), they had been billeted in a rest area at Coulomby. They had previously participated in an unsuccessful, two company raid on enemy positions. They participated in the Battle for Broodseinde Ridge in late October 1917, taking very heavy casualties (only 158 unscathed of the 992 that entered the battle).

AWM ART03540 Major Edwin Summerhayes.

Following the winter of 1917-18 which they spent in Belgium, in March they were moved south to the Somme valley when the German attack in 1918 threatened Amiens. Their defensive positions helped repel a German attack near Morlancourt, and later they participated in the attack on Le Hamel and participated in the Hundred Days Offensive that followed commencing in August 1918. The battalion's final battle came when it, with others, breached the German defences at the St Quentin Canal. Total battalion casualties during the war amounted to 437 killed and 1,346 wounded.

Battalion Personnel

A

• † Martin Abolin 18 Nov 1916 - 8 Jun 1917 - KIA Messines Ridge
• Edgar Copley Adams MID 21 Jul 1916 - Feb 1919
• William James Allen ?? Dec 1916 - 25 Jan 1919
• Henry Ogilvie Allom (Jnr) 1 Sep 1917 - 24 Apr 1919
• † George Alexander Armstrong 9 Jul - 4 Oct 1917 - KIA Zonnebeke
• James Arnold 2 Jun - 29 Nov 1916 - to Army School of Musketry & 8 Feb - ?? - Apr 1919
• † William Atkins 26 Aug - 4 Jul 1918 - KIA Hamel

B

• † William George Ball 23 Apr - 14 Oct 1917 - KIA Passchendaele
• † Beverley Loxton Bennett 29 Nov 1917 - 8 Aug 1918 - DOW received 4 Jul 1918 Hamel
• Arthur Leworthy Bettenay 4 Feb - 8 Jun 1917 - WIA Messines Ridge
• Wilfred George Bettenay 23 Mar - 5 Oct 1917 - WIA Broodseinde Ridge
• Robert Frank Bickford 22 Jun 1917 - 20 Dec 1918
• William Bingham 14 May - 10 Jun 1917 - WIA Messines
• Alan Harry Boyce 18 Dec 1917 - 24 Jun 1918 - Returned to Australia, underage
• † John Buckland 19 Jan 1916 - 7 Jul 1917 - KIA Messines area
• John Thomas Buckland 4 Jun 1916 - 29 Jun 1917 WIA - Messines area
• Samuel Buckland 17 Feb 1916 - 4 Jul 1917 - medical return to Australia
• † Leonard Frederick Bysh Feb 1916 - 4 Oct 1917 - KIA Zonnebeke

C

• William Wright Casterton MM 8 Feb 1917 - 4 Jul 1918 - WIA Hamel
• Walter Eugene Cockram 8 Feb 1917 - 28 Mar 1919 - WIA Roisel
• William Edwin Cousens MM 26 Oct 1916 - 1 Apr 1919
• John Humphrey Coyle 6 - 22 Jul 1917 - WIA x 2
• Patrick (John) Curo Feb 1916 - 1 Dec 1918

D

• Thomas Henry William Denny Feb 1916 - 2 Nov 1917 Medical return to Australia

F

• Percy Fleming Feb 1916 - 7 Apr 1919
• Harry Simpson Francis 7 Feb 1918 - 3 Apr 1919

G

• John Wilfred Gargett 23 Sep 1916 - 23 May 1918
• † John James Gill 10 Dec 11917 - 3 Jun 1918 - KIA Villers-Bretonneux John
• Rupert Gregg 21 Feb 16 - 26 Aug 1918 - KIA Bray

H

• Clarence William Hammond 24 Dec 1917 - 7 Jan 1919
• † Raymond Harold Hanretty ?? Feb 1916 - 31 May 1918 - KIA Somme
• Albert John Harris 1 Sep 1917 - 13 Mar 1919
• Charles Stephen Haughey Feb 1916 - 30 Jan 1917 - Accidental death
• Roby Helliwell 26 Mar - 13 Oct 1916 - transferred to 28th Battalion
• † Henry Ernest Howard 28 Jan 1916 - 30 Mar 1918 - KIA Morlancourt
• Jason Howard 28 Jan 1916 - 2 Jun 1918
• Donald Gordon Melville Huggins 27 Oct 1916 - 19 Feb 1917 - WIA Armentières area
• † Leslie Charles Hutchinson 4 Jan - 22 Aug 1918 - KIA Bray area

J

• Arthur Patrick Joyce Feb 1916 - 13 Mar 1917 - WIA
• Robert Hastings Joyce 23 Apr 1917 - 31 Aug 1918 - medical complication of WIA
• † Tom Baxter Joyce 2 Jan - 1 Jun 1917 - KIA near Pont de Nieppe

K

• John Kiely 10 Dec 1917 - 11 Jan 1918 - 11th Australian Light Trench Mortar Battery
• Charles Kelly 23 Sep 1916 - ?? Apr 1919

M

• Thomas Frederick McDonough ?? Feb 1916 - 6 Apr 1919
• Thomas McGow Feb 1916 - 6 Apr 1919 - WIA x 2
• James Lawrence McKenna 27 Oct 1917 - 1 Apr 1919
• † Cecil Herbert McKeown 29 Jan - 30 Mar 1918 - DOW Querrieu, France
• William Moffat McLachlan MM ?? Feb 1916 - ?? Apr 1919

O

• † John Terrence O'Neil ?? Feb 1916 - 10 Jul 1917
• Gustaf Adolf Olson 13 Oct 916 - 1 Apr 1919

P

• † Alfred Parker 7 Oct 1917 - 4 Jul 1918 - KIA Hamel
• † Frederick Oliver Pierce 16 Jan 1916 - 4 Oct 1917 - KIA Broodseinde
• George Henry Norman Pringle ?? Feb 1916 - 1 Mar 1919

R

• † Thomas Alfred Reed 1 Jun 1916 - 24 Jun 1917 - KIA Messines area
• † Herbert Clarence (Bert) Ronan 28 Jan 1916 - 4 Apr 1917 - DOW Ploegsteert
• † Maurice James Ronan 28 Jan 1916 - 14 Mar 1917 - KIA Ploegsteert

S

• † Robert Melville Salter 30 Oct 1917 - 30 Mar 1918 KIA - 1st Morlancourt
• † Lionel Newton Savage ?? Feb 1916 - 28 oct 1917 - KIA Ypres area
• † Ernest William Serls 6 Feb - 4 Oct 1917 - KIA Broodseinde
• Archibald Shepherd 8 Feb - 9 Jun 1917 - WIA Messines Ridge
• William Arthur Shepherd 8 Feb - 21 Apr 1917 - medical return to Australia
• Norman Leslie Skewes 9 Dec 1917 - 23 Feb 1919
• Alfred Slee 10 Feb 1916 - 26 Sep 1917 - Medical return to Australia
• Mervyn Alexander Stalker 23 Jan 1918 - 28 Mar 1918 - WIA Sailly-le-Sec

T

• Mount (Mont) Alexander Taylor 3 Mar - 9 Oct - to 51st Battalion
• Alfred Martin Tilly 28 Jan 1916 - 6 Feb 1919
• Norman Sedrick Tonkin 28 Jan 1916 - 2 Jun 1918
• Ralph Trotter 28 Jan 1916 - 4 Jul 1918 - WIA Hamel

W

• † Ronald Daniel Wallace 28 Jan 1916 - 27 Oct 1917 - KIA Pozières region
• † Stephen Hubert Christian (Hughie) Wallace 29 Sep 1917 - 29 Sep 1918 - KIA Bony (Somme Canal Tunnel)
• † Charles Alexander Wann 18 Jul 1917 - 30 Sep 1918 - KIA St Quentin Canal
• Clarence Victor Watson 3 Mar - 19 Oct 1916 never joined them in France
• John Henry Wilkinson 1 Jun - 1 Nov 1916 never joined them in France

Battle Honours

• Messines 1917
• Ypres 1917
• Polygon Wood
• Broodseinde
• Poelcappelle
• Passchendaele
• Somme 1918
• Ancre 1918
• Hamel
• Amiens
• Albert 1918
• Mont St Quentin
• Hindenburg Line
• St Quentin Canal
• France and Flanders 1916–18

Individual Honours

• 3 Distinguished Service Orders
• 1 Member of the Order of the British Empire
• 16 Military Crosses, with 1 bar
• 13 Distinguished Conduct Medals with 1 bar
• 99 Military Medals, 1 bar (William Edwin Cousens MM), (William Wright Casterton MM), and (William Moffat McLachlan MM)
• 5 Meritorious Service Medals
• 21 Mentioned in Despatches (Edgar Copley Adams MID), and
• 11 foreign awards

Notes

Content for the history and honours sections has come from a combination of Wikipedia and the Australian War Memorial websites.

For further information concerning this battalions role in the war, see:

• Eggs-a -Cook - The Story of the Forty-Forth by Capt C. Longmore
• The Westralian Battalion - The Unit History of the 44th Battalion, AIF by Neville Browning OAM