For over a decade there has been a mammoth effort by a few dedicated people to find and record details of those who served in World War 1 from the old Shire of Eltham. To say it has long been a work in progress, and that this effort continues to this day would be an understatement.

The names recorded on the Kangaroo Ground War Memorial Tower and those on war memorials, honour boards and rolls from across the shire were the base for this research. In the main, honour boards and memorials have one or two initials with the surname, so it has often been a challenge to first find a service record then ensure they were actually linked to the shire area when they enlisted, by either birth, residence, family or other connection.

Recently, we were able to solve a puzzle for a name on the Doreen Primary School honour board – a school attended by children from Nutfield and north of Hurstbridge in the mid-late 1800’s. The result was finding that A. Smith was Archibald Brunker Smith S/N2295 who served at Gallipoli and then in France and Belgium into 1918.

Born in South Yarra, Archie was the youngest of five brothers and one sister. When his mother was widowed in 1898, the family moved to be close to her family in Nutfield. He spent his next years working on the family farms, in their orchards and attending school with his brothers and cousins in Doreen.

Archie enlisted in November 1914, the first of his Nutfield family to do so. After training in Melbourne he joined the 6th Battalion AIF in January 1915 as part of its 2nd Reinforcements.

He embarked from Melbourne on 2nd February 1915 landing in Alexandria, Egypt on 9th March where he went through further training.

Archie’s battalion fought at Gallipoli; at Lone Pine and also later on defensive duty until all allied personnel were evacuated in December 1915.

After the Gallipoli Campaign the AIF was reorganised and in February 1916 he was ‘taken on strength’ into the 58th Battalion, the battalion he returned to for the remainder of his war service.

Roughly half of the 58th Battalion’s recruits were veterans of the Gallipoli Campaign and now they were headed to the battlefields of France and Belgium where he fought on the battlefields of the Somme; Fromelles, Polygon Wood and others.

In September 1916, Archie was commended for his actions with two others, soon after his promotion to sergeant was confirmed. His actions were described in the report from the Brigadier-General C.O.C., 15th AIF.

Unit – 58th Battalion

Sgt. John Edwin Boyde                              Sgt. Archibald Brunker Smith                              L/Cpl. Norman Wiltshire

A joint action in which all three participated on the night of 17th/18th Sept., 1917, at Pétillon during a raid on the German trenches. These three N.C.O.’s, were members of the raiding party. After leaving the enemy trench amidst a storm of shells bombs and machine gun fire they heard Lieut. Godfrey call for assistance to bring in a wounded man, Sgt. McDonald. They returned to the enemy wire although they knew two charges of gun cotton had been laid and were expected to explode any moment. They assisted to carry their comrade who was badly wounded across the torn, muddy, stretch of No Man’s Land, every movement causing great agony to the wounded man and necessitating slow and careful movement. They reached a crater close to our own wire and took cover there for half an hour being unable to proceed any further. A stretcher was sent out and on this the wounded man was safely brought in. The rescue was affected under the continuous enemy shell, machine gun and rifle fire and at the risk of the falling debris from the exploding mines and the party arrived soaked with mud and water and in a state of exhaustion.

The unit diary of that night notes:

Raid on enemy’s trenches at 12:50 am. Casualties, 2nd Lt. Gration & 4 O/Rks missing & 6 O/Rks wounded. It was established that the trenches raided were occupied by the 21st .. Bavarian Regiment. Moved into billets – having been relieved by the 57 Bn. Operation Order No. 8.

The unit rested and inspected their kit over the next couple of days and were also joined by the 60th Battalion. By the 22nd they were back into the trenches and ready for the next onslaught which the diary tells us was a heavy bombardment by our artillery … Trifling response by enemy.

Archie had some time in camp in England from the end of 1916 until his return to the battlefields of France in September 1917.

Archibald Brunker Smith served through many battles and conflicts from Gallipoli to Villers-Bretonneux. He was killed on 26th April 1918 at Villers-Bretonneux, the day before allied troops pushed back German forces in a victory he contributed to but didn’t live to see.

We shall remember Archie and the countless others who gave their lives.

 

Villers-Bretonneux and Strathewen Primary School

Following the recapture of the French village of Villers-Bretonneux by Australian soldiers after it was destroyed by German forces, all Victorian school children donated a penny to rebuild its school.

To this day the words “N’oublions jamais l’Australie” – let us never forget Australia – adorn its school.

When the children of the village heard about Black Saturday in 2009 they wanted to return the favour and raised $20,000 to donate to the bushfire appeal. The funds went towards the rebuilding of Strathewen Primary School.

The village flies the Australian flag and will always remember the young Australian soldiers who saved them.