Gold Museum, Ballarat ~ Showcasing Ballarat's history

Transcribing Lieutenant Percival Carl Minifie’s diary.

In February 2015, I joined the Gold Museum’s back-of-house volunteer team.

I was given the task of transcribing the World War One diary kept by Australian soldier Lieutenant Percival Carl Minifie. Lieutenant Minifie was 26 years old when he enlisted at Surrey Hills, Melbourne on August 18, 1914. He was a railway employee.

Group portrait of the No. 4 Section, 2nd Machine Gun Company. Lieutenant Minifie is on the far right (Courtesy of the Australian War Memorial, P10447.007.001)

Lieutenant Minifie embarked on October 19, 1914 on the HMAT Benalla A24 from Melbourne. He was killed in action near Passchendaele in Belgium on October 4, 1917. At this time he was a Lieutenant in the 2^nd Australian Machine Gun Company.

The story evolving in Lieutenant Minifie’s diary had me hooked. The writing in the diary is in pencil and it is closely written. Some pages are missing and many are smudged so they are difficult to read.  When I first started to transcribe the diary, I found it very difficult to make out some of the words. As the year progressed, I was able to more easily transcribe what he had written.

Pages from Percival Carl Minifie’s diary (Gold Museum collection, 2014.0848)

Lieutenant Minifie’s diary begins in early April just before the Gallipoli landing. Lieutenant Minifie wrote several entries before he headed in to battle at Gallipolli where he described in detail the landing and life in the trenches. Lieutenant Minifie seemed to be upbeat in these entries, although he kept longing for a bath and good food. Throughout the diary he remarked in detail about what he had eaten. Sleeping conditions were also often noted.

Lieutenant Minifie then went to France where he mainly fought in Belgium around the Ypres, Hill 66 and Passchendaele areas.

Unfortunately the diary ended in September 1916. My interest in the diary has led me to do further research by looking up Lieutenant Minifie’s war records, plus researching his family on the National Library of Australia’s Trove service.

I knew from looking up his war record, that he would live for another year fighting on the battle front and I was eagerly looking forward to transcribing the next part of his story. However that was not to be. His other diaries were destroyed, leaving the Gold Museum’s journal the only surviving account of Lieutenant Minifie’s wartime experience.

Written by Denise Grant, Gold Museum Society volunteer. Denise is transcribing the museum’s collection of historical letters and diaries.

Biography of Captain Brian O’Sullivan.

The Gold Museum holds a precious collection of World War One photographs belonging to Australian soldier, Captain Brian O’Sullivan. Many of these photographs were taken by Captain O’Sullivan, while others were collected during his time overseas serving the 5th Battalion.

Captain O’Sullivan on board the HMAT Demosthene, 1915 (Gold Museum collection, 2011.0811)

Captain O’Sullivan was born in Richmond, Melbourne in 1895 to parents Dr. Edward Francis O’Sullivan and Fannie Elizabeth O’Sullivan. His father pursued a career as a medical practitioner and his son would soon follow in his footsteps.  After enrolling in medicine at Melbourne University in 1913, Captain O’Sullivan deferred his study when war broke out in 1914.

Captain O’Sullivan landed in Gallipoli in 1915 where he became a Lieutenant in the 5^th Battalion, instructing soldiers on the use of trench mortar.  In 1916, he was promoted to Captain and was present during the battles of Pozieres, Mouquet Farm, Corcolette and Flers.

During his time in the military, Captain O’Sullivan frequently wrote letters home accompanied by albums of photographs.

Captain O’Sullivan travelled to various locations such as Egypt, Ireland and England and was enamoured by the sights he saw as depicted in his photographs. Home was never far from Captain O’Sullivan’s mind. While based in Egypt, he wrote: ‘it was trying not hearing from home during my long stay’.

Whilst in Egypt, the soldiers visited the iconic Pyramids and the Sphinx, and socialised with civilians and children in the area.

Captain O’Sullivan’s collection provides an intimate insight into a soldier’s journey rarely seen by the public.  His photographs reveal soldiers’ downtime as they travelled towards the frontlines. The men kept themselves occupied with games such as wheelbarrow races and pillow fights.

Soldiers taking part in a wheelbarrow race on board the ship Nestor (Gold Museum collection, 2011.0798)

Captain O’Sullivan also worked as a medical officer. His letters reveal his daily routine: ‘Coffee and breakfast at 7:45, I have to inspect all isolation men (measles and mumps contacts) and then I can clean myself till 9 o clock’.

Captain O’Sullivan valued his education and returned to Australia in 1917 to complete his medical degree. Soon after graduation the call for war beckoned once more and Captain O’Sullivan rejoined the 5^th Battalion.

Although surrounded by horror and tragedy, Captain O’Sullivan still found time to write of the beauty found in the landscape. In a letter to his parents (possibly from Turkey), Captain O’Sullivan wrote ‘the country round here is very pretty in a tamed sort of way and the wild poppies and daisies make a rather pretty break in the greenery of everything’.

However tragedy struck when Captain O’Sullivan was wounded at the Hindenburg Line at the Sommes by mortar fire whilst he was instructing new recruits. He passed away from his injuries aged just 23. Captain O’Sullivan is buried at Daours Communal Cemetery Extension in France.

By taking these photographs, Captain O’Sullivan has saved these memories of World War One for future generations. Through the eyes of one soldier, we are shown the true images of the highs and lows eclipsing a soldier’s life from beginning to end.

Captain O’Sullivan’s collection appears in the exhibition A Soldier’s View, on display at the Gold Museum from May 16 to September 18, 2016.

Written by Danni Roberts, third year history student at Federation University.

A personal reflection of World War I through art

I was commissioned by Ballarat’s Backspace Gallery as part of the exhibition Leaving for the Front: Artist’s Respond which was on display between April and May 2015 during the World War I centenary. The brief was to create something in response to Dora Meeson’s 1916 painting, Leaving for the Front.

Dora Meeson’s Leaving for the Front, 1916 (Ballarat Art Gallery)

When I first viewed Dora’s beautiful painting, I saw three generations of women who were being left behind: the softness of their skin, the emotion in their eyes, the colour of their clothes, the tactile nature of their environment and the uncertainty of the future that lay ahead.

I chose to create an oral and pictorial recollection, involving an assemblage using mixed media.

I set out to interview Victorian women who remember what the war meant for their grandmothers, mothers and aunts, and to record their stories. I soon discovered that their deeply emotional recollections and sparing quotations deserved dignity and discretion, and were best presented as anonymous.

While contemplating the impact of War on the lives of women, I also found myself reflecting on the early adulthood of my own paternal grandmother, and her sisters: the ‘MacMillan girls’ of Terang, Victoria, along with their friendship circles.

I am the custodian of several photo albums detailing the MacMillans’ social life from 1924 to 1926, so I felt compelled to incorporate a small selection of these images, which were taken around Western Victoria.

Ailsa Brackley du Bois with her commissioned piece, 2015.

I have long been struck by the lack of men present in my inherited collection. At the outbreak of the war, most of the women pictured in my artwork were, in fact, the age of the adolescent girl in Dora’s painting. By the time the 1920s came, they were in their prime and wanting to socialize and even flirt a bit, yet there was an absolute shortage of men.

I also have in my possession quite a few images of women posing for pictures in which one young woman in each duo portrays the male gender. On close inspection of group images, I’ve also noted the presence of androgynous looking women wearing pants. As a child I recall interpreting this as some old-fashioned girls’ game, or simply assumed that some of these women were in fact men. I now recognize the sub-text and the unspoken possibilities.

One of my great aunts was, in fact, a friend of Dorothy’s. In her later life, we shared careful conversations on the subject, over small crystal glasses of French wine in the reading room of the home she shared for over 50 years with her life-partner.

I found the process of undertaking this work to be a fairly profound personal journey. Given I was preparing it all exactly one year after my father’s death, it was very moving to be considering his maternal line in such a contemplative and sociological way.

When I looked at what I was putting together I would sometimes shed quiet tears. So much sadness, so many secrets and so many skeletons in closets. I sincerely hope that I’ve given fair voice to women who’ve been unable to speak openly about these matters, for whatever reasons.

Written by Ailsa Brackley du Bois, a multimedia artist with a life-long fascination with cultural heritage and history. Her oral history research for ‘Women Remember’ forms part of the source material for The Last Goodbye, a film about remembrance produced by Wind & Sky.

Biography of Louis William Gordon Büchner-Malcolm

Portrait of Louis William Gordon Büchner-Malcolm (Wellcome Library)

Louis William Gordon Büchner-Malcolm attended the Ballarat School of Mines (SMB) from 1907-9 and 1911, gaining certificates in mine management and geology. He served during World War 1 as an officer in the Royal Garrison Artillery and saw action in both France and West Africa.

Born in Bourke, New South Wales in 1885 to Mechanics Institute librarian Otto L.G. Büchner and Catherine Malcolm, the family relocated to Katoomba in the early 1890s where they suffered two tragedies. In 1894, Otto abandoned his family and then in 1896, a tragic house fire cost the lives of Louis’ four younger siblings.

Lieut. Büchner-Malcolm attended Katoomba Superior public school. After leaving school he became a staff member at the Australian Museum in Sydney. Whilst in Sydney he passed an examination in geology at Sydney Technical College.

In 1907, Lieut. Büchner-Malcolm commenced studying at the Ballarat School of Mines. After completing his studies, Louis went to the University of Melbourne as a Government Research Scholar in anatomy and obtained numerous scholarships.

He was undertaking research at Zurich University when war broke out. Melbourne Punch reported that he had been with the Australian Voluntary Hospital for five months before he obtained a commission in the Royal Field Artillery at Portsmouth as L.W.G. Büchner-Malcolm. [1]

In August 1914, Lieut. Büchner-Malcolm went to France with the Imperial Expeditionary Force; and the following month he was attached to the Nigeria Regiment, West African Frontier Force.

In November 1915, he was part of the capture of Banyo Mountain in Cameroon with Brigadier-General Cunliffe’s force. He left the following account of his experiences during the Banyo Mountain expedition. [2]

He remained with the artillery until 1919 making it to Temporary Captain.

Whilst in West Africa he undertook research into the Eghap people of central Cameroon.

After the war he studied at Christ’s College, Cambridge as LWG Malcolm, where he graduated in 1921 with a Master’s degree in Anthropology.

He moved on to work in the museum sector, gaining employment at various British institutions such as the Horniman Museum and Wellcome Historical Medical Museum. In 1932 he completed his PhD at Christ’s College, Cambridge in the Faculty of Medicine on ‘Medical Museums: An Historical and Bibliographic Study’.

Büchner’s life history has been difficult to piece together, in part because of his name change.

He was originally known as LWG Buchner and in 1915 adopted his mother’s maiden name to become Buchner-Malcolm.

By the end of the war he used his mother’s maiden name exclusively, becoming known as Louis William Gordon Malcolm or LWG Malcolm.

We can speculate as to the reason for these name changes. Perhaps he did not wish to have a German surname due to the strong anti-German feeling associated with the outbreak of World War I.

Lieut. Büchner-Malcolm is believed to be the first SMB alumnus to complete a PhD and the first at an overseas university.

His story is an important part of the history of Ballarat, both in terms of its academic history and its military history.

References

[1] Melbourne Punch, April 1, 1915.

[2] ‘Australians in Africa’, Great War Forum, last modified May 25, 2015, http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=72898.

Written by Prof. Ian D. Clark, professor of tourism at Federation University

The Gold Museum holds a collection of articles, photographs and medals of World War I veteran, Horace Martyr.

Private Horace Clyde Martyr, known as Horry by family and friends, was born in Richmond, Victoria in 1895.

When the First World War began in 1914, a 19 year-old Horace enlisted in Melbourne for the Australian Infantry Forces (AIF) where he was assigned to the 8^th Battalion.

Horace was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal (Commonwealth) and the Croix de Guerre (The French equivalent to the Victorian Cross) as a result of his actions on Anzac Cove. He became one of the first decorated soldiers from the Gallipoli landing.

Horace Martyr holding his medals (Gold Museum collection, 83.0308)

During both World Wars and the years that proceeded, Horace was awarded another 12 medals for his conduct and service in countless battles for his country. These included the Commonwealth Distinguished Conduct Medal, for gallantry at Anzac Cove where he was wounded along Shrapnel Gully while carrying a fellow wounded soldier to safety. Before they reached the shelter of a trench, Horace was shot in the back himself. The two men spent in the trench as it rained before they were transported to Egypt for urgent medical care.

He was awarded the Croix de Guerre, the Star Gallipoli Medal, the British Service Medal, the Victory Medal 1914-18, the Star Medal 1939-45, the Pacific Star, the Defense Medal 1939-45, Service Medal 1939-45, Australian Service Medal 1939-45, Coronation of George V Medal and the Efficient Service Medal. Horace later received two rosettes for 12 years’ service.

Horace Martyr’s medals (Gold Museum collection, 83.308)

Horace came from a family of soldiers. One of his forbearers was also involved in warfare; Major General James Martyr was in the 1^st Dragoon Guards and the aide-de-camp to Queen Victoria. He is also the nephew of Richard Beswick Martyr, of Argyle, and Mrs Alex Heiden, of Marylands. When he returned to Australia, he became an advertising agent in Spencer Street Melbourne.

Newspaper article about Horace Martyr and his heroic status (Gold Museum collection, 83.208)

In 1928, Horace was in court facing fraud charges, on four counts of obtaining money on false pretence. He was found not guilty on all counts.

Horace passed away 6 September 1986 at the age of 91. His gravestone can be found at the Frankston Cemetery.

He was survived by his wife Peggy and children Joe, Eileen, Alice, Helen and Phil Jnr.

Written by Danni Roberts, history student at Federation University.

On 11 March 1911 several members of the public reported seeing a heavily-armed airship flying eastwards over Sebastopol in Ballarat, Victoria to descend behind Mt Warrenheip. Similar instances were reported in Kyneton and Portland.

These stories were a common feature of newspaper reports during World War I.

Far from being simply dismissed, though the more outlandish stories were met with considerable ridicule in some sections of the press, these sightings were taken very seriously as potential threat to Australian security.

The desperate fear of German aerial attack was extraordinary given that this was a time when German airships and bombers were struggling to reach London let alone remote colonies in the Pacific. Still, the panic persisted with gorgeous illustrations in Australian newspapers and panicked reports in local papers.

The newspapers of Australia were filled with reports of mysterious aircraft, abductions and German airships. They were also filled with horrific depictions of what future wars would be like in the advent of this new technology.

Mystery airship as depicted in Sydney’s Globe newspaper, 8 March 1913 (National Library of Australia)

There are tales of vast fleets of airships firing ‘aerial torpedoes’ which could be launched from out of visual range and controlled to their helpless targets by wireless controls; an image reminiscent of our modern use of military drones and guided missiles.

These stories fueled a panic regarding German airpower which did not eventuate militarily until the blitz of World War II.

Historian Brett Holman argues that these panics were driven by a combination of Australians’ desire to feel closely connected to a war which was, to a large extent fought on the other side of the planet, and a phenomenon he calls ‘airmindedness’. [1]

Airmindedness pertains to the cultural fixations and representations air travel and air technology. In the positive sense, it relates to wonder at the freedom and exploration of air flight. In its negative connation, it represented fear of an aerial assault.

Interestingly, Holman’s research indicated that the Australian government at the time was happy to support these anxieties given the support they engendered to the war effort.

This remains a little known but fascinating part of Australia’s World War I heritage which led directly to the phenomenon which we would now call today UFOs and flying saucers.

Indeed, the behaviour and depiction of the craft are remarkably similar to those described by eyewitnesses during the Cold War era of the 1950s and 60s.

In the end, these panics were identified at the time as signs of the coming German threat. They are perhaps better described as close encounters of the Prussian kind!

References

[1] Brett Holman,  ‘Dreaming War: Airmindedness and the Australian Mystery Aeroplane Scare of 1918’, History Australia 10 (2013): 180-201.

Written by Dr David Waldron, history lecturer at Federation University.

World War I seemed so long ago, so far away.

My feelings changed though when I started reading some history books and trawling through online war archives, researching the Australian Tunnellers of World War I.

I was working on a digital writing project and I had anecdotally heard that many of the World War I Tunnellers came from Ballarat.

Postcard showing Anzacs in France (Gold Museum collection, 83.12673)

I was curious about what they did, who they were, what they went through and I wanted to know more. So I read a book by Damien Finlayson, Crumps and Camouflets: Australian Tunnelling Companies on the Western Front.

I began to realise just how much I didn’t know about the Great War; trench warfare in particular.

I came across accounts about one soldier/engineer from Ballarat, Major Leslie Coulter. He trained as a mining engineer and worked in Tasmania at the Mount Lyell Mine before the war.

Major Leslie Coulter (National Archives of Australia)

He was awarded a bravery medal by the mining company for saving the lives of men trapped in a mine collapse.

In the war, he went on to see significant action on the frontlines to the extent he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for battlefield bravery.

His story intrigued me and I wanted to understand it. I wanted to get closer to that particular moment in history.

So I started exploring the digital archives of the Australian War Memorial, National Library of Australia, State Library of Victoria and WorldWarOne.com.

These resources helped me piece together a fragment of a picture of the Western Front and Ballarat around 1917.

Corner of Sturt and Lydiard Streets circa 1910 (Gold Museum collection)

One small, seemingly insignificant fragment was Leslie Coulter’s home address. It was on the same street, two blocks down from where I work, a house now gone, but a place I walk past most lunch times. History suddenly felt a lot closer to me.

I took a tour of the World War I display at the Gold Museum. I looked at artifacts from returned soldiers. I used the soldiers’ cigarette cards and a tobacco tin to ponder and explore questions in my mind.

Cigarette tin belonging to Roy Victor Holloway (Gold Museum collection, 84.0762)

Questions like, ‘Why would you leave home and loved ones to fight someone else’s war?’

I was trying to imagine how individuals caught up in the war effort might have felt in their own quiet moments of reflection.

I also wanted to explore how I felt about what I was discovering, how I was feeling about the artifacts and archives I was seeing, the thoughts they were inspiring in me.

I sensed a story moving from the bright optimism of cigarette cards to the monochrome of a grave postcard through to the haunting photos of Lake Wendouree in winter.

Lake Wendouree, circa 1908 (Gold Museum collection)

For the first time, I got a glimpse of what the devastation of war must have been like, must have felt like.

The archives made me see the war afresh, see it in higher resolution. It also made me wonder about the lives of those who were so profoundly impacted and yet whose courage was not captured in the records; the mothers, wives and sisters of the fallen.

Moreover, it brought home the devastation of World War I, both the obvious and the silent.

The devastation of lives lived courageously and then cut short, the devastation of loss reverberating with grief perhaps unending, just moved underground.

I created a webpage to capture this sense of courage and loss through images, first hand accounts and my own personal poems.

Written by James O’Callaghan, professional writing and editing student at Federation University.

The Gold Museum holds a small but significant collection relating to World War I veteran, Percy Lay.

Percy Lay was born on 8 February 1892 in Ballan, Victoria, Australia. The son of Edward and Annie Lay, he worked as a sheep and cattle dealer before enlisting in the Australian Imperial Force in 1914). Lay was posted to the 8^th Battalion and embarked for Egypt. He was in the 8^th landing at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915 until Imperial forces evacuated the following year.

Portrait of Percy Lay (Gold Museum collection, 83.0408)

Lay was known for his courage and determination under duress and it was these qualities that had him promoted to the rank of lance corporal in June 1915, corporal in February 1916 and sergeant in August 1916.

He fought near Pozieres on the Western Front and won his first decoration for his refusal to leave a wounded comrade behind in the enemy trenches after an assault upon them on 18 August 1916. Percy was recommended for a Victoria Cross by the company commander but received a Croix de Guerre avec Palme award instead.

Amongst other honours on the battlefield, Lay was also awarded the Military Medal for courage on the battlefield at Bullecourt and the Distinguished Conduct Medal for leading a platoon to its final object after the wounding of his commander. For the latter honour, he was made a second lieutenant on the field . In addition, he attained the Military Cross for his taking command of an attack after the other officers had become wounded at Broodseinde near Ypres.

Percy Lay wearing his medals (Gold Museum collection, 83.0409)

In February 1918 Lay was made a lieutenant and then shortly thereafter detached to Persia in 1918 for special duty. He returned to Australia in March 1919 and was demobilised from the army, establishing a farm in Alphington near Melbourne.

Lay’s courageous deeds on the battlefield and within the army weren’t restricted to World War One. He desired to help with the World War Two effort but was generally restricted to serving in garrisons and training units in Victoria, which helped him attain the rank of major. This is where he remained until illness forced him into hospital at Heidelberg and died shortly thereafter on 28 August 1955.

Lay’s passing was met with a number of newspaper obituaries and tributes published in The Argus and Stand To.

Percy Lay’s contribution to the ANZAC legend exemplifies Australia’s baptism of fire during the Gallipoli campaign of 1915 and later campaigns on the Western Front such as Bullecourt, Somme and Ypres. Lay is an excellent example of the ANZAC spirit and legend within our national consciousness and memory.

Search the Gold Museum’s collection to find more material relating to Percy Lay.

Written by Richard Eldridge, history graduate from Federation University and Gold Museum volunteer.

During a visit to the Gold Museum, creative writing students from Federation University were given a tour of the museum’s World War I collection and exhibition, Are You Going Too? 

Annette Chapell leads a creative writing workshop with students at the Gold Museum (Photo: Snjez Cosic)

They viewed objects and letters belonging to World War I soldiers and their families. Sovereign Hill Historian Jan Croggon imparted her knowledge of Ballarat during the war and the soldiers’ experiences in foreign lands and on the frontline. Gold Museum Curator Snjez Cosic discussed the stories behind the objects and the process of selecting items for the exhibition.

Students then engaged in a creative writing workshop led by lecturer Annette Chappell. They produced poems based on the objects they held and stories they heard about soldiers’ experiences during the Great War.

Creative writing student Rianh Silvertree produced the following moving poems based on the experiences of Ballarat’s young men who joined the war:

Once I Was.

Photographic montage of Ballarat’s men who fought during World War I (Image: Andrew Thomas)

Once I was a little boy,

Next day I was a soldier,

Now I lie in Flanders Fields,

And never will get older.

Bullet Points.

-Green wool

-Wet sheep

-Soaked damp

-Soul deep

-Rotting socks

-Stinking feet

-Aching bones

-Constant stenches

-Death come quick

-Life in trenches

A Boy, A War.

A boy,

A war,

Roy Victor Holloway’s enlistment portrait (Image: Gold Museum collection)

A gun,

A toy.

To be a man,

He went to war.

It was the thing,

To die,

For a king.

To be a man,

To be a fool,

A gun’s no toy,

A man’s no tool.

His mother cried,

His country mourned,

His sons and daughters,

Never born.