“Before they had gone very far, Johnson was killed outright by machine gun fire.”
During the early days of World War I, Australian families were getting telegrams with minimal information about their sons and brothers. Those telegrams were of few words other than that their family member was “missing”.
Could you imagine not knowing if your son was alive and if he wasn’t, what happened to him and where his remains were?
Twenty-three-year-old Vera Deakin, the youngest daughter of Australia’s second PM, wondered the same thing. So, in October 1915, she established the Australian Red Cross Society Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau. Its work was incredible.
When a soldier was reported missing or seen to be wounded, the Bureau interviewed his surviving comrades in military hospitals and camps near the front lines. They sought eyewitness accounts of how the soldier was last seen, whether he was wounded, or if he had been buried.
At its peak, the bureau had about 60 staff and a huge network of ‘searchers’, mostly female volunteers, in France, Belgium, and Britain. They were meticulous record keepers who created more than 32,000 individual files.
A memorial to Lance Corporal Alex Johnson
With war now dominating our headlines, it’s hard not to imagine what atrocities people on all sides are witnessing. The graphic details of one of Toowoomba’s war dead documented by the Australian Red Cross are reminders of that.
The World War I death of Alex Dunbar Johnson is memorialised on the vandalised headstone of his father in Drayton & Toowoomba Cemetery in southern Queensland. I’m pleased to report it’s now been repaired, thanks to generous donors and the work of the Headstone Healing Project, a community group that I’m part of.
Alex was “Killed in action at Peronne. Sept 1, 1918. In his 31st year.”
The lead lettering in the century-old marble plaque reads: Killed in action at Peronne. Sept 1, 1918. In his 31st year.
Lance Corporal Alexander Charles Dunbar Johnson was one of three brothers who went to war. He enlisted in 1916 and was killed in action just weeks before the war ended in 1918. His family had lived on Glendower St, Toowoomba.
Peronne is in northern France. It’s an ancient town at the junction of the Somme and Cologne Rivers. It was the objective of an intensive series of operations mounted by the Australian Corps between 29 August and 2 September 1918.
The human side of war
Fellow 53rd Battalion soldier, Private A King, described the action when interviewed by the Australian Red Cross, which played a monumental role in documenting the human side of war.
“They hopped over at 6:00 am, and about a quarter of an hour later – before they had gone very far – Johnson was killed outright by machine gun fire.”
Private King was ‘about five yards away and saw him fall’. He went over to him but ‘could not wait as he had to go on in the advance’. He never saw Johnson again but believes that he was afterwards picked up and buried near where he was killed. A big cross was afterwards erected on the spot, with the names of all those killed on it.”
Typed in the Red Cross’s files, Private King said Johnson was a well-liked chap.
Also in the files, Private Illingworth said he filled in the grave of Pte Johnson himself. An adjoining grave had four Australian soldiers within.
Pte L McCullum’s recollection is also documented. “He was killed outright by explosive bullet, hit in head. I was alongside him. I was hit a few minutes later. We were about 3 miles this side of Peronne when he was killed.”
Corporal RJ Crane “I saw him killed on the morning of 1st September, about 6:15, and just light. He was knocked by machine gun and top of head chopped right off and killed instantly. Was right alongside him at the time. He was a great pal of mine. He was buried where he fell ad a cross erected on the grave, which I saw”.
As you can see, the case files are filled with raw, first-hand accounts from soldiers. For many families, the Red Cross reports were the only information they received about their loved one’s final moments. And yes, the families were sent the details as they were written in the files, often months after receiving that first awful telegram – graphic and confronting.
In France, there is a memorial to Lance Corporal Alex Johnson. The inscription, chosen by his parents back in Toowoomba, reads IT IS GOOD FOR A MAN THAT HE BEAR THE YOKE IN HIS YOUTH. (If anyone visits the Peronne Cemetery in Somme, France, I’d love to publish a photo of the grave.) The phrase is a biblical proverb from the Book of Lamentations (3:27). In a literal sense, a ‘yoke’ is the heavy wooden beam placed across the necks of oxen to help them pull a plough; metaphorically, it represents a burden, discipline, or a period of hardship.
Hardship indeed.
While the remains of Lance Corporal Alex Johnson lie in France, back in Toowoomba, an acknowledgement of his life and his sacrifice is once again standing tall for us to recognise.
Lest We Forget.
Lisa Herbert operates Cemetery Tours Toowoomba and is a member of the Headstone Healing Project. She is the author of The Bottom Drawer Book: the after death action plan.
The Headstone Healing Project is a local community undertaking, working to repair vandalised headstones. Donate: Headstone Healing | bsb 084034 | account 978172393.
