This is the cover of my
2014 historical novel Brothers Part One: Gallipoli 1915. I will be re-publishing and updating it later this year, George Hunt’s father George Campbell Hunt is in front of my
uncle Stephen Tognolini in the photo. George Campbell Hunt was killed in the
Battle of Hamel eight days later on July 4th 1918.
The book’s cover photo is from the Australian War
Memeorial’s Group Portrait of the 21st Battalion’s Non Commission Officers on 27th June 1918. I sent this part of the group portrait to Philippa Scarlett,
who wrote the excellent book Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander Volunteers for the AIF [Australian Imperial Force] and has a great website called
Indigenous Histories because I thought George Campbell Hunt was an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander Man. Philippa
published it on her website (WHAT WOULD CHARLES BEAN HAVE SAID ABOUT GEORGE
CAMPELL HUNT AIF). George Campbell Hunt’s great grandson Michael Riley, sent
her information about his great grandfather.
Phillipa wrote, “The records located by Michael and
others show his father also George Hunt was from Antigua in the West Indies and
had arrived in New South Wales by 1877.”
George Campbell Hunt with unidentified Comrades
wearing fezzes with children. Photo courtesy Michael Riley.
Are the soldiers in this photo fellow members of
the 21st Battalion? Chances are they are his Comrades. Is the photo taken in
Alexandria, Egypt before they sailed to Gallipoli in 1915? Or before sailing to
Marseille, France in 1916? Or is it at Tel El Kebir when they were guarding the
Suez Canal after Gallipoli? Is it in Cairo when they garrisoned it? Did any of
the six with George die amongst the 14 from drowning when their troopship HMT
Southland was torpedoed going to Gallipoli?
Were any of them among the 18 dead at Gallipoli from sniping? Would any
of them be amongst the 23,000 killed or wounded Australians at Pozieres? Were
any killed during the fighting at Mouquet Farm? Part of the Pozieres
battlefield described by Charles Bean as “so densely sewn with Australian
blood.” Or killed at Bullecourt? Did any drown in the mud at Passchendaele in
1917? Or the battles of 1918 such as Hamel and Mont Saint-Quentin? Do all six of them have their names on the Wall of Honour at the Australian War Memorial with the over 100,000 other names of Australia's war dead?
The one link between the six in the Egyptian
Picture is George Campbell Hunt. We know that he was wounded four times
before he won the Distinguished Conduct Medal on the Hindenburg Line,
For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty
during the assault on the Hindenburg Line. He led his platoon forward in an
attack with great coolness and courage. And although twice wounded assisted to
evacuate the wounded, resuming his command after his own wounds had been
dressed. Recommendation Distinguished
Conduct Medal.
After his death at the Battle of Hamel it was
written and widely said that he was, “ Loved by all who knew him.” The colour
of his skin did not matter not to his Army Comrades.
Yet this picture of his son George Hunt in front of
Doug Nicholls, suggests that George Campbell’s son was not accepted as an
equal. Phillipa wrote, “This is not a complete photo but is a section cut out
specifically to show Hunt and Nicholls. Although normally playing for different
teams, Brighton and Northcote respectively – both were from Northcote which
could explain the connection and the friendship which the cut out photograph
indicates. …. Richard Broome says,
“Doug tried out unsuccessfully for Carlton in 1927.
He signed with the Northcote Victorian Football Association team,…[Then]. He
played fifty-four games for [VFL/AFL Club] Fitzroy”
Broome’s comments suggests that the colour of their
skin could also have forged a bond between the two men.”
Neil Smith who wrote the history of the 21st Battalion The Red And Black Diamond points
out there were Aboriginal Anzacs in the 21st Battalion such as Lawrence Booth
Dow and Percy Pepper, there was at least 1,200 in the Australian Army during
World War One.
I will also be putting this in the updated edition of my book.
When Iris Clayton (1945 – 2009), a Wiradjuri Woman
and member of the Stolen Generations, inspired by her father Cecil Clayton, a
Rat of Tobruk in World War Two in the 2/13th Battalion, 9th Division 2nd AIF.
She wrote about his return home to Australia.
The Black Rat
He lived in a tin hut with a hard dirt floor.
He had bags sewn together
that was his door.
He was a Rat of Tobruk
until forty five,
He was one of the few
that came back alive.
Battered and scarred he fought for this land,
And on his return they
all shook his hand.
The price of fighting for
the freedom of man
Did not make any
difference to this Blackman.
He returned to the outback, no mates did he find.
If he had a beer he was jailed and then fined.
He sold all his medals he
once proudly wore:
They were of no use to
him any more.
Confused and alone he wandered around,
Looking for work though
none could be found.
The Anzac marches he
badly neglected,
Would show to his comrades how he was rejected.
He fought for this land so he could be free.
Yet he could not vote
after his desert melee.
And those years in the
desert they really took their toll,
He went there quite young
and he came home so old.
This once tall man came from a proud Black tribe,
Died all alone – no one at his side.
Iris’s description of her father experiences
applied to World War One Indigenous Veterans as well and she dedicated her poem
The Black Rat to all Indigenous Soldiers in all of Australia’s Wars. Her son
Bruce Clayton/Brown gave me permission to put it to music and reproduce it.
World War One Veterans like World War Two Veterans as demonstrated by Iris
Clayton had their children taken off them as well and became part of the Stolen Generations.
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