On Friday I will leave the house
in darkness to join swarms of people commemorating the landing at Gallipoli of
the Australian and New Zealand troops in World War I. Next year will
commemorate the centenary of that landing, and no less significant this year
makes the ninety-ninth year since that fateful day.
ANZAC Day is not just a day to
commiserate the landing on the Turkish peninsula which saw thousands of allied troop’s
deaths; it is also a day to commemorate all the other battles that allied
troops have participated in since (and even prior) to Federation. From the Boer
War in South Africa, to the more recent battles in Afghanistan and Iraq,
Australia and New Zealand have a long history of involvement in warfare.
However, this is not my place to recount the strategies and death tolls of the
battles that we, as a nation were involved in, this is where I will try and
personalise some of the participants of the wars; namely some of my ancestors.
I remember observing a minutes’
silence when I was in primary school for ANZAC Day, I would have been 6 or 7
years old. I knew that we were to be silent for one minute and think about the
war, the people that fought in the war and the people that didn’t come home.
All I could think about during that minute was my Pop. He was the only ‘old’
person I could think of that had died. All my other grandparents were still
alive and as far as I knew they had not been involved in the war. As far as I
knew my Pop had not been involved in the war either, he was just the first
person that came to mind, and repeatedly entered my thoughts during these timed
silences. It would take me years, actually, nearly 20 of them to discover the
war histories that surround my ancestors.
The War in Europe
It turns out that Hank did
participate in battle. However, he was not an ANZAC, and at that time had never
stepped onto Australian soil, it would be during his time in the army, where he
did get his first taste of Australia.
Hendrik (Hank) Suffridus Wilkens
was born in 1920 in the Dutch East Indies; modern day Indonesia. According to
his Australian naturalisation records he and his family moved back to the
Netherlands for ten years in 1935. Both of Hank’s parents had been born and
raised in the Dutch East Indies, sporadically returning to the Netherlands
during their lives.
 |
| Hank Wilkens (fifth from right in trench coat) in the Netherlands in 1941. Note the Swastika painted on the wall behind the group. |
The Wilkens returned to the
Netherlands four years prior to the outbreak of the Second World War. The Netherlands
hoped to stay neutral in the face of another World War, however in May 1940
Rotterdam was bombed and the Dutch were invaded by Nazi Germany. The
Netherlands, including the Wilkens family were staring into the darkness of
another war, and wouldn’t see the end of it for another four years. In 1945
Germany surrendered and the Second World War would end, and Hank would return
to the Dutch East Indies. Hardly the tropical paradise that the Wilkens family
had left in 1935, the Dutch East Indies had been invaded by the Japanese in
1942, bringing violence and unrest to the generally peaceful islands.
In 1945 on Hank’s return to the
Dutch East Indies he was conscripted to the KNIL (Koninklijk Nederlands Indisch Leger), the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army. What
happened next is hard to say, what I do know for sure is that he came to
Australia in 1946 with the Army, for how long and where exactly I can’t say. Whilst
I do hold copies of Hank’s military records they are all in Dutch, a language I
am not proficient in, unless you count Google Translate as proficient. However,
by glancing through a short history of the KNIL it appears that the time frame in
which Hank was a part of the this faction of the Dutch Army would have been the
time in which the Dutch were trying to reestablish control of Indonesia which
had both been invaded by the Japanese as well as natives trying to overthrow
the Dutch government and reestablish control. The efforts of the Dutch failed
and the Netherlands finally conceded defeat and recognised Indonesian
sovereignty in 1949. The same year Hank returned to the Netherlands, before
immigrating to Australia in 1951.
From Australian Shores
On the other
branch of the tree, being my maternal side and a World War before Hank’s involvement
was the enlistment of four brothers from Kapunda, South Australia.
Lancelot Dudley Hughes
was my great grandfather. Born in 1895 to Henry and Penelope Hughes he was the
second of four sons and one daughter. Fairly quick off the mark Dudley, as he
was more commonly known, enlisted in July 1915 and embarked for battle in
November of that year. Corporal L. D. Hughes of the 27th Battalion
served in Egypt and France and was wounded in action in 1916 after a gunshot
wound to the chest. Dudley’s two older brothers, also felt the patriotic call
of warfare. In February and August of 1915 Roland Harry Hughes and Leonard
Headland Hughes, respectively enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force (AIF).
All were enlisted in the 27th Battalion. This particular Battalion
was raised in South Australia in March 1915 and a large number of recruits came
from the suburbs of Adelaide. Lieutenant Roland Hughes landed on the shores of
Gallipoli in September 1915 before seeing action in Egypt and France. In August
1916 he received a gunshot wound to the leg and was hospitalised.
 |
| Private Leonard Headland Hughes. Photo courtesy of Grave Secrets |
The eldest of
them all was Leonard Headland Hughes. Enlisting in August 1915, Leonard set
sail on the seas in January the following year. Initially part of the 8th
Reinforcements of the 27th Infantry Battalion, he would later join
the 10th Infantry Battalion. About five months after he’d set sail
Leonard arrived on solid, hot, and sandy ground in Egypt. However, by early
April he had set sail again, this time for Marseille, France. The 10th
Battalions first major action was at Pozières in
the Somme Valley in July 1916.[1]
They were heavily involved in establishing and defending the front line of the
ANZAC position[2].
The Battle of the Somme would lead to almost 23,000 Australian
casualties. Sadly, Private Leonard Hughes was one of those. The eldest of the
Hughes’ brother’s name adorned the pages of the ‘missing lists’ in the
Australian newspapers for months, until he was finally declared ‘killed in
action’ in January 1917. His Red Cross papers state that ‘on about the date named [July 23/25 1916]
Hughes was killed in the front line trench, the top part of his body being
blown away’[3]
it is presumably because of the gruesome nature of his death that the war
office was not able to locate his body. On the 24th June 1921 the Base Records
Office for the AIF had still been ‘unable to obtain any trace of the last
resting place of...the late No. 3520 Private L. H. Hughes, 10th Battalion’[4].
 |
| Corporal Lancelot Dudley Hughes. Photo courtesy of Grave Secrets. |
In 1917 Henry and Penelope Hughes had lost one son in the
fields of France and had two more fighting battles on the same soil. It was in
November of that same year that Norman Charles Hughes, their youngest son asked
and gained permission from his parents to enlist in the AIF. Included in Norman’s
attestation papers is a letter written in Henry’s hand giving permission for
his 19 year old son to enlist in active service. A presumably patriotic, yet
anxious Henry states that Norman ‘is the fourth son to enlist. I have no more!’[5]
Private Norman Charles Hughes of the 3rd
Lighthorse would return home, alongside two of his brother’s Dudley and Roland.
Private Leonard Headland Hughes’ remains were reinterred possibly as late as
1929 in the Serre Road Cemetery No. 2, situated near Beaumont Hamel, France. He
was posthumously awarded the Victory Medal, the British War Medal and the
1914/15 Star.
So, when I
am braving the cold Autumnal morning waiting for the sun to rise and listening
to the bugle play the Last Post I will think of my ancestors that fought for
freedom that we can call normality. I will think of Hank and his family
watching his country crumbling under Nazi invasion. I will think of Henry and
Penelope Hughes farewelling four sons off to war. And I will think of Private
Leonard Headland Hughes gallantly leaving the comfort of the South Australian shores
to stare one of the AIF’s most horrific battles square in the face and not
returning home.
Lest we
forget.
This is just a small snippet of my
ancestors that participated did their bit for their country during the
twentieth century. Others were no less important or insignificant having
participated in several different factions over both World Wars.
Some of the sources I have used to research my ancestor's war histories include:
[1]
10th Battalion, http://www.awm.gov.au/units/unit_11197.asp,
accessed 14 March 2012
[2]
Ibid.
[3]
Australian Red Cross Society Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau, http://www.awm.gov.au/collection/records/1drl0428/2/138/10/1drl-0428-2-138-10-14.pdf,
accessed 14 March 2012
[4]
Hughes, L. H., ‘Attestation and Military Service
Records’, Service Number 3520, National Archives of Australia, B2455, http://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/scripts/Imagine.asp?B=7031357,
accessed 14 March 2012.
[5]
Hughes, N. C., ‘Attestation and Military Records’, Service Number 3715,
National Archives of Australia, B2455, http://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/scripts/Imagine.asp,
accessed 14 March 2012.
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