australianimperialforce

2953 Acting Sargent-(A/Sgt)-Charles Francis Maule Payne-(Bottom row/3rd from left)-was my great grandfather. He was allocated land from the government after returning home from active duties during WW1. The location of that land is where the Hazelwood Cooling Pondage now stands as part of the Hazelwood Power Station-(Decommissioned). A commemorative plaque overlooking the pondage lists the names of returned WW1 soldiers who also had land allocated to them in that area..."Lest We Forget" 😔🌹

Lt Blair also features in an Australian War Memorial photograph of the officers of 11th Bn, AIF: www.awm.gov.au/collection/E01778/

There was an article in the Western Mail of 21 April 1938 referring to the publication of a history of the 11th Battalion AIF, asking potential subscribers to contact a R. W. Blair of 79 William Street, Perth; via Trove, the National Library of Australia's digitised newspaper collection: trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/37846948

Assuming that it is the same person, it appears that R. W. Blair was later Secretary of the 11th Battalion AIF Association, e.g. inviting members to attend the funeral of their former colleague Private Victor Charles (Joker) Speed at Karrakatta in 1933: trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/32594769

See also: trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/32946656

Robert Walton Blair, born Fremantle, WA; enlisted Kalgoorie, WA, 7 March 1915, aged 19; next of kin Mary Ellen Blair (mother). Digitised papers available from the National Archives of Australia:
recordsearch.naa.gov.au/NameSearch/Interface/ItemDetail.a...

There is a lot of detail in the records, but we know from them that he embarked for Alexandria at Fremantle on the 25 May 1915. He then spent some time in Egypt and the Dardanelles, but was hospitalised in October 1915 due to illness (enteritis), bad enough to be sent to hospital in England. He returned to Egypt before heading on to France in early 1916, being appointed Lance Corporal on 23 June 1916. He was promoted 2nd Lieutenant on 19 May 1917, then Lieutenant on 19 August 1917. In July 1918, he was seconded to the Australian Flying Corps for training as a Flying Officer Pilot, being based in England with 6th Training Squadron. He returned in Australia in 1919.

Links to further information (including the same photograph) at: anzacsonline.net.au/2012/11/blair-robert-walton/

Allan Edmund Betts, tailor, of Latrobe, Tasmania. He enlisted in the 12th Battalion on 5 January 1915 and embarked from Fremantle on HMAT Argyllshire on 19 April 1915 for Gallipoli. Pte Betts was evacuated to Malta on 19 August 1915 suffering from a leg infection and dysentery and then to England for treatment and convalescence. He returned to Egypt just prior to the battalion relocating to France and the Western Front in April 1916. Pte Betts was killed in action near Vadencourt, north east of Amiens, France between 19-22 August 1916, aged 20 years. He has no known grave and his name is recorded on the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial, France.

His Australian Army Papers can be seen here naa12.naa.gov.au/scripts/Imagine.asp?B=3078086