australianimperialforce

See here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rupert_Balfe

A digitised copy of his army records can be seen here:- recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/Details... recordsearch.naa.gov.au/scripts/Imagine.asp?B=3046839 He was appointed a Second Lieutenant in the 6th Battalion on the 24th August 1914 and promoted to Lieutenant with effect from the 1st February 1915. On his application for a commission he states he is a Medical Student and has 4 years service with the MM Rifles - fifteen months as an officer. His home address is 6 Barkly Street, Brunswick.It looks like his date of birth is recorded as "March the ninth 1890" - but this is a trainee doctors handwriting ! He had embarked at Melbourne on the 19th October 1914 on the transport ship "Honoraria" \ "Honorata" - different spellings on various documents. On the day that he died he was initially reported as wounded and missing. It was only later in the summer that this was updated to killed in action. One of the inquiries sent by his father was on company headed notepaper - "M Balfe & Sons, Importers and Exporters, of 58-62 Sydney Road, Brunswick, Victoria." In a side panel it lists the company as importers of paperhangings, paints, oils, varnishes, brushware, sheet and fancy glass, picture mouldings, etc, as well as sole makers of Balfe's black and colors for ladies straw hats and Balfes school black for blackboards, used in Public and Private Schools and by State Governments. They are suppliers of enamel varnish stains for wood and patent knotting. The business even has a telephone numbers - Brunswick 190. Included in the file is the report of an Infantry Sergeant Collins, made in October 1919 about the death of Lieutenant Balfe. "At Gaba Tepe 25/04/1915. Landed in the early morning about 5.20 am, just reached beach and a bursting shell killed Balfe instantly. He was in command of B Company. Came from Australia with informant on transport Honorato on 19th 1914. Buried at Hillcrest - Shrapnel Gully - Gaba Tepe. Temporary cross erected. Dark complexion, about 25 years of age, thickset. From Victoria." Given the length of time that had elapsed and the other experiences the Sergeant must have gone through, there may be some confusion in his statement, but the fundamentals sound right. It looks like the 6th Battalion War Diary doesn't start until May 1915. Father; Major Matthew Balfe JP. Mother; Sarah Balfe (nee Knott), according to this site, www.anzacs.org/index_ab.html (His army records just refer to his father as M Balfe, but he, (M Balfe) does authorise his wife Sarah to sign for their son's medals in the correspondence in the army records.

Nice work Mooms. We're so lucky to have military records and other repositories now online to fill in the story! Saves so much leg work compared to the 80's! Digital papers are also cool. This item states his parents were mayor and mayoress of Brunswick, Victoria trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/87754397/8486000?zoomLev...

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

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/