Edwin
Martin was born on 8 July 1895, the second son of Edwin and Agnes Martin of
Dundas, Tasmania. (1) ‘Ted’ enlisted in November 1916 and was granted the regimental number 3358. At
the time he was described as a Methodist, standing 5 foot 7 inches in height,
weighing 167 pounds with fair hair and blue eyes. His occupation was listed as
a millhand, although he had previously worked as a miner. (2) Ted appears to have been
close to his brother Howard who was only two years his senior. (3) Ted’s military career was
to last only a little over 16 months, ending with his death from wounds at
Etaples, France in early April 1918. (4)
Patriotism
was likely the underlying motivation for both the older Martin boys enlisting in
the Great War. They were inherently children of the British Empire as their
father claimed to be Canadian by birth and their mother was descended from
English bounty immigrants on both sides from Cornwall and Somersetshire. (5) Both brothers had skills
that recommended them for military service: Howard had three years’ experience
with the local rifle club, Ted had trained with the Tasmanian 91st
Infantry based at Zeehan. (6) It was perhaps a statement
of both their mutual attachment as well as their resolve to serve their country
that the brothers enlisted together at Zeehan on 14 November 1916. (7)
All
recruits received a minimum of three months training following enlistment at
Claremont camp. (8) During his training Ted received vaccinations, inoculations and made a will
naming his father as his sole beneficiary. (9) He was eventually assigned
to the 8th Reinforcements for the 40th Battalion on 9
June 1917. (10) Ted embarked on the Hororata on 14 June from Sydney and arrived in
Liverpool on 23 September. Ted was stationed at Sutton Mandeville where he
would have received further training and instruction. (11) He proceeded with the 8th
reinforcements to France on 27 December. (12)
Ted
Martin arrived at the Australian Infantry Base at Rouelles on 28 December 1917 was
taken on strength in the field on 1 January 1918. (13) At the time, the 40th
Battalion were finishing an assignment in the trenches of the Armentieres
sector. On 3 January, the Battalion transferred the Armentieres sector over to
the 57th British Division. The men were assigned to lewis gun and
signalling schools. In late January following the Russian withdrawal, the 40th
relieved the 27th at Red Lodge (Hill 63) as the reserve battalion to
the 10th Division. They began work on a new defence system that also
incorporated Messines, St. Ives and Polegsteert Wood in anticipation of an offensive.
Every available man at the time, including Ted, was engaged in building this
network of rear defences. Despite a short diversion in the Warneton sector, the
support role at Hill 63 continued for several weeks. (14) From the 25 February 1918, the 40th
were regulated to a reserve status at Sedingham, where in addition to training
and work on the defences, there were football competitions between the
companies and base headquarters as well as target competitions held by the
Australian Rifle Association. (15)
By
late March a German offensive would place the 40th Battalion back at
the front line of the war. However, Ted Martin was proving deficient as a soldier.
He was warned for being absent without leave from his post on 16 February and
then caught again on 17 February. Ted was officially admonished by the O. C. on
18 February. (16) Concerns over discipline were understandable: after a full day of heavy machine
gun fire, the enemy launched several raids on the night of 21 February, which
General Birdwood attributed to a desire to test vulnerabilities along the line.
The 40th were all transferred to Lumbres by 23 March. On 25 March, Major
General W. Ramsay McNichol informed his officers at Champangne that the British
line had been broken and long-range shelling was now striking Paris. The 40th
were promptly marched to St. Omer and at Mondicourt they encountered both
troops and civilians retreating, learning that the enemy were only 10 miles
away. The entire Australian 3rd Division were positioned between
Ancre and the Somme. A miscommunication resulted in a withdrawal during the
night of 26 March. By the time the orders were reversed the enemy had advanced.
During the relatively quiet night of 27 March, there was much anticipation of
the engagement expected the next day. (17)
The
attack on Morlancourt on 28 March 1918 proved to be Ted’s first and last major
battle. Two brigades of Germans were known to be marching on Morlancourt and the
40th and 41st Battalions were given orders to proceed at
4 p.m. to take the high ground before the enemy arrived. Assembling on the
Amiens Line, the 40th opened out into sections and came under
artillery fire from German artillery as they advanced ‘parade ground style’.
They encountered about a hundred men digging machine gun posts and opened fire,
targeting only the guns as the enemy retreated. A line was established 400
yards west of Treux-Sailly-Laurette Road. The local topography was level and
suited to gunfire and with a single bank that allowed cover for base
headquarters. An advance was planned for 7 p.m. and although joined by the 39th,
the 41st had been delayed and they were ordered to ‘dig in’. Attempts
to dislodge a nearby machine gun post that night were unsuccessful. At the end
of the day there had been 160 casualties, including Ted Martin. The wounded were
transferred 800 yards in borrowed carts to the regimental aid post. From there
they were transferred to Heilly Station and from there by ambulances.(18) While the Germans had
recaptured all the ground of the Somme they had lost over the previous two
years within five days of breaking the lines, it had been Anzac resistance that
had secured the area by 31 March. (19)
Ted
was eventually admitted to the 1st Canadian General Hospital at
Etaples on 1 April with gunshot wounds to his thigh and side. His left femur
had been shattered. He died following an attempt to amputate the leg. He was
afterwards buried in Etaples cemetery. (20) Bart Ziino has argued
that regarding the families ‘distance mediated their attempts to cope with
loss’. Their grief was arguably also protracted by the official process as the
cemeteries only began to take shape in the 1920s and many memorials were not
completed until the mid-1930s. (21) While Ted’s personal
effects arrived promptly in late June 1918, it wasn’t until almost a year after
his death that his father was sent two photographs of his grave. Edwin senior was
posthumously sent a notice listing its location in Etaples cemetery in August
1922. Military bureaucracy also struggled with the dispatch of Ted’s memorial
plaque and war medals, complicated by the passing of both his father and stepmother.
His brother Howard assumed personal responsibility for liaising with the
Department. (22)
The
majority of Ted Martin’s military career was spent training or serving in a
reserve capacity. The abrupt manner of his death in early April 1918 following
his first and only major engagement reflects the precarious nature of any
soldier’s life. But the sacrifice of all
the men who died as a result of the attack on Morlancourt appears to have had
particular significance to the overall war effort. In his history of the 40th
Battalion published in 1922, Frack C. Green explained:
The result of the day was
that we had advanced 1200 yards and the enemy was at least 1200 yards further
from Amiens than he would otherwise have been. It does not seem much but that
distance was of tremendous importance, as that piece of ground overlooked the
whole valley of the Somme toward Amiens. Our unexpected attack had also held up
the attack which the enemy was making in strength. He sat down and waited for
40 hours, wondering if the whole of the Australian corps were behind it, and
every minute of the 40 hours was precious. It enabled us to get forward more
machine-guns, to improve our defensive position and, most important of all, it
gave our artillery time to arrive. It is probable that had his attack developed
at 5 p.m. on the evening of the 28th March he would have pushed us
back, as ours was a thinly-held line without artillery or trench mortars, and
no support of reserve troops behind us; and if he had pushed us back there was
practically nothing to stop him reaching his great objective, Amiens. (23)
Would
this have been any consolation to Ted’s brother Howard or any of his surviving
immediate family if they ever read those words? Perhaps, but I certainly suspect
Ted himself would have been content. While he was not a model soldier, Ted
Martin arguably died a meaningful, patriotic death at a time when devotion to
the collective good was highly valued and encouraged. A surviving photo postcard
of himself in uniform to his sister appears to suggest an uncomplicated, modest,
gentle character. It simply reads: ‘To My Dearly beloved sister Edith with
kindest regards from Ted.’(24)
%20MARTIN.jpg)
- Dr. Colin Woollcott Mallett, 2 February 2024.
(1) His
father was a miner and later a farmer. Both his parents shared Cornish heritage
and had four children who survived infancy. His mother died in 1898 and his
father subsequently remarried his housekeeper, Phoebe Parker. Edwin senior had
a second family and three of Ted’s half-siblings survived to adulthood. See: Tasmanian
Archives, Register General’s Department, Registers of Marriage, District of
Mersey, RGD37/1/49 no. 907; Tasmanian Archives, Register General’s Department,
Registers of Death, District of Zeehan, RGD35/1/67 no. 1194; Tasmanian
Archives, Register General’s Department, Registers of Birth, District of
Zeehan, RGD33/1/80 no. 3163; Tasmanian Archives, Register General’s Department,
Registers of Marriage, District of Zeehan, RGD37/1/44, no. 1331.
(2) Service
record of Edwin Martin, First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers,
1914-1920, National Archives of Australia, B2455, MARTIN E, pp 1, 9-10. Also see: Edwin Martin, Roll
of Honour Cards 1914-1918, War, Army, 441/3, Australian War Memorial, AWM145, https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/R1649498 , accessed 4 September 2023.
(3) Tasmanian
Archives, Register General’s Department; Register of Births, District of
Strahan, RGD33/1/76 no. 2663.
(4) Service record of Edwin Martin, pp 40-41.
(5) Tasmanian
Archives, Register General’s Department, Registers of Marriage, District of
Zeehan, RGD37/1/44, no. 1331; Tasmanian
Archives, Register General’s Department, Registers of Birth, District of
Morven, RGD33/1/44 no. 962.
(6) Service
record of Howard Martin, First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers,
1914-1920, National Archives of Australia, B2455, MARTIN H, p 1 and Service record of Edwin Martin,
p 1. Known as the Tasmanian Rangers, the militia were first formed in 1914 and
it was ‘B Company’ that was stationed in Zeehan and Waratah. Refer to: ‘Tasmania
Military – Infantry 1914’, Australian Military History of the Early 20th
Century, https://alh-research.tripod.com/Light_Horse/index.blog/1840846/militia-distribution-in-australia-1914-6th-military-district-part-1/
, accessed 4 September 2023.
(7) Service
record of Edwin Martin, p 1 & Service record of Howard Martin, p 1.
(8) F.
C. Green, The Fortieth A Record of the 40th Battalion A.I.F.,
John Vail, Hobart, 1942, p 2 & Service record of Edwin Martin, p 4. The Claremont training camp
which serviced up to 2200 recruits at a time was situated at Triffett’s Point
near Hobart. This position was considered ideal as it was close to rail and an
embarkation port. Refer to: ‘Claremont Training Camp Remembered’, Centenary of
Anzac, https://www.centenaryofanzac.tas.gov.au/grants_and_programs/centenary_of_anzac_grants_program/past_projects/claremont_training_camp_walk_of_remembrance#:~:text=A%20good%20place%20to%20train,housed%20up%20to%202200%20men , accessed 4 September 2023.
(9) Service
record of Edwin Martin, pp 17,
45-6, 49. The will was dated 23 May 1917 and witnessed by Sgt. Urban A. Hanley.
(10) Service
record of Edwin Martin, p 4. The
40th Battalion was the Tasmanian contribution to the Australian
Third Division of the 1st AIF. Notification of the intention
to form an exclusively Tasmanian Battalion had been announced early in 1916.
After some initial doubts the quote was soon met. See: Marilyn Lake, A
Divided Society Tasmanian during World War I, Melbourne University Press,
Carlton, 1975, p 58.
(11) Service
record of Edwin Martin, p 4.
The camps at Sutton Mandeville were positioned between Fovant and Shallowcliff
and included the requisitioned manor house. Refer to: ‘The Camps’, The Sutton
Badges, https://suttonbadges.org.uk/the-camps/ , accessed 4 September 2023.
(12) Service
record of Edwin Martin, p 4
Statement of Service indicates 24 December but Casualty Form p 9 lists his
departure date as 27 December 1917.
(13) Service
record of Edwin Martin, p 9. The
40th Battalion had enjoyed a distinguished career to that date on
the front. Originally disembarking at Le Harve on 24 November 1916 they had
initially engaged in trench warfare in Armentieres on 9 December for a period
of four months. They had then been involved in the Battle of Messines on 7 June
1917. The Battalion had gone on to take part in action in the Third Battle of
Ypres. Notably in August 1917 when the Battalion was transferred from
Armentieres to Ypres, they took 300 prisoners and captured 17 machine gun posts
at the price of 50 casualties. See: Green, The Fortieth, pp 59, 62.
(14) Green, The Fortieth, pp 106-108. The makeup of
the Battalion at this stage consisted of the four companies headed by: Captain G. S. Bisdee (A Company),
Lieut. G. L. MacIntyre (B Company), Capt. W. C. G. Ruddock (C Company), Maj. L.
F. Giblin MC (D Company). There’s no indication in his war file to which
specific company Ted belonged.
(15) Following
the Battle of Riga in early September 1917, the Russians lost six divisions and
left the Entente. Consequently, there followed a massive redeployment of German
troops to the Western front. See: C. E. W. Bean, The Australian Imperial
Force in France: during the main German Offensive, 1918, Angus &
Robertson, Sydney, 1937, p 93. See also:
Green, The Fortieth,
p 109-111.
(16) Service
record of Edwin Martin, p 9. There
is no more information on the incident in his file. In contrast, his brother
Howard received no black marks on his war record. Refer to Service Record of
Howard Martin, pp. 1-30.
(17) This was to be the start of a new period
of attrition warfare in the Somme for the 1st AIF. Between 27
March and 7 May 1918, as a result of the German offensive, the Australians
suffered 15,000 casualties. Green,
The Fortieth, pp 109-112.
The first and main offensive was
known as Operation Michael, after St. Michael the patron saint of Germany. It
was also called ‘kaiserschlact’ or the Emperor’s battle. The
line was broken at the southern end of the front against the British 5th
Army. See: Christopher Mick, ‘1918:Endgame’ in Jay Winter (ed), The
Cambridge History of the First World War Vol. 1, Cambridge University
Press, Cambridge, 2013, pp 147-148.
(18) Green, The Fortieth, pp 116-120. The ‘disposition of the
Battalion’ that day: Capt. J. D. Chisholm (A Company), Capt. G. S. Bisdee (B
Company), Lieut. C. H. O. Whitaker (C Company), Lieut. C. H. Cane (D Company).
Lieutenant A. P. Brown led Platoon 7 on two attempts to eradicate the machine
gun post positioned in the ‘problem copse’ from the left flank but had to
withdraw when it was reduced to only five men.
(19) Bill
Gammage, The Broken Years Australian Soldiers in the Great War,
Australian University Press, Canberra, 1974, p 195-196. The regimental aid post
was under the command of Captain W. I. Clark MC.
(20) Service
record of Edwin Martin, p 10
His death and circumstances were reported in the Mercury 12 April 1918,
p 6, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/11389176 accessed 16 August 2023.
(21) No
remains were repatriated and only 38,000 of 60,000 casualties were buried in
identified graves. As early as 1917, the Imperial War Graves Commission were
given a mandate to operate on behalf of the bereaved constructing 1,850
cemeteries with uniform monuments. Although families were provided with
photographs and could provide a personalised inscription at their own cost, few
could afford to visit in person, and this impacted the mourning process. See: Bart Ziino, A Distant Grief,
Australians, War Graves and the Great War, University of Western Australia
Press, Crawley, 2007, pp 1-3, 125, 130.
(22) Edwin’s personal effects were
returned 11 June 1918 to Australia via Barunga arriving 20 June 1918 in
case no. 1223 and addressed to his father. They included: two Discs, two
fountain pens, a Knife, a key ring and chain, a metal watch damaged and strap, an
electric torch, a matchbox cover, writing pad cover, photos, two letters, a wallet.
The photographs were sent on 18 March 1919. It was around the same time on the 22 March
1919 his father received Ted’s bank book. Regarding his listing on the Roll of
Honour at the newly minted Australian War Memorial, Edwin senior wrote to the
Secretary of the Department of Defence on 15 February 1920 explaining that due
to old age and poverty he could not afford the fee and had forwarded the letter
to his son Howard for his consideration. The letter describing the position of Ted’s grave as Plot 32
Row a grave 5A was sent 14 August 1922. Edwin senior himself had died on 5 July
1921. See: Service record of Edwin Martin, pp 18-53 & Tasmanian Archives,
Register General’s Department, Registers of Death, District of Hobart, RGD35/1/1921
no. 1957.
(23) Green, The Fortieth, p 120.
(24) Photograph of Edwin Martin, c.1917,
original held by Colin Woollcott Mallett, Launceston, Tasmania.
Bibliography
Primary Sources
Australian War Memorial, Roll of Honour Cards 1914-1918, War, Army, AWM145.
Edwin Martin, Photograph, c. 1917, original held by Colin Woollcott Mallett, Launceston, Tasmania.
Mercury (Hobart 1860-1954).
National Archives of Australia, First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920, B2455.
Tasmanian Archives: Register General’s Department; Registers of Births, District of Morven, RGD33.
Tasmanian Archives: Register General’s Department; Registers of Births, District of Strahan, RGD33.
Tasmanian Archives: Register General’s Department; Registers of Births, District of Zeehan, RGD33.
Tasmanian Archives: Register General’s Department; Registers of Deaths, District of Hobart, RGD35.
Tasmanian Archives: Register General’s Department; Registers of Deaths, District of Zeehan, RGD35.
Tasmanian Archives: Register General’s Department, Registers of Marriage, District of
Mersey, RGD37.
Tasmanian Archives: Register General’s Department, Registers of Marriage, District of Zeehan, RGD37.
Secondary Sources
Bean, C. E. W., The Australian Imperial Force in France: during the main German offensive, 1918, Angus and Robertson, Sydney, 1937.
Gammage, Bill, The Broken Years Australian Soldiers in the Great War, Australian National University Press, Canberra, 1974.
Green, F. C., The Fortieth A Record of the 40th Battalion A. I. F., John Vail Government Printer, Hobart, 1942.
Lake, Marilyn, A Divided Society Tasmania during World War I, Melbourne University Press, Carlton, 1975.
Mick, Christopher, ‘Endgame:1918’ in Jay Winter, The Cambridge History of the First World War Vol. 1, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2013, pp. 133-171.
Ziino, Bart, A Distant Grief Australians, War Graves and the Great War, University of Western Australia Press, Crawley, 2007.
Online Sources
‘The Camps’, The Sutton Badges, https://suttonbadges.org.uk/the-camps/ , accessed on 4 September 2023.
‘Claremont Training Camp Remembered’, Centenary of Anzac, https://www.centenaryofanzac.tas.gov.au/grants_and_programs/centenary_of_anzac_grants_program/past_projects/claremont_training_camp_walk_of_remembrance#:~:text=A%20good%20place%20to%20train,housed%20up%20to%202200%20men , accessed 4 September 2023.
‘Tasmanian Militia – Infantry 1914’, Australian Military History of the Early 20th Century, https://alh-research.tripod.com/Light_Horse/index.blog/1840846/militia-distribution-in-australia-1914-6th-military-district-part-1/ , accessed 4 September 2023.
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