‘ANZAC: Diary of Harold Rydon 1914-1917’

By Rupert Mayhew

Harold Rydon was working at Euri Creek, a few miles from Bowen, Queensland when war was declared on August 5th 1914. He rode to Bowen that afternoon, joining up as a private in the Australian Army, and, after training, was shipped to Egypt, Lemnos and eventually Gallipoli where his unit was in the vanguard of the ANZAC landings on April 25th 1915.

Rydon reached deep inland before being injured and his unit fell back. He returned to Gallipoli in July that year and, after the final evacuation, joined the nascent Royal Flying Corps in England and served on the Western Front through much of 1917.

This diary has been transcribed from the original, typescript, document and has been made available for the first time. This is a useful primary historical source for any historian or student of the Gallipoli campaign and of the early days of the Royal Flying Corps.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rupert Mayhew
• Release date: Oct 21, 2015
• ISBN: 9781311557582

Book preview

‘ANZAC - Diary of Harold Rydon 1914-1917’

A Record of the Experiences of No. 943 Lance-Corporal H. E. Rydon of the 9th Battalion, Third Infantry Brigade, First Australian Division, A.I.F. & later as Captain of the Royal Air Force

Orig. Edited by: Dr. A. H. B. Rydon 1981

Further edited and transcribed by Rupert Mayhew in 2015

Published by Rupert Mayhew at Smashwords

Copyright 2015 Rupert Mayhew

All Rights Reserved

This book remains the copyrighted property of the author and may not be redistributed

‘TO THE GLORY OF GOD

AND AS A THANK OFFERING


FOR THE PRESERVATION


DURING THE GREAT WAR OF

H.E. RYDON CAP RAF THE

CHANCEL & TOWERSCREENS

& REREDOS ARE DEDICATED

EGYPT GALLIPOLI 1914-15

FRANCE 1917-18

‘FLOREAT ETONA’

Contents

1 - Introduction L/CPL. H. E. Rydon

2 - August 1914. Queensland, Australia

3 - December 1914. Suez, Egypt

4 - March 1915. Lemnos, Greece

5 - April 1915. Gallipoli, Turkey

6 - April 1915. Alexandria, Egypt

7 - July 1915. Gallipoli, Turkey

8 - December 1915. Nile, Egypt

9 - Summary

10 - May 1916. Phoenix Squadron, Royal Flying Corps

11 - August 1917. Western Front, France

Notes on L/CPL. H. E. Rydon (By his son, Arthur Rydon)

L/Cpl. H. E. Rydon was born in London on 2nd November 1890, the only son of Londoner Arthur Hope Rydon and his Irish wife Jane Frances Rydon (nee Palles), of Warwick Square, Pimlico.

He was, I understand, baptized as a Roman Catholic (because his mother was an R.C.) but he was bought up as a member of the Church of England (because his father was C. of E.). He was christened Edwin Harold (in his birth certificate), but reversed the initials to ‘H.E.’ for the rest of his life.

His father, Arthur Hope Rydon, was a solicitor who practiced in London, before moving (after the death of his own father) to Sussex at the turn of the century, where he built a Tudor-style house at Scaynes Hill, near Haywards Heath, and became a ‘landed gentleman’.

My grandfather and father were keen naturalists so country life agreed with them. They were also both musical, my grandfather being a good pianist (so I have been told), and my father was a keen concert and opera-goer (I have a book of Wagner’s operas, signed by my father, and dated 2nd November 1911 - a twenty-first birthday present presumably, because the initials A.R. are written under my own father’s signature, signifying Arthur Rydon, my grandfather, not me!).

My father attended Eton College, but was taken away, much to his disgust, at the age of 17 (in 1907) and sent to the continent to learn German and French, in preparation for a career in the Diplomatic Service. However, nothing came of these plans in the end because by 1912, according to his Royal Flying Corps memoirs (which I have in my possession) he was a member of the University of London Officer Training Corps, being at the time a student at the City and Guilds Engineering College.

Again nothing seems to have come of his engineering career, for by May 1912 he was (according to a book I have of his on Australian wildlife) on board the SS

Cassel heading for Australia! (Perhaps he felt unsettled in himself, owing to the Kaiser’s boasts and threats, and the arming of Germany in preparation for war).

When he arrived in Australia he started work as a ‘Jackaroo’ (Australian slang for an English settler) on sheep ranches in the outback of Queensland. I have some old photos showing him as a young farm-hand in Queensland, but by the time the first world war broke out, on 5th August 1914, he was, as he tells us in his ANZAC memoirs, growing tomatoes at his own farm in Euri Creek, near Merinda, a few miles from Bowen, Queensland.

He mentions, in the aforesaid memoirs, a Miss ‘Tinna’ Dinsdale a couple of times; this lady, better known to her later friends as Gladys, bravely followed L/Cpl Rydon to England from her home in Queensland during the war. They were married in Lindfield, Sussex, on 14th June 1916 (i.e. on her twenty-first birthday) and Gladys Rydon subsequently became my mother. (The first child of the union was my sister Pamela who was born on the 14th April 1918 in Sussex; I was born in Brisbane, Australia in December 1919, where my parents returned after the war.

They did not stay in Australia long and moved to Kenya where my brother, David, was born in 1921. The climate of the Kenyan highlands did not agree with my mother, however, and my parents moved south to Tanganyika (now Tanzania) where they became coffee-farmers and where they remained until their deaths. My mother died in March 1964 and my father in May 1969 in his eightieth year.

A.H.B. Rydon 3 Feb 1987

By H. E. Rydon

When Britain declared war on Germany on August 5th, 1914, I was farming at Euri Creek, near Merinda, a few miles from Bowen, Queensland. It was the tomato season, and Bill Turner and I were busy picking tomatoes and packing them for shipment to Sydney. I rode into Bowen on my chestnut horse that afternoon just before the cable was published announcing the Declaration of War. I went to the Drill Hall where Infantry were already parading in preparation for the Expedition to German New Guinea and gave my name as being willing to volunteer for service.

On the evening of August 18th I received a message from Jack Mellon to go to Bowen the next day, which I did. I was interviewed by Sergeant Flannery, medically examined by Dr. Gillies, passed fit and instructed to proceed to Townsville by Friday’s train. On Friday I was joined by Cheffins, Drysdale and Terence O’Brian – just four of us – the First Bowen Contingent!

When we reached Townsville we reported to the Drill Hall, were medically examined and duly sworn in as Privates in the Australian Army – ‘six bob-a-day tourists’ they called us, because that was our remuneration, which was generous for those days as compared with that of the British ‘Tommy’ who only received one shilling and three pence per day.

On the afternoon of Saturday, August 22nd, we paraded at 2.30pm, were blessed by the Rev. Crozier, and marched through Townsville, led by the Town Band to the S.S. ‘Bombola’. We sailed at 4pm and were given a great send-off. The ‘Bombola’ was not a luxury liner and we had our first experience of sleeping on hard ship’s decks. There was an officer in command who insisted on our all having our heads cropped short, so when we arrived in Brisbane, we looked like a mob of convicts.

The Bombola had a permanent list to port (or maybe it was to starboard).

On Sunday there was a Church Service on the upper deck, and we stopped at Mackay to take on more men. We managed to dodge the Barrier Reef and arrived at Pinkenba on August 25th. The next month was spent at Enoggera Camp outside Brisbane, where we were issued with uniforms and equipment – ‘webbing Equipment’ – consisting of .303 Lee-Enfield Service Rifle and Sword bayonet, Ammunition Pouches, Haversack, Water-bottle and Pack in which we carried our Great-coat and other items of clothing.

The uniform consisted of Khaki Tunic and Knickers, Puttees, which you wound around your legs (an abomination surviving from the Boer War), good strong Field Service Boots and, of course, a Slouch Hat. We were now soldiers in uniform, and spent most of our time drilling on the parade ground. But the conditions of Enoggera were rough. We slept under canvas on the ground in ‘Bell Tents’, with as many as seventeen men to a tent, shoulder to shoulder, and the ‘Lines’ were on sloping ground below the Horse Lines. This meant that some of us had to sleep with our heads downhill, or against the tent-pole amongst the feet of the lucky ones on the uphill side – and some of those feet! Well we needn’t go into details!

The Guard was pretty lax, and anybody off duty could enter and leave the camp at any time, and some of the occupants of my tent used to arrive back from a booze-up in town at any time