Australian World War I Battlefields Tour – Family Heroes J J Stapleton and R E Sherwood – Peronne

In my last blog I wrote about our experience at Mont St Quentin, while on a tour of the Australian World War I Battlefields.

After St Quentin we drove on to Peronne, where we had lunch and visited the ‘Historial De La Grande Guerre 14-18’ or the Museum of the War of 1914-18, which was housed in the old medieval castle. It was well worth visiting, as it showed the story of the soldiers, of the many nations, who took part in the war.

After lunch we boarded the bus and drove to the Peronne Communal Cemetery Extension.

The Peronne Communal Cemetery Extension was begun in March 1917 after the Germans had abandoned the town the first time. The Germans continued to use this cemetery when they took the town back in early 1918.

The Australian 2^nd Division became the final group to use it, until after the end of the war when the Commonwealth Graves Commission brought in all those soldiers in isolated graves and small cemeteries. There are 517 Australians here, nearly all lost their lives on the attack on Mont St Quentin in late August and early September 1918.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission has its own website at http://www.cwgc.org/. It is worth visiting not only for the history and continued work of the Commission, but the symbolism which goes with the cemeteries, such as the ‘Cross of Sacrifice’ and the ‘Stone of Remembrance’.

This was the first of many cemeteries we visited over the next few days, and our tour guide did a wonderful job in educating our group on these features, as well as many more concerning the general nature of these cemeteries.

We have two family heroes in this cemetery, Private Robert Edward Sherwood and Corporal James Joseph Stapleton.

Before we left home in June I had printed out from the above mentioned website, the map of this cemetery and marked the position of their graves.

We were able to alight from the bus at the cemetery gate.

The sky was grey and cheerless, never the less the cemetery was beautiful with the gleaming white headstones, lush green grass, and coloured flowers in full bloom decorating the graves themselves. The whole was shrouded in a peaceful silence.

We were the only members of the group to have soldiers buried here, and with the assistance of Pete and our fellow tour companions we were quickly able to find their graves.

For the second time that day we were in for a surprise, although perhaps we should not have been. Corporal J J Stapleton was buried between his two mates, who were carrying him to the field medical station when they were killed by shrapnel from an exploding ‘whiz-bang’ mortar shell.

This gave us a strange comforting feeling knowing that even though he had died so far away from home and family, he was not alone, but resting in peace beside his mates.(Below)

We were able to take photos with the back -drop of the Australian flag. One of the members of our group had previously made many tours of the Western Front Battlefields, and generously shared with us all an Australian flag he had brought with him. We all appreciated this kind gesture, as it gave an added depth to all our photos.

My grandmother’s, cousin, Robert Edward Sherwood was also buried in another section of the cemetery. We  took photos of his grave with the Australian flag too.(Below)

After reboarding the bus, we headed for the town of Iepers, where we were to stay the night.

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Australian World War I Battlefields Tour – Family Heroes J J Stapleton and R E Sherwood – Mont St Quentin

In former blogs I have mentioned we planned to visit the Australian Battlefields of World War I in France and Belgium this year, to honour our relatives, who fought there. Now we have done this, I will share with you some of our experiences.

Our tour was arranged with an Australian company and was fitted around other tours we planned, as we made the best of the opportunity of being in Britain and Europe in the summer.

We took the Eurostar from London to Paris, where we were joined by several other Australians booked on the Australian Battlefields Tour.

Our Tour Guide, Pete Smith, a former British serviceman, who now lives in France, knows the landscape and history intimately. Everyone on the tour had lost family members on these battlefields and Pete made a special effort to visit as many War Graves Cemeteries as possible, and locate the graves of the fallen soldiers belonging to the families. He also described all the battles and conditions in detail, so we could understand, and felt a connection to the places.

We all had a copy of an excellently researched and written book, Walking with the Anzacs- A Guide to the Australian Battlefields on the Western Front’ by Mat McLachlan. This was very helpful in not only giving background to the battles, but maps and other useful information of what was going on around the area, during the war. This helped us understand better what Pete was showing us.

The bus left Paris about 9 am and we headed northwards to the Belgium border. The sky was over-caste and the showers followed us throughout the morning, as we wove in and out of the heavy traffic.

Our first stop was on the edge of the Somme at Mont St Quentin. Here is a quote from the above mentioned book, “The attack on Mont St Quentin was considered by many to be the Australian’s greatest action in World War I. In three days, between 31 August and 2 September 1918, a handful of desperately under strength battalions captured one of the most formidable German defensive positions on the Western Front and took over 2600 prisoners.”

It was here that J J Stapleton and R E Sherwood lost their lives on the 1^st and 2^nd September 1918. I have written about these men in former blogs, however, to stand on the edge of the ‘Mont’ and have a clear view over looking the fields, that the Australians fought across in the half light of the morning of the 31^st August 1918, was very moving. Directly behind us on the ‘Mont’ were the German trenches, still visible but half hidden in the wooded undergrowth.

A short distance away was the remnant of a defensive stone wall with an Australian mortar shell still embedded in it.

We were shocked how exposed and flat the terrain was, and still find it hard to believe what those brave Australians accomplished in those few days.

On the back of this hill is the village of St Quentin. Here the striking 2^nd Division Memorial stands. This original memorial was unveiled on 30 August 1925, the seventh anniversary of the battle. The memorial now depicts a larger than life Australian soldier in full military kit standing astride, on a stone plinth. The Digger faces north-east, the direction of the Australian advance. This Digger figure is unique amongst the Australian Divisional Memorials, as the other four are identical stone obelisks. These we later visited on our tour. This was not the original sculpture. The first one, unveiled in 1925, was an Australian soldier bayoneting a German Eagle sprawled at his feet. German soldiers who occupied this area during World War II destroyed the sculpture leaving only the plinth. The present Digger sculpture was erected in 1971.

The memorial is surrounded by houses, but the adjacent tree-lined roadway is called the ‘Avenue des Australiens’.

There are a number of ‘story boards’ with photographs adjacent to the memorial. One struck a deep chord with us. It was of two soldiers carrying a stretcher with a wounded soldier across the open battlefield, accompanied by a fourth man waving a white red cross flag, above his head on the end of a stick. The reason it effected us so much, was that it was taken the exact day James Joseph Stapleton was injured and was stretchered by two mates towards the field dressing station. However, the three of them were killed by shrapnel, when a ‘whiz-bang’ shell exploded in the air above them.

We will never know who the soldiers in this photo were, but it did give us a small window into the lives of the men on the battlefield.

We know the three soldiers who were killed, were buried in a shell hole close by where they fell, and crosses were erected soon afterwards.

There is a photograph of the original grave of J J Stapleton, which was sent to his mother, by the original Imperial War Graves Commission. It is in the possession another Stapleton descendant.

We also know from military records that their bodies were retrieved some two years later by the War Graves Commission, and were reburied in the Peronne Communal Cemetery Extension.

Robert and Bridget Sherwood of Monasterevin, County Kildare Ireland

In my last blog on my Sherwood family, who arrived Sydney on board the Premier on 2 July 1840, I wrote about newspaper records that gave me much information about the ship and voyage itself.

This blog I’m going to concentrate on government records available concerning the immigrants themselves.

In the 1840 time period for my Sherwood family there are two sets of surviving government records. The Bounty Immigrant Lists and the Certificates of Entitlement. These are found on microfilm at State Records of NSW, and various libraries and family history societies throughout Australia. These records have also become available as scanned images on Ancestry.com through a partnership arrangement with the State Records of NSW.

Be advised they are two separate sets of records for assisted immigrants. They were created by two different agencies for different purposes, and both sets of records should be consulted to get the more complete details on your immigrants.

Records for Government assisted immigrants were organised into three sections. Families, which included husband, wife and children under about sixteen years of age; and single males and single female over about sixteen years of age.

The Bounty Immigrant Lists were made by the agents representing the shipping agency contracted for the shipment and safe arrival of the Government assisted immigrants. These agencies were paid by the ‘head’. So much per male adult, female adult and a sliding scale for children. The information was collected by the agency when the immigrant presented themselves at the immigration depots to be allocated a berth on the available ship. The information given verbally, recorded name, sex, age, religion, education, occupation and where they had come from. The information was collated and application was made to the government for the ‘bounty’ per head shipped.

Now let us look at these records for my Sherwood family.

Premier, 2 July 1840

Sherwood, Robert, 39 years, Cotton-weaver, Protestant, reads and write, of County Kildare, Ireland

“ Bridget, 35 years, House Servant, Protestant, reads, of County Kildare

“ Robert, 16 years, son, Protestant, reads, of County Kildare

“ Nelson, 14 years, son, Protestant, ditto, ditto

“ Joseph, 10 years, son, Protestant, ditto, ditto

“ Emily, 6 years, daughter, Protestant, ditto, ditto

“ Margaret, 4 years, daughter, Protestant, –

William Sherwood can be found in the single males list. Alice and Emily Sherwood can be found in the single female list.

The Certificates of Entitlement were created by the agents for the Government department responsible for Colonial Immigration. To qualify for free passage and assistance each emigrant had to satisfy certain selection criteria. They were also to supply certain documents to show their good character, age, usefulness when they arrived in the colony, ie trade, capacity to work etc. The information was given verbally and by the presentation of necessary documents. The agents filled in a proscribed form and each immigrant ended up with a ‘certificate of entitlement’ to free government assistance to emigrate.

These records are organised by ship and then under family, single male and female with a separate certificate issued for each adult immigrant with the younger children appended to their parent’s certificates.

The ‘Certificate of Entitlement” for Robert Sherwood can be summarised as-

Robert Sherwood a married male immigrant

Arrived by: Premier

Brought out by: Mr Capper

Native of : County Kildare, son of John a farmer and Mary his wife

Calling: (occupation) Cottonweaver

Age on Embarkation: 40 39

Persons certifying Registry of Baptism: not certified

Character and person certifying same: good, J Smith Barry JP

James Molloy JP

State of bodily health, strength and possible usefulness: good

Religion: Protestant

Remarks: Reads and Writes

It is interesting to note Robert’s age was stated as 40 and then corrected to 39 (years). In fact his true age was well outside the age guidelines for government free passage. Note his baptism was not certified. If it had been his true age would have been discovered.

His wife, Bridget and adult children, William, Alice and Emily, all have their own certificates giving further clues to this family and their life back in Ireland. For example those certifying character are often their former employer in cases of single immigrants.

By extracting and collating all the information from these records enables me to build a profile on each of these immigrants which will ultimately assist me in my research in Ireland.

I have noted in many Sherwood Family Trees on line that there is much confusion concerning “Emily Sherwood , 17 years” and “Emily Sherwood aged 6 years”, and people have ignored one or the other of these ‘Emilys’. in their trees. As I said before the Bounty Immigrants List and the Certificates of Entitlement were created by different people for different purposes and therefore both ‘Emily’s’ belong to the family in some way. With further research in Ireland and Australia, I believe I have now resolved this problem and will explain further in a later blog on this family.

A Sherwood family of County Kildare, Ireland

As I mentioned in a former blog I am preparing to visit Britain in a few weeks to attend a Family History Cruise with Unlockthepast on board the Marco Polo. Full details of this Conference Cruise can be found at http://www.unlockthepastcruises.com/‎

One of my ancestral families from Ireland is a Sherwood family. From documents I have collected in Australia I can briefly outline my family as below.

 SHERWOOD

Robert Sherwood, bc 1765, Monasterevin,County Kildare Ireland, Married 1818 in Kildare, Bridget Hannah Dunn.. Emigrated to Sydney per Premier in 1840. Issue included: William Dunn, b 1820; Amelia (Emily), b 1822; Robert, b 1825; Nelson, b 1828; Joseph, b 1830; Emily, b1833; Margaret, 1835.

Robert Sherwood died in 1860 and Bridget Sherwood in 1867. Both are buried in Sydney.

I have copies of several documents including Robert’s Death Certificate, Church Burial Entry and newspaper death notice in the Sydney Morning Herald., of 24 Sept, 1860 which states:-

“At his residence, Balmain, on the 21st September, Mr. Robert Sherwood, aged 104 years, late of Malpes Court, New England, and formerly of Ivy House, county Kildare, Ireland. He served forty-two years in the army, and was highly respected by all who knew him.”

The earliest records I have for this family in Australia are their immigration records. Originally I located these records some forty years ago from the card indexes held at the NSW State Archives now State Records of New South Wales. This index gave me the information that the family arrived on the Premier on 2 July 1840. This index is now on http://www.ancestry.com. I have always found newspapers to be a great source for family history, and I encourage all family historian to tackle this great resource. I followed up the arrival of the Premier in the shipping intelligence and other sections of the Sydney Herald (Sydney), and other surviving newspapers of that time.

In the newspapers there is often information concerning the voyage and the ship itself, not found in the Harbour Masters Papers or other Shipping records, but sometimes much more, which adds to the family’s story. When looking for details on the voyage of the Premier in 1840, I certainly found some interesting information.

PREMIER, 560 tons, Weir, master, from Plymouth April 2nd, with 159 immigrants. Passengers, Mr. Ross, and T. Turner, Esq., surgeon. Agents. T. Gore and Co.

News – The William Mitchell had arrived from this port previously to the Premier sailing.

The Premier brings a fine and healthy looking body of Bounty Immigrants; during the voyage. only four infants were lost. She had an   uncommonly swift passage (90 days), though   becalmed for some time off the Cape.

However, by far the most interesting information was that there had been a mutiny on board.

The crew, incited by some Sydney crimp-taught fellows who were among them, mutinied and one of them had the audacity to strike the commander, after having given him the lie.

A mutiny you say! Great, how can I find out more about that?

Of course these sailors were incarcerated in the Sydney Gaol on arrival and hauled before the Courts to explain themselves. These Court cases were reported in the newspapers of the day, as well as other news items about the mutiny.

The fullest report by the Surgeon Superintendent Mr John Turner., was published in the Sydney Monitor and Commercial Advertiser. , 4 July 1840. Here is a short extract-

MUTINY ON BOARD The “Premier” Immigrant Ship   Dear Sir,–To prevent misconstruction, the following account of the mutiny on board the Premier, from the Log-book, is at your service, if worth inspection. I remain yours obediently, J. TURNER, Surgeon. ” I have much pleasure in bearing testimony to the ready and willing manner in,which most of the male Immigrants came forward on Tuesday the 6th of June to assist in navigating the ship under circumstances of a most trying nature.. ……

The Court Reports of the 7^th July published in the same newspaper on the 8^th and 9^th of July gave further details. The full extracts run to some twelve pages of notes for my Sherwood Family History file.

All these newspapers can be freely accessed online in Digitised Historical Newspapers through Trove on the National Library of Australia website at https://www.nla.gov.au/

Although my ancestors are not named in these reports we know that approximately twenty four male immigrants of about forty five assisted the officers and apprentices to ‘man’ the ship for about two days. There is no doubt all on board would have been aware of what was happening. It would have been very traumatic for many, especially during the gales as most were from poor farming communities of Ireland, and had never been to sea before. What great details to add to the story of the Sherwood family’s voyage to Australia.

I encourage everyone interested not only in the Sherwood family, but anyone descended from one of the 30 families or the 16 unmarried men or 35 single women on this voyage to look up these newspapers to get a feel of what went on at the time.

Next blog I will be discussing surviving government records available for the Premier’s, 1840 voyage with information about the immigrants themselves. I will be looking at these records for my Sherwood family.