Stories

In February 1916, Patrick Gordon (“Bill”) Taylor had been stationed at the AIF Liverpool training camps for over a month. Like other lads his age, he had been caught up in the enthusiasm. None of them wanted miss out on the opportunity. This was to be the greatest adventure of their generation. Or so they thought..

Liverpool camp, October 1916. (Image: AWM C01206)

But camp life at Liverpool was to fall short of expectations for both this 18 year old, wide-eyed, 2nd lieutenant from Raglan St., Mosman…

Smith’s Weekly, 1 December 1923, p. 26

‘Most Expensive Airman of the A.I.F.’ said popular tabloid Smith’s Weekly in 1923.

Mosman pilot Eric Dibbs reckoned he’d crashed 13 aircraft in his time with the flying corps. If the tale is a little tall in the retelling, who can begrudge a man who made it back from the Western Front?

He wasn’t an ace but took his chances over the trenches — and won.

Charles Ulm with his mother and father, 1914

One hundred years ago, today, a 15 year old Mosman boy signed up for the A.I.F. It was the start of an adventure that would make him a household name.

The 18^th Battalion volunteers — raised mainly from the Sydney area, including Mosman — were described as ‘great big cheery fellows, whom it did your heart good to see.’ Within 48 hours of landing at Gallipoli, 50% of them were either dead or wounded. A few days later 80% of the 760 men who started the battle had become casualties.

George W Lambert
Cartoon for ‘The charge of the 3rd Light Horse Brigade at the Nek’

One hundred years ago Light Horse regiments attacked well-entrenched Turkish positions at “The Nek.” Their fate — charging into certain death — lives large in the Australian psyche. Among those killed that day was Major Thomas Harold Redford of Holt Avenue, Mosman.