Gordon William Appleyard

The son of George and Jane Appleyard, Gordon seem destined to fight for his country.

Working in Queensland as a labourer at the time the war broke out, Gordon enlisted one month later on September 3 and, although he enlisted in Rockhampton, he was still included in the Shire of Alberton Honor Rolls, having grown up in Binginwarri with his six brothers and seven sisters.

According to his mother Jane, “the boy said when he was very young, if war broke out when he was a man, he would be a soldier.  He proved himself one.”

Growing up with stories of his mother’s father and brother who fought for the British Army under Queen Victoria, Gordon may have been like many of his friends, enlisting with dreams of having the adventure of a lifetime amid expectations that the war would be over in weeks or months.

Gordon was assigned to the 9^th Battalion, G Company, one of the first units to be formed.  The unit left Australia on September 24 aboard the SS Omrah, arriving in Egypt in December before heading to Turkey.

At 4.28am on Sunday, April 25, the 9^th Battalion landed at Gallipoli with Gordon in the first group of fifteen soldiers to make their way onto ANZAC Cove.  That day, 16,000 soldiers from Australia and New Zealand would make their way onto the beach at Gallipoli.  For many, this was their first experience of combat and for 2,000, it would be their last. 

After five months of fighting, Gordon was evacuated to a hospital ship in September with dysentery and rheumatic fever.  His illness was significant enough for him to be transferred to Malta and from there to England where he received treatment until July 1916.

At this time, Gordon was offered the option of being discharged and returning home.  Knowing that his brother Charles was fighting on the Western Front, George advised his Commanding Officer that he felt it was his place to be fighting alongside him and declined the offer.

Re-joining the 4^th Division in France, Gordon would fight in the Battle of Moquet Farm, part of the bigger Battle of the Somme.  With the battle taking place from August 10 through to September 3, ground would be captured, lost and regained with over 2,000 casualties.  164 of those lost were from the 9^th Battalion, killed between the 19^th and 23^rd of August.

We know that the Division of which Gordon was a part of was involved in heavy fighting at Pozieres.  Close to the farm, the battle was characterised by intense enemy artillery bombardments with shelling so intense the front line was leveled day after day.  With the Germans having built tunnels joining the underground cellars, they held the defensive position around the farm but ultimately, the Allies would recapture much of the surface area and trenches with many soldiers involved with hand to hand fighting throughout the cellars and ruins.

During the fighting at Pozieres on August 20, Gordon was wounded and transferred to the 44^th Casualty Clearing Station where he died from his wounds four days later.

Buried in a marked grave at the Puchevillers British Cemetery, his parents George and Jane were advised by the local Priest of the death of their son in mid-September however the actual report of Gordon’s death was not  completed until the end of September.

By November, Gordon’s parents still were unaware of how their son had died with George writing to the Minister for Defence on November 27 requesting information.

“Will you please give me particulars of the death of my son who died of wounds on the 24^th August, 1916?  That is all the information received in a telegram sent to the Church of England Clergyman of Alberton.  I would like to know where he died. “

George and Jane continued to write to the Department trying to source information on what had happened to Gordon and it wasn’t until the Red Cross became involved in 1918 that Jane began to receive the information she so desperately wanted.  Almost two and a half years after Gordon was killed in action, Jane and George would receive the following telegram from the Red Cross. 

“Ref your letter of the 15/3/19, Pte Appleyard GW died of gunshot wound shoulder and spine.  He was buried at Puchevillers Military Cemetery on the 25/8/16 by the Capt Rev Knevitt C.E Padre to the Forces.”

Whilst the son of two pioneers from South Gippsland and the grandson of a convict, was laid to rest in a foreign country, his home and family would never be forgotten with his headstone reading, 

“In memory of the dearly loved son of J & G Appleyard of Gippsland.”

Gordon William Appleyard

Born: 1886, Alberton, Victoria

Died: August 24, 1916, Pozieres, France

Relationship to Peter Appleyard:  Grandson

Image:  The last photo taken of Gordon Appleyard during his convalescence in England.

Source: Lowlands; Dianne Appleyard 1986

Headstone image from Puchevillers provided with thanks to David Greenhall, descendant of Peter Appleyard and his first wife Ann through daughter Frances.