A Family At War

Leopold Arthur Appleyard was the 12 th of 14 children of George and Jane Appleyard and the second son to enlist for the Great War.  At 19 years old, Leo was too young to enlist without his parents’ consent so his mother Jane went with him, and, with her husband, signed her consent for her youngest son to become a soldier and follow his brother Gordon into war. “I hereby give my consent to our son Leopold Arthur Appleyard to volunteer for active service with the Australian Imperial Force.” Barely two months after Gallipoli, the number of young men enlisting was at its peak and Leo would have felt great pride in volunteering on July 8 1915 and following in the steps of his older brother. Like his cousin Edgar before him, Leo was assigned to the 8 th Light Horse Regiment and, by February 1916, while in Heliopolis, Egypt, was appointed as a Driver to the regiment. During WW1, drivers were used by the British Army with the rank the equivalent of a Private.  In the Ligh...

The seventh of ten children, Edgar John Appleyard grew up in Alberton, a small town in South Gippsland.   His Grandfather Peter had come to Australia as a convict and settled in Alberton 4 years after it was surveyed.   A pioneering family in the district, Edgar’s father, Arthur Horatio was the Shire Engineer with his uncles all playing a role in the opening up of the region to European settlers. At the time World War One began, Edgar was a labourer, 23 years old, single and presumably good on horseback. Exactly what the Government was looking for as they sought Australian men to fight for England.   Just passing the strict medical test, Edgar signed onto the 8 th Light horse Regiment in October 1914, three months after the war began. Considered the ‘national arm of Australia’s defence’, the Lighthorse Regiments were made up mainly of young men from regional areas with many bringing their own horses.   As part of their enlistment for the regiments, the re...