A SCARCE & EARLY "AUSTRALIAN" 1914-1915 Trio & SERVICE BADGES.
To:
Star: 3105 Pte W.G. MELROSE. 2/BN A.I.F.
Pair: 3105 MT/DVR W.G. MELROSE. 2 BN A.I.F.
& Department of Defence "Returned from active service" A.I.F. (Badge 267041)
& Returned sailors & soldiers Imperial League "Australia"
(Badge S.17627)

[2nd Bn AUSTRALIAN IMPERIAL FORCE]

William George Melrose was originally from bonny Scotland. He was born in 1894, a CofE lad from Springburn near Glasgow and having been a horse driver emigrated to Australia in 1913 ....just in time to get caught up in WW1 ! He was of dark complexion, 5ft 7" tall with grey eyes and brown hair. He volunteered for service in Liverpool, Sydney, N.S.W. on 27th June 1915 age 21 & 4 months.. and served as an MT driver with 3rd Australian Field Ambulance. His next of kin was sister Katie of Billyard Avenue, Elizabeth Bay Sydney NSW. He shipped out to Alexandria on SS TRANSYLVANIA arriving on 29th March 1916 and owned to Marseille, France on 4th April 1916. He then moved to Etaples. At war's end he went in extended leave to see his mother in Scotland but eventually returned to Australia in SS BAHIA CASTILLO for demobilisation on 28th April 1920.

[First World War /Formation and training] The 2nd Battalion was raised at Randwick, New South Wales, in August 1914 as part of the Australian Imperial Force (AIF), which was formed from volunteers for overseas service shortly after the outbreak of the First World War. Drawing the majority of its personnel from the Maitland, Newcastle and Hunter Valley regions of the state of New South Wales, the battalion formed part of the 1st Brigade and, along with the 1st, 3rd and 4th Battalions, it was one of the first infantry units raised by Australia following its entry into the war. Upon formation, the battalion was established with a complement of over 1,000 men organised into a headquarters, a machine-gun section of two heavy Maxim medium machine-guns, and eight rifle companies, each consisting of three officers and 117 other ranks. The battalion's first commanding officer was Lieutenant Colonel George Braund, a citizen soldier and Member of Parliament in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, who held the seat of Armidale.

The physical standards under which the first contingent of the AIF was recruited were very strict, nevertheless by the end of August over 20,000 men had been recruited into one infantry division—the 1st Division—and one light horse brigade, the 1st Light Horse Brigade. Following a brief period of training in Australia, the force set sail for the Middle East, assembling off Albany, Western Australia, in early November 1914 before leaving Australian waters, with the 2nd Battalion embarked upon the HMAT Suffolk.
Initially it had been planned that the Australians would be sent to the United Kingdom, where they would undertake further training prior to being sent to the Western Front in France and Belgium. However, the Ottoman Empire's entry into the war on Germany's side on 29 October meant that the strategically vital Suez Canal was threatened, and as a result of this and overcrowding in training grounds in the United Kingdom, upon the convoy reaching the Suez at the end of November, plans for the use of the Australian force were changed and they were disembarked in Egypt instead.

The 2nd Battalion arrived in Egypt on 2 December. The following month, it undertook further training along with the rest of the 1st Division. The battalion was also re-organised into four companies, as the Australian Army converted to the new battalion structure that had been developed by the British Army. Although the battalion's authorised strength remained the same, the eight companies were merged into four, each consisting of six officers and 221 other ranks.

In February 1915, Ottoman Empire forces attacked the Suez Canal, and although some units of the 1st Division were put into the line, the 2nd Battalion was not required, and in the end the attack was turned back mainly by Indian units. Later, in an effort to open shipping lanes to the Russians and also knock the Turks out of the war, the British high command decided to land a force on the Gallipoli peninsula near the Dardanelles using mainly British, French and Indian troops along with the Australians and New Zealanders.

[Gallipoli]
During the Landing at Anzac Cove on 25 April 1915, the 2nd Battalion, under Braund's command, came ashore in the second and third waves, landing a total of 31 officers and 937 other ranks. Upon landing, the 2nd Battalion dispatched two companies, 'A' and 'D' to assist the 3rd Brigade who were pushing inland towards a high feature known as "Baby 700", which overlooked the beachhead. One of the 2nd Battalion's platoons, under Lieutenant Leslie Morshead, advanced further than any other Australian unit, making it to the slopes of Baby 700, before a determined counter-attack by Ottoman forces drove them back in the afternoon.



[First World War Battle Honours]
Somme 1916–18, Pozières, Bullecourt, Ypres 1917, Menin Road, Polygon Wood, Broodseinde, Poelcappelle, Passchendaele, Lys, Hazebrouck, Amiens, Albert 1918 (Chuignes), Hindenburg Line, Epehy, France and Flanders 1916–18, ANZAC, Landing at ANZAC, Defence at ANZAC, Suvla, Sari Bair–Lone Pine, Egypt 1915–16.

An excellent & unusual grouping. CURRENTLY RESEARCHING.