Around the Water Cart.

Joe says: In the March 2006 issue of Sabretache, I said I would continue the story of the United States bugle call, Taps, by describing how it came to be associated with military funerals. Here goes:

In 1862, a soldier of a battery of the 2nd US Artillery was buried at a time when the battery was in an advanced position, concealed by woods. It would have been unsafe to fire the customary three volleys over the grave because of the proximity of the enemy. The battery commander directed that "Taps" be played and the custom spread throughout the Army. This first sounding of Taps at a military funeral is commemorated in a stained glass window at the Chapel of the Centurion (The Old Post Chapel) at Fort Monroe, Virginia. The window was dedicated in 1958 and shows a bugler and a flag at half-staff. The US Army Infantry Drill Regulations made the use of Taps at military funerals mandatory in 1891. (Thanks again to Anthony Staunton for research and information).

The reality of 59,342 dead and 152,171 wounded from World War One brought traumatic and enduring changes in Australian society. Major Helen Doyle, who joined the Australian Army in 1982 and is currently studying medicine at the University of Queensland under the Army's graduate Medical Scheme, has examined these social impacts in detail. In a long article, she shows how enlistments were affected by such events as the evacuation from Gallipoli in 1915 (when they rose sharply in the following month) and the growing war weariness in 1917 (when they fell to their lowest level after Third Ypres. General Birdwood had just advised that a minimum of 6,100 new men per month was required). As the news of casualties reached Australia, pre-war divisions in society began to widen: divisions within the Labor Party; divisions between the working and middle classes; between unionists and others; between Protestants and Catholics. The article and its statistics are well supported by notes and a lengthy bibliography. (Australian Defence Force Journal No 165, 2004).

The Furphy Water Cart was a complete invention of John Furphy of Shepparton, Victoria and was first made between 1878 and 1880. At that time, no similar article was used in Australia or overseas. Few houses of the time were designed to collect rainwater from the roof. Hence, water needed to be collected and transported for stock and domestic use by horse-drawn skids or sleds with mounted wooden barrels or casks. John Furphy was an experienced wheelwright and adopted a similar method of construction for his water tank. An iron band was shrunk onto the end of the tank to hold and tightly seal the ends of the cylinder, just as an iron tyre was fitted to the wooden body of the wagon wheel. The 180-gallon size proved most popular because when filled it weighed about a ton and was a fair load for a good horse, with the tank carefully balanced over the axle to distribute the weight for the horse, whether the tank was empty or full. John Furphy was well aware of the value of advertising and the end castings carried his name, address, and a list of his products. In 1898, John added a short rhyme: "Good, better, best--never let it rest--till your good is better--and your better best". In 1920, John's son, William added a Pitman's shorthand inscription, which translated means: "Water is the gift of God, but beer is a concoction of the devil, don't drink beer." In 1926, this was changed slightly to read: "Water is the gift of God but beer and whisky are concoctions of the devil, come and have a drink of water." In 1942, William also added a modified version of a saying attributed to W M Hughes, prime minister of Australia, together with an illustration showing a stork holding a baby in traditional fashion. The statement, also in shorthand, read "Produce and populate or perish." Production of the cast iron ends and other components ceased in 1983, but an all-new fabricated and hot dip galvanized tank was developed and continues to be in strong demand today. (Thanks to Despatches, Quarterly Newsletter of the Victorian Branch, December 2005, for this and much more in a history brochure enclosure. Also for publicising Furphy, the Water Cart and the Word by John Barnes and Andrew Furphy (Andrew retired from the company in 1998 and his son, Adam, a filth generation Furphy is now Managing Director of J Furphy & Sons). The book challenges some widely held misconceptions about the origin of the word "furphy" and includes extracts from soldiers' letters and memoirs. RRP $39.95. Go to www.furphys.com.au for more detail.)

Early in 2005, the Canberra and District Historical Society adopted the theme of "Canberra's Wartime Connections" for the ACT Heritage Festival. Part of the preparation involved research into the men and women from the Canberra region (including all of the ACT and Queanbeyan) who served in WWI. It led to the creation of a database of about 700 who enlisted and who were born or lived in the region prior to enlisting, who enlisted in the ACT or who are commemorated on district memorials. Details and results of deeper research into about 170 of the men and women are contained in Canberra and District Historical Society Newsletter, October-November 2005.

The guidons of 8 LHR, 13 LHR (Gippsland Light Horse), 17 LHR (Bendigo Light Horse), 19 LHR (Yarrowee Light Horse) and 20 LHR (Victorian Light Horse) have been laid up in the crypt of Melbourne's Shrine of Remembrance. The 4/19 Prince of Wales's Light Horse, which is descended from these units, took part in the laying-up ceremony. The grandchildren of the CO of 8 LHR, Lt Col White, who was killed leading his men in the charge at The Nek, were present, among other descendants. John Taylor, Chairman of The Shrine Trustees, said, "We are pleased to become the permanent custodians of these rare items of Australian military history. It is important that such artefacts are accessible to the public and kept in a solemn place that honours the men who served under them". (Army, 25 August 2005).

Soldiers of 13 Training Battalion, 1st AIF who served near the village of Codford in Wiltshire, England were required as a form of punishment to maintain the Rising Sun badge measuring 53x45m carved into the nearby hill in 1917. They named the site "Misery Hill". The Codford area held many training and transfer camps for Australian soldiers waiting to move to France or who were evacuated from the front line and recuperating. The nearby War Cemetery is the second largest in the UK. Recently, Australian soldiers participating in the exchange exercise Long Look joined the villagers of Codford in the 16th annual restoration of the badge. (Army, 25 August 2005.)

Very few major Australian cities would have been considered for the establishment of a POW camp in their suburbs. However, the suburb of Fyshwick in the ACT, now the home of light industry, hardware and furnishings, was a flurry of activity in 1918, when 1200 workers built a camp in three months. There were probably only about 800 residents of the ACT at the time. China declared war on Germany in August 1917 and wanted to offload its German and Austrian residents to Britain. In turn, Britain decided to offload them to Australia. About 200 Germans and Austrians were sent to the camp from elsewhere in Australia. However, the war ended before the camp could be occupied. The Chinese-held prisoners never arrived and the remainder were sent back to Germany on transport ships in 1919. Most of the camp buildings were sold and relocated and the remainder became the Molonglo Settlement, a home for the workers building Canberra, from 1923 to about 1928. (The Canberra Times, 9 September 2005).

With the ever-increasing value of medals and the scarcity of "good groups", a lot of medal collectors are looking at other items of interest. One of these is Memorial Plaques, more commonly known as Death Plaques. Years ago, you could purchase a death plaque of someone killed in France for $50 to $100 and about $200 for a plaque to someone killed at Gallipoli. In a recent auction, a pair of memorial plaques for the Sherwood brothers of the 1st Light Horse, killed when charging Dead Man's Ridge in the feint attack on Pope's on 7 August 1915, went for $6500. The brothers are buried side by side in marked graves in Quinn's Post Cemetery. (In The Trenches, Newsletter of the Geelong Branch, January 2006).

Major-General Peter Williams of the British Army, who recently retired and moved to Canberra with his family, was a guard and interpreter at Spandau Prison in Berlin on separate occasions during the 1970s and 1980s. Prisoner No 7 was Rudolf Hess, the former deputy leader of the Nazi Party, who was sentenced to life imprisonment by the 1946 Nuremberg War Crimes Trials. General Williams says he often saw Hess walking in the garden of the prison during his term as a platoon commander. However, in 1987, Hess hanged himself, apparently in the garden, in mysterious circumstances. With the last of the most feared of the Nazi prisoners gone, Spandau was bulldozed and a supermarket built in its place. (The Canberra Times, 21 November 2005).

In the final months of WWI, 13 Australian diggers risked their lives to steal a tank from the Germans. The A7V Sturmpanzerwagen--developed in response to the British Mark 1 and named Mephisto, had been disabled outside Villers-Bretonneux, its crewmembers dead inside, and was stuck in a shell hole. The commander of 26th Infantry Battalion won approval to salvage it as a war trophy. A detachment of the battalion reached the tank, which lay in full view of the Germans, in a night operation after greasing the tracks to prevent noises that might have alerted the enemy. Under cover of the noise of an artillery barrage and low flying aircraft, they dragged it from the shell hole and hid it under trees. It was taken back to England and later shipped to Australia, where it was towed by two steamrollers through Brisbane to the old Queensland Museum at Spring Hill. For more than 60 years, it was parked outside the museum, corroding in the tropical Brisbane climate and its fittings souvenired. Now it is displayed behind glass in a temperature-controlled environment at South Bank, Brisbane. (The Canberra Sunday Times, 13 November 2005).

Items on military music just keep turning up! Was Glenn Miller's Big Band "military music" when he became a Captain in the Army Specialist Corps? Well, maybe, because he modernised much military music and directed his own 50-member band. Miller's death is shrouded in mystery. In December 1944, he took offer in a small plane from England, headed for Paris, but when his band arrived the next day, he was nowhere to be found. No trace of the man or his plane has ever been seen. Sixty-one years later, a new Miller mystery seems to have unfolded. The AWM has 250,000 photographs in its database. Among them are two purporting to show Miller--or someone bearing a striking resemblance to him--dressed in captain's uniform and surrounded by an excited group of US Army nurses. The photographs were taken at a railway station and, according to the captions, were shot by a Canberra photographer, Les Dwyer in July 1942. One caption reads, "US nurses about to board a train on the first stage of their journey to northern war zones say farewell to Glen (sic) Miller, the famous US band leader, who was visiting Australia. The other photograph shows a young clergyman standing on the platform about to take a photo of the man, with more smiling nurses leaning out of the train. The clergyman has been positively identified as the Reverend Hector Harrison, a Presbyterian minister in Canberra from 1940 to 1948. The AWM says that the uniforms and accessories seem to be perfectly authentic; US nurses were certainly stationed in Canberra at the time. However, the memorial also says that Miller did not join the US Army until October 1942 and there is no record of his ever visiting Australia. He was apparently touring with his band in the USA, at the height of his popularity, in July 1942. Was it a stunt? Did someone come up with the idea of giving the girls a big send off?. If you know anything about a visit by Glenn Miller--or his double--to Canberra, contact The Canberra Times 02 6280 2211. (The Canberra Times, 8 October 2005). (My editor is getting crotchety; he says any more music stories and I will be band: I am quavering in my boots, Joe.)

What did the well-dressed digger wear during the Great War? Records of the QMG Department reveal that each recruit was issued the following:

Badge, copper, large (for hat)                                     1
Badge, copper, small (for collar and Field Service Cap             1
Badge, copper, shoulder strap, corps letters, pair                 1
Badge, copper, shoulder strap, "Australia" pair                    1
Boots, ankle, brown, pairs                                         2
Breeches, cord, CP, woollen, pairs, dismounted style OR
Breeches, cord, CP, woollen, pairs, mounted style                  2
Belt, abdominal                                                    1
Cap, field service                                                 1
Drawers, cotton, pairs                                             2
Greatcoat, dismounted style OR Greatcoat, mounted style            1
Hat, felt, CP                                                      1
Jacket, service dress                                              2
Jersey, (later, Jacket, cardigan)                                  1
Laces, for boots, spare                                            1
Leggings, brown, CP OR Puttees, pair                               1
Shirt, flannel                                                     2
Singlets                                                           2
Spurs, jack, ordinary, pair (mounted units only)                   1
Straps chin                                                        1

When going off to war, the digger was issued with other kit to see him off. We will continue this detail in the next issue of Sabretache.

Finally, a book and items of militaria for your interest:

ALEXANDER FAX BOOKSELLERS, 02 6290 0140): CATALOGUE 125, JUNE 2005 (CATALOGUE ITEM NUMBER AT END OF ENTRY):

Blair, Dale: No Quarter. Unlawful Killing and Surrender in the Australian War Experience 1915-1918. Ginninderra Press 2005. Card covers with dust wrapper 7500. Discusses the experience of soldiers in WWI who refused to take prisoners during battle and in some cases killed prisoners in the front line. Blair investigates the degree to which Australian soldiers were participants in the practice, both as victims and perpetrators. $18. (1)

Mostly Unsung Military History Research and Publications 03 9555 5401. Summer Catalogue, 2005 (Catalogue item number at end of entry):

Funeral Service for the Unknown Australian Soldier. AWM 11 November 1993. Order of Ceremony Booklet with covering letter and copy of related Commemorative issue of AWM Despatches magazine. $11 (211).

Africa Star, unnamed, as issued $40. Italy Star, unnamed, as issued. $50. Burma Star, unnamed, as issued. $55. Atlantic Star, unnamed, as issued. $65. (410-414).

Doodle Bug relic. Rusted fragment about 3 inches square from German V1 Rocket shot down near The Ridge, Hastings, Sussex, UK, late 1944. $22. (461)

Korean War Balaclava. British Army dated 1953. Dark Green, Excellent condition. Slight smell of grease (!). $22. (463).