Article Newcastle Morning Herald 26th September, 1917.Reads:
A Game Old Soldier
Mrs James Barker of Abermain, is one
of the heroic mothers of the war. She
not only allowed her three sons to go on
active service, but also her husband, who
was killed near Messines on July 20. One
son was killed, one invalided home and
one remains in the army. She has re-
ceived several letters from her late hus-
band's officers and comrades of the 34th
Battalion expressing appreciation of his
soldierly conduct.
Captain Wheeler, adjutant of the Bat-
talion, writes:- " I am extremely sorry
to have to report the death of your hus-
band, Private J. Barker, who was an old
and loyal member of the Battalion. His
great sacrifice in offering and giving his
sevices to his country has fixed a high
ideal of courage and bravery in the minds
of the men of the Battalion, which shall
never be forgotten. He did his duty to
the fullest extent, and was killed on one
of the biggest battle fields of this war.
You may be rightly proud of his worthy
actions and of your brave sons, who are
fighting in this great cause."
Lance - corporal John Bailey writes:- " It
is with deepest regret that I am writing
to you of the lamentable death of your
husband. I was with him at the time
and can assure you that he suffered no
pain. He and I, with Sergeant Cook and
a friend of Jim's, named Kelly, and an-
other named Hunter, were all sitting
down talking of what a fine time we would
have when we were granted 'Blighty
leave '. Suddenly a German shell burst in
our midst, burying us all with earth and
sandbags and smashing up our dugout,
which had just been built. Two of us
managed to extract ourselves quickly
and immediately got the others clear of
the earth and debris. We could not stay
to see exactly how much each man was
injured, as we were anxious to get stret-
ches and get them to the doctors. I had
only reached a distance of about twelve
yards when another shell burst exactly in
the same place as the first. Assistance
was quickly at hand, but poor Jim was
quite dead, and two others, Kelly and
Burke were seriously wounded. It was
a terrible shock to the two of us who
were left, from which we have not yet
fully recovered. If you can be comforted
at all in your great sorrow, perhaps the
fact that your dear husband was spared a
lingering death, with awful pain, may
console you. He was a favourite with all,
and everybody regrets his death."
Captain-chaplin A. S. M'Cook, who con-
ducted the burial service, writes:-" The
spot where he lies beside some of his
young comrades will be marked and kept
in order, and the Battalion has already
taken steps to have a suitable memorial
erected over it. Truly, he was a game
old soldier and deserved to win through
but it was willed otherwise, and he must
be included among the heros who have
not shirked their sternest duty, and who
have yielded their lives in defence of a
great cause. But we know that your
heart will be sad, especially as i under-
stand that this is your second loss in a
short time."
Other letters speak of the dead soldier's
anxiety lest he should be deprived of as
sociating with his comrades in the danger
zone, because of his age. He was a gal-
lant old soldier, and a loved comrade.
Correction to article should say four sons not three sons.
Article Newcastle Morning Herald 26th September, 1992
Reads:
75 Years Ago
September 26, 1917.
Mrs J. Barker, of
Abermain, is one
of the heroic mothers of
the war. She not only
allowed her three sons to go on
active service, but also her hus-
band, who was killed near Mess-
ines on July 20.
One son was killed, one in-
valided home and one remains in the
army. She has received several
letters from her late husband's
officers and comrades of the
34th Battalion expressing ap-
preciation of his soldierly con-
duct.
Captain Wheeler, of the Bat-
talion, writes:- " I am extremely
sorry to have to report the death
of your husband, Private J.
Barker, who was an old and loyal
member of the Battalion.
His great sacrifice in offer-
ing and giving his sevices to his
country has fixed a high ideal of
courage and bravery in the minds
of the men of the Battalion, which
shall never be forgotten.
He did his duty to the fullest
extent, and was killed on one of
the biggest battle fields of this
war. You may be rightly proud of
his worthy actions and of your
brave sons, who are fighting in
this great cause."
Lance - corporal John Bailey
writes:- " It is with deepest regret
that I am writing to you of the
lamentable death of your hus-
band.
I was with him at the time
and can assure you that he suf-
fered no pain. He and I, with
Sergeant Cook and a friend of
Jim's, named Kelly, and another
named Hunter, were all sitting
down talking of what a fine time
we would have when we were
granted 'Blighty leave '.
Suddenly a German shell
burst in our midst, burying us all
with earth and sandbags and
smashing up our dugout, which
had just been built. Two of us
managed to extract ourselves
quickly and immediately got the
others clear of the earth and
debris.
We could not stay to see
exactly how much each man was in-
jured, as we were anxious to get
stretches and get them to the
doctors.
I had only reached a distance
of about twelve yards when
another shell burst exactly in the
same place as the first. Assistance
was quickly at hand, but poor Jim
was quite dead, and two others,
Kelly and Burke were seriously
wounded.
It was a terrible shock to the
two of us who were left, from
which we have not yet fully re-
covered. If you can be comforted
at all in your great sorrow, per-
haps the fact that your dear husband
was spared a lingering death, with
awful pain, may console you.
He was a favourite with all,
and everybody regrets his death."
Article Newcastle Morning Herald, 27th September, 2005.
Correction should say four sons not three sons.
60 minutes on Sunday 27th April, 2008
This is the transcript of the story
The Anzac Kids
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Reporter: Peter Harvey
Producer: Howard Sacre
These days, we're obsessed with the new. Everything's bigger, better, brighter than ever.
So it's a comfort to know that one tradition endures.
That the spirit of Anzac lives on.
And nowhere is it more robust than in Goondiwindi, western Queensland where the kids have found a unique way to honour the fallen.
They scoured the archives, researching the lives of the young men from the district who went off to fight and die in the First World War.
Then set out on an emotional pilgrimage to France and Belgium, following in the Anzacs' footsteps.
A new generation of Australians remembering the old.
Our Anzac story told, among other things, the story of Private John Barker, a 17 year old from rural Australia, caught up in some of the worst fighting of World War One.
What we didn't know was that John's father, 54 year old James, was also serving on the front line ...and died in battle just a month after his son was killed.
The Australian War Memorial supplied this photo - of John, they thought. In fact, it's his dad.
The Barker family was seriously involved in that great war...Not only John and James, but two other brothers, Lambert and Tom also fought, as did Job.
The fighting Barkers. Proud Australians.
INTRODUCTION - PETER HARVEY: These days, we are obsessed with the new. Everything is bigger, better, brighter than ever. So it's a comfort to know that one tradition endures - that the spirit of Anzac lives on. And nowhere is it more robust than in Goondiwindi, western Queensland, where the kids have found a unique way to honour the fallen. They scoured the archives, researching the lives of the young men from the district who went off to fight, and die, in the First World War. Then set out on an emotional pilgrimage to France and Belgium, following in the Anzacs' footsteps - a new generation of Australians remembering the old.
STORY - PETER HARVEY: This is a school excursion like no other. These kids have travelled from outback Queensland to the heart of Europe, to see where, 90 years ago, an entire generation of young Australians, just like them, was lost. This will be a highly personal and deeply emotional mission. Their journey began a year ago, back in Australia, in Goondiwindi, a speck on the map west of Brisbane. Teacher Melissa Taylor asked her students to choose a soldier's name off the town cenotaph and find out everything about his life and death.
MELISSA TAYLOR: So, who were these people? Were they husbands? Were they sons? Did they have sons themselves? We need to find out in our research who were they?
PETER HARVEY: They were farmers, butchers and bakers, country boys, lives from a century ago about to take on a whole new meaning.
MELISSA TAYLOR: Pick a name and think about, well, what possibly did they do. Were they your age? Were they a bit older? Were they married? So you're going to become a part of the story and keep it going.
MELISSA TAYLOR: So he was 18 years and 10 months old when he...
JACK LUCAS: No, he was 17. I think he lied about his age.
MELISSA TAYLOR: He lied about his age, did he?
PETER HARVEY: Each of the kids adopted a soldier. Searching for each man's story, it became very personal.
MEGAN, STUDENT: I think he was only 22 or 23 when he enlisted, so really young.
MELISSA TAYLOR: You can see the rising sun badge on him.
PETER HARVEY: Inevitably, as time went on, they began to realise those soldiers were once just everyday kids, like them - teenagers who had no idea of the hell on Earth that awaited them in Europe.
SHELBY, STUDENT: Like, he was four years older than me and that's really hard to comprehend. When you think about it, they're only just going to uni now or leaving school and so on. You couldn't imagine even picking up a gun, firing at anyone.
JACK LUCAS: That's the last letter that he wrote, that's on the 16th...
PETER HARVEY: School captain Jack Lucas chose a farmer, Irving Thompson, who signed up with the 5th Australian Pioneers. He was just 17. How old are you?
JACK LUCAS: I'm 17, same age as Irving was. He lied to get in, put down 18 as his age. It just, it gives me a reality check, 'cause I'm planning things to do after I leave school and going to uni and stuff and he just signed up to go to war.
PETER HARVEY: The last time Irving Thompson's family saw him he was peddling his bike down to the station to go and sign up. Irving's little sister, Nea, now 93, still lives in Goondiwindi. She never met her brother. She was born when Irving was on his way to France. Do you remember your mother talking about him?
NEA THOMPSON: Oh, all the time. I can remember, as a tiny little thing, she was always crying when she got these letters.
PETER HARVEY: When you hear Irving's letters, you know why.
NEA THOMPSON: "We went out last night "under heavy machine-gun and artillery and rifle fire."
JACK LUCAS: I can't be thankful enough for you giving me all this information on Irving. It feels like I've got a story.
NEA THOMPSON: It's just incredible to go there because there's so many graves, as far as your eye can see.
PETER HARVEY: 93 years ago, Irving's journey to France took months on a troop ship. It took today's kids just 48 hours. They went straight to the old front line, at the village of Fromelles, the first big battle for the Australians, after Gallipoli. 2000 of our diggers were to die here in a single night.
JACK LUCAS: Irving's platoon would probably have been in this town walking down this street.
PETER HARVEY: That's true isn't it. There's every chance they walked down this road, marched down this road to the battle.
JACK LUCAS: This is a picture of Irving's division in England before they headed out. They all look pretty keen, but I don't think they really knew what they were getting themselves into. This is the day before the battle in the trenches. That's the German front line there.
PETER HARVEY: These are the trenches, are they?
JACK LUCAS: Yeah. I think this was taken on the night of the battle. That's the Australian line there and there's about - there's not much gap between them.
PETER HARVEY: What's this countryside remind you of?
JACK LUCAS: It's almost like home because there's no hills at home except for those down the back street.
PETER HARVEY: No hills meant no cover against German machine guns, yet the Australians went out in wave after wave. You can still reach out and touch the wreckage of that terrible night.
STUDENT: I want to know if it's German or British...
LES CARLYON: It was almost a throw back to the American Civil War - two lines of men just standing there killing each other, except most of the killing was done by the Germans.
PETER HARVEY: No-one tells the human story of the war better than author Les Carlyon. What was Fromelles all about?
LES CARLYON: What the Generals thought Fromelles was all about was a diversion. The Battle of the Somme had begun down south. The idea was, "We'll attack the Germans at Fromelles and tie them down there so they can't send reserves down south to the Somme." It's probably the most tragic night in Australian history that night at Fromelles.
PETER HARVEY: Irving Thompson actually survived that tragic night, but then he made a courageous offer - to go out and bring in his dying mates.
JACK LUCAS: The next day, on the 21st, he volunteered to go and collect the wounded and injured and it was a pretty brave thing to volunteer for because they were still under fire.
LES CARLYON: You had, literally, thousands of Australians lying out in no-mans land, in shell holes and other things. Shockingly wounded, some of them.
PETER HARVEY: It must have been absolutely terrifying for young blokes like Irving Thompson.
LES CARLYON: It's almost beyond, I think, our imagination. When you think flat land, totally exposed to German fire. And everywhere you looked there's a dead or wounded Australian. It really was one of the great horror shows of the war and poor Irving was in the worst part of it and, of course, that's where he was killed.
PETER HARVEY: Irving Thompson's body was taken from here and buried in the next village and that is where Jack is going now - to find Irving's grave and to read his eulogy.
JACK LUCAS: I found him. Irving was killed on July 21, in the battle of Fromelles, in which 5,000, and more, Australians were killed. Many of the Allied forces had been wounded and were laying in no-man's land since the night before. Irving volunteered with the others to go out and bring them in. He was caught by a sniper's bullet in barbed wire, only 17 years of age. They shall grow not old as we that are left grow old. Age shall not weary them nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning we will remember them. Lest we forget.
PETER HARVEY: Another day and, for the kids of Goondiwindi, another story of sacrifice by their district's finest. We are on our way to the small Belgian town of Messines. It is here, along this small forest pathway, that many of the Goondiwindi diggers gave their lives as part of the 35th Battalion.
LES CARLYON: The 35th got very badly gassed in an area called Plug Street Wood. As they were going up to the start line they got hit by gas shells, and they had very heavy losses there.
PETER HARVEY: And this is Ploegsteert Forest. The diggers had trouble with that name so they called it simply Plug Street. It's here that so many of them died - groups of mates killed together by the same shell burst. And it's here, in this tiny cemetery, that they're buried together, their tombstones standing shoulder to shoulder. One of them was Private John Barker, a colliery train driver. He was 19, but looked so much older. When you look at that, how old would you say that bloke was at first glance?
SHELBY THOMPSON: 30.
PETER HARVEY: Shelby Thompson, who researched Private Barker, offered a reason why.
SHELBY THOMPSON: What he saw, I couldn't even imagine. Like, sitting here, I can't imagine what they all went through - it's so beautiful at the moment. And to think it was so muddy and so noisy and so deadly. There would have been artillery everywhere. People everywhere, people lying dead everywhere.
PETER HARVEY: With his experience in the coal mines, Private Barker may well have assisted in Britain's earth-shattering plan to take Messines. They kicked off the attack with 19 gargantuan explosions.
LES CARLYON: The British, for some time, had been tunnelling under the German lines. When the attack opened, they set off all these mines under the German lines. It was the greatest man-made explosion to that time and it was heard in London. So, if he was still alive then, he would have seen probably the greatest fireworks display the world's ever seen at that point.
PETER HARVEY: John Barker's 35th Battalion helped achieve the main objective - they drove the Germans out of Messines, but the battle cost 26,000 casualties, half of them Anzacs. All the graves in this nearby cemetery are Australian and, here, Shelby finds the resting place of John Barker. This is where it hits home.
SHELBY THOMPSON: "Before us today rests the headstone of Private John Albert Barker of the 35th Battalion. John has not yet received an official service, nor has any of his family had the opportunity to commemorate his life, here, at his final resting place."
PETER HARVEY: Now, at last, the eulogies that the families of so many of Goondiwindi's lost sons have never had the chance to give.
JACK LUCAS: "It was a far cry home for the 26-year-old butcher who attended the Goondiwindi State School. Private Donald Edward Boodle fought and died on this day. Lest we forget."
STUDENT: "In peace, sons bury their fathers. In war, fathers bury their sons. Today, we are gathered to bury a son of Australia, Thomas Bennett."
STUDENT: "Walter won a few medallions throughout his years of serving in the war. These included a star medal, a British war medal, and a Victoria medal. Walter was just one of the many men who fought for our country for us today."
STUDENT: "I am thankful for the great sacrifice that he made for his country, for my country, for our country, Australia."
SHELBY THOMPSON: It was such a moving ceremony, thinking, that cemetery - they were all from around our district. and to think that they all died there over three days, they all died together, all doing what they thought was right for their country.
STUDENT READS: "They shall not grow old as they are left to grow old..."
LES CARLYON: An 18-year-old kid can go to Gallipoli or France or Belgium and sort of think, "You know, if I'd been born back four generations, I might be in the ground here." It's as awful as that. How many future prime ministers did we lose? How many university professors did we lose? How many famous writers did we lose? How many good people did we lose? The damage that did to Australia you can't calculate.
PETER HARVEY: At every stop, the kids from Goondiwindi were reminded that, while the war was eventually won, Australia's losses were beyond measure. They told the stories that lie in just some of these graves, but now they know there's so much more to tell.
JACK LUCAS: I couldn't even fathom going into it. I doubt any of my mates could either. That's the real stuff, that's in the trenches.
PETER HARVEY: But if you had to do it for Australia, would you do it?
JACK LUCAS: Oh yeah, you'd do it for Australia. You'd do it for these blokes, if it came 'round again.
PETER HARVEY: Yes, you would.
This Article appeared in the Cessnock Advetiser 25th April, 2009.
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