Imagine yourself as the parent of a young man, who has enlisted into the Australian Imperial Force and is sent off to fight on the battlefields of the Western Front during the First World War. As only a parent can, the worry and concern for welfare experienced on behalf of that child would be unbearable. And sadly, many a parent experienced the dreadful ‘knock on the door’ by the mailman or local clergyman, bearing a telegram from the war office. The only thing worse than having one son fighting overseas, is to have multiple sons serving on distant battlefields. Edward and Elizabeth MacGOWAN knew that pain.
IMAGE RIGHT: The colour patch of the 32nd Infantry Battalion, AIF (Australian Imperial Force). It was with this unit that the boys embarked from Adelaide aboard HMAT Berrima during December 1916.
Melville Roy Gordon MacGOWAN (known as Roy) and Edward Oliver Harbison MacGOWAN (known as Oliver) both enlisted into the Australian Imperial Force during the Great War. The sons of Edward Jackson MacGOWAN and Elizabeth Anne MacGOWAN, of Clive, South Australia; these two men formed part of the 32nd Infantry Battalion – 1 to 12 Reinforcements (November 1915 – December 1916) and boarded HMAT Berrima (A35) from Port Adelaide. According to the First World War Embarkation Roll, they left Australia’s shores on the 16th December, 1916 they would see service on the Western Front in France and Belgium.
Both brothers were taken on strength of the 43rd Infantry Battalion whilst in the field on the 08th October, 1917. Tragically Private 4628 Edward Oliver Harbison MacGOWAN would be killed in action just one week later on the 15th October, 1917. According to the CWGC records (Commonwealth War Graves Commission) Edward’s body was not recovered and his name is recorded on the Menin Gate Memorial, Ypres in West-Vlaanderen, Belgium.
IMAGE LEFT: The MACGOWAN brothers Melville (known as Roy) on the left and Edward (known as Oliver) on the right. Photo taken circa May 1917.
Melville would continue to fight on until June 1918. A report located in his service records on hand at the National Archives of Australia, indicates that he was a member of a raiding party upon an enemy strong post in front of Villers Bretonneux. He was seen to leave the trenches just before 10.30pm on the evening of the 31st May, 1918. On the 17th June, 1918 a letter was typed on his behalf, which indicated that he was now a prisoner to the Germans and he requested food, clothing and cigarettes. Owing to a wound to his hand sustained in battle, the letter was written by a comrade. Planned to be the subject of a prisoner exchange, he is reported to have fallen ill. Private 4558 Melville Roy Gordon MacGOWAN succumbed to pneumonia on the 9th August, 1918 aged 22 years. He was buried in NIEDERZWEHREN CEMETERY near Hessen, Germany.
IMAGE RIGHT: The colour patch of the 43rd Infantry Battalion, AIF (Australian Imperial Force).
With the centenary of the First World War approaching, his descendants are desperately seeking the return of the missing war service medals of Melville and Edward MACGOWAN. Along with their Memorial Plaques (colloquially known as “Dead Man’s Pennies”) the British War Medals and Victory Medals owing to these men are lost to the family. Along with the photograph of the two diggers, these missing war medals are the only tangible reminder of the lives of two men who made the supreme sacrifice for their country.
IMAGE LEFT: The British War Medal and Victory Medal, similar to those which were posthumously awarded to the MACGOWAN brothers for service during the Great War. These war medals are missing. Can you help?
Where would one look for the missing medals and were they inscribed with their names?