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Research in Other Countries => Australia => Topic started by: MacGearailt on Saturday 25 June 11 18:47 BST (UK)

Title: C company, 16 Battalion. A.I.F. WW1
Post by: MacGearailt on Saturday 25 June 11 18:47 BST (UK)
I'm interested in finding anyone who's ancestors served in the company.  I'm particularly interested in the men  of the company who were killed or injured on 08/08/1915 in Gallipoli, as this was when my grand uncle was mortally wounded. My grand uncles name was John Hannigan and his best friend was Hoarce Wilson Later to lose his life in France in 1918. Hoarce was engaged to my Grandmothers Bridesmaid, Margaret Farrell.
Title: Re: C company, 16 Battalion. A.I.F. WW1
Post by: tropicalj on Saturday 25 June 11 22:41 BST (UK)
http://www.aif.adfa.edu.au/showPerson?pid=125824

The AIF Data base shows  details of John Hannigan, a true hero

If you clck on  the 16th Battilion you will see the names of the other men

Jenn
Title: Re: C company, 16 Battalion. A.I.F. WW1
Post by: mrwilson on Sunday 26 June 11 02:33 BST (UK)
Hi

A search of the ANZAC site may help you with events on August 8th..  between 6 and 9 August 1915 there was a 'fierce Turkish counter-attack'.

 Anzac Site (http://www.anzacsite.gov.au/search/search.html?cx=003499422247080460488%3Alvbg5rclc7o&cof=FORID%3A11&ie=UTF-8&q=killed+or+injured+on+08%2F08%2F1915+in+Gallipoli&sa=Search#1034)

mrwilson
Title: Re: C company, 16 Battalion. A.I.F. WW1
Post by: MacGearailt on Sunday 26 June 11 18:26 BST (UK)
Thanks for the replies. I have already looked at the A.I.F database. Also the Australian National Archives, which have incredible records of WW1 soldiers.
Title: Re: C company, 16 Battalion. A.I.F. WW1
Post by: tropicalj on Sunday 26 June 11 21:47 BST (UK)
Using  the AIF Database  I clicked on  the names of all  the men from C company  and I did not find any of the men killed on the 8.8.1916. MODIFY the Date to 8/8/1915

Quite a number of them  had been  killed on  the 2nd May 1915.   There were  some very brave men amongst  C Company,  with a few receiving medals  and one  the Victoria Cross.

You would have to search each ones individual record at the NAA to see if any were wounded on  the 8/8/1915.  By just searching  using  the 8th Ausugst 1915 in  the NAA only one death comes up  for a New Zealander who was killed in Action  that day.

Jenn
Title: Re: C company, 16 Battalion. A.I.F. WW1
Post by: MacGearailt on Sunday 26 June 11 21:58 BST (UK)
I have already come across a few that were injured on that date and died later in the war. The date is 1915 and not 1916 as your post suggests.
Title: Re: C company, 16 Battalion. A.I.F. WW1
Post by: Buzancy18 on Sunday 26 June 11 23:15 BST (UK)
Jenn,
2nd May 1915 16th were involved in the attack on  Bloody Angle. One of my wife's rellies Alex John Baker ( A coy)  was killed on that day.

Buzancy18
Title: Re: C company, 16 Battalion. A.I.F. WW1
Post by: tropicalj on Sunday 26 June 11 23:21 BST (UK)
Sorry about  that of course I meant 1915 

only trying to help  leave you to it  hope someone reads this thread and you get a hit from it

kind thoughts Jenn
Title: Re: C company, 16 Battalion. A.I.F. WW1
Post by: tropicalj on Sunday 26 June 11 23:32 BST (UK)
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/27000102?searchTerm=hannigan john&searchLimits=l-title=The+West+Australian+%28Perth%2C...%7Ctitleid%3A30|||l-decade=191|||l-year=1916

You may have allready found this but would beremiss of me not to include it

Jenn
Title: Re: C company, 16 Battalion. A.I.F. WW1
Post by: majm on Monday 27 June 11 02:48 BST (UK)
Hi,

I am sure you know of C W Bean. 

I quote a short paragraph from the Australian War Memorial’s website.  “The Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–1918 is a 12-volume series covering Australia’s involvement in the First World War. The series was edited by the official historian Charles Bean, who also wrote six of the volumes, and was published between 1920 and 1942. The books, with their familiar covers, “the colour of dried blood” in the words of one reviewer, rapidly became highly regarded internationally. Bean’s work established the tradition and set the standard for all subsequent Australian official war histories.”

These are available online via this link to the AWM
 Volume II  http://www.awm.gov.au/histories/first_world_war/volume.asp?levelID=67888 and Chapter XXI opens at 7 August 1915.

The AWM also has Bean’s Diaries, Folders and Notebooks and these are also available online :
http://www.awm.gov.au/collection/records/awm38/3drl606/

And there’s Unit Diaries in those online holdings also

I have found that Bean frequently mentions the names of individual soldiers.

There’s a deal of reading in those many links, however I feel sure that will not lessen your quest.

“Their names liveth forever more” 

Cheers,  JM
Title: Re: C company, 16 Battalion. A.I.F. WW1
Post by: MacGearailt on Monday 27 June 11 20:44 BST (UK)
Thanks Jenn, I hadn't come across that site before, I'm from Ireland and fairly new to the Australian sites. I hadn't comes across Charles Benn before either, That stuff is fantastic. Thank a lot, J.M.  I found Wilson's will on the A.N.A.  Tramore is where my Grand Uncle was from. Both Hannigan and Wilson were Stretcher bearers. Did all companies have there own bearers or were there individual stretcher bearer companies?
Title: Re: C company, 16 Battalion. A.I.F. WW1
Post by: Aussie1947 on Monday 27 June 11 22:57 BST (UK)
Hi,

If you go to the Australian War Memorial site under Embarcation Rolls you will find some more information that might be useful to your research, you could probably get all of C Company members, view the digitised records.

http://www.awm.gov.au/research/people/nominal_rolls/first_world_war_embarkation/

If you search in the Unit Name as "16 Infantry Battalion (December 1914)" you will get the whole battalion then you could search for the service numbers that match C Company.

Regards
Gerry
Title: Re: C company, 16 Battalion. A.I.F. WW1
Post by: MacGearailt on Monday 27 June 11 23:39 BST (UK)
Thanks Gerry, I have a copy of C company's  Embarcation Roll. It was sent to us from Australia before the inter net existed. It's nice to see it online. Thanks for all the replies.
A letter from Hannigan reads; " I had a narrow escape, a shell burst buried me and all my mates either got killed or wounded that was at the spot at the time. I have not seen any of them since. I was four days in Malta and then was sent on here to London.........I am aright now but weak, the doctor reckons I might have some of the fumes inside me................My mate Wilson was aright when I left, but the Turks had them cut off. He was not with me when I met with the accident, so I think I will have to go home without him."
Title: Re: C company, 16 Battalion. A.I.F. WW1
Post by: tropicalj on Tuesday 28 June 11 01:44 BST (UK)
A very good question about  the stretcher bearers

the internet is a wonderful  too.. found  this  bu tit is in regard to UK copmany in WW1  which I would imagine our own would have been  the same

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/FWWstretcher.htm

you could ask  this  question on  this section of Rootschat, a lot of knowledgeable folk  there

http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/board,397.0.html
Jenn
Title: Re: C company, 16 Battalion. A.I.F. WW1
Post by: LoganH on Tuesday 28 June 11 11:50 BST (UK)
http://cas.awm.gov.au/item/E01751

Second row from front, 2 'digger' - Sgt. Horace Patrick Wilson.
Group photo of 16th Battalion, 12th March 1918.
You can 'order' a copy here as well.(multiple options)
Title: Re: C company, 16 Battalion. A.I.F. WW1
Post by: MacGearailt on Thursday 26 April 12 22:57 BST (UK)
Thanks Logan, I don't think I received a notice of your post and now the link appears to be broken. Sorry for not replying.
Title: Re: C company, 16 Battalion. A.I.F. WW1
Post by: Denise Murphy on Thursday 01 January 15 00:37 GMT (UK)
Hello MacGearailt

This is a full length portrait of SN 157 Horace Patrick WILSON. He had a tragic early life, and l am heartened to hear that the Miss M Farrell in his WILL was his fiance.
Best wishes.

http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/165083731
Title: Re: C company, 16 Battalion. A.I.F. WW1
Post by: MacGearailt on Thursday 01 January 15 11:05 GMT (UK)
Many thanks Denise,

I did a little bit research into Horace as he was the only comrade's name mentioned in my granduncle's letter. Miss Margaret Farrell was my grandmother's best friend and a bridesmaid at her wedding in 1918. Margaret ran a newsagents at the local railway station. She never married. According to some of my older relatives she 'was engaged to a soldier that was killed in the war.' It was not until I came across his will, that the penny dropped. One explanation is that Horace came to Tramore to pay his respects to John's family, met Margaret and got engaged.
From his military records, it is obvious that he was a very brave man and from the little that I have found out about him, he was also a true friend.
Title: Re: C company, 16 Battalion. A.I.F. WW1
Post by: 81alpha on Friday 15 April 16 03:48 BST (UK)
Hello  My name is Bill Hackett and my Great Uncle was your great uncles best friend.  Both of our great Uncles joined at the same time, same place and did the same thing in the same unit. I suspect that my great uncle had to be a stretcher bearer as he was underage.  They could not send him back home.

I only learned yesterday 14th of April 2016, that my Great uncle (Horace Patrick Wilson) went to Ireland on leave to pay his respects to your Great uncle's Parents (John Hannigan) and then met and got engaged to Miss Margaret Farrell, whilst there.

Now I know why he left her money in his Will.

Do you want to learn more of each other's relatives?  What ever happened to Margaret after Horace died?

There are sooo many coincidences about my Uncle.  For example;
1. I served in the Army Reserrve (16 Battalion) for 13 years here in Perth. The same Unit that Horace and John served with.
2. My son goes to school at the exact site (Blackboy Hill) of the original army camp that Horace and John enlisted
3. Both Horace and John enlisted at Helena vale.  I live in Helena Valley, nearby
4. Down the Hill from the army camp was a Horse race track called the Helena Vale Race course which has a main road next to it called Farrell Road. (Margaret's maiden name)

What became of Margaret and what did she do with the money from Horace's Will as it would have been a lot of money back then?

This ANZAC Day (25th of April) I will be at Blackboy Hill commemorating all those that served for our Country. 

I look forward to hearing from you soon.  Eg Do you have other letters too.
Title: Re: C company, 16 Battalion. A.I.F. WW1
Post by: 81alpha on Friday 15 April 16 08:47 BST (UK)
How do we correspond with each other privately?
Title: Re: C company, 16 Battalion. A.I.F. WW1
Post by: ScouseBoy on Friday 15 April 16 09:04 BST (UK)
In the first instance  use the Private Message facility on this site.   Then  you can exchange e mail addresses, I suggest.