Brothers lost in battle (1 Viewer)

[larso]

I'm reading the WW1 autobiography of Joe Maxwell VC and came across a mention of the three Seabrook brothers (17th Bn) who he writes were all killed by the same shell. A bit of research confirms the deaths, at least in the same battle, the first and last for all of them. I also found this post on the AWM site which is very sad reading on this topic -

Stephen Brooks says:
I have been researching sets of Australian brothers who lost their lives during WW1 for nearly 18 months. I have recorded the names of over 2,800 confirmed sets brothers who lost their lives, serving just with Australian forces. This figure includes 42 fathers and sons, who both died. It has been a more than poignant task, it has been gut wrenching at times, but one that gives a much deeper understanding of the sacrifice made by the AIF. I have not completed the work, and it could reach almost 3,000 sets of brothers. So far I have found 151 families that lost at least three sons, and at least 5 of those lost 4 sons. These figures do not include any brothers who died serving with other Commonwealth forces, I have recorded them seperately, and have found a further 147 families who had at least one brother who died serving in the AIF, and at least one other brother who died serving with another British or dominion force. The Beechey family is included in this group. The great majority of course are pairs of brothers, and over 160 pairs of brothers lost their lives on the same day, the majority often serving in the same unit, so literally dying side by side. The slaughter at Fromelles caused the death of 25 sets of brothers and two fathers and sons. The sacrifice made by so many families is unimaginable. Many families are better known like the Howell-Price, Keid, Seabrook and Leane brothers, but many are also almost forgotten, perhaps not having any descendants to commerate the lives they gave in the service of their country. The grief and suffering endured by their families, and the family's contribution to Australia should be remembered. The 2800 sets of brothers translates into over 6000 dead Australians, or 10% of our total casualties. This means in every group of 20 killed were a pair of brothers. The AIF was desperately short of men for much of the war, and no rules were put in place to limit the number of volunteers, but I have come across many examples where steps were taken to bring home the still surviving brothers from families who had already lost two sons. In one case the people of the small township took up a petition asking for the return of the surviving brother, and in other cases, deperate mothers and fathers, implored the authorities to send at least one son home. Of course many thousands of families lost just the one son or brother, many of them an only son or brother, and their grief and pain was no less. Lest we forget.

 

[Currahee Chris]

A very moving and unsettling account of the waste and destruction of war

 

[lancer]

That is a tragic set of stats that really personalizes the huge number of dead. Large numbers can numb, but bringing the numbers down to family level drives home the sacrifice and loss. -- Al

 

[theBaron]

It's similar to the case of the Sullivan brothers. After their loss, the Navy implemented a policy to separate siblings on duty.

Prost!
Brad

 

[larso]

It's so awful. I remember in Adolf Galland's book he recounted a meeting he had with a father who came to his airfield. The father informed Galland that four of his sons had so far fallen in battle and his wife had died of grief. He had come to ask Galland to release his last son from service so he could retain the last member of his family. Unfortunately that last son had been killed that morning.....

I think I also read about a Vietnamese woman who lost all six sons during the Vietnam War.

It overwhelms the mind.

 

[larso]

Anzac Day down here today. Lots of war stories in the papers but this is the first I've ever heard of the tragic Smith family.

Six of seven sons of Frederick and Maggie Smith died in WW1
by: Ian McPhedran National Defence Writer

ALMOST a century ago the seven sons of a humble Australian rural couple called Frederick and Maggie Smith marched off to the Great War. Just one came home and he died under a tram in 1923.

The tragic true story of the six Smith brothers killed in action during the ‘war to end all wars’ makes the fictional Hollywood movie Saving Private Ryan look like a picnic. It is also unique in the annals of Australian military history.

The Smith boys, including the two youngest — Errol and Aubrey — who used false names to avoid parental consent for under 21s, went to war from the tiny South Australian hamlet of Yongala.

The six killed in action were Herbert William, Frederick Walter, Alfred Ernest, Clarence Leslie (Military Medal), Errol Victor and Aubrey Lyall. The lone survivor who died in 1923 was the oldest brother Francis Hume Smith.

The Great War is littered with tales of brothers lost as cannon fodder for generals who regarded mass casualties as a necessary byproduct of warfare.

In fact more than 2800 sets of Australian brothers perished between 1915 and 1918 at Gallipoli, Palestine and on the Western Front.

More than 150 families lost three sons and at least five more lost four, but no other family’s sacrifice comes within cooee of that suffered by Frederick and Maggie Smith from Yongala (population 240) on the Clare to Peterborough Road.

The incredible story has remained secret for almost 100 years and has only come to light due to the efforts of the brothers’ great-nephew, Adelaide businessman and convener of the 2015 Camp Gallipoli national sleep-out, Chris Fox.

When he was a lad his maternal great-grandmother Lottie, the only girl in the Smith family of eight, took him aside and handed him her most important possession. It was a one penny Australian stamp that had been attached to a letter from the front written by the youngest and her favourite of the seven brothers Aubrey Lyall “Jack” Smith.

Many diggers used the back of stamps to send clandestine messages home away from the prying eyes of tough military censors. Lottie’s red stamp featured the image of the King and carried the simple inscription, “I go out to return, Jack.’’

“My great-grandmother took me to the shed and told me that the stamp was the most precious thing she owned. She said to me, ‘I want you to have and protect it’,” Mr Fox told News Corp Australia.

“That stamp haunts the hell out of me. He knew he was not coming back.”

The precious memento is mounted in glass and preserved for future generations of the family.

Lottie lived until she was 99 and apart from the stamp episode she never spoke of her dead brothers. It was the only time Mr Fox saw her express any emotion.

“In our family it is the unsaid,” he said.

According to Mr Fox the farm belonging to Francis Hume Smith had been sold from under him while he was away at the front and he never recovered from that setback and the loss of all of his brothers.

“We don’t know if his death in 1923 was accidental or deliberate,” he said.

Mr Fox said he hoped that Camp Gallipoli, to be run nationally with up to 200,000 participants on the night of April 24, 2015, would assist young Australians who can’t be at Anzac Cove to celebrate the birth of the Anzac Spirit.

“It is amazing that such a thing could emerge from such adversity,” he said.

Great War historian Professor Peter Stanley from the Australian Defence Force Academy said the story of the six Smith brothers was unique.

He said thousands of men enlisted under false names and hundreds of those simply disappeared without trace after being killed in action.

Professor Stanley said tracing the three brothers whose fate is unknown would be difficult given that 5000 people enlisted during WW1 using the surname Smith.

“This story would have to be unique or one of only a small handful of such deep family tragedies,” he said.

There was no official government policy on removing surviving siblings from the fighting during World War 1 or World War 2.

The Hollywood movie Saving Private Ryan was loosely based on the 1948 US ‘sole survivor’ policy where surviving siblings would be excused from service after the loss of their brothers.

 

[larso]

Well, well. Something more about that last post. Not all is as it seemed.

The great Anzac mystery of the Smith brothers: Did they all die in WWI?
by: By IAN McPHEDRAN From: News Corp Australia May 10, 2014

NINETY-NINE-YEAR-OLD Lottie Hooper went to her grave grieving for six brothers who she believed had died in World War I. The only daughter of a humble South Australian rural family even set a place at the dinner table for the missing boys for years afterwards.

For half-a-century her great grandson Chris Fox has paid homage to a stamp handed to him by Lottie when he was a boy. On the back are written the words, “I go out to return, Jack” — a final message from the front from her favourite brother whose nickname was Jack.

His uncle and Lottie’s grandson Nick Hooper has been the custodian of the family history and he holds a set of precious photographs of the brothers in their military uniforms as well as wartime letters written to Lottie.

Such is the fog of war and the secrets contained in families that two other branches of the Smith family have stepped forward to say that at least two of the brothers Lottie had presumed dead had in fact returned from war, but never made contact with their grieving sister.

Another relative, Marcia Nicholl, has researched the family history and she believes that none of the Smith brothers died in the war. Her grandfather was Herbert William Smith who according to official records died in Adelaide in 1916.

The war history of the brothers is not clear, but Ms Nicholl said the official records clearly show where they died and where they are buried.

“It was a time when details were hidden and families had secrets,” she said.

“Lottie might have been trying to protect the family from some of those secrets.”

Military historian Professor Peter Stanley said research conducted by the Great War Forum supported claims that the brothers did not die. “Family history is often murky, but in Australia we have more complete military records than any other nation,” he said. “While aspects of the Smith brothers’ post-war lives might be obscure, that’s the point — they did not die in the war.”

Mr Fox said he was told by Lottie that she had waved her brothers off to war and that they never came home. “The photos and writings are from my great uncles during the war,” Chris Fox said. “The stamp is our family’s most treasured possession and when given to me by Lottie it was done so with great significance to her.”

Lottie was so affected by her loss that she even banned her own son Ronald from serving in WW2.

Like an episode of the television genealogy program ‘Who Do You Think You Are’ the story of the Smith brothers published by News Corp Australia on Anzac Day has unearthed a complex family story. It has also revealed that at least two brothers who fought returned home.

Mr Fox said it made no sense why such loving boys, who wrote tender letters to their only sister, would cease contact after the war. “They were clearly close as a family and to cut contact is illogical.”

Adding to the mystery is the family of South Australia liberal politician and former SAS officer Martin Hamilton-Smith whose grandfather Clarence was one of the brothers. Mr Hamilton-Smith said there was always an understanding in the family that four of the Smith brothers had died in the great war.

His uncle, also called Clarrie, remembers a man who returned from war terribly damaged by the wounds he sustained at Bullecourt. Clarence deserted the family and went `walkabout’ for 10 years. “There was never any talk about what happened to the other brothers,” he said. “There must have been a family breakdown.”

Further deepening the mystery is the fact that two or three illegitimate Smith boys also turned up and one of them assumed the name of a dead brother.