Memorial to lost family - WWI
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.
Our family lost two members during the fight at Gallipoli in August 1915. Two of my grandmother’s uncles, Corporal Norman Thomas Pittendrigh and Private Edmund Pittendrigh. Norman was just 21 and had been in the military for 12 months, Edmund on the otherhand was only 19 and had joined only 2 months prior, being killed when he landed on the beach at ANZAC Cove.
Corporal | |
 | 1st Bn, A Company, Australian Infantry, A.I.F. |
Norman joined the Australian Imperial Force on 27 August 1914. He was the 149th Australian to join after war had been declared. He embarked from Sydney on 18 October 1914, and then from Alexadria to join the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force (M.E.F.), Gallipoli campaign, on 5 April 1915. The 1st Battalion took part in the ANZAC landings on 25 April 1915 in the second and third waves. Norman was promoted to Corporal by the Commanding Officer of 1st Battalion at Gallipoli Peninsula on 25 April 1915.
Suffering from “ear trouble” he was sent to the hospital on 16 May 1915, arriving in Mudros 21 May and being discharged to duty on 23 May 1915. He rejoined the Battalion on 27 May 1915, and was reported missing on 14 August 1915 following the push at Lone Pine.
A witness statement dated 26 December 1915, from Coy. Sgt. Major Barber, stated:
“Pittendrigh was sent forward with 28 others to hold a trench. Only two came back. The rest were left in the trench, the bodies lying deep in it. It is presumed they were all killed by bombs. This happened on August 8th.”
Norman was declared “killed in action between 6th and 11th August 1915”, by the Court of Enquiry held at Tel-el-Kebir (Egypt) on 11 January 1916.
Norman was awarded the 1914/15 Star, the British War Medal, and the Victory Medal.
Private | |
 | 18th Battalion, 2nd Reinforcement Australian Infantry, A.I.F. |
Edmund joind the A.I.F. on 2 June 1915. He embarked to join the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force Gallipoli on 16 August 1915. He was reported “missing” from Gallipoli Peninsula between 22nd and 28th August 1915. A Court of Enquiry held at Tel-el-Kebir (Egypt) on 21 January 1916 found “Reasonable to suppose him dead” and it was cabled “Previously reported MISSING, now KILLED in ACTION Gallipoli Peninsula 22/8/15”.
We have very little further information regarding Edmund. There was apparently initial confusion between Edmund and another soldier named Pittendrigh who died on board a hospital ship, however these comments were later cancelled when it seems it was discovered the soldier buried at sea was not Pte Edmund Pittendrigh. There was one statement from a Sgt. W Hartill, C/ Co 18 A.I.F., O/S Base, Giza:
“Witness, who is storeman in charge of 18th Battn kits, informs me that this man’s kit was sent away from the 18th Battn kit depot at Over Seas Base to the Quartermaster General’s Department. Witness explains that this means they are to be cleaned and renovated for use by another soldier. This kit was sent out on 27.12.15, in pursuance from an order from Headquarters. The entries on the Kit Bag Rolls kept by the Battn show that this man was killed, though no date was given.”
Historical records show that the 18th Battalion landed at ANZAC Cove, Gallipoli Peninsula on 22 August 1915, and was almost immediately committed to the last operation of the August offensive, the attack on Hill 60, which lasted until 29 August 1915. Some reports back from Gallipoli indicated that Edmund was killed during the landing.
Enquiries in May 2009 by the Hon. Joel Fitzgibbon, Minister for Defence, revealed “no known grave” for both Edmund and Norman Pittendrigh, although both are listed at the Lone Pine memorial in Turkey.
Edmund was awarded the 1914/15 Star, the British War Medal, and the Victory Medal.
Historical Information
The eight month campaign in Gallipoli was fought by Commonwealth and French forces in an attempt to force Turkey out of the war, to relieve the deadlock of the Western Front in France and Belgium, and to open a supply route to Russia through the Dardanelles and the Black Sea.
The Allies landed on the peninsula on 25-26 April 1915; the 29th Division at Cape Helles in the south and the Australian and New Zealand Corps north of Gaba Tepe on the west coast, an area soon known as Anzac. On 6 August, further landings were made at Suvla, just north of Anzac, and the climax of the campaign came in early August when simultaneous assaults were launched on all three fronts.
Lone Pine was a strategically important plateau in the southern part of Anzac which was briefly in the hands of Australian forces following the landings on 25 April. It became a Turkish strong point from May to July, when it was known by them as ‘Kanli Sirt’ (Bloody Ridge).
The Australians pushed mines towards the plateau from the end of May to the beginning of August and on the afternoon of 6 August, after mine explosions and bombardment from land and sea, the position was stormed by the 1st Australian Brigade. By 10 August, the Turkish counter-attacks had failed and the position was consolidated. It was held by the 1st Australian Division until 12 September, and then by the 2nd, until the evacuation of the peninsula in December.
The LONE PINE MEMORIAL stands on the site of the fiercest fighting at Lone Pine and overlooks the whole front line of May 1915. It commemorates more than 4,900 Australian and New Zealand servicemen who died in the Anzac area - the New Zealanders prior to the fighting in August 1915 - whose graves are not known. Others named on the memorial died at sea and were buried in Gallipoli waters.
The memorial stands in LONE PINE CEMETERY. The original small battle cemetery was enlarged after the Armistice when scattered graves were brought in from the neighbourhood, and from Brown’s Dip North and South Cemeteries, which were behind the Australian trenches of April-August 1915.
There are now 1,167 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War buried or commemorated in this cemetery. 504 of the burials are unidentified. Special memorials commemorate 183 soldiers (all but one of them Australian, most of whom died in August), who were known or believed to have been buried in Lone Pine Cemetery, or in the cemeteries at Brown’s Dip.