Australian war grave.

[tonyb]

Hello all,
was today walking through Widnes Borough Cemetery in Cheshire and stumbled across this grave.
Have looked up the Battalion on the internet ,they were formed six weeks after start of The Great War an saw service in Gallipoli, then France and Flanders in many of the famous named battles.
What I can't workout is why this casualty was buried in a Northern English cemetery. (Widnes was in Lancashire before the 1970's boundry changes.)
Can anyone shed any light on this please ?
Regards Tony.

[NEMO]

HI there good afternoon ,
Interesting photo thanks for showing.

It Is not uncommon to find the odd great war soldier burried in a UK grave yard but I think if I understand you your asking why would a member of the Australian forces be buried here ?


A large portion of the Australian armed forces were not infact natives of Australia many were English US Canadian European who had settled there before the start of he great war ,also there were Austalian armed forces recruiting offices In the UK in London Manchester Leeds etc so it was quite possible for a UK resident to join direct in to the A.I.F it was a better rate of pay and I believe they were promised a ` land grant ` in Australia at the wars end so it is posible your man was English and died at home from wounds /

How ever having checked Him out , his details are infact give as Australian

He may well have taken an English wife and died of wounds at home , or a local military hospital , was there one near you ?
To give you an example there are two WW2 Russian soldiers burried In a local grave yard near me both with Common wealth war grave head stones
Hope you find out more plus there are guys on the forum with much better knowledge of the Australian army who should be able to offer more , hope this helps ,Michael.

[magpie]

If you look up (CWGC.org) Eric Ernest Priestly and click on cemetery you will see that 101casualties are buried in widnes cemetary, a military hospital may have been near by in the war.He may also have had family in widnes.
Andy.

[badjez]

Having looked at the Australian War Memorial site 'mapping our anzacs' the only Priestly shown as having enrolled in the AIF is the following:-
PRIESTLY Alfred : Service Number - 6877 : Place of Birth - Lang Lang VIC : Place of Enlistment - Meeniyan VIC : Next of Kin - (Father) PRIESTLEY Alfred Turner.
He called himself a 'natural born' Australian, but someone has corrected that to read British.

I can recomend the site. It is searchable by location of residence upon enrollment or name and give access to their original records. I was surprised how many came from Gt Britain (and even Denmark apparently!)

Regards, Stephen.

[NEMO]

HI there , I too got the name ERIC EARNEST with same date of death not E.R as on the grave stone but i think it is the same guy ?

[tonyb]

Thanks,
to everyone so far for your guidance, have checked various sites suggested, really interesting .
Of the 101 casualties buried at Widnes, 56 are from the Great War from Regiments all over UK and Ireland including 15 to The South Lancs (local Regiment?.)
Am enjoying detective work.
Checked for Military Hospitals in Widnes area and ended up on site The Long Long Trail where I came across this;
Regards Tony.

[tonyb]

Have tried England census for both 1901 and 1911, with no joy so likely to be an Australian.
See if there are such documents available in Australia.
Tony

[BWEF]

Originally Posted by tonyb

Have tried England census for both 1901 and 1911, with no joy so likely to be an Australian.
See if there are such documents available in Australia.
Tony

Look at his AIF Attestation papers, scanned and available online - (National Archives of Australia). They ought to give his place of birth.

There also ought to be something on how he died. The last one I looked at was wounded at 3rd Ypres and died of wounds in a casualty clearing station, buried at Lijssenthoek in Belgium.

[tonyb]

Hello BWEF the only result on National Archives of Australia was as Stephen's (Badjez)
Different forename and service number.
Think I have hit a brick wall on this guy!
regards Tony.

[BWEF]

Originally Posted by tonyb

Hello BWEF the only result on National Archives of Australia was as Stephen's (Badjez)
Different forename and service number.
Think I have hit a brick wall on this guy!
regards Tony.

Eric Ernest Priestley's papers - 103 pages

http://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/scrip...20555&I=1&SE=1

Mentions burial at Widnes - died of wounds - GSW both legs 4th May 1918. Died in Reading, Berkshire, but buried in Widnes, local connection - Wife, Mrs E Priestley, 16 Margerate Street, Widnes. She "& many other relatives" present at funeral.

At least 5 prior wounds, plus Gassed, Shell Shock & Trench Feet. I'm not reading this any more. What they went through!

[tonyb]

BWEF,
sincere thanks for you time and efforts locating these documents for me.

Thought I had loads of information from page one. Spent time looking at amendments to next of kin. Widnes address crossed out!

Didn't realise there were 103 pages.

Only picked up on this following your post edits,his war sounds the absolute worst.

Of coarse I will spend as much time as it takes to go through all 103 pages.
From what you have mentioned so far it beggars belief.

Best regards Tony.

[tonyb]

Wow,
Have read documents kindly submitted by BWEF, ref an Australian war grave I passed this morning and photographed using my mobile phone.
Of the all accounts we hear from this conflict ,there are probably many that will compare with Pte Eric Ernest Priestly. But having read his record I have my doubts.
Please all you guys who read this post refer BWEF's link in post #10.
This guy like all the rest deserve to be remembered.
Will defo lay poppy with cross with script on his last resting place, come remembrance day
Tony.

[BWEF]

Originally Posted by tonyb

Wow,
Have read documents kindly submitted by BWEF, ref an Australian war grave I passed this morning and photographed using my mobile phone.
Of the all accounts we hear from this conflict ,there are probably many that will compare with Pte Eric Ernest Priestly. But having read his record I have my doubts.
Please all you guys who read this post refer BWEF's link in post #10.
This guy like all the rest deserve to be remembered.
Will defo lay poppy with cross with script on his last resting place, come remembrance day
Tony.

It brings it all home to you seeing all that he endured written down in black and white. He was only a little guy too, just under 5 foot 4 and 128 pounds.

It would be a very nice thing if you were able to lay Australian an poppy on Pte Priestly's grave Tony.

They are not the same as English poppies. Maybe a kind Australian member will send you one?

[Faugh-A-Ballagh]

On a similar note, a few years ago I happened to be in Belfast city cemetery. This was just after all the war graves had been replaced. For years this cemetery would have been deemed a no-go area due to it's location off the Falls Road, and all the CWGC headstones there and in the nearby Milltown (catholic) Cemetery had been removed due to repeated vandalism.

Anyway, I don't want to rake over the rights and wrongs of the troubles in NI, but that was just to set the scene.

A very interesting spot, with graves of soldiers, sailors and airmen from all parts of the commonwealth from both WW1 and WW2, and a few from in between years.

I often wondered how so many of them ended up in Belfast of all places. I presume that many of the Naval ones were due to it being an important port at that time, and there would have been military hospitals as well.

One which I looked into a bit was of a major in the Pioneer Corps, who had the DSO. It turns out that he and several others from the Pioneer Corps had been killed during an air raid on the docks in 1941.

Other interesting ones were the mass graves for the unidentified victims of the air raids, one in the city cemetery and one in Milltown for the catholic victims. There are also the graves of a Polish bomber crew which crashed in the Republic of Ireland and were brought to Belfast for burial.

A very interesting subject, and I'm sure every city has it's own similar story.

John

[BWEF]

Originally Posted by Faugh-A-Ballagh

On a similar note, a few years ago I happened to be in Belfast city cemetery. This was just after all the war graves had been replaced. For years this cemetery would have been deemed a no-go area due to it's location off the Falls Road, and all the CWGC headstones there and in the nearby Milltown (catholic) Cemetery had been removed due to repeated vandalism.

Anyway, I don't want to rake over the rights and wrongs of the troubles in NI, but that was just to set the scene.

A very interesting spot, with graves of soldiers, sailors and airmen from all parts of the commonwealth from both WW1 and WW2, and a few from in between years.

I often wondered how so many of them ended up in Belfast of all places. I presume that many of the Naval ones were due to it being an important port at that time, and there would have been military hospitals as well.

One which I looked into a bit was of a major in the Pioneer Corps, who had the DSO. It turns out that he and several others from the Pioneer Corps had been killed during an air raid on the docks in 1941.

Other interesting ones were the mass graves for the unidentified victims of the air raids, one in the city cemetery and one in Milltown for the catholic victims. There are also the graves of a Polish bomber crew which crashed in the Republic of Ireland and were brought to Belfast for burial.

A very interesting subject, and I'm sure every city has it's own similar story.

John

They do, and a good start in looking into it is to use the drop down menu on the CWGC site. Drop the top field from "Casualty" to "Cemeteries", and then put in your local area.

Some of the little places "out in the sticks" have just a handful of names, but the cities have hundreds. In particular, London.

The London dead are listed by Borough. Here are the figures for just three, as examples: Battersea - 537, Lambeth 1,646, Stepney 933.

Here are the 868 civilians killed in Belfast County Borough:

http://www.cwgc.org/search/cemetery_...4004603&mode=1

In contrast, Dorking & Horley Rural District lost 3 & Belfast Rural District lost 4.

You can see why the kids were evacuated.