FAMILY LIFE

Donald Christopher Stewart was born in 1898 in Bungawalbyn, Lismore, son of William John Stewart and Mary Jane (Bulley) Stewart. He was one of 15 children and 4 enlisted, including Donald.  One brother died at the Battle of the Somme. Donald lived in the district for many years. He conducted the Tyalgum- Murwillumbah mail and car service for three years

In 1906, as part of the Brays Creek Land Tenure in the Parish of Tyalgum, William, and his son Hersee settled on Lot 14PT, a selection of 221 acres which included part of the Old Casino Track. The remaining members of the family remained at Bungawalbyn, while William and  & his brother, Hersee, set up camp and erected a permanent slab hut on the bank of Brays Creek. In time all the family was re-united. They then concentrated on developing and working their dairy farm at Tyalgum. His parents are buried in Tyalgum cemetery.

ATTESTATION

Donald enlisted on 1st June 1915 as a private with the 9^TH Infantry Battalion, 8^th reinforcements with service number 2681. He stated he was 18 years 4 months old but in fact he was only 16. He was a farmer and single and his next of kin was his father Stewart, of Tyalgum.  I cannot tell you any other personal details as the appropriate page is missing from the attestation. I feel I can assume he was Church of England as his brothers were.

RIFLE RANGE TRAINING CAMP, ENOGGERA

As was the case with men from the Northern Rivers district in New South Wales, they trained at Rifle Range Camp, Enoggera near Brisbane. The Barracks Block was built as accommodation for men in two dormitories, each 36 feet by 22 feet (10.97 x 6.7 metres). Beds or bunks were not provided, instead each man slept on a palliasse with ground sheet on the floor. For many it was their first time away from home. Men from every walk of life, from clerks and teachers to factory and shop workers, were crammed together.

Then training began. Firstly, a recruit had to be inducted into military forms of discipline, command, and order. This was partially achieved through a program of basic training carried and, in a sense, was maintained for a long as a man was in the service.

It involved marching and drilling with the rifle, cleaning and caring for personal equipment and being supervised and inspected in ways quite different to ordinary civilian life. For example, no boots should be allowed to get in a bad state of wear but must be sent to the bootmaker without delay for repair. Men who were found with hair long and unshaven had to have a haircut and shave

Secondly, after basic training there followed the far more serious exercise of turning a man into a fighting soldier at least partially prepared for the kind of warfare he was about to experience overseas

The topics and exercises in the syllabus of training were a world away from their former lives and included daily physical training, entrenching, wiring, firing rifle grenades, firing the Lewis light machine gun, dealing with gas attack, using hand grenades, using the bayonet, and the routines to be followed in the trenches.

This training was then put into practice during what were called ‘Field Days,’ when men would practice using the skills they had acquired in mock attacks both by day and by night. How well men had learnt to use their weapons, in cooperation with each other in training, would be tested in the harsh reality of the front line.

The recruits were issued with their uniform: a khaki woollen jacket, heavy cord breeches and the famous slouch hat – turned up on the left and featuring a plain khaki band, chinstrap and “rising sun” badge. A soldier’s equipment also included a dixie (mess tin), water bottle, mug, .303 Lee-Enfield rifle and bayonet.

VOYAGE OVEERSEAS

On the 16th Aug 1915 his unit embarked at Brisbane on the HMAT Kyarra. Alongside his comrades, he marched aboard, his boots ringing on the gangway. As the ship’s lines were cast off and the quay began to slip away, the reality of war lay ahead, but for now, the sea breeze carried only the sound of voices and the excitement of men bound for adventure, duty, and the unknown.

The epic voyage across the ocean has been described as “the longest journey to war in the history of the world.” They thought it was the start of a new adventure- for many it was their first time so far away from home. However, after some time at sea the biggest problem turned out to be boredom. On the voyage, due to overcrowding, training was limited to mainly to lectures and a little physical training.

Sleeping & Living Arrangements

Recruits likely slept in a crowded troop deck below, where rows of hammocks or three-tier wooden bunks were crammed close together.

Air below decks could be stuffy, especially in warmer climates, and seasickness was common during the first few days.

Daily Routine

Reveille early each morning, followed by physical exercises on the open decks (weather permitting). There were parades and inspections—officers ensured uniforms, rifles, and kit were clean and in order. Training was a little problematic—drill without much space, rifle maintenance, lectures on military discipline, signalling, and trench warfare theory. The ship’s decks were used for marching in tight circles or practising bayonet thrusts into stuffed sacks. Rifle shooting was impossible at sea, so soldiers learned to strip and clean their weapons until it was second nature.

Meals

Three hearty meals a day were served; breakfast usually consisted of porridge, stew, and tea. Lunch included soup, meat, vegetables, and pudding. Meat, bread with jam and tea was served for dinner. The meals were served in shifts from the ship’s galley. Queues were long, and eating on a rolling ship meant many tried to eat quickly before nausea set in.

Health & Sanitation

Shipboard hygiene was critical—every man was ordered to scrub his section daily to prevent disease. Saltwater baths were the norm, with freshwater rationed for drinking.

The Voyage Experience

Entertainment included church drill, concerts, singalongs, card games, and makeshift cricket matches on deck when the weather allowed. In an attempt to keep up morale, an area of the ship was roped off where regular boxing and wrestling tournaments were held. This became commonly known as the Stoush Stadium. No letters could be sent until they reached port, but men often wrote diaries or unsent letters to be posted later.

The troops engaged in lifebelt drill; a cookhouse on deck; soldiers on fatigues peeling potatoes 'spud bashing'; going to the dentist; barber, pay day; soldiers cleaning personal equipment; medical inspection

CROSSING THE EQUATOR CEREMONY

The crossing the Equator ceremony, ‘Neptune’s Journey,’ was played-out on each troopship.

SIGHTS AT SEA

On the way to Egypt, the ship would pass through the Great Australian Bight, cross the Indian Ocean, and stop at Colombo (Ceylon now Sri Lanka) for coal and supplies.

SECURITY

By late 1914, German raiders were active, so lifeboat drills were frequent, and lookouts kept watch for suspicious ships.

APPROACHING EGYPT

After several weeks at sea, the men finally saw the dusty shoreline of Port Said or Alexandria. For most, it was their first sight of a foreign country, and the reality of leaving home truly sank in. Arthur would soon exchange the ship’s cramped decks for the sandy training grounds of Egypt, preparing for what lay ahead.

EGYPTIAN TRAINING CAMP

Once the Kyarra reached Egypt, Donald and his fellow reinforcements were sent to a training camp—most likely Zeitoun or Heliopolis, near Cairo—where new arrivals were hardened into front-line soldiers. His records do not show to which camp he was sent so I have added what generally happened in the Egyptian camps

Over many tough months, in the Egyptian training camp, the volunteers left their old lives farther behind. They began an intensive period of training in preparation for deployment to the front. These camps were shared by other Australian and New Zealand forces, creating a large and active training environment.

Daily life followed a strict military routine. Reveille was sounded around 5:30 am, followed by physical training, which included route marches and endurance work in the desert conditions. After breakfast, the men began structured morning sessions focusing on drill, bayonet practice, and rifle handling. Training resumed after lunch, often with practical field exercises such as digging trenches, constructing defences, and simulating attacks on mock enemy positions. The day ended with roll call, personal time, and lights out around 9:00 pm.

The training itself covered a wide range of military skills. Soldiers learned close-order drill, musketry (rifle shooting), bayonet fighting, and basic tactics. Musketry was particularly important: the men practised with their Lee-Enfield rifles on firing ranges, learning how to load, aim, fire rapidly, and judge distances accurately. Bayonet training was also emphasized, with troops practising thrusts, parries, and charges on straw-filled dummies to build aggression and confidence.

Physical fitness was a high priority. Route marches of 10 to 15 kilometres in full kit were a regular part of the schedule to build stamina and discipline. Troops also received instruction in field engineering—learning how to dig trenches, build parapets and revetments, and position barbed wire obstacles effectively.

Other important areas of training included basic first aid, battlefield communication (such as flag and lamp signalling), and map reading.

Sanitation and hygiene were stressed throughout the training period. Soldiers were taught how to prevent disease by maintaining clean clothing and equipment, constructing latrines, and purifying drinking water. This was crucial in the Egyptian climate, where illness could spread rapidly.

Although the training was demanding, there were occasional opportunities for leave. Many soldiers visited the bazaars, cafés, and sights of Cairo, or made trips to the pyramids near Mena. Morale was generally high, though the men understood active service was approaching.

Training would be for eight hours a day six days a week. All day long, in every valley of the Sahara for miles around the Pyramids of Giza were groups or lines of men advancing, retiring, drilling or squatted near their piled arms listening to their officer. For many of the battalions many miles of desert had to be covered in the morning and evening to and from their allotted training areas. At first, to harden the troops, they wore full kit with heavy packs. Their backs became drenched with perspiration, and the bitter desert wind blew on them as they camped for their midday meal and many deaths from pneumonia were attributed to this cause.

TAKEN ON STRENGTH MUDROS NOVEMBER 1915

Donald’s war service began in earnest on 17 November 1915 when he was taken on strength at Mudros, the Greek island that served as a major Allied base for the Gallipoli campaign. The harbour was crowded with warships, troop transports, and supply vessels, and the island itself was alive with camps, hospitals, and stores. Here, Donald would have found himself in a whirl of activity—men coming and going from the peninsula, the wounded being evacuated, and reinforcements being prepared for whatever came next. This site was important to the Allies trying to gain control of the Dardanelles.

SEVERAL DIFFERENT POSTINGS

His postings in the months that followed were rapid and bewildering. On 25 February 1916 he was transferred to the 49th Battalion at Habeita in Egypt, a move that would have meant another shift in routine, comrades, and duties. Just a few weeks later, on 14 March, he was transferred again—this time out of the infantry and into the 4th Divisional Artillery.

APPOINTED GUNNER TO 11^TH INFANTRY MARCH 1916

Three days later, on 11^TH March 1916, Donald was officially taken on strength with the 11th Field Artillery Brigade, mustered as a gunner, and posted to the 43rd Battery.

In the space of four months, he had moved from reinforcement training to Mudros, then to an infantry battalion in Egypt, and finally into the artillery. It was enough to make a man’s head spin, but Donald adapted quickly, learning the skills of a gunner—loading, aiming, and firing the big 18-pounder field guns, caring for the horses that hauled them, and mastering the teamwork needed to keep the battery firing effectively.

APPOINTED BOMBARDIER JULY 1916

Donald’s time with the 43rd Battery in 1916 was spent in some of the most challenging artillery work the AIF had yet undertaken. On 4 July 1916, he was appointed bombardier—a junior non-commissioned rank in the artillery, equivalent to a lance corporal—recognition of his skill, reliability, and leadership within the gun crew.

WESTERN FRONT & TRENCH WARFARE

By then, the 11th Field Artillery Brigade had long since left Egypt, crossing to France in March–April 1916, and was heavily engaged on the Western Front.

The soldiers now found themselves fighting the Germans in trench warfare. On the Western Front in 1914–1918, both sides constructed elaborate trench, underground, and dugout systems opposing each other along a front, protected from assault by barbed wire. The area between opposing trench lines (known as "no man's land") was fully exposed to artillery fire from both sides. Attacks, even if successful, often sustained severe casualties. Trench warfare created a living environment for the men which was harsh, stagnant, and extremely dangerous. Not only were trenches constantly under threat of attack from shells or other weapons, but there were also many health risks that developed into large-scale problems for medical personnel. Apart from the inescapable cold during the winters in France & Belgium, trenches were often completely waterlogged and muddy, and crawling with lice and rats

The time soldiers spent in the trenches varied depending on factors like their army's rotation system and the intensity of the conflict in their sector. On average:

·      Front-line trenches: Soldiers typically remained here for about 4–6 days at a time. This was where the fighting was most intense and the conditions were the harshest.

·      Support and reserve trenches: After time on the front line, soldiers were rotated to these positions for around 6–12 days. These trenches were set further back and offered slightly better conditions.

·      Rest periods: Soldiers were then moved away from the trench system entirely for rest, training, and recovery, often lasting several weeks, depending on operational needs.

The rotation system helped prevent complete physical and mental exhaustion, but the constant dangers of trench life meant there was rarely any true respite.

THE SOMME SUMMER & AUTUMN 1916

Through the summer and autumn of 1916, Donald and his battery were supporting the Australian infantry in the bloody fighting on the Somme. This meant days and nights of relentless shelling—laying down barrages before infantry attacks, cutting enemy wire, pounding German strongpoints, and engaging in counter-battery duels to silence enemy guns. Artillery crews worked in muddy, cramped gun pits, often under retaliatory fire and in appalling weather, hauling heavy ammunition, maintaining their guns, and operating with minimal rest.

The work was physically exhausting and mentally draining, and promotions brought added responsibility. As a bombardier, Donald would have been responsible for directing his gun crew, keeping the weapon in action, and ensuring orders were carried out accurately and quickly under pressure.

REVERTED TO GUNNER DECEMBER 1916

On 17 December 1916, he reverted to the rank of gunner at his own request. Such reversions were not uncommon—leadership in the field could mean constant strain, longer hours, and even greater exposure to danger. After months of intense action on the Somme, Donald may have simply wished to return to the relative anonymity and shared burden of an ordinary gunner, where the weight of responsibility was a little lighter, even if the dangers were not.

HOSPITALISED DECEMBER 1917

On the same day he was transferred from the 11th Field Artillery Brigade to the 2nd Australian General Hospital at Wimereux on the French coast, listed as a private while under their care. The records give no diagnosis, but such transfers to hospital often followed illness, exhaustion, or minor wounds that needed more than front-line treatment. The 2nd AGH was a large, busy facility treating hundreds of cases at any one time, and Donald would have been housed in long, draughty huts or tents, resting while doctors and orderlies worked to get him back to health.

LEAVE IN ENGLAND

By mid-1917 he was fit for duty once more. On 9 June 1917, Donald was granted leave in England — a brief but welcome reprieve from the war. Soldiers on leave often made the most of the time, exploring London, visiting theatres or music halls, or simply enjoying the quieter pace of the countryside. His leave was short, and on 14 June 1917 he rejoined his unit, back to the work of the artilleryman — hauling shells, firing the big guns, and enduring the unrelenting cycle of bombardment and counter-bombardment that marked the battles of that year

THIRD BATTLE OF YPRES JULY 1917

After returning from leave in mid-June 1917, Donald rejoined the 43rd Battery, 11th Field Artillery Brigade, just as the AIF artillery was entering one of its busiest periods of the war. The artillery brigades were in almost constant action, supporting the infantry with barrages, harassing enemy positions, and countering German guns.

That summer saw the Australian artillery involved in the long and costly Third Battle of Ypres in Belgium, which began in late July 1917. While Donald’s exact battery position is not always recorded, the 11th FAB took part in the creeping barrages that paved the way for Australian and British infantry advances at Menin Road in September, Polygon Wood later that month, and Broodseinde in early October. The work was gruelling — guns were dragged into new positions across a sea of churned-up mud, and every round fired had to be manhandled from the ammunition dumps forward to the gun pits. Donald, as a gunner, would have been on the loading team, ramming shells into the breech and keeping up a relentless rate of fire under strict orders.

FLANDERS WINTER 1917-1918

The winter of 1917–18 brought no real respite. The 11th FAB was positioned in Flanders, where the weather turned the trenches and gun positions into frozen quagmires. Frostbite and illness were common, and the gunners often worked in waterlogged pits, their uniforms stiff with mud and ice. The German lines were close enough for shells and gas to be a constant threat, and the artillery also drew the enemy’s attention whenever a major barrage was fired.

SPRING OFFENSIVE EARLY JANUARY 1918

By early 1918, the Australians were preparing for a new phase of the war. The German High Command was planning its Spring Offensive, and in the quieter months before it began, the artillery kept up harassing fire on enemy positions. This meant daily routines of setting fuses, adjusting elevation and range, firing on supply lines, and shelling enemy batteries to disrupt their own preparations. It was tense, dangerous work — the risk of miscalculation, mechanical mishap, or incoming counter-battery fire was ever-present.

Donald’s experience during this period was that of a seasoned artilleryman: long hours, heavy labour, the deafening roar of the 18-pounders, and the knowledge that the infantry’s lives often depended on the accuracy and speed of the gun crews.

WOUNDED IN ACTION- FRIENDLY FIRE- FEBRUARY 1918

It was against this backdrop, in February 1918, that Donald’s war took an unexpected and deeply ironic turn — not from German fire, but from the bullet of an allied soldier.

From August 1917 onwards, Donald and the 43rd Battery, 11th Field Artillery Brigade were kept in almost constant motion along the Western Front. Artillerymen rarely had the luxury of a long rest; they were shifted from sector to sector to support infantry attacks or hold the line against German counter-offensives. This meant days and nights spent manhandling heavy 18-pounder guns into position, often under enemy shelling, and firing carefully-timed barrages to protect infantry advances or disrupt enemy supply lines. When out of direct action, they laboured in gun pits, repaired damage from German fire, fetched ammunition from forward dumps, and endured the ever-present mud, cold, and vermin that plagued all Western Front troops.

By early 1918, Donald’s unit was in the Flanders sector, operating alongside Portuguese forces who had been assigned to hold a stretch of the line. Relations were generally cordial, but the mix of languages, the tension of front-line duty, and the constant noise of battle meant misunderstandings could happen in an instant. On 17 February 1918, Donald was moving near a trench line when, in the chaos of the moment, a Portuguese soldier mistakenly identified movement as a threat. A shot rang out, striking Donald in the buttocks.

HOSPITALISED WIMEREUX

He was swiftly evacuated to the No. 2 Australian General Hospital at Wimereux, just north of Boulogne. This large medical facility, with its timber wards and rows of bell tents, was staffed by experienced doctors and Australian Army Nursing Service sisters. The wound would have been cleaned and dressed, the risk of infection closely monitored, and Donald given regular morphia or other pain relief. The nursing sisters not only tended to the physical injuries but also provided much-needed comfort — clean sheets, warm drinks, and human conversation in a place far removed from the guns.

LEAVE IN ENGLANDJULY 1918

His recovery was steady, and by 26 July 1918 he was well enough to be granted leave to England, returning to the battery on 10 August.

WAR ENDED NOVEMBER 1918

Donald served on through the final Allied offensives of late 1918, when the artillery played a crucial role in breaking the German lines.

On 11^th November the fighting was officially over so he prepared to return to Australia. After the Armistice, the Australian Prime Minister Billy Hughes insisted Australian troops be repatriated (returned home) as quickly as possible. This logistical challenge was enormous with 135,000 troops brought home from Britain in 147 voyages, and 16,773 troops from the Middle East in 56 voyages, mostly on a first come, first go basis. There was a lack of suitable ships to transport personnel home and many had to wait many months before they were headed back to Australia.

He remained in France until the spring of 1919, finally returning to England to prepare for repatriation.

RETURNED HOME MAY 1919

On 3 May 1919, he boarded the Leicestershire for Australia, with nursing staff noted among the passengers — a reminder that even the voyage home still required the care and watchfulness of medical personnel

FOR HIS SERVICE

He was discharged 21st June 1919. For his service, Donald was awarded the 1914-15 Star, British War Medal, and the Victory Medal

HOME LIFE

Donald died on the 9th Mar 1930 at Southport, following an operation for appendicitis and is buried in Southport General Cemetery Plot MO6-330

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