Timothy Bambery was born at Warwick in Queensland on 21st September, 1882 the eldest of nine children to Timothy and Margaret Bambery. The family lived at Murwillumbah and the Richmond River before settling at Tweed Heads in New South Wales. They owned and ran a popular kiosk at The Caves on Fingal Headland, and both Timothy and his brother George went to Murwillumbah Public School. In later life, Timothy worked as an engine driver at the Cudgen Sugar Mill and worked his own land at Midginbil. He was described as “a favourite with all who knew him.”

APPLICATION

Timothy had a farm at Midginbil and his enlistment papers state his occupation as a farmer. Tim & his brother, George, enlisted together on 19 October 1914 in Murwillumbah, Timothy receiving Regimental No. 725 and George No. 726, and both were drafted to the 15th Battalion, E Company. Both were unmarried. Timothy had been fined twice for being drunk in 1912. He was 29 years old stood 5ft 4½ (164cm) and weighed 136lbs (61.5kgs) with grey eyes and black hair.  Timothy was Roman Catholic. He had not been vaccinated. He had a long scar down his right cheek and another above right kneecap as well as a small scar on his left foot. He had a small wart on the base on the right side of his neck and another on his upper lip. His eyesight was only fair, but the comment was “good man every other way”

 15^TH INFANTRY BATTALION

The 15th Battalion AIF was raised from late September 1914, six weeks after the outbreak of the First World War. With the 13th, 14th, and 16th Battalions it formed the 4th Brigade, commanded by Colonel John Monash. The 15th Battalion is remembered for its bravery and resilience during World War I

AUSTRALIAN TRAINING CAMP

They travelled to Enoggera on 26 Oct 1914, before being moved to Broadmeadows in Victoria for training.   Now training for the new recruits began. Firstly, the men received their vaccinations for smallpox, rabies & plague, then 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. Training would take several months

DISCIPLINED

During the Broadmeadow camp, on 28^th November 1914, Timothy broke camp and was absent without leave from the Tattoo on 28^th to Reveille on 29^th April. He was admonished by the Commanding officer & forfeited 1 day’s pay

 VOYAGE OVERSEAS

The brothers were part of the original establishment of the 15th Battalion, three-quarters of which was recruited from Northern NSW/ Queensland and the rest from Tasmania. The battalion was united in Melbourne before embarking for Europe in December 1914. They embarked on 22 Dec 1914 on the SS Ceramic with a stopover in Albany, Western Australia. 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. Attempts at breaking up the boredom, apart from the regular drill, varied. Shipboard activities included regular church parades and concerts. 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. Sports and recreation included boxing, deck quoits, draughts. Also, the commanding officer's morning inspection; kit inspections; submarine drill; recreation such as the on deck 'open air' library, deck billiards, pillow fighting and card games including Nap. As well, conditions on the ships were cramped and the risk of illness was constant. They disembarked at Alexandria, Egypt on 1^st Feb 1915.

 EGYPT 1915

Timothy & George’s adventure began after reaching Alexandria in Egypt, on February 1st. The month at sea getting there was followed by a six-hour train trip to Heliopolis and an hour-long march into camp at Heliopolis. Many men kept diaries and the following is an entry from one recording Egypt's brutal weather: "Towering sandstorms blowing like hell. The dust is making a lot of men sick. They are dying at the rate of three a day."

 EGYPTIAN TRAINING CAMP

Immediately the 8 companies of the 15th battalion were merged into 4 larger companies (A, B, C, D), with both brothers being moved to C Company under the command of Captain Hugh Quinn. They had already completed their basic training in Australia but over many more tough months, in the Egyptian training camp, the volunteers left their old lives farther behind. They began their training with physical fitness exercises, they were taught individual and unit discipline, how to follow commands, how to march, some basic field skills and how to safely handle his weapons. 

 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.

 GALLIPOLI APRIL 1915

After two months training in Heliopolis his battalion returned to Alexandria on April 12 and from there they sailed to the island of Lemnos, off the coast of Greece. On 25 April 1915 the 15th Battalion was part of a combined Australian and New Zealand landing force that came ashore on the Gallipoli peninsula. The intention of the landing was to gain control of the Dardanelles straits and force Turkey out of the war.

George and Timothy were aboard HMS Seeang Bee with the rest of A and C Company when they left Lemnos early on the morning of 25 April. Companies B and D had left the day before on HMS Australind and were stationed off Anzac Cove by this time. The 15th Battalion was assigned as a follow-up wave for the landing at Gallipoli, and most of the Battalion had landed by the night of 25 April however, C Company did not disembark until 9am on 26 April. They were ordered to support the right of the 3rd Brigade

The 15th Battalion did not land until 9 pm, several hours after the first wave of Anzacs had come ashore, which meant that the fighting by that stage of the landing was mainly taking place in the precipitous ridges above the beach.

A diary entry reads-"This morning a fleet of gunboats is bombarding the coast and we are in the midst of them ... Aeroplanes were called in to help. There are more battleships here than I thought the English had. Bombardment is an awful thing. There are a lot of wounded coming from shore”

 They were immediately sent into action; they were split up into companies and sent to reinforce other Australian units engaged with the Turks on second ridge. It is believed the Bambery brothers were sent to 400 Plateau, in the region of Lone Pine, which is where both were killed in the fighting over the following days.

A dairy entry reads- “there are plenty wounded. I have carried some dead uns past too. The shrapnel from the Turks is flying over as I write. The Turks bombarded us all day. We lost a few men. Shrapnel has done a lot of damage to us. There are a hell of a lot of killed and wounded ...”

 KILLED IN ACTION

During the fighting on this day, Private George Sweetin Bambery was killed. The following day (27 April) his brother, Private Timothy Richard Bambery was also killed. Both brothers were lost within the first 48 hours of their arrival at Gallipoli.

 Owing to the confusion of the fighting, historical documents do not tell us how the two men were killed, but we know it was in the region where the memorial to the missing at Lone Pine now stands. Their remains were never recovered, and their names are recorded on that monument.Sadly, the family read a newspaper article about another local soldier who stated that George & Timothy were dead.

 It is now we need to remember that conditions at Gallipoli defied description as the terrain and close fighting did not allow for the dead to be buried. Flies and other vermin flourished in the heat which resulted in an epidemic of sickness. Of the 213,000 British casualties 145,000 or 67 per cent were due to sickness with the primary causes being dysentery, diarrhoea, rheumatic, and enteric fever.

 FOR HIS SERVICE & LONE PINE MEMORIAL

For his service, Timothy was awarded the 1914-15 Star, British War Medal, and the Victory Medal. On 25^th January 1916 his mother received a War Pension Claim for both her sons of 52 pounds pa from 1^st August 1915. His father received his Memorial Plaque on 8^th April 1922 & his Victory Medal on 30^th October 1922.

 Having no known grave their names are commemorated on the Lone Pine Memorial on the Gallipoli Peninsula. The Lone Pine Memorial, co-located with the Lone Pine Cemetery at Anzac, is the main Australian Memorial on Gallipoli.  It is one of four memorials to men of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force. The Memorial is on the site of the Turkish trenches and tunnels which were the objective of the Australian 1st Division attack on 7th/8th August 1915. 

 Most Australians killed on Gallipoli are commemorated here, their original graves having been lost in the interim. As becomes readily apparent, relatively few soldiers are buried in the marked graves in the various cemeteries on the peninsula.

The Lone Pine Memorial commemorates 3268 Australians and 456 New Zealanders who have no known grave and those who succumbed to wounds or disease and who were buried at sea during evacuation to Alexandria, Malta, and the UK; 960 Australians (nearly 1 in 8 of those lost) and 252 New Zealand soldiers were thus accounted for.

 Many ANZACs wounded at Gallipoli succumbed to their wounds either at sea or on the nearby island of Lemnos, where several cemeteries are located, and the other destinations mentioned above.

Designed by Sir John Burnet, the principal architect of the Gallipoli cemeteries, it is a tapering pylon 14.3 metres high on a square base 12.98 metres wide. It is constructed from Turkish limestone

 The Australian War Memorial has memorialised their names on panel 74 of the Roll of Honour and on the Murwillumbah Cenotaph in Remembrance Park on Tumbulgum Road. The high round column is surmounted by a ball. It is set on a square, on the sides of which are inscribed in marble the names of the 228 soldiers who went from the Tweed district, and who gave their lives for the Empire. On the side facing the main street is tablet telling in gold letters the reason of the erection of the memorial.

If you have any additional information about this individual, we invite you to email us at rsl@msmc.org.au.