Issue 51 Aurora Magazine October 2022

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eflect SERGEANT FREDERICK CHAPMAN Albany Father Lucky to Escape Injury STORY ANNE SKINNER The crowd bellowed cheers and wives and mothers shed tears as the Albany Brass Band struck up the popular song “The Girl I Left Behind Me”. It was the night of Sunday 16 August 1914 and Albany tradesman Fred Chapman had just said a final goodbye to his wife Blanche and their 17-month-old son George. As the 1500-strong crowd farewelled the first contingent of Albany volunteers at the Albany Railway Station, Blanche must have wondered if she would ever see her husband again. Her waving hand was soon lost to Fred’s view amid a forest of arms and flags as the train drew slowly out of the station. The men had marched from the army drill hall to the beat of the town’s band, the mayor had given a formal speech of farewell and now they were finally on their way, every newly-minted soldier aboard wondering if he would return. In the end, extraordinary good luck enabled Fred to serve four years in some of the thickest fighting at Gallipoli and in France and Belgium without sustaining a single injury. Ironically, illness would force him to miss the beginning and the end of the Australians’ part in the war everyone hoped would end all wars. Frederick William Chapman was born in 1883 to parents Rebecca and William Chapman in the English town of Hitchen. As a young man, he moved to Australia where he found work in Albany as a coach builder. In 1912, he married Blanche Payne and the couple set up house in the newly-created Robinson Estate on the western outskirts of Albany. A year later, their son George William was born. When war was declared in August 1914, 30-year-old Fred decided he had to do his bit for his new country. He and the 29 other volunteers who left Albany that Sunday night were assigned to the 11th Battalion of the Australian Imperial Force and immersed in intensive training at Blackboy Hill for the next two and a half months. The battalion embarked from Fremantle aboard the troopship Ascanius on 2 November, arriving in Egypt in time for Christmas and some unwelcome news: instead of being sent to fight with the British in BELOW LEFT: Frederick William Chapman at Blackboy Hill training camp. (Courtesy Norman Dowie) D00297. BELOW RIGHT: Near Le Barque, France: an unidentified Australian soldier looks back towards the old Australian lines from a captured German trench in the ‘Maze’. (Courtesy Australian War Memorial E00218) Albany Harbourside Apartments and Houses Offers a range of fully self-contained accommodation options, ideally located in the town centre and Middleton Beach. Soak up the history and spectacular scenery of the amazing South Coast. Excellent facilities, great locations. Welcoming corporate clients, families and couples www.albanyharbourside.com.au info@albanyharbourside.com.au 9842 1 769 8 Festing Street, Albany 20 LOVE LOCAL
eflect France, as the men had expected (and the British-born among them had hoped), they were to train in the desert for battle against a different enemy – Germany’s ally Turkey. When the 11th Battalion set sail from Lemnos on the evening of 24 April the following year, 874 Private Fred Chapman was missing from their ranks. A middle ear infection – the first of a series of illnesses he was to endure for the next four years – forced him to miss the Gallipoli landing. After his recovery he joined his battalion on the peninsula, fighting through the fierce battles of May and July. In August, the 11th played a pivotal role in the Battle of Lone Pine, which left the battalion at half its original strength. At the end of that month, Pte Chapman fell ill with pneumonia and was taken to hospital in Alexandria, Egypt. After later contracting gastritis, he boarded a hospital ship for England where he was admitted to the Graylingwell War Hospital near Chichester. The former mental asylum had been repurposed to care for soldiers amid the madness of war. On his recovery, Pte Chapman was sent to the Australian base at Perham Downs for further training ahead of deployment to France. Perhaps reasoning that this might be his last chance to enjoy his homeland, Fred decided to take a little unauthorised leave a few weeks later. He was sentenced to three days confined to camp, which probably seemed a fair deal to a soldier about to go into an uncertain future the trenches. Pte Chapman left for France on 21 August, the day his comrades in arms went into battle for Mouquet Farm. By the time he rejoined his unit a few weeks later, the 11th Battalion had moved to Poperinghe in Belgium, where their commander launched a comprehensive training regime covering physical fitness, weapons instruction, signals, repeated drilling and bayonet fighting, as well as scouting, patrols and route marches. The battalion spent the remainder of 1916 in the Ypres sector, before moving back to the Somme in late December, just as the worst winter in for decades descended on the Western Front. Pte Chapman’s leadership qualities became evident during 1917, a year of heavy fighting as the Allies pursued the Germans’ strategic withdrawal to the Hindenberg Line. By November he had been promoted to Lance Corporal. In March 1918, as the Germans mounted their long-planned Spring Offensive, he was promoted to Sergeant, before a final bout in hospital took him out of the fighting again, this time for good. Admitted to the 1st Australian Auxiliary Hospital at Harefield, Sgt Chapman was sent two weeks later to join No. 4 Command Depot at Hurdcott where he spent the remainder of the war. Returning to Australia in December, he rejoined Blanche and their son in Albany. Blanche passed away in 1927 and seven years later, on 18 June 1934, Fred joined her. Their son, George, served in the Second World War and died in 1984. Sources: 11th Battalion unit diaries, National Archives of Australia, Australian War Memorial, wartimememorialsproject.com, Trove. TOP: The 11th Battalion was part of the force that captured the village of Le Barque on 27 February 1917 after driving back the Germans, who were retreating to the Hindenburg Line. The crucifix, made from a log fixed to the top of a telegraph pole, may have been a tribute to the fallen of the village. (Courtesy Australian War Memorial H02118) CENTRE: The hospital at Harefield, where Sgt Chapman was admitted in May 1918. Outdoor concerts helped raise morale among recuperating soldiers. (Courtesy Australian War Memorial P12670_015_001) BOTTOM: Soldiers are inoculated against Spanish influenza in the Senior Medical Officer’s hut at the No. 4 Command Depot AIF camp at Hurdcott before embarking to return to Australia in 1918. (Courtesy Australian War Memorial D00297) ARCHITECTURE WITH HEART 08 9848 3894 info@ptxarchitects.com.au ptxarchitects.com.au LOVE LOCAL 21
Page 1 and 2: FREE Aurora Issue 51 GREAT SOUTHERN
Page 3 and 4: contents 4 CULTIVATE KEEP ALBANY BE
Page 5 and 6: cultivate The number of guests each
Page 7 and 8: cultivate Many of the threatened sp
Page 9 and 10: ALBANY FARMERS MARKET Spring at the
Page 11 and 12: taste super-hot chillies he sources
Page 13 and 14: spotlight OPPOSITE: Emma gears up o
Page 15 and 16: create Linda was a stand out in art
Page 17 and 18: vogue ELECTION arrivals from our lo
Page 19: vogue LEFT, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT
Page 23 and 24: educate I’m a qualified teacher n
Page 25 and 26: promote That role involved developi
Page 27 and 28: engage artwork will include the tap
Page 29 and 30: what's on Legacy Legacy is a hopefu
Page 31 and 32: gig guide Everything we put in the

Issue 51 Aurora Magazine October 2022

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