{"id":469,"date":"2008-07-01T09:32:00","date_gmt":"2008-06-30T22:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fffaif.wordpress.com\/?p=469"},"modified":"2008-07-01T09:32:00","modified_gmt":"2008-06-30T22:32:00","slug":"3-brothers-at-fromelles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/?p=469","title":{"rendered":"Together in Battle"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Battle of Fromelles took place on 19th<\/sup> July 1916. The 8th<\/sup>, 14th<\/sup> & 15th<\/sup> Brigades of the 5th Division, AIF took part in this disastrous attack. The work undertaken by Lambis Englezos to identify the Missing Diggers of Fromelles has inspired Families and Friends of the First AIF<\/em> member Stephen Brooks to have a closer look at the families involved in the ill-fated battle. Stephen’s research, so far, has verified 24 sets of brothers and one father and son took part in the Battle of Fromelles. Over the coming days we will introduce you to some of these families.<\/p>\n

Today we proudly introduce you to the first of our brothers at Fromelles: Private Eric Robert Wilson (No.<\/sup>4887), Private Samuel Charles Wilson (No.<\/sup>3534) and Private James Arthur Ernest Wilson (No.<\/sup>3533). Brothers Private S.J. Wilson and Private E.R. Wilson are amongst the 14 members of the\u00a053rd<\/sup> Battalion of the 14th<\/sup> Brigade\u00a0listed as “missing” at Fromelles and buried by the Germans.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0\"Private<\/a><\/p>\n

Photo<\/strong>: Private Samuel Wilson (AWM P05445.001)<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/strong>\"Private<\/a><\/p>\n

Photo<\/strong>:\u00a0Private Eric Wilson (AWM P05445.002)<\/p>\n

\"Private<\/p>\n

Photo<\/strong>: Private\u00a0James Wilson (AWM P05445.003)<\/p>\n

These photos have been reproduced with the permission of the Australian War Memorial<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Samuel, Eric and James Wilson were the sons of George Wilson, \u2018Hibbard’, Port Macquarie, NSW and Isabella Wilson, ‘Myall’, Mosman, NSW. Samuel was a 29 year old labourer from Port Macquarie when he enlisted in the AIF on 25 July 1915. Private Samuel Wilson embarked for overseas service on 2 November 1915 as a member of the 3rd<\/sup> Battalion and\u00a0on 16th<\/sup> January 1916 became a member of the 53rd<\/sup> Battalion in Egypt. His younger brother Eric aged 20, also a labourer from Port Macquarie, enlisted three days later. \u00a0Private Eric Wilson embarked for Egypt on 8 March 1916 as a member of the 15th<\/sup> Reinforcements for 1st<\/sup> Battalion. The youngest member of the Wilson family, James enlisted with his father’s consent on 3rd<\/sup> August 1915 and sailed with Samuel aboard HMAT Euripedes<\/em>. James was also allocated to the 53rd<\/sup> Battalion in January 1916. Eric’s arrival in Egypt\u00a0coincided with the restructuring of the AIF to accommodate its doubling in size. The members of the 1st<\/sup> Battalion were split to become the 1st<\/sup> & the 53rd<\/sup> Battalion. Did Samuel and James \u2018claim’ their brother as a member of the 53rd<\/sup> Battalion as they were already allocated to the 53rd<\/sup> Battalion?<\/p>\n

Private Samuel Wilson and Private Eric Wilson made the supreme sacrifice on the 19th<\/sup> July 1916 at the Battle of Fromelles and had served in the AIF for a little over a year. Their families received their identity tags in 1920 when they were returned to Australia by the Australian army. Both of their service records, which can be viewed on line at the National Archives of Australia website state that \u2018Name appeared on German death list dated 4-11-1916. The name tags were returned to the British through the Red Cross. The Red Cross Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau Files<\/em> <\/a>give an insight into the death of Private Samuel Wilson. It is stated in his file by two witnesses that he was last seen holding a sap by himself, throwing bombs at a large party of attacking Germans whilst a number of Australians were able to get away.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Private James Wilson suffered a gun shot wound to the neck. He was evacuated to England and later rejoined his battalion and served once again on the Western Front. Private James Wilson returned to Australia and was discharged in May 1919.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

George and Isabella Wilson and their 7 remaining children\u00a0in Australia would have mourned the death of their two sons and brothers and fretted over their wounded remaining soldier. The Wilson brothers were three of the 5,533 casualties of the Battle of Fromelles.<\/p>\n

Stephen Brook’s research into the families who had multiple members involved in the Battle of Fromelles is an ongoing project and Stephen is interested in hearing from any one with further information or photos. Stephen can be contacted by emailing projectfffaif@yahoo.com.au<\/a><\/p>\n

This is one of many ongoing research projects being undertaken by FFFAIF members. For information on other research projects underway take a look at our Research page by clicking on the tab at the top of the page.<\/p>\n

\u00a0FROMELLES<\/strong> IS NOT HONOURED ON THE NATIONAL OR ANY STATE MEMORIAL IN AUSTRALIA.<\/span><\/p>\n

FFFAIF<\/strong> SUPPORTS ALL EFFORTS TO RECOGNISE FROMELLES<\/strong> ON OR AT THE NATIONAL AND ALL STATE MEMORIALS THAT PRESENTLY LIST BATTLES BY NAME.<\/span><\/p>\n

Call\u00a0back tomorrow for MORE NEWS<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Battle of Fromelles took place on 19th July 1916. The 8th, 14th & 15th Brigades of the 5th Division, AIF took part in this disastrous attack. The work undertaken by Lambis Englezos to identify the Missing Diggers of Fromelles … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71,74],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-diggers-of-first-aif","category-top-posts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}