Driver Leonard James Dimmick
Title
Driver Leonard James Dimmick
Identifier
P.009
Bibliographic Citation
Leonard Dimmick'. (1904) Marriage Record (1904/C/2057). Queensland Births Deaths and Marriages, QLD, Australia.
Bean, C. E. W. (2014). Anzac to Amiens. Penguin: London.
National Archives of Australia: Australian Imperial Force, Base Records Office; B2455, First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920; DIMMICK L, Dimmick Leonard : SERN 312, 1914 – 1920.
Australian War Memorial: Australian Imperial Force unit war diaries, 1914-18; AWM4 10/7, 2nd Light Horse Regiment.
Bourne, G. H. (2009). The history of the 2nd Light Horse Regiment, Australian Imperial Force August 1914-April 1919. John Burridge Military Antiques: Swanbourne.
Queensland Museum Donor Schedule #23/55 (1923).
Queensland Museum Donor Schedule #23/143 (1923).
Queensland Museum Inwards Correspondence #00127 (1923).
Queensland Museum Outward Correspondence #00055 (1923).
Queensland Museum Miscellaneous Register, A737-42; 752.
'Leonard Dimmick'. (3 March 1916). Burial Record (Cairo War Memorial Cemetery, Plot D. 338). Commonwealth War Graves, UK. Retrieved: https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/112489/leonard-dimmick/
L Dimmock (1914). Queenslander Pictorial Supplement, 3 October, 1914. State Library of Queensland, Brisbane. Retrieved: http://onesearch.slq.qld.gov.au/permalink/f/1oppkg1/slq_alma21283137850002061
(1901, March 16). The Queenslander (Brisbane, Qld. : 1866 - 1939), p. 517 (The Queenslander (Brisbane, Qld. : 1866-1939)). Retrieved November 8, 2021, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-page2403015
Advertising (1910, December 5). The Telegraph (Brisbane, Qld. : 1872 - 1947), p. 9 (SECOND EDITION). Retrieved November 8, 2021, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article177758876
QUEENSLAND HEROES. (1916, September 9). The Telegraph (Brisbane, Qld. : 1872 - 1947), p. 13 (SECOND EDITION). Retrieved November 8, 2021, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article176708544
Family Notices (1913, July 28). The Telegraph (Brisbane, Qld. : 1872 - 1947), p. 6. Retrieved November 8, 2021, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article175457050
LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS. (1915, February 27). The Capricornian (Rockhampton, Qld. : 1875 - 1929), p. 8. Retrieved November 8, 2021, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article69396663
UNVEILING AN HONOUR BOARD. (1917, July 31). Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton, Qld. : 1878 - 1954), p. 10. Retrieved November 8, 2021, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article53819779
AUSTRALIAN CASUALTIES. (1915, October 1). Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton, Qld. : 1878 - 1954), p. 7. Retrieved November 8, 2021, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article53408840
LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS. (1915, February 23). Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton, Qld. : 1878 - 1954), p. 7. Retrieved November 8, 2021, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article53354663
LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS. (1914, September 15). Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton, Qld. : 1878 - 1954), p. 8. Retrieved November 8, 2021, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article53329474
MOUNT MORGAN. (1914, August 24). Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton, Qld. : 1878 - 1954), p. 4. Retrieved November 8, 2021, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article53327493
MOUNT MORGAN POLICE COURT. (1908, October 14). Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton, Qld. : 1878 - 1954), p. 6. Retrieved November 8, 2021, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article53165715
MOUNT MORGAN. (1899, March 3). Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton, Qld. : 1878 - 1954), p. 6. Retrieved November 8, 2021, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article52548748
THE FIFTH CONTINGENT. (1901, March 9). The Queenslander (Brisbane, Qld. : 1866 - 1939), p. 450. Retrieved November 8, 2021, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article21254456
THE FIFTH CONTINGENT. (1901, March 6). The Brisbane Courier (Qld. : 1864 - 1933), p. 5. Retrieved November 8, 2021, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article19095805
Roe, C. (2012). DIMMICK, Leonard. Australians in the Boer War Oz-Boer Database Project. Retrieved: http://members.pcug.org.au/~croe/ozb/oz_boer_more.cgi?record=05569
Communities, Housing and Digital Economy. (1848-1912). Assisted Immigration 1848-1912, Queensland. Retrieved: https://www.data.qld.gov.au/dataset/assisted-immigration-1848-to-1912/resource/aa710ad1-42ce-413e-aa6a-6c87ac63ced6
'Dimmick, Leonard James'. (1879). England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1837-1915. FreeBMD. Retrieved: https://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/information.pl?cite=PBSItyIyWyXY9KGVYuXECA&scan=1
Relation
C.009.001
C.009.002
C.009.003
C.009.004
C.009.005
C.009.006
C.009.007
C.009.008
C.009.009
Contributor
Mr James Donaldson
Biographical Text
Leonard James Dimmick was born in Ryde on the Isle of Wight between January and March 1879, to William and Annie Dimmick. He was the third child of eight: Frank (b. 1876), Margaret (b. 1877), Helen (b. 1882), Charles (b. 1882), Laura (b. 1886), Stanley (b. 1890), and Vera (b. 1894). The family immigrated to Australia in October 1883 on the Bulimba, arriving into Cooktown before moving to live at Shandon Hill, near Mount Morgan. Around 1915, William and Annie were living in Windsor, Brisbane.
In Australia, Leonard was a miner at Mount Morgan, QLD before he enlisted, but details are hard to come by. In 1899 he had been summoned to the Police Court in Mount Morgan over a child support issue with one Kate Reit. Leonard also served as Private (Reg. No. 263) during the Second Boer War (1901-1902) with the 5th Queensland Imperial Bushmen. After his return, he is found named as a witness to a liquor licencing issue at Mount Morgan's Railway Hotel in 1908.
In 1904 Leonard married Gladys Jackson at Mount Morgan and they had four children: Harry Norman (b. 1906), Gladys Themla Inness (b. 1907), William Ernest (b. 1912) and an unnamed child who died the same day they were born in 1913. Tragically Gladys died in Brisbane two weeks after the birth of this youngest child. She had been living in the Paddington and Petrie Terrace area while Leonard continued to work in the mines at Mount Morgan.
Leonard enlisted in August 1914 at Mount Morgan and served as a diver in the 2nd Light Horse Regiment's (2LHR) B Squadron. His regimental number was 312 and his next of kin was his father, William Dimmick, of Shandin Hill, QLD. Leonard must have cut a striking figure: he was tattooed on both arms, both forearms, chest and left leg. One newspaper article suggests that he was the first man to volunteer from Mount Morgan. At the farewell to troops from Mount Morgan in August 1914, Dimmick is quoted as saying: 'I can only say that for my part—and I hope it will be the same with the others—nothing will be done to disgrace the country we were born in.'
The 2LHR moved to Enoggera in September 1914, where Leonard was made a transport driver. Drivers in Light Horse units where generally the most skilled horsemen and usually drove teams of horses, rather than motor vehicles. The unit embarked at Brisbane on the Star of England in late September 1914 and travelled to Egypt, arriving in Alexandria in early December. The unit trained at Ma'adi and Heliopolis in late 1914 and early 1915 before being sent to Gallipoli in early March 1915. On arrival at Gallipoli the 2LHR served at both Quinn's and Pope's Posts and saw heavy fighting and widespread disease.
However, Leonard did not immediately join the 2LHR at Gallipoli as Drivers where part of a small group of soldiers tasked with remaining behind to tend to the unit's horses and other gear. Dimmick's service record shows that he eventually embarked at Alexandria bound for Gallipoli on 9 December 1915, but on 14 November 1915 he is with a detachment of the 2LHR on Mudros. It is possible that the December date is an error, as no mention of reinforcements is made in the 2LHR's unit diary for December, and that the date should be read as November. The 2LHR was being continually reinforced at Gallipoli in November due to steady attrition from disease, poor weather, and enemy action, and Leonard may have been one of these reinforcements. It is also possible that he was destined for Gallipoli but ended up being diverted to Mudros.
In any case, on 15 December 1915 Leonard was admitted suffering diarrhoea to the 1st Field Ambulance at Sarpi Camp, Mudros, which was used for men evacuated sick from Gallipoli. In January 1916 he was transferred back to Egypt aboard the HS Asturias and admitted to the 1st Australian General Hospital at Heliopolis with enteric fever (Typhoid). He was transferred to the Convalescent Hospital at the Al Hayat Hotel, Helwan in late February 1916, but was readmitted to the 2nd Auxiliary Hospital at Heliopolis several days later suffering from dysentery and pleurisy. On 3 March 1916 Leonard died at the 2nd Auxiliary Hospital. His cause of death was attributed to dysentery, pythisis (tuberculosis) and type 'B' heart failure.
Leonard is buried in the British Cemetery in Cairo, grave D 335 and commemorated on Panel 3 of the Commemorative Area of the Australian War Memorial, Canberra. Leonard received the 1914/15 Star, the British War Medal, and the British Victory Medal for his service. In 1967 Leonard's son William, a builder based in Redcliffe, applied for the Anzac Commemorative Medallion issued in that year for service personnel who served at Gallipoli.
Leonard's brother Stanley served as a Private in the 15th Battalion and was wounded at Gallipoli during the Battle of Lone Pine. Both Leonard and Stanley were included on an Honour Board at the Mount Morgan Methodist Church in 1917, commemorating those who had died or were wounded during the war.
In February 1915 an article appeared in the Rockhampton Morning Bulletin mentioning Roman coins excavated by Leonard near the Pyramids. He had sent these souvenirs back to his father in Australia, along with Egyptian coins, trinkets and fossils. Three Roman coins deposited at the Queensland Museum by William Dimmick in 1923 probably match those sent home in 1915. Paperwork in the Queensland Museum also records the donation of three scarabs, and three statuettes. All of the artefacts are said to have been discovered near Mena Camp, close by the Pyramids. The coins are real, the scarabs and statuettes, probably not. A 'stone curio' is mentioned in the list of Leonard's personal effects that were returned to Australia after his death, and this might match one of the artefacts his father donated.
A letter dated 12 March 1923 from William Dimmick to AH Longman, Curator of the Queensland Museum, records that his two sons 'met in Egypt before going over and spent Sunday afternoons digging among the graves for curios of which they sent me several small ones.' Although digging for artefacts in this way was not legal in Egypt, it was a common pastime for soldiers during the war. They might undertake such diggings alone, but often where lead to a likely spot by a local guide, who had seeded the area with genuine and genuine-looking artefacts for his unsuspecting followers to find.
In Australia, Leonard was a miner at Mount Morgan, QLD before he enlisted, but details are hard to come by. In 1899 he had been summoned to the Police Court in Mount Morgan over a child support issue with one Kate Reit. Leonard also served as Private (Reg. No. 263) during the Second Boer War (1901-1902) with the 5th Queensland Imperial Bushmen. After his return, he is found named as a witness to a liquor licencing issue at Mount Morgan's Railway Hotel in 1908.
In 1904 Leonard married Gladys Jackson at Mount Morgan and they had four children: Harry Norman (b. 1906), Gladys Themla Inness (b. 1907), William Ernest (b. 1912) and an unnamed child who died the same day they were born in 1913. Tragically Gladys died in Brisbane two weeks after the birth of this youngest child. She had been living in the Paddington and Petrie Terrace area while Leonard continued to work in the mines at Mount Morgan.
Leonard enlisted in August 1914 at Mount Morgan and served as a diver in the 2nd Light Horse Regiment's (2LHR) B Squadron. His regimental number was 312 and his next of kin was his father, William Dimmick, of Shandin Hill, QLD. Leonard must have cut a striking figure: he was tattooed on both arms, both forearms, chest and left leg. One newspaper article suggests that he was the first man to volunteer from Mount Morgan. At the farewell to troops from Mount Morgan in August 1914, Dimmick is quoted as saying: 'I can only say that for my part—and I hope it will be the same with the others—nothing will be done to disgrace the country we were born in.'
The 2LHR moved to Enoggera in September 1914, where Leonard was made a transport driver. Drivers in Light Horse units where generally the most skilled horsemen and usually drove teams of horses, rather than motor vehicles. The unit embarked at Brisbane on the Star of England in late September 1914 and travelled to Egypt, arriving in Alexandria in early December. The unit trained at Ma'adi and Heliopolis in late 1914 and early 1915 before being sent to Gallipoli in early March 1915. On arrival at Gallipoli the 2LHR served at both Quinn's and Pope's Posts and saw heavy fighting and widespread disease.
However, Leonard did not immediately join the 2LHR at Gallipoli as Drivers where part of a small group of soldiers tasked with remaining behind to tend to the unit's horses and other gear. Dimmick's service record shows that he eventually embarked at Alexandria bound for Gallipoli on 9 December 1915, but on 14 November 1915 he is with a detachment of the 2LHR on Mudros. It is possible that the December date is an error, as no mention of reinforcements is made in the 2LHR's unit diary for December, and that the date should be read as November. The 2LHR was being continually reinforced at Gallipoli in November due to steady attrition from disease, poor weather, and enemy action, and Leonard may have been one of these reinforcements. It is also possible that he was destined for Gallipoli but ended up being diverted to Mudros.
In any case, on 15 December 1915 Leonard was admitted suffering diarrhoea to the 1st Field Ambulance at Sarpi Camp, Mudros, which was used for men evacuated sick from Gallipoli. In January 1916 he was transferred back to Egypt aboard the HS Asturias and admitted to the 1st Australian General Hospital at Heliopolis with enteric fever (Typhoid). He was transferred to the Convalescent Hospital at the Al Hayat Hotel, Helwan in late February 1916, but was readmitted to the 2nd Auxiliary Hospital at Heliopolis several days later suffering from dysentery and pleurisy. On 3 March 1916 Leonard died at the 2nd Auxiliary Hospital. His cause of death was attributed to dysentery, pythisis (tuberculosis) and type 'B' heart failure.
Leonard is buried in the British Cemetery in Cairo, grave D 335 and commemorated on Panel 3 of the Commemorative Area of the Australian War Memorial, Canberra. Leonard received the 1914/15 Star, the British War Medal, and the British Victory Medal for his service. In 1967 Leonard's son William, a builder based in Redcliffe, applied for the Anzac Commemorative Medallion issued in that year for service personnel who served at Gallipoli.
Leonard's brother Stanley served as a Private in the 15th Battalion and was wounded at Gallipoli during the Battle of Lone Pine. Both Leonard and Stanley were included on an Honour Board at the Mount Morgan Methodist Church in 1917, commemorating those who had died or were wounded during the war.
In February 1915 an article appeared in the Rockhampton Morning Bulletin mentioning Roman coins excavated by Leonard near the Pyramids. He had sent these souvenirs back to his father in Australia, along with Egyptian coins, trinkets and fossils. Three Roman coins deposited at the Queensland Museum by William Dimmick in 1923 probably match those sent home in 1915. Paperwork in the Queensland Museum also records the donation of three scarabs, and three statuettes. All of the artefacts are said to have been discovered near Mena Camp, close by the Pyramids. The coins are real, the scarabs and statuettes, probably not. A 'stone curio' is mentioned in the list of Leonard's personal effects that were returned to Australia after his death, and this might match one of the artefacts his father donated.
A letter dated 12 March 1923 from William Dimmick to AH Longman, Curator of the Queensland Museum, records that his two sons 'met in Egypt before going over and spent Sunday afternoons digging among the graves for curios of which they sent me several small ones.' Although digging for artefacts in this way was not legal in Egypt, it was a common pastime for soldiers during the war. They might undertake such diggings alone, but often where lead to a likely spot by a local guide, who had seeded the area with genuine and genuine-looking artefacts for his unsuspecting followers to find.
Rank
Driver
Occupation
2nd Australian Light Horse Regiment
Birth Date
1879
Birthplace
Death Date
3/03/1916
Death Place
Files
Collection
Citation
“Driver Leonard James Dimmick,” First World War Antiquities, accessed May 3, 2024, https://ww1antiquities.omeka.net/items/show/214.
Comments