Sergeant Wilfred John Brimblecombe CBE

Sergeant Wilfred John Brimblecombe CBE

P.002

Queensland Births, Deaths and Marriages, C8402, 1898 (Birth).

Queensland Births, Deaths and Marriages, C2683, 1924 (Marriage).

Queensland Births, Deaths and Marriages, B44674, 1973 (Death).

2nd Australian Machine Gun Squadron, Australian Imperial Force unit war diaries, 1914-18 War, AWM4 24/31/1-35, Australian War Memorial, Canberra.

BRIMBLECOMBE Wilfred John : Service Number - 2153, First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920, box B2455, Brimblecombe Wilfred John, National Archives of Australia.

'Roll of Honour', The Queenslander, 27 April 1918, p. 10.

Albany Creek Memorial Park Cemetery & Crematorium, Wall 3, Section 13. Retrieved: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/132126246/wilfred-john-brimblecombe

Brimblecombe, AR & and Grice, DE 1980, 'The History of John and William Stephen Brimblecombe and Their Descendants, 1858-1980', Sunnybank Hills.

Bean, CW 1946, 'Anzac to Amiens', Australian War Memorial, Canberra.

Supplement to the London Gazette, issue 44214, 1 January 1967, p. 38.

Reid, F 1918, 'Souvenir Hunters: Collecting Curios in the Firing Line', The Kia-Ora Co-ee, March 15 1918, p. 14.

William Maitland Woods 1916, 'Letter to Canon David Garland, Romani, Egypt' Maitland Woods Papers 1915-1916, OM74-101-26, State Library of Queensland.

Wilfred John Brimblecombe 1915-1919, Photograph Album, Private Collection, Brisbane.

Wilfred John Brimblecombe 1915-1919, Diary and Papers, Private Collection, Brisbane.

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C.002.002

C.002.003

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Mr James Donaldson

Wilfred John Brimblecombe was born on 6 February 1898 in Laidley Queensland, the sixth child of John and Sarah Jessie Brimblecombe (nee Whitehouse). The Brimblecombe family were the first European settlers in the Brookfield area west of Brisbane in 1869, and in the late 1870s John Brimblecombe had moved further west to Laidley to take up a land selection there. Wilfred attended the Forest Hill and Blenheim State Schools before receiving a scholarship to attend Ipswich Grammar School. In 1914 he was attending the Queensland Agricultural College at Gatton.

In September 1915, at 17 years and 7 months old, Wilfred travelled to Brisbane to enlist where his papers show that he increased his age by a year. He also had his parents’ signatures giving him permission to enlist as he was under 21 years, but it is unclear if these signatures are genuine. His service number was 2153. Wilfred had previously served with the 11th (Darling Downs) Infantry Regiment prior to 1915 as part of the Australian Government Universal Service Scheme.

Three of Wilfred’s brothers also enlisted: James Charles Brimblecombe joined in October 1914, but was discharged due to his height (5 feet 4 inches) prior to leaving Australia; Trooper Arthur William Brimblecombe joined up in August 1914 and served at Gallipoli with the 2nd Light Horse Regiment where he was wounded in 1915 before being invalided home, and Private Louis Hugh Brimblecombe enlisted in 1917 before travelling to France to join the 15th Battalion where he died of wounds received from shrapnel at Villers-Bretonneux in August 1918.

Wilfred embarked from Sydney in March 1916 with the 15th Reinforcements of the 5th Light Horse Regiment and travelled via Melbourne and Colombo. On arrival in Egypt he was admitted to hospital at Suez for 5 days with the mumps in April 1916 and then trained as a gunner at Tel el-Kebir training camp, between Cairo and Ismailia on the Suez Canal. He joined ‘E’ troop of the newly formed 2nd Light Horse Machine Gun Squadron outside of Romani in north western Sinai on 31 July 1916.

Soon after Wilfred arrived into camp at Bir el-Maler, the Battle of Romani took place on 3 August 1916, which saw Ottoman forces advance from Katia to Romani in a long-expected attack. The attack was repelled and Wilfred’s diary records the heavy fighting that took place overnight during the attack. A counterattack on 4 and 5 August forced most of the Ottoman and German forces out of Sinai. The rest of 1916 saw Wilfred in camp with his unit while operations continued into eastern Sinai against pockets of Ottoman resistance. He received a brief period of leave to Alexandria in October 1916 and photographs show that he visited the Greco-Roman Museum while there.

Camp life consisted of drills and exercises (including in semaphore and using the machine guns themselves), camp cleaning and fatigues. When on the line, machine gun troops could expect outpost duty, protecting the camp against enemy aircraft attacks. The 2nd Light Horse Machine Gun Squadron also took part in reconnaissance raids into Ottoman held territory (known at ‘stunts’), usually overnight and ranging long distances in advance of the front. By the end of 1916 Wilfred had been promoted twice: to Lance Corporal in September and to full Corporal in December.

In February 1917 the way into Palestine was clear and Wilfred’s unit took part in the general allied advance, moving from Hod Hassaniya near Bir el-Abd in central northern Sinai, to Bir el-Mazar, al-Masaid, Sheikh Zuweid and Bir Abu Shunnar near Rafah on the edge of the desert, and finally Khan Yunis and Deir el-Belah, on the coast south of Gaza. An album of photographs taken by Wilfred during the war records stops at many of these locations, as well as others during his time in Palestine. The album also records visits to ancient ruins encountered at an unknown site in Sinai, and on the beach at Ashdod, and the 13th century minaret of the White Mosque at Ramla.

On 26 March 1917 Wilfred was stationed to the north of Gaza with the 2nd Light Horse Brigade for the First Battle of Gaza, which ultimately failed. On 17 April he was at el-Nagili to the south east of Gaza in support of the failed Second Battle of Gaza. Here the unit was bombed, and saw off an attack by Ottoman cavalry hoping to reinforce Gaza.

From April to October 1917 Wilfred took part in various patrols along the allied front between Gaza and Beersheba, including the allied raid on the Ottoman railway at Bir Asluj near Khalasa in late May. These patrols and frequent movement of camp, along with the ever-present outpost duty and danger of aerial attack or artillery bombardment, made for a difficult period for Australian troops, but Wilfred had some periods of rest with his unit behind the lines at Tel el-Marakeb. He also spent a period of three weeks from mid-September to mid-October 1917 at the Zeitoun School of Instruction near Cairo, training in the new Vickers Machine Gun. In the final weeks of October 1917 Wilfred’s unit concentrated at Bir el-Esani and then Bir Asluj in preparation for the Battle of Beersheba, which took place on 31 October. In this battle the 2nd Light Horse Machine Gun Squadron was tasked with securing the road to the north east of Beersheba at Bir el-Sakaty.

Following the successful capture of Beersheba, November 1917 saw heavy fighting against Ottoman rear-guard garrisons in southern Palestine as the main Ottoman forces withdrew north and the Allied forces advanced. Wilfred was attached to the 7th Light Horse Regiment for reconnaissance missions around ad-Dhahiriya and was part of the very heavy fighting at Tel el-Khuweilfe in support of the Imperial Camel Corps which was influential in the success of the Third Battle of Gaza. Wilfred’s diary records an exhausting period of long days, camps under frequent bombardment and periods of sudden and intense action under heavy fire that saw numerous casualties in his unit.

Following the Third Battle of Gaza and the associated collapse of Ottoman forces in southern Palestine, the 2nd Light Horse Machine Gun Squadron moved rapidly north via Tel Abi Dilakh, Wadi el-Hesy, al-Sawafir al-Gharbiyya, Hamama and then on to Junction Station where the unit remained in reserve as part of the Battle of Mughar Ridge. Wilfred was promoted to Sergeant on 24 November 1917 and spent most of December and January in camp at Wadi Hanein or in the Jaffa-Ludd defence line where the unit experienced heavy shelling, and a marked deterioration of weather during the winter months that saw frequent rain. Photographs show that he also spent time at Nalin (Ni’lin) with the 7th Light Horse Regiment. In February 1918 Wilfred again travelled to Egypt for additional training, returning in time to visit Jerusalem in mid-March (captured the previous December) before taking part in the Battle of Amman. An album of photographs taken by Wilfred during the war includes many images of sights around Jerusalem.

This attack saw the Light Horse advance across the Jordan in very poor weather to strike at Amman on 27 March 1918. The 2nd Light Horse Machine Gun Section played a key role in this attack, supporting the advancing allied troops under intense machine gun, rifle and shrapnel fire from well dug in positions. During the battle Wilfred was with the 7th Light Horse Regiment and received a severe gunshot wound to his right thigh during the main advance. He was evacuated by the Australian Light Horse and Camel Field Ambulances to the coast at Ludd, before being transferred to hospital at Port Said in Egypt. He spent the next month convalescing in Port Said before a brief stint of training.

When Wilfred finally re-joined his unit in May 1918 they were stationed at Wadi al-Nuway'imah, north of Jericho and involved in road improvement works. The unit was suffering greatly from disease, mostly malaria and diarrhoea. The following months, from May to September, were spent in the line north of Jericho preparing and crewing defences in sub-sector 2 of this defensive line, or in rest camps around Jerusalem. Brimblecombe is specifically mentioned in the War Diary for the 2nd Light Horse Machine Gun squadron on 25 August 1918, in command of a reserve machine gun section on the line at Wadi Aujah.

In late September 1918 Wilfred participated in the Second Battle of Amman, which successfully captured the town from the Ottoman forces. The unit was then responsible for guarding some 5000 captured Ottoman soldiers at Ziza, before some time behind the lines including sightseeing in Jerusalem in early October. Around this time Wilfred contracted malaria, which was again severely affecting the unit, and spent a month and a half in hospital in Palestine and Egypt. During this time the Ottoman empire signed an armistice with Britain, bringing to end the campaign in the East.

On Wilfred’s return to his unit he spent time in various camps in southern Palestine and northern Sinai awaiting return to Australia. Part of this time was spent in garrison duty due to the Egyptian Revolution of 1919 in response to the ingoing British occupation. Wilfred also took classes in book keeping during this period and attended various lectures and educational opportunities offered to soldiers awaiting return to Australia. He also celebrated his 21st birthday on 6 February 1919 while at Rafah. The unit eventually embarked for Australia at Kantara aboard the Madras on 28 June 1919, arriving into Melbourne a month later. For his service Wilfred received the British Victory Medal and British War Medal.

There is no information on where Wilfred collected the ancient Roman coin that he brought back to Australia, but the type was widespread across Egypt, Syria and Palestine in antiquity. An article in the Kia-Ora Coo-Ee, published in 1918, describes soldiers at Bir Abu Shunnar, where Brimblecombe was stationed in March 1917, digging for ancient coins on the beach, and an earlier letter, dating to May 1916, describes a similar scene at Pelusium near Romani, where Wilfred served in 1916. Wilfred’s diary includes numerous references beach visits and it is possible that he acquired this very worn ancient coin at one of these sea-side camps in Sinai or Palestine. Finds of coins were well known from the numerous ancient sites Australians passed through in Sinai and Palestine, but could also be purchased from vendors in Cairo. Wilfred’s diary also describes him picking up ‘old things’ including bullets at the site of the Battle of Tel el-Kebir (1882) near where he trained in 1916, and collecting items from the field following the Battle of Romani.

After returning to Australia, Wilfred married Carrie Edna Storey in 1924. They settled at a farm Wilfred called Luxor at Kingsthorpe outside Toowoomba where they practiced mixed farming. In 1932 they sold Luxor and with Wilfred’s brother Clement, purchased Glencoe at Pirrinuan near Dalby.

Wilfred (also known as Bill or ‘Brim’ to friends) was a vocal supporter of primary producer organisations and served on the Queensland Wheat Board, Council of Agriculture and the Sorghum Growers Cooperative Association. He was also a representative on the Wambo Shire Council and in 1951 was elected the Country Party representative for the Federal District of Maranoa. He held that seat for 15 years until his retirement in 1966. During that time he was part of many delegations and committees, including the Australian Delegation to the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953, and a delegation to Nigeria and Israel in 1962, where he revisited places he had served during the war. In 1967 he was made a Commander in the Civil Division of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for his political and public services.

Wilfred died on 14 September 1973 and is buried at Albany Creek Memorial Park Cemetery and Crematorium, Wall 3, Section 13.

Sergeant

2nd Australian Machine Gun Squadron

06/02/1898

14/09/1973