Can you help us identify Sam?

Samuel Nicholas Mahoney was born in Kapunda, South Australia in 1882, the youngest of nine children of James and Catherine (Kate) Mahoney (nee Canny). Sam’s mother, Kate, was born in Kilfinora, County Clare in Ireland and arrived in South Australia in 1858 on Bee with her parents, Michael (William or Bill) and Bridget (nee Quigley) Canny and her siblings, Michael, Edward, Mary, Nicholas, Thomas and Samuel. The Canny family almost certainly headed direct to Kapunda to join other Quigley families already there. Bridget’s brother, Samuel, with his wife Bridget and son Thomas had arrived in Adelaide in 1854. Another brother, Thomas, was in Kapunda with his family by 1866.

Sam’s father, James Mahoney was from County Cork. His sister, Bridget, aged 18, had come before him, one of the 221 Irish female ‘famine’ orphans who had arrived in Adelaide on the Elgin in 1849. Exactly when James arrived is unclear, as several Irish men named James Mahoney arrived in Adelaide in the early 1850s. Perhaps Sam’s father is the James Mahoney, a labourer from County Cork in Ireland who arrived in South Australia aged 16 on the Agincourt late in 1855. Bridget eventually joined her brother in Kapunda where she married Patrick Curtin.

The Irish community in Kapunda into which Sam was born was large and inter-related. Judging by the poem written after the wedding in 1873 of his uncle Edward Canny (Bill and Bridget Canny’s second son), they knew how to enjoy themselves. The poem mentions Sam’s father, big James Mahenney (Mahoney), his grandfather, Billy Canny, his uncles, Thomas and Nicholas Canny, and Sam Quigley, as well as ‘the Quigley’s in hundreds’. ‘Big Paddy Curtain’ (Curtin) who was to marry Bridget Mahoney was also there.

James Mahoney and Kate Canny had married in Kapunda in 1861. They had nine children between 1862 and 1882:

The Mahoney family lived ‘on the Mine Hill at the south end of Kapunda’. When Sam’s mother, Kate, died in 1913, her obituary proudly stated that she had seen:

When Sam was eleven, his thirteen-year-old brother, Edward, was drowned in the Light River at Kapunda. Given he was from a large family, this meant that Sam was eight years younger than his next living sibling. His older brother William lost his life in 1903 at Lake Violet Consols Mine, Wiluna in WA as the result of a blasting accident.

Sam was a talented footballer and he was featured in a Kapunda match report in 1908, just after the death of his father.

Sam joined the South Australian Railways, where he was employed as a striker. A striker assisted the blacksmith in the railway’s maintenance or construction gang. He held hot iron pieces like rivets or rail sections for the blacksmith to hammer, managed the forge fire and prepared metal for shaping. Sam may have been working in the Adelaide railway workshops. Prior to enlistment he was apparently living with his sister Mary and at least one of his brothers at 2 Elizabeth Street, Parkside, an inner southern suburb of Adelaide.

Sam, aged 33, enlisted at Keswick Barracks in Adelaide on 15 July 1915, naming his sister Mary O’Neil (who had married Thomas O’Neil 12 days before his enlistment) as his next of kin. He reported to Mitcham camp and he was assigned to the 32nd Infantry Battalion when it was formed in Adelaide and was a member of the 1st Reinforcements.

A and B Companies and most of the 1st Reinforcements were made up of recruits from South Australia and C and D Companies came from Western Australia. There was much fanfare about this new battalion in South Australia, with gatherings, community support, Cheer-up Society activities, reviews of the troops by the governor, and parades through the streets of Adelaide. On 16 September, the South Australians members of the Battalion moved to a new camp at Cheltenham Racecourse and the West Australians who had begun their training at Blackboy Hill near Perth joined them at the end of September. The full battalion, including the 1st Reinforcements, continued training at Cheltenham until their departure.

The 32nd Battalion, including Sam’s 1st Reinforcements, departed for Egypt on 18 November 1915, HMAT A2 Geelong. As reported in The Adelaide Register:

The 32nd arrived in Suez on 14 December 1915 and moved to El Ferdan just before Christmas. A month later they marched to Ismailia and then to the major camp at Tel-el-Kebir where they stayed for February and most of March. Tel-el-Kebir was about 110 km northeast of Cairo and the 40,000 men in the camp were comprised of Gallipoli veterans and the thousands of reinforcements arriving regularly from Australia. While at Tel-el-Kebir, Sam was assigned to A Company. Their next stop was at Duntroon Plateau and then they were at Ferry Post until the end of May, where they trained and guarded the Suez Canal.

Their last posting in Egypt was a few weeks at Moascar. One soldier’s diary complained of being “sick up to the neck of heat and flies”, of the scarcity of water during their long marches through the sand and he described some of the food as “dog biscuits and bully beef”. He did go on to mention good times as well with swims, mail from home, visiting the local sights and the like.

Source - AWM C2081789 Diary of Theodor Milton PFLAUM 1915-16, page 29, page 12

During their time in Egypt the 32nd had the honour of being inspected by H.R.H. Prince of Wales.

After spending six months in Egypt, the call to support the British Expeditionary Force on the Western Front came in mid-June. The 32nd left from Alexandria on the ship Transylvania on 17 June 1916, arriving at Marseilles, France on 23 June 1916 and they then immediately entrained for a three-day train trip to Steenbecque. Their route took them to a station just out of Paris, within sight of the Eiffel Tower, through Boulogne and Calais, with a view of the English Channel, before disembarking and marching to their camp at Morbecque, about 30 kilometres from Fleurbaix.

Theodor Pflaum (No. 327) and Wesley Choat (No. 68), Ray’s brother, wrote about the trip:

They were headed to the area of Fleurbaix in northern France which was known as the ‘Nursery Sector’ – a supposedly relatively quiet area where inexperienced Allied troops could learn the harsh realities of Western Front trench warfare against the Germans. But the quiet times did not last long. Training continued with a focus on bayonets and the use of gas masks, assuredly with a greater emphasis, given their position near the front. The 32nd moved to the Front on 14 July and Sam was into the trenches for the first time on 16 July, only three weeks after arriving in France.

On the 17th they were reconnoitring the trenches and cutting passages through the barbed wire, preparing for an attack, but it was delayed due to the weather. D Company’s Lieutenant Sam Mills’ letters home were optimistic for the coming battle:

The overall plan was to use brigades from the Australian Fifth Division to conduct a diversionary assault on the German trenches at Fromelles. The 32nd Battalion’s position was on the extreme left flank, with only 100 metres of No Man’s Land to get the German trenches. As they advanced, they were to link up with the 31st Battalion on their right. However, their position made the job more difficult, as not only did they have to protect themselves while advancing, but they also had to block off the Germans on their left, to stop them from coming around behind them. On the morning of the 18th, Sam’s A Company and C Company went into the trenches to relieve B and D Companies, who rejoined the next day.

The Zero Hour for advancing from their front-line trenches was to be 5.45 PM, but the Germans knew this attack was coming and were well-prepared. They opened a massive artillery bombardment on the Australians at 5.15 PM, causing chaos and many casualties. Sam’s A Company, along with C Company were in the first and second waves to go over the parapet at 5.53 PM. B Company & D were in the third and fourth. The men, despite heavy losses, were successful in the initial assaults and by 6.30 PM were in control of the German’s 1st line system (map Trench B), which was described as “practically a ditch with from 1 to 2 feet of mud and slush at the bottom”.

Source - AWM4 23/49/12, 32nd Battalion War Diaries, July 1916, page 11

Unfortunately, with the success of their attack, ‘friendly’ artillery fire caused a large number of casualties because the artillery observers were unable to confirm the position of the Australian gains. They were able to take out a German machine gun in their early advances, but were being “seriously enfiladed” from their left flank.

By 8.30 PM their left flank had come under heavy bombardment with high explosives and shrapnel. Return bombardment support was provided and the 32nd were told that “the trenches were to be held at all costs”.

Source - AWM4 23/49/12, 32nd Battalion War Diaries, July 1916, page 12

Fighting continued through the night. The Australians made a further charge at the main German line beyond Trench B, but they were low on grenades, there was machine gun fire from behind them from the emplacement at Delangre Farm and they were so far advanced that they were getting shelled by both sides. In the early morning of the 20th, the Germans began a counterattack from the Australian’s left flank, bombing and advancing into Trench A (map).

Given the Australian advances that had been made earlier, the rear Trench E had been left almost empty, which then enabled the Germans to regain that trench and envelop the men of the 32nd. At 5.30 AM the Germans attacked from both flanks in force and with bombing parties. Having only a few grenades left, the only resistance they could offer was with rifles:

What was left of the 32nd had finally withdrawn by 7.30 AM on the 20th. The initial roll call count was devastating – 71 killed, 375 wounded and 219 missing, including Sam. To get some perspective of the battle, when Charles Bean, Australia’s official war historian, attended the battlefield two and half years later, he observed a large quantity of bones, torn uniforms and Australian kit still on the battlefield. The final impact was that 228 soldiers of the 32nd Battalion were killed or died from wounds sustained at the battle and, of this, 166 were unidentified. Lieutenant Sam Mills survived the battle. In his letters home, he recalls the bravery of the men:

Sam Mahoney was killed during the battle. No record or eye-witness accounts exist to give any indication about what might have happened to him during the battle. However, his body was not recovered, and the military did not have sufficient evidence to officially declare him killed in action immediately after the battle. leaving open the possibility that he may have been wounded, captured, or in hospital. Late in August, Mary O’Neil was informed that he was missing. She passed on the information with a notice in newspapers on 1 September.

Sam’s family and friends, perhaps fearing the worst, would have gone through a time of suspense and uncertainty as they waited for further news. Nothing more came from the military. However, in January 1917, Mary O’Neil received a letter from a friend in Kapunda which would have raised her hopes that Sam might be alive. A letter had been received from England, written by a Kapunda man who said that he had met several Kapunda boys at Codford Camp in England. These included Sam Mahoney, who had been wounded in the arm, but was back in camp again.

Mary approached the Red Cross Information Bureau in Adelaide who made further enquiries to Base Records in Melbourne. Unfortunately for the Mahoney family, the report from England had been mistaken. There was no further news until August 1917, when a Court of Enquiry officially determined that Samuel Mahoney, and all the other men who had been missing since Fromelles had been killed on the night of the 19-20 July 1916. Mary O’Neil was advised of this on 20 September and she notified others in a newspaper announcement.

Private Sam Mahoney’s name is inscribed on Panel 5 of the V.C. Corner Australian Cemetery Memorial at Fromelles which commemorates all the Australians killed at Fromelles whose bodies were not recovered after the battle.

Sam is also commemorated at:

Sam’s remains were not recovered; he has no known grave. After the battle, the Germans recovered 250 Australian soldiers and placed them in a burial pit at Pheasant Wood. This grave was discovered in 2008 and since then efforts have been underway to identify these soldiers by DNA testing from family members. As of 2024, 180 of the soldiers have been identified, including 41 of the 166 unidentified soldiers from the 32nd Battalion.

We welcome all branches of Sam’s family to come forward to donate DNA to help with his identification. If you know anything of family contacts in South Australia or Devonshire or Wiltshire England, please contact the Fromelles Association. The Mahoney, Canny and Quigley families formed part of a large and closely connected Irish community in Kapunda. We hope that one day Sam will be named and honoured with a known grave.

Please visit Fromelles.info to follow the ongoing identification project and Sam’s story.