Can you help find Herb?

Herbert Thomas “Nugget” Cawley was born on 28 December 1893 at Walcha, New South Wales, the son of Alfred John Cawley and Catherine Clare. Albert emigrated from Cheshire, England in 1884. He had served in the Cape Mounted Rifles in South Africa before he arrived. Catherine was born in Walcha, but her parents came from County Wicklow, Ireland.

Alfred and Catherine’s five children were:

In 1897, when Herb was just three years old, his father died suddenly in Western Australia while working on the Coolgardie goldfields, “having mistakenly taken poison instead of fruit salts.” “The unfortunate man has left a widow and family of five young children unprovided for.”

Source - “Death from Poisoning.” (12 June 1897). Evening News (Sydney, NSW - 1869–1931), p. 3. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article108057429

Catherine remarried in 1898 to Francis Riley at Walcha. From that time, Herb was raised in the Riley household alongside both his older siblings and a growing number of younger half-siblings. Catherine and Francis Riley had five children:

Herb was educated at Walcha Public School then worked as a labourer.

With ‘War Fever’ running through the country, Herb enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on 15 September 1915 at Armidale, New South Wales. He was 21 years old and single. He gave his mother as his next of kin. Herb was allocated to the 18th Battalion, 8th Reinforcement and he did his initial military training at the Liverpool Camp, outside of Sydney.

Following a brief time of military training, he embarked from Sydney on 20 December 1915 aboard HMAT Aeneas for the month-long trip to the camps in Egypt. The existing 18th Battalion members were just departing Gallipolli when Herb left Australia, arriving in Egypt at the Tel-el-Kebir camp, about 110 km northeast of Cairo, in mid-January. The camp contained about 40,000 men - Gallipoli veterans and the thousands of reinforcements arriving regularly from Australia. With the ‘doubling of the AIF’ as it expanded from two infantry divisions to five, major reorganisations were underway. The 54th Battalion was formed in mid-February 1916 at Tel-el-Kebir. It was to be made up of Gallipoli veterans from the 2nd Battalion, most of whom were from New South Wales, and new arrivals from New South Wales. Herb was transferred to the 54th Battalion, C Company on 3 April 1916. The 54th was at Ferry Post, on the Suez Canal at the time. In May, the 54th moved to the front-line trenches in Katoomba Heights, eight miles from the Suez Canal, guarding from any potential threats posed by the Ottoman Army.

During this time, they took turns occupying front-line trenches, wiring defences, and carrying out patrols. The men became accustomed to trench life and continued their training in preparation for movement to the Western Front. The call to join with the British Expeditionary Force came on 20 June and the 982 soldiers of the 54th Battalion left Egypt. They sailed on the Caledonian for the 10-day trip to Marseilles via Malta. After disembarking in France, they immediately entrained for a three-day train trip to Hazebrouck, 30 km west of Fleurbaix in northern France. The long train journey north took them through the lush countryside of France — a stark contrast to the sands of Egypt. By 2 July the Battalion was billeted in barns, stables and private houses in nearby Thiennes for a week. Training now included the use of gas masks and exposure to the effects of the artillery shelling. It was hoped that these tests would “inspire the men with great confidence”

Source - AWM4 23/71/6 54th Bn War Diaries July 1916 page 2

This area near Fleurbaix 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 and the training period did not last long. On 10 July they moved to Sailly sur la Lys and on 11 July they were into the trenches in Fleurbaix. The health and spirit of the troops was reported as good. After a few days getting exposed to the to the routines of life in the trenches, they moved back to billets in Bac-St-Maur.

The overall plan was to use brigades from the Australian Fifth Division to conduct a diversionary assault on the German trenches at Fromelles. The main objective for the 54th was to take the trenches to the left of a heavily armed, elevated German defensive position, the “Sugar Loaf”, which dominated the front lines. If the Sugar Loaf could not be taken, the 54th and the other battalions would be subjected to murderous enfilade fire from the machine guns and counterattacks from that direction. As they advanced, they were to link up with the 31st and 53rd Battalions. Major Roy Harrison wrote home on 15 July. With his Gallipoli experience, the tone in this letter was certainly circumspect for the upcoming battle:

The main attack was planned for the 17th, but heavy rain delayed the operation. The weather soon improved and by 2.00 PM on 19 July they were in back in the trenches, ready for their first major action on the Western Front. On 19 July, 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. At 5.50 PM the 54th began to leave their trenches. They moved forward in four waves– half of A and B Companies in each of the first two waves and half of Herb’s C and D companies in the third and fourth. The first waves did not immediately charge the German lines, they went out into No-Man’s-Land and lay down, waiting for the British bombardment to lift. At 6.00 PM, the German lines were rushed. They were under heavy artillery, machine-gun and rifle fire, but were able to advance rapidly. The 14th Brigade War Diary notes that the artillery had been successful and “very few living Germans were found in the first and second line trenches”.

Some of the advanced trenches were just water filled ditches which needed to be fortified to be able to hold their advanced position against future attacks. They pressed forward nearly 600 yards, linking with the 53rd Battalion on the right and 31st and 32nd on the left, holding a line from Rouges Bancs to near Delangre Farm. But on the right flank, the situation had collapsed. The 60th Battalion had been unable to advance due to devastating machine-gun fire from the Sugar Loaf, leaving the 54th’s flank exposed. Lt-Col Cass, commanding the 54th,reported:

Cass reported that after a counter attack the 53rd were not aware that their flank was no longer protected, allowing the Germans to get behind them and that Australians were being captured. Cass sent a party of 54th men forward to support the line:

Despite repeated appeals for artillery support, the position became untenable. At 6.30 AM on 20 July, the 54th received orders to withdraw. The retreat was chaotic and exposed to fire; many wounded men were left behind:

With the heavy losses and the German counterattacks, the Australians were eventually forced to retreat, but were now having to get through the Germans who were BEHIND them as a result of the exposed right flank. By 7.30 AM on the 20th the 54th were pulled all the way back to Bac-St-Maur, 5 km from the front. In this very short period of time, of the 982 soldiers of the 54th that left Egypt, initial roll call counts were 73 killed, 288 wounded and 173 missing. 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. Ultimately, 172 soldiers from the 54th were killed in action or died from their wounds.

With so many soldiers having been killed, wounded or taken prisoner during the battle, there was much confusion and great difficulty in working out what had happened to each man. Witnesses and their recollections were hard to track down. Herb was initially one of the “missing”. On 27 September 1916, Herb was formally declared as having been killed in action on 19-20 July and the news soon reached home. However, no details of what had happened to him were available, but the searches for answers did continue.

Herb’s C Company was among the units in the intense fighting around the front line and communication trenches.

Joseph went on to state that he had seen a cross erected at the nearby Sailly Cemetery “I have seen that.” Another soldier, “FGF” confirmed this

Unfortunately, there are no formal records of Herb having been brought back from the battlefield and buried. He remains “missing” to this day. Herb was awarded the British War Medal, the Victory Medal, a Memorial Plaque and a Memorial Scroll. Today, Herb is commemorated at VC Corner Cemetery Memorial at Fromelles, where the names of Australian soldiers with no known grave are remembered. He is also commemorated on the Walcha & District Soldiers’ Memorial in New South Wales.

The war touched multiple branches of the Cawley family. Herb’s younger brother, Harold Stephen Cawley, enlisted in the AIF at Walcha on 27 October 1915, just weeks after Herb had joined up. Harold embarked from Sydney aboard HMAT Kyarra on 5 June 1916 and later served on the Western Front with the 3rd Machine Gun Battalion. Harold survived the war, but he was wounded and gassed during his service. He returned to Australia in April 1919. He married Alice May Hoad and later settled in Sydney and the Illawarra region, raising a family of his own.

The war also brought tragedy to the family’s English branch in Cheshire. Herb’s relatives included Sir Frederick Cawley, later 1st Baron Cawley of Prestwich, whose family lost three sons during the conflict — John in France in 1914, Harold at Gallipoli in 1915, and Oswald in France in 1918. From rural New South Wales to England’s political and military circles, the war left its mark across the wider Cawley family.

Herb’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 2026, 181 of the soldiers have been identified, including 28 of the 102 unidentified soldiers from the 54th Battalion. We welcome all branches of Herb’s family to come forward to donate DNA to help with his identification. Herb’s older siblings had established families and descendants across Australia. Frederick John Cawley remained in New South Wales, while Charlotte Margaret Cawley and Harriet Eva Cawley later settled in Queensland with their families.

If you know anything of family contacts, particularly those with roots in northeastern New South Wales around Walcha, Illawarra VIC, Queensland, Cheshire, England and Wicklow, Ireland, please contact the Fromelles Association.

We hope that one day Herb will be named and honoured with a known grave. Please visit Fromelles.info to follow the ongoing identification project and Herb’s story.