Can you help find Jack?

John Edward “Jack” Watkins was born on 18 September 1896 in Minmi, New South Wales, the youngest child of Evan Watkins and Leah Morgan.

They had ten children, sadly three died in infancy:

His parents were from Monmouthshire, Wales, Evan from Trevethin and Leah from Beaufort. They had married in 1874 at Llanfihangel Pontymoile, Monmouthshire and were a part of the wave of Welsh coal mining families migrating to New South Wales in the 1870s for better opportunities in the booming Hunter coalfields. Evan, Leah and Rachel arrived in Australia on 27 August 1877 aboard the Samuel Plimsoll. They settled in Minmi, Central Coast NSW.

Jack and his siblings attended the Minmi School, which was on the crest of the hill overlooking the busy mining village.

After 26 years in Minmi, the family moved to the Sydney area about 1903. Evan worked in the adjacent suburbs of Granville, Lidcombe, Merrylands and Homebush. Jack attended the local school in Granville. After his schooling, Jack trained as a coppersmith and then worked as a miner, like his father and older brothers. By 1915, the Watkins family was living in Cohen Street, Park Hill, Granville. In the 1932 Electoral Roll, Evan was working as an engine driver. Many of Jack’s siblings were married and stayed in the Hunter mining area around Weston.

Jack was early to enlist for the war, joining on 25 February 1915 at Liverpool, New South Wales. He was nineteen years old, but added a year on his attestion form, not atypical due to the minimum age requirements. He was assigned to B Company of the 17th Battalion, part of the newly formed 5th Brigade, and was allocated the regimental number 715. After training at Liverpool and Liverpool Plains, Jack embarked from Sydney on 12 May 1915 aboard HMAT A32 Themistocles, bound for the AIF camps in Egypt. The 17th Battalion trained at Abbassia and Heliopolis before heading for Gallipoli.

They landed at ANZAC Cove on 20 August. Just before the landing, Jack was assigned to the Machine Gun Section. Immediately after his arrival, Jack was in the last action of the August Offensive, ' the attack on Hill 60 '.

The first attempt to seize Hill 60 on 21 August was unsuccessful. A further attack on 27 August was the prelude for three days of intense fighting during which objectives were taken, lost and retaken. The costly attacks were called off on 29 August, but a tenuous junction had been attained with the British forces. “General Ian Hamilton, the overall Allied commander, recorded on 29 August that "this evening we were all in good form owing to the news from Anzac. Knoll 60, now ours throughout, commands the Biyuk Anafarta valley with view and fire —a big tactical scoop." This was based on a report from Birdwood who mistakenly believed that the knoll itself had been taken whereas, in reality, the Turks still occupied half of Hill 60.”

Source – Wikipedia, Battle_of_Hill_60_(Gallipoli)

For a short period, part of the 17th garrisoned Pope's Hill, but for most of its time on the peninsular the Battalion was responsible for the defence of Quinn's Post, one of the most contested positions along the entire ANZAC front. Jack survived his time at Gallipoli and left for Mudros on 20 December 1915 as part of the overall withdrawal. On 9 January 1916 he arrived at the 40,000 man camp at Tel-el-Kebir, 100km northeast of Cairo.

During his time in Egypt, Jack formally became a ‘gunner’, trained to operate a Lewis machine gun and he had written to his father about this:

Although his official rank throughout his service remained as a Private, his family always remembered him as “Gunner” Jack Watkins — a title they used in newspaper tributes in 1917 and 1920 to honour his training. With the ‘doubling of the AIF’ as it expanded from two infantry divisions to five, major reorganisations were underway in Egypt in early 1916. The 53rd Battalion was formed on 16 February 1916, mostly made up of Gallipoli veterans from the 1st Battalion and the new recruits from Australia. Jack was assigned here on 9 April. The Gallipoli veterans in the 53rd were not slow in pointing out to whoever would listen that they were the “Dinkums” and the new recruits were the “War Babies”.

Source: - AWM4 23/70/1, 53rd Battalion War Diaries, Feb-July 1916, page 3

After months of training in the Egyptian heat, the 53rd began the move to the Western Front on 16 June. 32 officers and 958 soldiers of the 53rd left Alexandria on 19 June on the troopship HMT Royal George, bound for Marseilles, France to become part of the British Expeditionary Force on the Western Front. They arrived in Marseilles on 28 June and were immediately entrained for a 62-hour journey north to Hazebrouck before finally marching into the camp at nearby Thiennes in northern France. During their trip it was noted that their ‘reputation had evidently preceded them’, as they were well received by the French at the towns all along the route.

Source - AWM4 23/70/2 53rd Battalion War Diaries February - June 1916, p. 4

This area near Fleurbaix 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 8 July they began a 30 km march to Fleurbaix and on 10 July, the 53rd entered trenches for the first time. The front near Fleurbaix was anything but calm. Rain flooded the communication trenches, artillery fire harassed supply lines and the soldiers dug in amid the mud and barbed wire of No-Man’s-Land.

Two of Jack’s brothers-in-law also served, Edward “Ted Pearce” (2424), 30th Battalion and George Pringle (2853). George and his brother John Leslie Pringle (2854) were in the 55th Battalion, but both missed Fromelles due to hospitilisation in Egypt prior to the battle. On 2 April 1917, during the attack on Doignies, George served as a battalion runner under heavy fire, carrying messages between the captured village and headquarters when communications had broken down. For his courage, reliability and determination, he was recommended for the Military Medal. John was later awarded the Military Medal in 1918 for ‘conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty’. All three survived the war and returned to Australia. Source – https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/R1625912

The main objective for the 53rd 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 53rd and the other battalions would be subjected to murderous enfiladed fire from the machine guns and counterattacks from that direction. As they advanced, they were to link up with the 60th and 54th Battalions on their flanks. The men knew something was coming. They rehearsed attacks in replica trench systems, inspected bayonets and watched as huge guns rolled into place behind the lines. Then on 16 July, they moved up for an attack—only to have it postponed due to weather.

The delay proved torturous. Private Jim Granger (4784), a young Dorrigo soldier, described the tension in his dugout:

On the 19th, heavy bombardment was underway from both armies by 11.00 AM. At 4.00 PM the 54th Battalion rejoined on their left. All were now in position for battle. 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. The Australians went on the offensive at 5.43 PM.

They moved forward in four waves – half of A & B Companies in each of the first two waves and half of C & D — including Jack Watkins — in the third and fourth. They 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.

Private Arthur Crewes (4755) wrote of the time:

At 6.00 PM the German lines were rushed. The 53rd were under heavy artillery, machine gun and rifle fire, but were able to advance rapidly. Corporal J.T. James of C Company (3550) reported:

As below, 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”, but within the first 20 minutes the 53rd lost ALL the company commanders, ALL their seconds in command and six junior officers.

Source - AWM C E W Bean, The AIF in France, Vol 3, Chapter XII, pg 369

Some of the advanced trenches were just water filled ditches, which needed to be fortified by the 53rd to be able to hold their advanced position against future attacks. They were able to link up with the 54th on their left and, with the 31st and 32nd, occupied a line from Rouges Bancs to near Delangre Farm, but the 60th on their right had been unable to advance due to the devastation from the machine gun emplacement at the Sugar Loaf. They held their lines through the night against “violent” attacks from the Germans from the front, but their exposed right flank had allowed the Germans access to the first line trench BEHIND the 53rd, requiring the Australians to later have to fight their way back to their own lines. By 9.00 AM on the 20th, the 53rd received orders to retreat from positions won and by 9.30 AM they had “retired with very heavy loss”.

Source - AWM4 23/70/2 53rd Battalion War Diaries July 1916 page 7

Of the 990 men who had left Alexandria just weeks before, the initial count at roll call was 36 killed, 353 wounded and 236 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. The final impact of the battle on the 53rd was 245 soldiers were killed or died from their wounds and, of this, 190 were not able to be identified.

After the battle, Jack was among the many men who were reported missing in action, but no further information was available. His name appeared among the long casualty lists published in Sydney newspapers, leaving his parents, Evan and Leah Watkins of Granville, waiting for further details.

While the Army and the Red Cross were actively pursuing identification of the missing soldiers, given the scale and nature of the battle, information was scarce and slow to come by. Jack’s father wrote to Base Records on 30 October in, seeking any information about his son:

The Red Cross had found a witness in late July, Private Bruce Stokes (3374), who was wounded along with Jack during the advances of the 53rd. As he and Jack were crawling back to the Australian lines when they were hit again by snipers. Bruce was shot in the ankle, but Jack’s was more serious – “knocked over and he gave a groan and rolled on his back. I could not get him to speak to me after that, and so I had to go on myself.” Bruce went on to say “I fear he must have been killed.”

On 25 October 1916, Jack was formally declared as having been killed in action on 19 July. Seeking some degree of closure, his sister Lily wrote in December 1916, enquiring about receiving her brother’s belongings.

Jack’s few personal effects — a testament, handkerchief, razor, fly net, and notebook and also a ‘Gunner’s Book’ — were sent to his father in1918

Curiously, his Identity Disc was also sent. There are no records of it being sent by the Germans. So, an Australian had to have collected it from him during the battle, but there are no records of who, where or when.

Jack was awarded the Star Medal, the British War Medal, the Victory Medal, a Memorial Plaque and a Memorial Scroll.

Over the next few years, his family placed a series of memorial notices in The Sydney Morning Herald, honouring “Gunner Jack Watkins.” Though his official rank was Private, the family proudly used the title in remembrance:

In 1920, the family renewed their tributes, four years after his death, reaffirming both their pride and their loss.

Jack’s mother Leah died in 1932 and his father Evan died in 1933, aged 82, by then living at Weston with daughter Lily Pearce.

In March 1967, three decades later, Jack’s youngest sister Lily Pearce wrote to the Department of the Army requesting the official Next-of-Kin Medallion for her brother — a final gesture of remembrance for the youngest son of the Watkins family, lost at Fromelles and never found. By then only Lily and her eldest sister Rachel, 86, were still alive.

Lily’s late husband Ted Pearce, 30th battalion, was at the 5th division base at Fleurbaix at the time of the battle. On 1 September, he was wounded and hospitalised 1916. Lily and Ted married after the war. Jack is commerated at:

Jack’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 15 of the 190 unidentified soldiers from the 53rd Battalion.

We welcome all branches of Jack’s family to come forward to donate DNA to help with his identification. Given his strong family history in the Hunter Valley, New South Wales,and particularly the Watkins, Morgan, Adams, and Pringle lines, there is still hope that modern DNA science may one day bring his name home. If you know anything of family contacts, please contact the Fromelles Association. We hope that one day Jack will be named and honoured with a known grave.

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