Can you help find Roy?

Private Roy Wilfred Jamieson was born at Bendigo, Victoria on 14 August 1895 to John and Catherine Jamieson. John had come to Australia from Paisley Renfrewshire, Scotland and Catherine’s family roots go back to Baden-Wurttemberg Germany. Roy’s family was a blended one. His father’s first wife was Louisa Taylor and in 1883 they were keeping the Pioneer Hotel in Lone Gully, Ballarat, Victoria.

They had five children:

Louisa died soon after Minnie was born, leaving the young family motherless. Both John and Louisa had extended family settled in Bendigo, so family support was close by. Two years later, John married Caroline Catherine Weisz, who was from another established Bendigo family and they had five children:

John was involved in gold mining in Bendigo. With the 1893 discovery of gold in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, the family joined the gold rush and moved to the goldfields in 1896. John was employed in the engineering branch of the Associated Gold Mine, Fimiston. They resided in Bendigo Street Boulder (an indication of the influence of miners from Bendigo, heading for the WA goldfields). Roy attended school at Boulder Central, which was opened in 1897, built from local stone and is still there today.

After he finished his schooling, Roy left Boulder for Perth and worked at Gordon and Gotch, booksellers and stationers, in Perth. By the time he enlisted in 1915, he had moved to Katanning, 300 km SE of Perth and was working as a clerk at Piesse Brothers.

Roy enlisted at Katanning in July 1915 and was posted to C Company of the newly formed 32nd Battalion. He had received permission from his father to enlist, given his age. The 32nd C and D Companies came from Western Australia and A and B Companies came from South Australia. Roy’s military training was at the Blackboy Hill Camp, outside of Perth.

At the end of September, the men from WA were sent to Adelaide and the whole battalion was assembled at the Cheltenham Racecourse Camp. Training continued until the battalion departed for Egypt on 18 November 1915. Roy sailed on HMAT A2 Geelong.

As reported in The Adelaide Register:

Roy arrived at Suez on 14 December and then moved to El Ferdan camp 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. Their next stop was at Duntroon Plateau and then 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) 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 Roy was into the trenches for the first time on 16 July, only three weeks after arriving in France.

On the 17th they were reconnoitering 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, 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.

The charge over the parapet began at 5.53 PM. Roy’s C Company and A Company were in the first and second waves to go, B & D were in the third and fourth. They 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:

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 Roy. 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:

Private Roy Wilfred Jamieson was among those killed during the assault on 19 July 1916. He was 20 years old and his body was never recovered.

There are no records of where Roy was in the battle when he was killed, he was “just” missing. News of Roy’s death reached Western Australia in August 1916, with the local Reverend having to break the news to his family (ed – note date is in error).

The Geraldton Express added further detail, recalling that Roy had been employed for several years with Gordon & Gotch in Perth before working for Piesse Brothers in Katanning, where he had enlisted. It also mentioned that one of his sisters, Ethel, was married to Private William Deeble, 16th Battalion, who was at that time in hospital in England. William returned to Australia in 1918.

The Army conducted an Enquiry in the Field on 13 September 1916, which formally declared Roy had been killed 19 July. Roy’s death was widely felt among the community, and the family issued a note of thanks in the newspapers:

Roy was not forgotten; a memorial notice was published in 1919. Fourteen years later, in October 1930, when Roy’s father passed away in Boulder at the age of 74, his obituary in The West Australian recorded his long career with the Associated Gold Mine at Fimiston and noted that:

It’s now 100+ years gone, but Roy is still not forgotten – a memorial tree/plaque for Roy was placed as part of the Kings Park Western State War Memorial on 18 November 2017.

Roy was awarded the 1914-15 Star Medal, the British War Medal, the Victory Medal, a Memorial Plaque and a Memorial Scroll. He is commemorated at:

Roy’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 41of the 166 unidentified soldiers from the 32nd Battalion. Roy could be one of the yet unidentified soldiers. We welcome all branches of Roy’s family to come forward to donate DNA to help with his identification.

If you know anything of family contacts, especially those with roots in Bendigo, Kalgoorlie-Boulder, Paisley Renfrewshire, Scotland and Baden-Wurttemberg Germany, please contact the Fromelles Association.

We hope that one day Roy will be named and honoured with a known grave.

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