Private J.J. Cummins

  John James Joseph Cummins

by Ted Cummins

John James Joseph Cummins - SN 2377
2nd Australian Infantry Battalion

John James Joseph Cummins was born on the 8th August 1893, the eldest son of John Cummins and Mary Theresa Cahill of Marsden St, Burrowa.

Referred to as Jack, he enlisted in the 1st Australian Imperial Force (AIF) on 26th May 1915 Service Number 2377 and was posted to the 7th reinforcements of the 2nd Infantry Battalion in Holsworthy Army Camp, near Sydney.

His attestment documentation listed him as 21 years 9 months of age, 5 foot 7 inches and 142 pounds, with blue eyes, medium complexion and dark brown hair.

The 2nd Battalion was among the first infantry units raised for the AIF during the First World War. Like the 1st, 3rd and 4th Battalions, the 2nd Battalion it was recruited from New South Wales and together these battalions, formed the 1st Brigade.

Rising Sun worn by Australian Soldiers

The battalion was raised within a fortnight of the declaration of war in August 1914 and deployed just two months later. After a brief stop in Albany, Western Australia, the battalion proceeded to Egypt, arriving on 2nd December. The battalion took part in the ANZAC landing on 25th April 1915 as part of the second and third waves, and was led by Lieutenant Colonel G. F. Braund, who was killed in action nine days later. On 6 August, the 1st Brigade led the charge at Lone Pine. Among the dead was the commander of the 2nd Battalion, Lieutenant Colonel R. Scobie, killed during a Turkish counter-attack. The battalion served at ANZAC until the evacuation in December 1915.

HMAT Orsova - loading troops in Sydney in July 1915

It was in Gallipoli that Jack joined the battalion, having left Sydney on 14th July 1915 on board the HMAT A67 "Orsova", an ocean liner that had been commandeered as a troopship in 1915, landing the 7th Reinforcements in Port Suez on 10th August 1915.

Jack was taken on strength in Gallipoli on 4th October 1915 and was sent to the reinforcement camp at White's Valley, where the ANZAC's would spend time for rest and recuperation from the front lines.

Within weeks of arriving in Gallipoli, he had come down with dysentery and influenza and was admitted to the No.1 Australian Casualty Clearing Station (1ACCS), located on ANZAC Beach.  The Casualty Clearing Station was to be the most forward medical unit, with specialist surgeons, anaesthetists, nurses, radiologists and dentists.  Jack was eventually evacuated to Malta onboard the hospital ship HMHS Gloucester Castle.  The Gloucester Castle was a steam ship originally built for the Union-Castle Line, but requisitioned for use as a British hospital ship during the war.

HMHS Gloucester Castle

On arrival in Malta on 1st October he was admitted to the St Georges Hospital.  During the First World War, Malta served as the “Nurse of the Mediterranean” and there were many hospitals and hospital camps were set up while the established hospitals required the significant augmentation of hospital beds for injured and sick troops.  From the Gallipoli campaigns over 2500 officers and 55400 troops were treated in the Maltese hospitals.

In a letter to his mother on 10th November 1915, Jack wrote that he was still in Malta Hospital, but his condition was improving, “I am getting better, and I am able to get out of bed, and have a look round”.   He told how he was being sent to England and that he may have to stay there for some time recuperating as he was suffering from typhoid fever.  He recounted his short time in the Dardanelles, writing “I was fighting strong against the Turks until I got the fever. I was about a month in the trenches, and was hit only once, receiving a bruise. According to reports, the war will last another twelve months yet”.

The Army Bazaar Malta, with St. George's Barracks Hospital in the background

Jack was diagnosed with Enteric Fever and invalided to England on the 29th October 1915 onboard the hospital ship Re d’Italia.  Enteric fever or Paratyphoid fever, a form of blood poisoning, became common during the war, particularly in the early years.  It manifested in patients as headache, abdominal pain, diarrhoea, body aches in back, limbs, and joints, and shivering, and fevers lasting anywhere from one to eight weeks.  While less severe than true typhoid it could still lead to death from pneumonia or toxaemia.  Forces in the Mediterranean were peculiarly subject to this disease, far more so than in Europe.

He was admitted to the Cambridge Military Hospital in Aldershot Garrison, Hampshire, England. The Cambridge was a state-of-the-art hospital in Britain at the time and the first base hospital to accept contingencies right from the Western Front. It was also here that the first plastic surgery was performed in the British Empire. Military doctor Captain Harold Gillies pioneered the procedure after he learned it from a doctor friend, French physician Hippolyte Morestin who was doing face reconstructions on cancer patients in the Val-de-Grâce Hospital in Paris.  Gillies’ first patients were the injured soldiers from Somme.

Cambridge Military Hospital, Aldershot, Hampshire, England

While Jack was recuperating in England, the Anzacs were evacuated from Gallipoli in December 1915, and re-grouped in Egypt where they remained until March 1916.  The AIF was expanded to five infantry divisions, which were committed to the fighting in France and Belgium along the Western Front, forming the I and II ANZAC Corps as part of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF).  The 2nd Battalion AIF now formed part of the 1st Brigade of the Australian 1st Division.  Together with the 2nd Australian Division and the newly formed New Zealand Division they formed the 1st ANZAC's.

The ANZAC's in Egypt

They were briefly employed to defend the Suez Canal against an Ottoman attack that never came, then transferred to France in mid-March. Arriving in Marseilles, they were moved by train to northern France, to be located close to or at the Front for the next three years, with the British Army holding the line from the Ypres in Belgium to the Somme in France.

At some point prior to June 1916, Jack had recovered sufficiently to be discharged from Cambridge hospital and was sent to Weymouth to continue his convalescence.  Following the Gallipoli landings, thousands of wounded Anzacs were evacuated to England, however there was no Australian base to which they could report once they had been discharged from hospital; what was needed urgently was a base in England where troops could be sent to convalesce. So, in May 1915 a command depot was set up at Monte Video House in Chickerell, about two miles from Weymouth in Dorset.  This became the AIF Command Depot No.2, accommodating men not expected to be fit for duty within six months.  Most of the Diggers repatriated as a result of wounds or sickness passed through Weymouth; between 1915-1919 over 120,000 Australian and New Zealand troops passed through there.  It was chosen because of its existing army camp facilities, which were emptying as British soldiers completed their training and headed for the trenches in France.  But the seaside climate also lent itself to rest and recuperation.

Monte Video Australian Camp

Australian soldiers arriving in France, whether reinforcements or those returning from hospitals, went to Base Depots before deployment to the front. All drafts, although they had already passed in England as fully trained, were subjected to further tests, a strict medical check, and at least ten days of additional training.  The Base Camp at Étaples, on the mouth of the River Canche in the French region of Pas-de-Calais, was the largest of its kind ever established overseas by the British.  It was built along the railway adjacent to the town and was served by a network of railways, canals, and roads connecting the camp to the southern and eastern battle fields in France and to ships carrying troops, supplies, guns, equipment, and thousands of men and women across the English Channel.  It was a base for British, Canadian, Scottish and Australian forces.

No. 2 Australian Command Depot, Monte Video Camp

On the 7th June 1916, Jack left England to join the BEF on the Western Front, arriving at the 1st ANZAC Training Battalion in Étaples on the 8th June. The camp was a training base, a depot for supplies, a detention centre for prisoners, and a centre for the treatment of the sick and wounded, with almost twenty general hospitals. With its vast conglomeration of the wounded, of prisoners, of soldiers training for battle, and in the case of Jack, of those returning to the front, Étaples could appear a dark place. According to many that went through the base it was not a pleasant place, and with the intensive training in gas warfare and bayonet drill it was said that many a man was actually looking forward to leaving the base and getting to the Front!

Étaples Camp, France

Rifle Practice at Bull Ring, Étaples

Étaples Base, France

Jack re-joined his battalion in France on the 4th August 1916 at Pernois where they were resting and re-organisation following its participation the Battle of Pozières. The battalion took part in the Battle of Mouquet Farm before being transferred from the Somme region to Ypres in Belgium in early September to relieve the Canadians.  Taking up a position north of the Ypres–Commines canal near Zillebeke, their role focused upon maintaining a defensive presence in the line and rebuilding the defences.  The sector was a relatively quiet one, although not without its dangers due to constant mortar attacks, sniping, and the need to maintain patrols in no man's land.  

Stretcher Bearers, The Battle of Pozières

While in Belgium, Jack was assigned for instruction in the newly acquired Lewis Machine Gun on 22nd  September, rejoining his unit on 10th October.  The Lewis Machine Gun was a formidable new weapon that was being introduced into the fight.  It was feared by the Germans who referred to it as “the Belgian rattlesnake”.  In a letter to his mother in September 1916, Jack wrote “Tell Dad I am now trying my hand on the machine gun. I am still well and fit, and do not fear anything thank God”. 

Lewis Machine Gun Drills in the Field

The 1st Division anticipated spending winter in Flanders but was recalled to the Somme for the final stages of the British offensive. This time they joined the British Fourth Army, holding a sector south of Pozières near the village of Flers.

Winter began to set in at this point, and the battalion endured considerable hardships amid snow and rain, in a sector that has been described as "the worst ... of the sodden front". 

On the 29th October, the 2nd Battalion moved from Deville Wood into the front line near Flers, relieving the 2nd HANTS at 2335.  With a strength of 25 officers and 774 other ranks, the disposition in the trenches placed D Company in the front line, with C Company in the Support Trench and A and B Companies in reserve.  The 2nd Battalion’s entry in the official war diaries recorded the weather as wet and cold, and the trenches in very poor condition.  Over the next 24 hours the battalion suffered several dug out and trench cave ins, resulting in injuries to the soldiers manning them.

Trench Map, Flers and Gueudecourt 1916 including the location of Bull Road and Grass Lane marked in Blue

On the 31st October 1916, in heaving showers, the enemy began shelling the Australian’s trenches, concentrating their fire on the Support Trenches, occupied by C Company, and during the early hours of the morning, Private John James Joseph Cummins was killed in action.  Also killed in the same trench was Private Gordon Robin Harper.

Both soldiers were initially buried 50 yards NW of Duck-boards from Bull Road, to Grass Lane, Flers about 3¾ miles south of Bapaume.

Flers, France

Headstone of Private J.J.J. Cummins at the AIF Burial Grounds, Grass Lane Flers, France

AIF Burial Grounds, Flers, France

AIF Burial Ground, Flers

In 1920, along with 1000’s of his fellow diggers, Jack was moved to his final resting place at the AIF Burial Ground, 2 kms north of the village of Flers, in the Department of the Somme. The cemetery was begun by Australian medical units, posted in the neighbouring caves, in November 1916-February 1917 and there are now 3,475 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War buried or commemorated in this cemetery.

AIF Burial Ground, Grass Lane, Flers, France

Honours and Awards

Private John James Joseph Cummins was posthumously awarded the 1914-1915 Star, The Inter- Allied Victory Medal and British War Medal.

The 1914-1915 Star was awarded to all personnel who served in any theatre of war against the enemy.

The British War Medal was awarded to all ranks who rendered service to His Majesty’s Forces between 5^th August 1914 and 11^th November 1918, or who had served in a theatre of war.

The Inter-Allied Victory Medal was awarded to all ranks of the fighting forces, to civilians under contract and others employed in military hospitals who actually served in the establishment of a unit in a theatre of war between 5^th August 1914 and 11^th November 1918.

WW1 War Service Medals

Poem by Michael Edwards