EULOGY 26 - 1892-1918 - A Salute to Bert & Frank Collis

 "JUST 1 of 5,301 THAT TIME"




The Battle of Menin Road Ridge[1] took 5 days from 20th to 25th September 1917.


Private Albert Edward (Bert) Collis[2] was shot in his legs the first day. They got him out and up to the 3rd Canadian Casualty Clearing Station where he died the next day. Bert was 0ne month shy of his 22nd birthday.

Bert was now a notable number – 1 of 5,301 Allied “casualties” in that battle.

Bert had been born in the black hills, up near Brighton, Tasmania. All four of his great grandparents had been Convicts. The two generations between had worked hard to make the “Blackbrush Farm” a goer.

But Bert was the 6th of 9 children – too many for the Farm to support. He was also just 19 years when THEY declared World War I – perfect timing to snap up farm labourers in their late teens.

Bert followed his 2-years older brother, Frank[3], into the Infantry.


They enlisted on the same day, the 1st of October 1916. 

They were shipped out together 3 weeks later and were into action in France just as the Northern Spring Warring season started.

They were both hospitalized with Influenza that April of 1917. Bert recovered quicker and was sent back into the field within 2 weeks. He was killed 4 months later.

Frank was not so quick to leave hospitals. Over the next year he suffered from bouts of “Shell Shock” and “Trench Fever”.

By March 1918, he had developed Tuberculosis. It was so serious they shipped him back to an English hospital, but 3 days later he died.

Frank was buried in English soil just outside the Wiltshire hospital. Bert was buried in Belgian soil not far from the Ridge he was trying to take.

The Black Hills of Tasmania were a long way away!

Neither Brother had married. Nor had they any children. Their Dad accepted their medals 3 years later.

Their names are recorded in Canberra, Belgium, and England, in their local Church, and now in Ancestry.com. It is the least we can do!

 


[1] The Battle of Menin Road Ridge – See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Menin_Road_Ridge

[2][2] Albert Edward (Bert) Collis (1894-1917) – a paternal 4th Cousin 1xremoved of Warren Maloney & the Maloney/Smith/Testro Generation

[3] Francis Joseph (Frank) Collis (1892-1918) – a paternal 4th Cousin 1xremoved of Warren Maloney & the Maloney/Smith/Testro Generation


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