Farm Boys Go To War

Image: Left to right are Private Daniel Thomas Bowman, 4th Machine Gun Company, Lance Corporal George Collis Robinson, 25th Company Australian Machine Gun Corps and Private Marsey Waterhouse Barrett, 40th Battalion. Two of these men returned to Australia as invalids, and the other died of terrible wounds.

In 1916 three Flinders Islanders volunteered for the 40th Battalion of the Australian Imperial Force. Daniel Thomas Bowman, George Collis Robinson, and Marsey Waterhouse Barret disembarked in England on 22 August 1916 and camped at Lark Hill on Salisbury Plain.

Lance Corporal Robinson served with the 25th Company Australian Machine Gun Corps and was wounded in action on the Western Front on 26 October 1917. He suffered two broken legs, a broken arm and head wounds and died the following day. In his last will and testament, Robinson left all his earthly possessions to his mother, Emily Robinson of Flinders Island. He was nineteen years old.

Private Bowman fought with the 4th Machine Gun Company until he caught severe pneumonia on 5 November 1918 just short of Armistice. He returned to Australia as an invalid in 1919.

Private Barret served with the 40th Battalion and suffered a gunshot wound to his abdomen in October 1917. He returned home in March 1918 as an invalid.

The Flinders Council received a $9,560 grant from the Department of Veterans’ Affairs to install a new Great War Honour Roll at the Furneaux Arts and Entertainment Centre. The Council will also improve the Flinders Island Cenotaph built in memory of the Tasmanian Furneaux Islanders who gave their lives during the Great War. The community will hold a special Remembrance Day ceremony this November in honour of the Islanders who served.