An Australian Fatality - Pte Albert Edward Dodd, 3rd Bn Australian MGC

[leigh kitchen]

Looks like CHollerton produced machine gunners.

A photograph from the small grouping that includes Sgt Andrew Surtees of the Canadian MGC - a photo of Albert Edward Dodd, 3rd Bn Australian Machine Gun Corps, I don't know when he left CHollerton but his name appears on the Parish Memorial Cross.

He was killed 10/8/18, on the Somme & is buried at Daours Communal Cemetary Extension.

Written on the back of the photograph is

"He died that we might live"

All Honour give to those who nobly striving nobly fell that we mght live

All Honour give to those who died in that full splendour of heroic pride "That we might live

Pte A E Dodd

AIF Died of wounds Aug 10th 1918.

Edited November 18, 2008 by leigh kitchen

[leigh kitchen]

Name: DODD, ALBERT EDWARD

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission entry:

Initials: A E

Nationality: Australian

Rank: Private

Regiment/Service: Australian Machine Gun Corps

Unit Text: 3rd Bn.

Date of Death: 10/08/1918

Service No: 3145

Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead

Grave/Memorial Reference: III. E. 33.

Cemetery: DAOURS COMMUNAL CEMETERY EXTENSION

[leigh kitchen]

Cemetery Details

"From April to the middle of August 1918, the extension was almost a front line cemetery"

Cemetery: DAOURS COMMUNAL CEMETERY EXTENSION

Country: France

Locality: unspecified

Visiting Information: Please note that details of the war burials in Daours Communal Cemetery Extension are contained in the Register in Daours Communal Cemetery. Wheelchair access to site possible, but may be by alternative entrance. For further information regarding wheelchair access, please contact our Enquiries Section on 01628 507200.

Location Information: Daours is a village in the Department of the Somme, about 10 kilometres east of Amiens and is north-west of Villers-Bretonneux. Go through the village of Corbie on the D1 in the direction of Fouilloy-Amiens (A1 Paris) and then enter and travel through the village of Fouilloy on the D1 in the direction of Daours-Amiens (A16). Enter Daours and at the traffic lights turn right in the direction of Pont-Noyelle on the D115 - where the first CWGC signpost will be seen. Carry on for 0.4 kilometres and Daours Communal Cemetery is on the left hand side of the road. The Extension is on the south side of the Communal Cemetery.

Historical Information: The preparations for the Somme offensive of July 1916 brought a group of casualty clearing stations (the 1st/1st South Midland, 21st, 34th, 45th and Lucknow, section "B") to Daours. The extension to the communal cemetery was opened and the first burials made in Plots I , II, Row A of Plot III and the Indian plot, between June and November 1916. The Allied advance in the spring of 1917 took the hospitals with it, and no further burials were made in the cemetery until April 1918, when the Germans recovered the ground they had lost. From April to the middle of August 1918, the extension was almost a front line cemetery. In August and September 1918, the casualty clearing stations came forward again (the 5th, 37th, 41st, 53rd, 55th and 61st) but in September, the cemetery was closed. There are now 1,231 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War buried or commemorated in Daours Communal Cemetery Extension. The total includes special memorials to four men of the Chinese labour corps whose graves in White Chateau Cemetery, Cachy, could not be located. The adjoining communal cemetery contains two First World War burials made before the extension was opened. The extension was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens.

No. of Identified Casualties: 1225

[leigh kitchen]

Albert Dodds name on the Chollerton Parish Memorial Cross:

[Ken MacLean]

His service file (65 pages) is on-line at NA Australia.

http://naa12.naa.gov.au/scripts/ItemDetail...0&B=3510176

[leigh kitchen]

Thanks, just had a quick look, it looks like I have to sign up to search - I'll explore further.

[Ken MacLean]

No need to sign up or register to view on-line files Leigh. At the NA Australia home page: http://www.naa.gov.au/

Select the drop-down "Collection" menu at the top of the page and click on "Record Search"; this will take you to a page where you may "Search Now as a guest". Selecting this option will take you to the search screen. Files which have been previously digitized for on-line viewing have a coloured icon beside them.

Only necessary to register if you intend to correspond with them for purposes of arranging a personal visit to one of their archive locations or requesting digitization of a file.

I believe the link that I posted above has timed-out, so you will have to go in "through the front door" as described above to access the service file.

Edited November 23, 2008 by Ken MacLean

[leigh kitchen]

Got it, thanks - 65 pages, amazingly simple when compared to "Ancestry".

I'll post more info on AlbertDodd when I've read through the documents

[leigh kitchen]

Thje reverse of the photograph of Pte Dodd:

[Tiger-pie]

Interesting, I had a relative that served in that unit, one of three brothers who went to the Western Front, he survived as did his two siblings.