Corporal Robert William Andrews, 11th Australian Field Artillery Brigade

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Epagne, France. 14 June 1918. Group portrait of the 43rd Battery of Australian Field Artillery, in the rest area.

Australian War Memorial

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Robert Andrews was born on 26 October 1891 at Lawrence, near Proserpine in Queensland. Known to his family and friends as “Will”, he was one of eight children born to Robert and Betsy Andrews. Will’s older brother Norman died in 1894 at the age of seven, leaving Will to grow up alongside six sisters and three older half-siblings from his father’s first marriage.

During Will’s childhood the family lived in Bowen, where Will and his siblings attended the local state school. He went on to work in Bowen as a farmer and joined the 27th (North Queensland) Light Horse Regiment, training part-time with D Troop of A Squadron.

William Andrews enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on 4 August 1915. He was tall for his time, standing at 6 feet 2 inches. His enlistment accepted, Will was allotted to the 11th reinforcements of the 9th Australian Infantry Battalion with the rank of private.

After two and a half months of initial training, Private Robert Andrews left Brisbane in the troopship Seang Bee on 21 October 1915, bound for Egypt.

In Egypt, Andrews was taken on strength of the 49th Battalion in late February 1916, and continued to train. After two weeks, he was transferred to the 4th Divisional Artillery, and mustered as a gunner to the 44th Battery of the 11th Field Brigade. The brigade had been formed in early 1916 to provide artillery support to the newly-formed 4th Division.

The 11th Field Brigade remained in Egypt in the first half of 1916, moving from Tel-el-Kebir to Serapeum on the Suez Canal. Andrews was promoted twice in Egypt: first to acting bombardier and then to corporal in early May.

In June, Andrews and the rest of the 11th Field Artillery Brigade left Egypt and sailed to Marseilles in France, where they joined the 4th Division on the Western Front. The 4th Division was initially based near Armentieres, in a section known as the “nursery sector”, where soldiers would be introduced to the rigours of trench warfare. By August, the 4th Division had joined in the bitter fighting in the Somme Valley, seeing action at Pozieres, Mouquet Farm, and Flers between August and October. Writing home in September 1916, Andrews expressed his sympathy for the infantry, who had, in his words, “suffered a great deal” compared to the artillery.

In early October, Andrews was exercising the artillery horses when a horse fell on his foot. The impact crushed and fractured the main bone of his right foot, and dislocated his big toe. He was transferred through the 4th Australian Field Ambulance, 10th Casualty Clearing Station, 23rd Ambulance Train, and 1st Convalescence Depot until he was admitted to the 14th General Hospital at Wimereux. By this stage, his foot was heavily inflamed and bruised.

Evacuated to England, he was admitted to the Wharncliffe War Hospital for treatment, remaining until late February 1917 as he recovered. In recommending that Andrew’s furlough be extended until early March, a doctor at the 2nd Australian Hospital reported that he was still “unable to walk properly on [his] foot”. A special boot was ordered to assist Andrews, supporting the healed fracture and the bunion that had formed following his toe’s dislocation.

Discharged from hospital, Will was declared temporarily unfit for overseas general service in late March 1917. Instead of being sent back to the Western Front, he remained in England where he undertook further training. He spent the remainder of 1917 at the Australian training camps at Larkhill and Perham Downs, training with the 43rd Battery and the Reserve Brigade Australian Artillery. While with the Reserve Brigade, he was temporarily promoted to the rank of Extra Regimental Sergeant, but reverted to corporal in February 1918.

Will returned to France in early April 1918, rejoining the 11th Field Artillery Brigade in the Somme Valley. The brigade continued to support the 4th Division throughout 1918 as it fought at Villers-Bretonneux, Hamel, and Amiens during the allied advance to the German Hindenburg Line.

In late September, the Brigade was based outside Ronssoy, providing a creeping barrage to support an American attack. The unit diary recorded, “our artillery has been active throughout the day”, but that it had been difficult to “obtain definite information as to the actual situation at the front. The day has been another strenuous one for all ranks of the Brigade.” In response, “retaliation from the enemy was heavy … on forward areas and battery positions, and much machine gun fire was experience at the battery positions”. According to the unit diary, this combination of artillery and machine-gun fire was “accountable for many of the casualties sustained”. By the end of the day, the 11th Field Artillery Brigade had lost 17 animals, had four guns break, and suffered 34 casualties.

Among the dead was Corporal Robert William Andrews, who was killed in action at Ronssoy on the 29th of September 1918.

He was 26 years old.

Sympathy flooded to his parents and sisters from members of the Bowen community. Will was remembered as “a steady, industrious young man” who was “greatly respected”.

A year after his death, his family inserted a small commemorative notice in his honour in the local newspaper, remembering Will and “his comrades Lieutenant Battye and Gunners Holden and Buckland.”

Will Andrew’s body was buried at Roisel Communal Cemetery Extension. After the war, an Imperial War Graves headstone was erected over his grave, bearing the inscription chosen by his family: “He gave his life for his country”.

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