Lance Corporal James Gavin, 31st Battalion
Australian War MemorialJames Augustus Gavin was born on 20 March 1886, son of James and Mary Gavin, at Jondaryan on the Darling Downs in Queensland.
James was educated at Pechey State School, where his mother worked. He went on to work as a farmer, probably on his father’s property. His parents were staunchly Catholic and he grew up in a family of seven boys and two girls. James was well known on the Darling Downs and “most popular in this district.”
He enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in mid-1915. Five of the Gavin brothers would fight in the war. James was among the first recruits posted to the newly formed 31st Battalion, and left Australia on the troopship Wandilla on 9 November 1915.
James Gavin was sent to Egypt where he was soon joined by the Anzac forces evacuated from Gallipoli. After several months training, he was promoted to lance corporal. In mid-June he was sent to France to fight on the Western Front, disembarking at Marseilles on the 23 June 1916.
On 19 July, less than a month after arriving in Marseilles and just three days after entering the front line for the first time, the 31st battalion took part in the battle of Fromelles. It was a disaster.
The 31st suffered 572 casualties – more than half its strength – in just a few hours. To this day, Fromelles is remembered as one of Australia’s worst military operations, with more than 5,500 Australian casualties in just 24 hours.
One of those killed was Lance Corporal James Gavin. Nothing is known of the manner of his death, but unlike many of his comrades killed on the same day, his body was recovered from the battlefield and buried. Today he lies in Rue-Petillon Military Cemetery in Fleurbaix.
James’s father chose a long inscription for his grave. It read,
A sorrowing people cried aloud,
That they were of their hero proud.
He helped to build his country’s name,
And died in bringing her to fame.
This was too long for the space available on his headstone, so today he lies under the words “Though nothing can the loss replace a dear one taken from our side.”
The Gavin family of Pechey, Queensland, gave a great deal during the First World War. Of the five sons who enlisted, George served 3 ½ years in Palestine before being sent home sick; John served the same amount of time with the artillery in France before being sent home gassed. Joseph served with the Light Horse, and Stephen with the Service Corps, both in the Middle East. James was the one son to lose his life. He was 30 years old.
Dr Meleah Hampton, Historian, Military History Section
Image: Studio portrait of 482 Private (Pte) James Gavin. c.1915
