Officers of the 4th Victorian Imperial Regiment Contingent
Australian War MemorialGroup portrait of officers of the 4th Victorian Imperial Regiment Contingent, including Lieutenant (Lt) Alexander George Gilpin of Ballarat.
Bairnsdale Advertiser and Tambo and Omeo Chronicle, 25 Aug 1900:
'Lieutenant Alexander George Gilpin was a member of the Melbourne Stock Exchange and the son of Mr Alexander Gilpin, of Macarthur-street, Ballarat. His brother, Mr T. J. Gilpin, is also a lieutenant in the Australian Imperial Regiment.
The official messages did not give the initials of the Lieutenant Gilpin killed but all doubt on the question was set at rest by a private cablegram from Lieutenant J. McL. Cameron, of Cameron's Scouts, reporting that it was Lieutenant Alexander Gilpin who was killed, and that he died a painless death.
Lieutenant Gilpin was well-known in Bairnsdale, almost solely by the sobriquet of "Sandy." He was for some time employed in the Bank of Victoria, but a sedentary occupation was always distasteful to him and he finally took the extreme step of sending in his resignation to the bank and journeying into the bush to earn his livelihood in a more congenial if loss comfortable manner.
After a few months' "holiday", chiefly spent in the Lindenow district, young Gilpin's father prevailed upon him to go to Melbourne, where he set him up in business as a stock and sharebroker.
During his stay in Bairnsdale "Sandy" Gilpin made himself well liked. He was of a lively and daring disposition, fond of all out-door sports, and a prominent member of the rowing club. The news of his death was received with pro-found regret by his old associates here.'
Image: Identified left to right, back row: Lieutenant (Lt) Charles James Kingsley Boyd; Lt Charles Joseph Conway Mason; Lt Alex George Gilpin or Thomas John Gilpin; Lt Francis William Moseley; unidentified; unidentified Lt; Lt Herbert Healy Pounds; Dr P H Lang; Lt Herbert Arthur Austin Embling; Lt Frederick George Code; Lt Evelyn Alexander Wilson Ffrench;.
2nd row: Captain (Capt) Herbert Major Downes; Lt Frederick Wollaston Mann; Capt Alfred Hobart Sturdee (medical staff); Major Lancelot Fox Clarke (later Lieutenant Colonel, CO of the 12th Battlalion AIF and killed in action on 25 April 1915 at the landing at Anzac Cove, Gallipoli) ; Lieutenant-Colonel Nicholas William Kelly; Captain and Adjutant Michael O'Farrell; Capt Edwin Tivey; 2nd Lt Frederic Royden Chalmers; Capt Herbert Newton Spencer Wollaston; Lt Alex George Gilpin or Thomas John Gilpin.
Front row: Lt Frederick George Purcell; unidentified; Lt Lancelot Arthur Cleveland (behind); Lt James Alexander Nicholl (reclining in front of Nicholl); Lt Frederick Hawthorn Hutchings (behind); Lt Alexander Campbell Macdonald (in front of Hutchings); Lt Frederick William Ulbrich; Lt William Burgh Chomley. Lt Alex Gilpin was killed in action at Ottoshoop on 20 August 1900. Lt Mann was knighted in June 1933 and went on to become Chief Justice of the Victorian Supreme Court in October 1935.
- National Library of Australia https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/84792491
