Joseph Bell Hamilton
Stephen LearmonthWar diary extract for the 22nd Battalion, 6th Brigade, 2nd Division, 24 June 1916.
“Stand To” – 3.15am, “Stand Down” 4.14am. Our artillery active throughout the day – chiefly registering. Enemy’s artillery quiet through the day. Opened a brisk fire in Right Coy Trench 59 at 10.15pm, lasting about 10 minutes with H.E (high explosive) and shrap. (shrapnel).
“Stand To” – 9.15 pm. “Carry on in stand down” – 9.45 pm.
Casualties – 2 O.R. killed, 2 O.R wounded.
One of the O.R (other ranks) killed that night was Private Joseph Bell Hamilton (service number 506), age 24, of Corryong, Victoria. Private Hamilton was part of B Company, 22nd Battalion, operating in the Pozieres section of the Western Front. In March of 1916, the 22nd Battalion had embarked from Egypt for France and experienced their first service on the Western Front in reserve breastwork trenches near Fleurbaix at the end of the first week of April 1916. The battalion’s first major action was at Pozieres, part of the massive British offensive on the Somme.
Twenty-four years before these events, Joseph Bell Hamilton was born to Allan Leach and Mary Bell Hamilton of Corryong. Twenty-three years later, on the 13th of March 1915, Joseph, a labourer, enlisted in the AIF. His enlistment details show a young man in his prime; 70 kg in weight, 170 cm tall, with blue eyes and dark brown hair.
In May of that year, following training at Broadmeadows near Melbourne, Joseph embarked with the 22nd Battalion aboard HMAT Ulysses. Embarkation records show that he travelled on the Ulysses with at least two other men from Corryong; Ernest Frederick Harris and Harold Hugh Thomas Harris.
His battalion arrived in Alexandra, Egypt, on the 30th of August 1915 and proceeded to Gallipoli a few days later on the 3rd of September. His service records indicate that he was hospitalised for a period after this date, although there are no details of the reason why. On the 12th of December he rejoined his unit on the Gallipoli Peninsula, spending some time on operations between the Chessboard and Johnston’s Jolly (less than a kilometre from where Private Harold Lennox was killed at Lone Pine, four months previous). Fifteen days later he was part of the successful withdrawal of all Australian forces from Gallipoli. It would be another four months before his unit arrived in France.
Arriving in Egypt, he was attached to the APM of the 2nd Divisional Headquarters. Whilst at Moascar, a camp near the Suez Canal, he was found guilty of breaking out of ranks while on the line of march and awarded 48 hours of field punishment No. 2. Field punishment No. 2 consisted of placing the prisoner in fetters and handcuffs while he remained with his unit.
On the 19th of March the 22nd Battalion embarked on the Llandovery Castle at Alexandria in Egypt in order to join the BEF (British Expeditionary Forces) in France. Seven days later Joseph and his unit disembarked at the Port of Marseilles on the Mediterranean coast of France.
Over the next few days, Joseph would travel by train through the French countryside. On the 5th of April the battalion was billeted in the Sailly area undergoing foot inspections, baths, and physical instruction. Two days later he arrived in the Fluerbaux area where the 22nd Battalion relieved the 21st battalion in the firing line.
Only three days later Joseph was hospitalised at the 7th Field Ambulance, which was located at Fort Rompu in France, with a case of the mumps. On the 12th of May, just over one year after having enlisted, he rejoined his unit just as they were being deployed in the Pozieres sector. Here the battalion was involved in defence duties in the Erquingham area, constructing trenches for protection against shellfire.
The 10th of June saw Joseph and his Battalion moving into the firing line at Bois Grenier. Two weeks later, on the 24th of June, in the engagement described in the Battalion’s war diary, Joseph was killed in action. He was buried in the Ration Farm Cemetery, 1 and a half miles south of the town of Armentieres.
Joseph is remembered at the Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, and the Corryong War Memorial. For his service during the First World War, Joseph was awarded the 1914-1915 Star, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal.
