Private Alfred Sargison Metcalf, 1st Battalion, AIF
Australian War MemorialAlfred “Alf” Sargison Metcalf was born on 6 September 1874 in Newcastle-on-Tyne in England’s north-east. He was the third and youngest child of William and Sarah Anne Metcalf. Just after his birth, his elder sister Mary died, followed by his father before Alfred was six months old. Sarah was left to raise the two boys alone.
Alfred attended Seafield Academy in Newcastle and at just 16, passed university admission exams with full marks in arithmetic, and 80/100 in English language. Alf was also fluent in French and became a journalist as Paris correspondent for the London Daily Chronicle.
By the turn of the century, Alf was living with and supporting his mother, Sarah, in Newcastle. His elder brother William was an electrical engineer and had emigrated to Australia in 1892, settling in Sydney. In 1901, Alf and Sarah also set sail and Alf became a wool classer. He was classing wool in the outback near Bourke when war broke out in August 1914.
Alf enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in Sydney on 29 August 1914, among the first to join up. To avoid being considered too old, he said he was only 36 when in fact he was almost 40. He was assigned to the 1st Infantry Battalion, Company E, as a private. After rushed organisation and training, the first AIF contingent set sail on 18 October 1914 aboard the troopship Afric.
Like many others, Alf believed they were going to France where he hoped he might gain a promotion and even a commission, due to his fluency in French. Instead they stopped in Egypt and training resumed. The months passed without action. Then in April it was clear something big was afoot.
Alf landed at Anzac Cove on Gallipoli with the 1st Battalion on the morning of 25 April 1915. Among the sights and sounds, fear and exhilaration, the reality of war quickly set in. With the Turks on the commanding heights, the Australians held doggedly to the slender beachhead as casualties mounted.
In the pre-dawn darkness of 19 May 1915, the Turks made a concerted bid to dislodge the Anzacs and push them back.
They came in waves, some 40,000 strong. In only a few places they reached the Australian trenches – Alf’s 1st Battalion on MacLaurin’s Hill had some men bayonetted. But when attacking en masse in the open, the Turkish assault suffered huge losses. Some 10,000 Turks fell within a matter of hours, with over 3,000 killed.
Australian casualties were much lighter – 468 wounded and 160 killed. Among the dead was Alf Metcalf. It is not known exactly how he died.
Weeks later, word reached home. Sarah felt the loss of her youngest child profoundly. They had been very close. For years afterwards on 19 May, Sarah placed a notice in the Sydney papers: “in loving remembrance of my dear son”.
Alfred Metcalf is buried in the Shrapnel Valley Cemetery on Gallipoli. He was 40 years old.
Craig Tibbitts, Historian, Military History Section
