The Douglas brothers
Australian War MemorialAlan Douglas, born in 1894 in Picton, New South Wales, was the second of three sons and a daughter born to Mary and George Douglas. When Alan was young, the family moved to Erskineville, Sydney.
In March 1915, Alan, 21, became the first of his brothers to enlist, and embarked for Egypt. He sailed to Gallipoli with the 20th Battalion, arriving just after the August offensive and remaining until the withdrawal in December.
Back in Egypt in early 1916, the newly-promoted Lance Corporal Alan Douglas was joined by his brother Gordon, with the 17th Battalion. Gordon, a labourer, had enlisted on 11 August 1915 and embarked from Sydney on 2 November 1915 aboard HMAT Euripides.
Both Douglas boys travelled to France for the Battle of Pozières.
Pozières was a chaotic turmoil of artillery and machine-gun fire, and units often became mixed up on the battlefield.
At some point, Alan Douglas failed to answer the roll call but nobody was sure what happened to him. Some reports state he had been killed by a bomb, others that he had been killed by a machine-gun bullet. His body was never recovered, and eventually a court of enquiry determined that he had been killed in action, probably on 30 July 1916.
At home in Erskineville, his parents received notification that he was missing, and had to wait for confirmation.
Meanwhile, their third and youngest son, Kenneth George Douglas, had enlisted under the name George Douglass, aged 18 on 12 April 1916.
George embarked with the 2nd Reinforcements of the 35th Battalion from Sydney on HMAT Port Sydney on 4 September 1916. In late April 1917, he transferred to the 17th Battalion.
On 15 April 1917, Gordon, by then a Lance Sergeant, was killed at Bullecourt, and in August, Alan's death was confirmed.
Sadly, the war had not finished with the Douglas family. On 20 September 1917, George was also killed in action at the age of 19.
Within 14 months the Douglas family had lost three sons to war.
In 1921, after receiving the Memorial Scrolls given in commemoration of the service of his sons, their father wrote:
“I can assure you that the heart rending suffering of my wife, the mother of the three boys whose lives paid the supreme sacrifice, is as fresh today as the day the ill-fated news arrived, and tokens of a grateful king and government help to warm the heart and sustain the body which has suffered so much.”
All three Douglas brothers are buried abroad. Gordon was buried near where he fell at Bullecourt in April 1917. After the Armistice, his grave could not be located and today he is commemorated on the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial.
Alan was buried in the Pozieres British Cemetery, Ovillers-La- Boisselle, France, while lies in the Birr Cross Roads Cemetery, Belgium.
Image: Framed hand coloured photographic portraits of three brothers (from left to right): Private Kenneth George Douglas; Lance Corporal Alan Edward Douglas; and Lance Sergeant Gordon Leslie Douglas.
- Australian War Memorial https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/PAFU:890.01
