John Stapleton Weatherburn (1883 -1915) - part 2

This is a continuation of John Stapleton Weatherburn (1883 -1915) - part 1, alternatively you can see the whole family story of John Stapleton Weatherburn.

From Margaret Rogers of Wagga Wagga, Australia:

Once in Australia, John Stapleton Weatherburn (of Berwick) visited his sister, Margaret, who at the time was living at Wattamondara near Cowra in New South Wales.

At the outbreak of World War I, John Stapleton Weatherburn, labourer, enlisted in the 1st Battalion, Australian Imperial Force (AIF) at Randwick in Sydney on 29 August 1914. He gave his address “Care of Mrs Burns, Wattamondara” on his enlistment papers.

When he enlisted he was described as 30 years and three months old, 5 feet 7 inches (1.7m) tall, fair complexion, blue grey eyes and light brown hair and a Baptist.

The 1st Battalion had only been formed on 17 August 1914. General Bridges, GOC 1st Division, inspected the battalion on 14 September and on 17 September the men completed a route march to South Head and back.

After marching through the streets of Sydney in the rain the battalion embarked on HMT Afric on 18 October 1914 bound for Albany, Western Australia to join a convoy assembling to sail to Europe. John Stapleton Weatherburn embarked with H Company according to the embarkation rolls. He then became part of C Company as his other records refer to C. On 1 November the fleet, totalling 36 ships carrying 29,500 men, departed for Cairo, Egypt. The 1st Battalion’s strength was 1013 including officers.

The diary of Archie Barwick who was also in this company has a vivid account of the enlistment, embarkation, training, the Gallipoli landing and battles. It is held at the State Library, New South Wales and is available at Archie Barwick diary, 22 August 1914-September 1915.

After training in Egypt the First Battalion left Alexandria on 5th April on the Minnewaska. The ship carried about 1900 men and 500 horses plus a large quantity of timber to construct a wharf. The ships arrived in Lemnos, an island off Greece in the northern part of the Aegean Sea, on the 12th April where the battalion practised small craft landings. More provisions were taken on board and some days later the ship moved out to sea ready to join the allied attack planned to capture the Dardanelles in Turkey.

1st Battalion at Lemnos

John Stapleton Weatherburn got into trouble and was given 162 hours of field service as punishment, in Mudros on the island of Lemnos for leaving a fatigue party while on shore and not returning to the ship. However he embarked for Turkey with his battalion.

John Stapleton Weatherburn (1883 -1915) - part 1

From Margaret Rogers of Wagga Wagga, Australia:

I have been researching when my ancestors came to Australia and a bit about what kind of background they came from. As 2015 is the centenary of Australia’s involvement I have also been looking at the role some of my family played in World War I. I knew my father’s uncle had died at Gallipoli but in looking at my mother’s family I came across the fact that her great uncle had also died there.

Berwick War Memorial

At first I assumed it would have been as a member of the British army but when I looked closely at the photo of the Berwick memorial at St Mary's, Berwick, I noticed that it said AIF so I began to research to find out how that had happened.

John Stapleton Weatherburn was the sixth and youngest child of Alexander Weatherburn (born 1844 in Berwick) and Elizabeth Morrallee. He was born in 1883 in Berwick-upon-Tweed and is shown in the 1891 census living at 6 Castlegate, Berwick-upon-Tweed with his family except for his oldest brother, William, who was a policeman in Blyth in 1891 and who later emigrated to the USA.

He was the youngest brother of Margaret Morrallee Burns (nee Weatherburn) shown in the 1891 Census as a 21 year old tailor’s machinist. She is my great grandmother.

After attending Corporation Academy, in Berwick (a school which provided free education for the children of the Freemen of Berwick Guild) he enlisted in the regular British Army on 14 February 1898. His older brother, Alexander, had enlisted in 1893 aged 15 years and served until 1911, taking part in the Boer War.

On his attestation (enlistment) papers John Stapleton Weatherburn was listed as a shop boy aged 14 years 9 months, and was 5'3½'' (1.61m) tall.

He served in the Royal Artillery as a gunner and bombardier in the Royal Field Artillery Howitzer Brigades 151, 56 and 50 for 12 years. In the 1901 census he is shown as an enlisted soldier boy (aged 17) at Shoeburyness Barracks in South East Essex. During this time he had a record of mild misconduct and redemption as shown on his service record. His service record does not show service in the Boer War in South Africa.  By the time he signed out in 1910 he had grown to 5' 7'' (1.7m) and he signed on to the Army reserve and received a pension as shown in UK Chelsea Pensioners Service Records 1760-1913.

Once he left the army John Stapleton Weatherburn returned to the Scottish Borders, was admitted as a Freeman of Berwick Guild on 3 October 1911 as "4th son of Alexander, deceased", and lived at Greenlaw, north east of Coldstream in Scotland. He appears on the 1911 Scottish Census.

Rebecca Weatherburn (seated) and Margaret Morrallee Weatherburn

At this time his sister, Rebecca, was married and living in Coldstream as was his maternal grandmother. His mother and brother, Henry, had moved to Consett, near Durham.

His older sister, Margaret Morrallee Burns and her children, Elizabeth (Morley), Rae, Iris, Bill and Alex, as well as her stepdaughter, Betty, had emigrated to join her husband, John Rea Burns, in Australia in 1911. They had been married in in July 1899 (at the Scotchgate Baptist Chapel in Castlegate, Berwick.

John Stapleton Weatherburn did not remain in Greenlaw long, as on 16 July 1912 he embarked on the White Star Line steamer, Waimana, from Liverpool for Sydney. He described himself as a farmer from Scotland on the passenger list.