Journeys around Australia in the 1970s.
Some are remembered in the Mt Prospect, Daylesford and Creswick cemeteries
In 1997 I made my fist careful study of the Presbyterian, Mount Prospect Cemetery. ln an article for the Age newspaper - see the home page - I identified two graves - Stanley Coutts and Albert Yelland - of Great War soldiers. Three months before Anzac Day, 2006, I found another grave, that of Howard Boustead, who died in France in 1917.
Stanley Coutts - No 5358 - 14th Battalion - Died 29 Aug 1916.A mere 18 years of age - Battle of the Somme Mt Prospect - Villers-Bretonneux, France.Who was this boy, Coutts, I thought? The records show that he was an 18-year-old brickmaker from Daylesford, where he enlisted on 12/2/1916, and was killed six months later on 29/8/1916, at the battle of the Somme, probably at Pozieres. A major battle was begun there in August 1916.
He is officially buried at Villers Bretonneux in France. Even conservative historians acknowledge that the Battle of the Somme was a military disaster, in which men were sent to their slaughter by Generals with no regard for human life.
What would young Coutts have known about this mysterious and pointless war in Europe? He enlisted two months before the Easter Rebellion in Dublin, an event which galvanised Irish Catholics - including my relatives in Blampied - against the war. Was it adventure and the opportunity to escape the excruciating heat and the boredom of the brickworks that induced him to join? Did any mates join him?
The son of William and Harriet Coutts, of Victoria Park, Daylesford, Coutts is commemorated by his sister, Harriet Hussey, in a grave that contains her husband, William Hussey - died aged 29 years on 21 Jan 1922 - and her parents, William - died 1922 aged 52 - and Harriet - died 1925 aged 59. Also buried there is, John Coutts, brother of Stanley and Harriet, who died in 1942, aged 45 years. The 1901 Post Office Directory lists Isabella Coutts, farmer, as living in Mt Prospect.
The son of William and Harriet Coutts, of Victoria Park, Daylesford, Coutts is commemorated by his sister, Harriet Hussey, in a grave that contains her husband, William Hussey - died aged 29 years on 21 Jan 1922 - and her parents, William - died 1922 aged 52 - and Harriet - died 1925 aged 59. Also buried there is, John Coutts, brother of Stanley and Harriet, who died in 1942, aged 45 years. The 1901 Post Office Directory lists Isabella Coutts, farmer, as living in Mt Prospect.
Factory hand Albert Yelland - No 1750 - joined the 58th Battalion of the Australian Infantry and was killed in action on 30 September 1917, probably at Polygon Wood, Ypres, where a major battle had begun on 26 September. He is commemorated in the Mount Prospect cemetery in a grave that also contains his mother, who died on 9 April 1926, aged 57. The son of of Alfred and Catherine Yelland and husband of Elsie, he was a native of Rocklyn and only 23 years of age when he died. On 20 March 1916, 18 months before his death, he married Married Elsie Hill
Although Albert was a factory hand, his wife gave her address as 59 Millswyn St, South Yarra, Victoria. Why was she living in South Yarra when he died, and did she re-marry? Yelland joined the 58th Battalion at Rocklyn, his home town, on 4 January 1916 and embarked on the HMAT Port Lincoln on 4/05/1916, six weeks after marrying Elsie Irene Armstrong Hill. When he married 18-year-old Elsie Hill, Albert Yelland gave his address as the Military Camp Ballarat. The marriage took place at St Mark's Church, Brown Hill - near Ballarat - on 20 March 1916. She too was a native of Rocky Lead, later renamed Rocklyn.
The AIF records indicate that after Albert's death Elsie married Francis Armstrong, whose mother lived in Rocky Lead, where Elsie and Albert came from. Francis was a returned soldier and railway guard WA.
Albert Yelland's official war grave is 112 Hooge Crater Cemetery, Zillebeke Belgium. The following is taken from an article on the web:
The mine crater at Hooge was blown by the British during fierce fighting here in 1914-15. The water-filled crater can still be seen in the grounds of the chateau across the road, which also houses a small museum. For much of the early part of the war the front line ran through this area, but it moved further east soon after the first Australians arrived here in late 1916. The cemetery was formed in October 1917 and originally contained 76 graves.
It was enlarged after the Armistice by the concentration of graves from the surrounding area and today contains 5922 burials. Most of the Australians who lie here were killed in the Battle of Polygon Wood (September 26th-29th 1917). The most notable feature of this cemetery is a stylised 'crater' landscaped near the entrance. Total burials: 5922 - Australian burials: 513 (178 unidentified)
The Coutts family grave
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Howard Wellesley Boustead - No 4433 - Died 13/05/1917 - 58th Battallion - Bullecourt.
Howard Boustead was killed at the battle of Bullecourt, a few kilometres north of Pozieres, in which the 58th battalion was engaged in May 1917. He is buried at Villers-Bretonneux. His parents Emma and Irving (who died in 1914) ran the Dean post office. Pte A Duncan, 1403, A Coy - Buchy nr. Rouen, 8. 8. 17 - offered these thoughts in a Red Cross Report:'I saw him lying dead on a waterproof sheet on the 13th May at Bullecourt. He had been sniped and killed instantaneously. I can say nothing about his burial.....'
Howard Boustead was killed at the battle of Bullecourt, a few kilometres north of Pozieres, in which the 58th battalion was engaged in May 1917. He is buried at Villers-Bretonneux. His parents Emma and Irving (who died in 1914) ran the Dean post office. Pte A Duncan, 1403, A Coy - Buchy nr. Rouen, 8. 8. 17 - offered these thoughts in a Red Cross Report:'I saw him lying dead on a waterproof sheet on the 13th May at Bullecourt. He had been sniped and killed instantaneously. I can say nothing about his burial.....'
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Buried also in Hooge Crater is Private Patrick Bugden VC, 31st Battalion, died 28/09/1917, age 20. 'Paddy' Bugden was awarded the Victoria Cross for bravery during several days of fighting at Polygon Wood from September 26th-28th 1917. On several occasions he led small parties to capture pillboxes that were holding up the advance and five times he rescued wounded comrades under heavy fire. Bugden also single-handedly rescued a corporal who had been captured by three Germans, shooting one and bayoneting the other two. He was killed by shellfire on the 28th. Grave VIII. C. 5.
William Zeis, from the German Zeis family, enlisted for the War but died in a military camp in Castlemaine
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There is another Zeis grave in Mount Prospect. It carries a German inscription. This stone was laid by Friederike Zeis, in memory of her husband Henry Ernst Zeis.
It's recorded that William is buried in Daylesford - C of E 36 8065 -and that he enlisted in Castlemaine. Zeis' battalion is not identified in the records. It appears he died of TB in Castlemaine, where he was a railway clerk at the time of his enlistment in the AIF. He was 22 years of age.
William's father, Adolf Zeis, died in 1899, aged 35 years, when William was five years old and is remembered by his wife Alexandrina in the Mount Prospect. She is recorded on William's death certificate as Alexandrina Anniss. One presumes she had remarried. Alexandrina and Adolf's daughter, Alvina May, had died a month shy of her second birthday, on 3 August 1898.
