1917 Postcard from Blackboy Hill

Wow!!! We've had a HUGE response from the public since the Sunday Times article appeared last week. Thank you all for calling and emailing with fascinating tales of relatives at Blackboy Hill, and for the fantastic array of pictures. We will slowly plough through them all and figure out how best to incorporate these stories. They will definitely help us paint a fuller picture of camp life.

Now, here is just a taste of the stories that are emerging. I spoke to the delightful Shirley Krjanic yesterday, and she read to me a postcard from her father that was sent from the Blackboy camp on 6 August, 1917:

Dear George [his grandfather]

 

Just a few lines to let you know that I am still here and doing well. They had me out digging trenches all day Friday. They marched us about 5 miles in the morning and back again at night.

 

On Saturday we had to go marching around Perth. The girls were pelting us with oranges, lollies and cigarettes as we marched along. We have only started on our musketeering this week. So I suppose we will be here for a week or two yet. It is just as wet here as it is down there [Boyinup]. Hoping you are well.

 

Private C Gardiner 4337, 12th of the 2nd pioneers

 

[on the back]

 

I have got Sid Peak in the same hut as I am. He went home on his long leave last Saturday so I suppose there will be some broken hearts about town.

 

Claude.

Social scene at camp

Thanks to Robert Atkins who sent in this fabulous photo of a soldier's picnic at Blackboy Hill, 1914. Robert adds these notes: Group at Blackboy Hill, 1914 (male goaty beard seated centre is my grandfather Leo Frederick "King" Atkins; woman in white to his left my Grandmother Winsome (nee Castilla) Atkins; to her left seated in uniform her brother Frederick Slade Castilla. Woman standing probably one of Leo F Atkins sisters.)

Frederick Castilla was so desperate to join the war effort and fight for his country that he fudged his age to be accepted. He was just 17 when he volunteered: “The battery was in camp at Blackboy Hill and I slipped off up there whenever I could, waiting and watching. I bought a pair of long pants and asked Col. Hobbs for an interview. Col. Hobbs told me I would have to wait a couple of years. However I continued to visit Blackboy Hill and one day I had a break. Two new Lieutenants joined the battery, Vowles and Clowes; Vowles was a Claremont boy. I told Vowles my troubles and he was amused but sympathetic. He told me to come to up to camp in uniform in the morning."