Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
THE mystery of the identity of a long-gone relative's mate from World War I was solved recently linking two Mid-North Coast families.
The only picture Wauchope's Ron and Pam Dures had of Ron's uncle, Thomas Albert Dures, was in uniform with another unknown Digger.
They had always wondered who the other Australian soldier in the photo was, and recently decided to try to find out. To see if anyone recognised him they sent the picture to the Sydney Morning Herald's RSVP Family Matters section in January, asking: "Does anyone know who the soldier who is seated was? My uncle, Thomas Dures (standing) 4788, 18th Battalion, was killed on August 8, 1918, and is buried at Villers-Bretonneux. In a postcard from France, he referred to his mate, 'Wack', who could be the other person in the photo . . ."
And he was. Reuben "Wack" Allen survived the war and returned to his home town of Ingleburn, working as a baker and delivering his bread in a horse and cart, becoming so prominent a figure there that he was known locally as "Mr Ingleburn".
"Wack" Allen's daughter, Betty D'Arcy-Irvine who lives at Dunbogan, was surprised to get a phone call from people wanting to know all about him.
And Betty had lots of information to pass on, including her father's World War I diary, and other pictures of Wack and Tom Dures together.
In fact Tom and Wack were together in the army from day one, trained together at Liverpool, where the photo was probably taken, served in the same battalion and went to war on the same ship, the HMAT Ceramic, on April 13, 1916.
Later Wack Allen was very active in the RSL, writing accounts of his wartime service and becoming president of the Ingleburn RSL.
In one of his stories, Wack wrote that he was sent to do Non-Commissioned Officer training in Amiens and handed his Lewis machine-gun to Tom Dures for the time he was away. When he returned he was told that Tom had been killed.
Wack Allen wrote: "We were taken out of the line for a bit of a spell to Corbie and Rivery. We were then sent up to the side of the road which runs from Villers-Bretonneux to Warfusse. We were in here for 45 days. When I got word to attend an NCO school in Amiens for 14 days, I handed my Lewis gun over to Tom Dures. While I was away, Tom was killed in the big push on the 8th August. We had been together since we left Australia. When we heard that the big push was on, we had two days' school to go. We went up to Officer-in-Charge of the school and asked him to let us go back to our Battalion so we could be in it. He would not let us go so I missed out on the 8th August show. I was back in the Battalion again on 10th August. From now on it was forward all the time."
Tom Dures had obviously made quite an impression on his mate Wack and several other AIF servicemen form the Ingleburn area, as his name is recorded on several honour rolls there, including at the war memorial, the RSL and the Baptist Church, even though he was not from the area.
Betty D'Arcy-Irvine also remembers her father talking about his wartime mate Tom Dures.
At the end of the story he wrote for the RSL about his time in the army in the Great War, Wack Allen says: "I, for one, will always look back with pride to think I was one of the boys to carry the purple and green diamond colour patch of the 18th Battalion, also to have had the privilege to mix with such a lot of wonderful mates as I had in that Battalion."