An ANZAC mystery

[angra]

My Dad has just had to be moved to a nursing home, so we have been clearing out his place.

He had an old watch - which I am looking at now. It is a good Swiss Roamer probably circa 1950's.

It is inscribed on the back -

"Mr J. McAuley
6th Light Horse
AIF
1971"

Sure enough there was a John James McAuley in the 6th light horse who was killed in action 9th November 1915 Gallipoli. He's buried there. One of the ANZAC heroes.

But why does my Dad have this watch? And why the 1971 date? An anniversary maybe? Did it belong to one of McAuley's descendants? (or McCauley)

I have contacted some relevant authorities with the details.

Do I hold in my hand an ANZAC relic of some importance?

To bring home the reality, here is an extract from the war diary of Private Claude Harold Crittenden, Australian Light Horse.

"On 9th November. while working on the connecting tunnel to Despair Trench, Tprs A. Thorne, R. Musgrove and J. McCauley were killed and Tpr. C Edgeworth died of wounds when a shell exploded amongst them during a meal break. In Tpr (Chook) Fowler's book "Looking Back", he states that 'when two shrapnel shells burst overhead during the midday meal, six men were killed and eight wounded with the first and third wounded by the second shell' but only four men appear to have died on this day, although Tpr C. McInnes died of wounds in Egypt on 13th November."

[Matthew Of Canberra]

"I have contacted some relevant authorities with the details"

I gather that the AWM can help you get in touch with people who look into things like that for fun.

I did some work for defence once, and was seated next to a, well, a bit of a history buff / propellor head (he knew huge amounts of stuff about old ships and planes)

I was on the phone to me dad one morning and I decided to put him through to my neighbour for a bit - within 10 minutes, he'd dug up a photo of grand-dad from the phillipines in WWII at the AWM and suggested ways that dad might be able to get some replacement medals for ones which went away. This guy is a force of nature. He's retired now, but he'd be a brilliant researcher.

If you can't come up with anything, I can probably get his email address. I bumped into him at bunnings a few months back.

[angra]

Thanks very much MoC. I've contacted the Australian Light Horse research centre and will try the AWM too.

Apparently McAuley was from Canterbury, Sydney, if he's the same one, but I reckon the odds are that he is, as there are unlikely to be 2 people with the same surname and initial specifically in the 6th Light Horse.

If it checks out, I'd like to return the watch to his family. I think Mum picked it up at a second-hand shop sometime during her travels.

She and Dad visited Gallipoli, and one night Mum swore she heard the distant ghostly sound of troops marching. Dad looked out the window and there was an empty freighter sailing past with the prop partly out of the water - hence the marching sound.

[angra]

AWM are on the case. Their Military Heraldry & Technology Section are doing some research for me.