PRIVATE W.J. CORBETT, 16TH BATTALION AUSTRALIAN IMPERIAL FORCES. British War Medal (4 Priv

PRIVATE W.J. CORBETT, 16TH BATTALION AUSTRALIAN IMPERIAL FORCES. British War Medal (4 Private, 16th Battalion A.I.F.). Almost Extremely Fine.

Medal accompanied by a bronze Anzac commemorative lapel badge, depicting the figure of Kirkpatrick, assisting a wounded soldier on the back of his donkey, date 1915 in field, QEII crown above, 34mm x 23mm (vertical) approx., reverse engraved “W.J. CORBETT”.

Note low service number.

Medal accompanied by 22 pages of photocopied documents and correspondence from Private Corbett’s Service Papers file, including photocopy of manuscript letter from Corbett applying for the bronze lapel badge that accompanies the British War Medal offered here. Walter James Corbett was born in the parish of Binsham, Gateshead on Tyne, Co. Durham. As Private Corbett’s service number indicates, he was one of the first recruits to the 16th Battalion AIF, enlisting on 10th September 1914 (the 16th Australian Imperial Force was raised in south and west Australia). At the time of enlistment Corbett was 23 years and 11 months old and gave his trade as that of bushman. He was subsequently posted to “E” Company of the 16th Battalion AIF, embarking for active service on 22/12/1914. With the 16th Battalion he took part in the St George’s Day, 25/4/1915, landings at Anzac Cove. At Anzac the 16th Battalion AIF formed part of 4th Australian Brigade, New Zealand and Australian Division. By May 1915 the 4th Australian Brigade were manning Quinn’s Post, the most forward of the Anzac positions. Private Corbett was subsequently wounded in action, 2/5/1915, gunshot wound to left thigh, during the attack on Baby 700. He was evacuated to Alexandria the next day, and admitted to hospital there on 7/5/1915. Discharged from hospital on 1/7/1915, Corbett embarked from Alexandria for Gallipoli on 3/7/1915, rejoining his unit on 10/7/1915. By 19/8/1915 he was hospitalised in a field hospital in Gallipoli, and remained there for almost a month, until he was evacuated to England on 18/9/1915, suffering from dysentery. Corbett was admitted to the Military Hospital at Tooting, London, 27/9/1915, and after recovering sailed to rejoin his unit, disembarking at Alexandria on 5/3/1916, and rejoining his unit at Tel-el-Kebir on 9/3/1916. Corbett subsequently embarked at Alexandria for France on 1/6/1916, disembarking at Marseilles on 9/6/1916. In France, the 16th AIF saw service with the 4th Australian Brigade, 4th Australian Division. Corbett was wounded in action for a second time on 30/8/1916, during the battle of Pozieres, 23/7 – 3/9/1916. He was evacuated to England on 3/9/1916, and admitted to the County of London War Hospital, Epsom, Surrey, where his left arm was amputated. Corbett left England and was repatriated to Australia on 4/5/1917, and whilst at sea was discharged to his regimental depot on 5/4/1917. He disembarked at Freemantle on 25/6/1917 and was discharged from the AIF at Perth on 29/10/1917, medically unfit as a result of disability, amputation of left arm. Despite his disability, Corbett subsequently re-enlisted on 12/1/1918 for home service, but was discharged at his own request on 9/5/1918. His second set of enlistment papers indicate that the loss of his left arm put an end to his career as a bushman, Corbett now giving his trade as that of carpenter, and his home address as 128 Cantonment Street, Freemantle, Western Australia.

Corbett could only be described as the classic Anzac. A bushman whose patriotism and loyalty was undoubtedly without question. One of the first men through the door to volunteer with the 16th Battalion AIF, despite being severely wounded at Gallipoli, he returned to active service only to be seriously wounded for a second time and disabled. Although repatriated to Australia and deemed unfit for further active service, he volunteered for a second time, for home service in support of the war effort. Interestingly, he also had much in common with the legendary John Simpson Kirkpatrick, both men having been brought up on Tyneside on the north-east coast of England, Kirkpatrick was a native of South Shields, close by Corbett’s birthplace of Gateshead. Both men emigrated to Australia prior to the war, and both men worked rough in Australia, Corbett as a bushman, and Kirkpatrick as a labourer on farms, in coalmines and as a ship’s stoker, and both men were among the first wave of volunteers.

Given that both Corbett and Kirkpatrick were from the same are of the north of England and were both operating in the same area of the Gallipoli peninsula, they may well have been aware of each other’s presence. Certainly, Corbett must have heard of Kirkpatrick and his rescue missions. Who knows, perhaps Corbett himself was rescued by Kirkpatrick. Shrapnel Gulley, where Kirkpatrick plied his trade, was the main route up to both Quin’s Post and the trenches used as the jumping-off point for the attack on Baby 700. Given that Corbett was wounded in the left thigh in the attack of 2nd May on Baby 700, and presumably was unable to walk, perhaps he was among the hundreds of men with leg wounds that Kirkpatrick ferried to safety on his donkey. The man with the donkey, James Simpson Kirkpatrick, was himself killed in action just two weeks after Corbett was evacuated wounded from the front line, on 18/5/1915. At the time of his death Kirkpatrick was making his usual morning run up Shrapnel Gulley with his donkey, searching for another wounded soldier to evacuate to safety from the front line.

Service papers give Private Corbett’s next of kin as his father, Walter Corbett, 5 Oswald Terrace, Gateshead-on-Tyne, Co. Durham, England.