Page 14 - Potted History 2017

The Great War
The Great War Years
1915
Eleven High School Old Boys took part in the landing at Anzac
Cove on 25th April, 1915. Ten were killed on Gallipoli between
April and December, four of them at ‘The Nek’ on 7th August.
This action was dramatised in Peter Weir’s memorable, poignant
film, ‘Gallipoli’. One of the High School boys was the 1907 Rhodes
Scholar, Phipps Turnbull; the others were Harold Barraclough,
Reg Moore and Vernon Piesse. Today they are commemorated
in the Hale School Memorial Grove along with 121 other former
students who lost their lives in the Boer War, the Great War, World
War II or in the Korea conflict. Leslie Craig, badly wounded in the
attack, survived to eventually return to Australia and was later
instrumental in the successful move of the School from West
Perth to Wembley Downs. Today, the main School oval is named
in his honour.
Matthew Wilson appointed as Headmaster
High School Old Boy Aubrey Hardwicke was killed on Gallipoli.
After the war his parents donated the Aubrey Hardwicke
Memorial Prize, which, to this day, is awarded annually to the
Captain of School.
1916
Captain Cecil Foss, formerly a High School boarder from Babakin,
led the first Australian charge against German positions on the
Western Front. He was awarded a Military Cross for gallantry but
was killed in action later that year at Pozieres.
1918
Charlie Foulkes-Taylor, a former boarder from Yuin Station, won
a Military Cross for his part in the drive against Turkish forces
at Es Salt, Palestine, in May 1918. On 1st October he led the
Western Australian 10th Light Horse scouts into Damascus in
the early morning and took the surrender from the local officials.
They passed through the city in pursuit of the retreating Turks
and left Lawrence of Arabia and his entourage to enter the city
later and take all the glory from the world press contingent. This
was featured many decades later in the iconic film, Lawrence of
Arabia.
Alexander
Phipps Turnbull
(1898 - 1907)
1918 Roy Phillipps medal group - WWI
Roy Phillipps
Roy Phillipps was badly wounded at Gallipoli when a member of
the 28th Infantry Battalion. He was to be repatriated to Australia
but, instead, inveigled himself into the flying corps where,
Leslie Craig (1901-08) subsequently, he became the second highest scoring ‘ace’ of No
2 Squadron of the Australian Flying Corps, with several Military
Crosses and a Distinguished Flying Cross to his credit. He was
killed in a flying accident in 1941 Captain Roy Phillipps (centre rear), part of an escort for General Birdwood, 1918
George Maitland
George Maitland could be called Hale School’s ‘Simpson’. He joined the 4th Light Horse
Regiment and his first job was to make coffins for those killed in action on Gallipoli. Later
he took part in the famous charge of the Light Horsemen at Beersheba (featured in the
film, The Light Horsemen). In 1918 he was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal
for rescuing wounded fellow soldiers under heavy fire, placing them on horseback and
taking them to safety. During the Second World War, George joined up again and won a
Distinguished Service Order for rescuing troops under fire, in much the same area as he
had done in the Great War – this time, however, he used a truck! Maitland ended the war
Cecil Maitland Foss as the Deputy Director of Australian Army Medical Corps with a CBE to add to his earlier
(1907) decorations for bravery.
Frank Slee in an Avro 504
Frank Slee
Frank Slee, originally a member of the
48th Infantry Battalion, was accepted
into the Australian Flying Corps and
was posted to France in mid-1917.
He procured a bravery medal with a
difference – a German Iron Cross. Shot
down after a dog-fight with several
German pilots he was captured but
was entertained by his victors and, as a
memento of his tenacious fight, he was
given an Iron Cross medal by one of them
– Hermann Goering!
Charles Foulkes-Taylor
(1906)
George Maitland DCM - 1918