Page 15 - Potted History 2017

The Great War Alexander

Phipps Turnbull

The Great War Years (1898 - 1907)

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