Elliott Harold Edward - Pompey Elliott at war : in his own words

Scribe Publications
POMPEY ELLIOTT

Previously a solicitor, archivist, and briefly a professional cricketer, Ross McMullin is one of Australias finest historians. His books include the widely acclaimed ALP centenary history The Light on the Hill , the outstanding illustrated biography Will Dyson: Australias radical genius , and the celebrated So Monstrous a Travesty , a history of the worlds first national labour government.

He has written numerous chapters for multi-authored books on sport, Australian politics and history, and Australias participation in the Great War. These publications include Australian Prime Ministers , edited by Michelle Grattan; True Believers , edited by John Faulkner and Stuart Macintyre; and Test Team of the Century , edited by Garrie Hutchinson.

Ross McMullin also writes frequent articles for newspapers and periodicals. He is a senior research fellow with the history department at the University of Melbourne.

Scribe Publications Pty Ltd
1820 Edward St
Brunswick, Victoria, Australia 3056
Email: info@scribepub.com.au

First published by Scribe 2002
This edition published 2008

Text copyright Ross McMullin 2002
Foreword copyright Les Carlyon 2008

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

Edited by Catherine Magree
Cover design by Miriam Rosenbloom

National Library of Australia
Cataloguing-in-Publication data

Ross McMullin
Pompey Elliott
New ed.

9781921942730 (e-book.)

Brunswick, Vic. : Scribe 2008

Includes bibliography.

Elliott, H. E. (Harold Edward), 1878-1931; GeneralsAustraliaBiography; World War, 1914-1918Biography.

355.331092

COVER ILLUSTRATION: detail from a portrait of Pompey Elliott by Bill McInnes (courtesy of the Australian War Memorial)

www.scribepublications.com.au

CONTENTS

Awkward Bush Shyness:
Straitened upbringing, 18781894

A Very Glutton for Work:
Striving for glittering prizes, 18941900

Your Brilliant Record:
The Boer War, 19001902

Utmost Energy and Concentrated Perseverance:
Solicitor and militiaman, husband and father,
1903August 1914

He Knows How to Make Soldiers:
Preparing the 7th Battalion, August 1914April 1915

Hardly Any Left of the Poor Old 7th Battalion:
Initiation at Gallipoli, AprilMay 1915

May I Never See Another War:
Steeles Post and Lone Pine, JuneAugust 1915

Great and Fearful Responsibility:
Evacuation and elevation, September 1915June 1916

The Slaughter Was Dreadful:
The battle of Fromelles, JuneJuly 1916

I Really Cannot Imagine How They Live Through It:
Winter at the Somme, August 1916March 1917

Simply Paralysing the Old Boche:
Pursuit to the Hindenburg Line, March 1917

Too Weary and Worn for Words:
Bullecourt and a well-earned rest, AprilAugust 1917

I Would Have Gladly Welcomed a Shell to End Me:
The battle of Polygon Wood, SeptemberNovember 1917

Terribly Depressed and Pessimistic:
Another gloomy winter, November 1917March 1918

Never So Proud of Being an Australian:
Resisting the German onslaught, MarchApril 1918

The Most Brilliant Feat of Arms in the War:
The battle of Villers-Bretonneux, April 1918

A Profound Sense of Injustice:
The supersession grievance, May 1918

As Usual My Boys Were Just Splendid:
Relentless offensive, JuneNovember 1918

Very Sad About Everything:
Painful adjustment to peace, November 1918June 1919

No Obligation at All to the National Party:
Into parliament, June 1919July 1920

A Special Desk in This Chamber for the War Historian:
Period of Elliotts Exuberance, July 19201921

Finest and Most Authoritative Advocate for Returned Soldiers:
The aftermath of war, 19211925

We Feel It Was Long Overdue:
Major-General at last, 19251929

The Injustice Has Actually Colored All My Post War Life:
Disintegration, 1929March 1931

Thousands of Diggers Will Truly Mourn for Pompey:
Afterwards, March 1931

Maps

Charts of formations and commanders

For three major Western Front battles of particular significance to Elliott there is, alongside the map, a chart showing the inter-relationship of the various formations and commanders engaged in that battle. The formations under Elliotts command are marked in bold.

Formations in the military hierarchy

Formations in descending order are as follows:

army

corps

division

brigade

battalion

company

platoon

section

Abbreviations in the text

AIF Australian Imperial Force

AIR Australian Infantry Regiment

ALP Australian Labor Party

CB Companion of the Order of the Bath

CMG Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George

DCM Distinguished Conduct Medal

DSO Distinguished Service Order

GHQ General Headquarters

GOC General Officer Commanding

MC Military Cross

MHR Member of the House of Representatives

MM Military Medal

MP Member of Parliament

NCO non-commissioned officer

RSSILA Returned Sailors and Soldiers Imperial League of Australia

VC Victoria Cross

VFL Victorian Football League

VIB Victorian Imperial Bushmen

Conversions

1 (pound) $2 Australian (post-1966)

1 shilling 10 cents

1 mile 1.6 kilometres

1 yard (=3 feet) 0.91 metres

1 inch 2.54 centimetres

1 acre 0.4 hectares

Foreword

by

Les Carlyon

The history of the world is but the biography of great men.
Thomas Carlyle

IF ONE SETS OUT to write biography, best to avoid saints and villains. The first lead on to hagiography, the second to finger wagging. Better to be writing about someone of quirks and contrasts and mysteries, someone to admire but also to puzzle over because, try as one may, one can never quite solve all of the riddles. Better to be writing about a character of Shakespearean complexities. Pompey Elliott is such a man: bush kid, scholar, fabled soldier of the Great War, family man, solicitor, parliamentarian. He is tough and tender, cocksure and vulnerable, charismatic and cranky, a burly and ruddy-cheeked man who, once seen, is not to be forgotten.

First of all, though, Elliott was an outstanding fighting soldier. He went up to the frontline during the battle of Polygon Wood in 1917, past blackened tree stumps and huddled corpses, to sort out the confusion there. Welch Fusiliers were mixed up with his forward troops. One wrote: It was the only time during the whole of the war that I saw a brigadier with the first line of attacking troops. Another said it was rare for anyone who combines authority and nous to be on the spot. The Australians were unsurprised. Their brigadier was just being himself.

Ross McMullins biography has already found a wide audience, for the timeless reasons that it is good to read and tells us things we didnt know. Here is a fine piece of storytelling, a journey back to an Australia that is long gone. Here is a narrative that never stalls but carries us along like a river heading for the sea. Here is Pompey Elliott, bursting out of the page, larger than life and worn down by life. And here, as a backdrop, is the story of Australias part in the Great War, from the tawny gullies of Gallipoli to the sullen blockhouses of the Hindenburg Line.