Thomas George Noakes

From the Commonwealth War Graves Commission′s Website.

In Memory of
Private THOMAS GEORGE NOAKES
578, 11th Bn., Australian Infantry, A.I.F.
who died age 29
on 01 August 1915
Son of Frank and Caroline Noakes; husband of Adile D. L. Noakes, of Midland Junction, Western Australia. Native of Mayfield, England.
Remembered with honour
Grave/Memorial Reference - Plot II; Row G; Grave 42
SHELL GREEN CEMETERY

This is the story of Thomas George Noakes but, because there were four brothers from the Noakes family who fought in the Great War, I have repeated the following small family history for each man.

The four men were William, Thomas, Matthew Levi, and Walter Noakes but only one died in action and that was Thomas. Matthew Levi and Walter both won medals in the same action. Later on in the war, Walter was wounded and, then, later on still, was gassed being finally discharged as being medically unfit in 1919.

The first I knew of the Noakes brothers was when I came across the following in the Bexhill Chronicle dated 30th September 1916. In spite of the report talking of "a family so well remembered", his name doesn′t appear on the memorial, which I would have thought it should, and I wouldn′t have known of him, or his brothers, except for this newspaper article.

The following is from the "Bexhill Chronicle" dated

"News has been received from Australia of the death of Thomas Noakes, formerly of Hooe, but who enlisted in Australia. It occurred in the Dardanelles, but under what circumstances it actually took place is not known.

Thomas Noakes was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Noakes, who lived at Glebe Cottage, Hooe, for very many years, and who ended their lives there. Three of their sons – Levi, Walter, and Thomas – emigrated to Australia, and had been there for some time when the war broke out. They at once responded to the call of the Mother Country, joining the Australian contingent. Another brother, William, is with the North Sea Fleet at the present time.

The deceased soldier, was about 27 years of age at the time of his death, and had been associated before he enlisted with gold mining in the great Southern colony. The news of his death has travelled from the Dardanelles to Australia, and thence to his relatives in England. While thoroughly sympathising with the family in the death of Thomas Noakes, it is satisfactory at the present juncture to find that a family so well remembered at Hooe is represented in this great struggle by three other sons of an old resident."

The Noakes Family:

None of the Noakes family came from Hooe but they must have moved there between the census of 1891 and 1901.

1891 Census of Mayfield - RG 12/783 Folio 67, Page 3
Address: Little Broadhurst

1901 Census of Hooe – RG13/888 Folio 64 Page 15
Address: Glebe Cottage

The two "Mercys" are NOT the same people but, from the 1881 census of Burwash, Mercy Pankhurst appears to have been Caroline′s illegitimate daughter. Whatever the relationship, Frank Noakes married Caroline Pankhurst late in 1882 and they had six sons before Caroline died in 1898.

The sons were: Henry Charles (who died in 1892, at the age of 9), William, Thomas, Matthew Levi, Frank, and Walter.

In 1904, their father Frank, died at the age of 44, leaving the children orphans - but it seems that there was a connection with the Pont family of Ninfield and this connection was one of marriage – a Matthew Pont married Sarah Noakes, back in 1861 and, then, in 1869, they had a daughter, Mercy Ann Pont - and she was the 32 year-old sister-in-law listed in the 1901 census of Hooe – and aunt to William, Thomas, Matthew Levi, and Walter. This relationship is important because of what happened after Frank Noakes died.

I can only guess at the moment, but around 1908, the Pont family, with the Noakes children, except, it seems for William, emigrated to the Perth area, in Western Australia.

And this is where the stories of the four sons, William. Thomas George, Matthew Levi, and Walter split up.

THOMAS GEORGE NOAKES'S STORY

Though Thomas seems to have emigrated with his brothers, at the time he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Forces, he was working as a gold prospector in Western Australia, at a goldfield&pirme;s town called Bardoc, not too far from, and north of, Kalgoorlie.

The only reason Thomas could have gone to Bardoc was because of the gold, which was discovered there in 1893, as there was nothing else in the area for a young man to earn his living. How well he did, we′ll never know but he, obviously, didn′t make his fortune!

The gold discovered was what is known as "alluvial gold"; not found in rocks or mines as such but in soil made up of such things as gravel, silt, sand, clay, and is deposited flowing water – streams or rivers and it would have been panned for, rather than mined.

This "alluvial gold" was almost gone by the end of 1895, but, luckily, several gold lodes had been found and many mines opened up with several hundred miners digging for their fortune.

By the time Thomas got there, the goldfield "town" had grown into a real town with several hotels, public (Government) buildings, roads, a railway station, telegraph lines, and a great deal of general building for housing, etc. The Government of Western Australia, had, by that time, provided a water supply to the town.

However, on August 18th, in 1914, for whatever reason, Thomas volunteered for the AIF, the Australian Imperial Force – he was number 578, in the 11th Infantry Battalion.

According to his "Attestation Papers", which he completed on 3rd September, he was 27 years and 5 months old, 5 feet 6 inches in height, weighed 137 lb., had a fair skin, light brown hair, and blue-grey eyes. He gave his next of kin as his brother, Levi, at Mechering, which was, and is, farming country, roughly 80 miles from Perth, in the west.

Sometime in 1914, but after Thomas had enlisted in the Infantry, he married an Adele Westcott, in Fremantle. We know this because on his original Attestation, he gave his next of kin as his brother Levi Noakes, but this was later amended to "Mrs. A.D.L. Noakes". Her Christian names were given as "Adele Dinah Louise" on one particular official form but, on his will, Thomas gives her full name and address as "Adele Louise Diana, c/o Mrs Harold Plant, King Street, Merredin, Western Australia". However, on a receipt slip sent to the Department of Defence in 1921, for some photographs she had received, she signed herself as "Adele D. L. Noakes" so there is some uncertainty as to her correct name. The "Adele", by the way, has an "accent acute" over the first "e", as per the French, but she writes it more like a "circumflex" and this has caused errors as it has been mistaken for the letter "i".

The couple can′t have been married very long because, on the 2nd November 1914, the 11th Battalion, along with Thomas Noakes, was embarked, on "His Majesty′s Australian Transport, Ascanius", bound for Alexandria, in Egypt, to train with British weapons.

A few months later, on the 2nd March, 1915, Thomas was embarked, on HM′s Transport Ship, "Suffolk" from Alexandria bound for the Gallipoli Peninsular but, according to his "War Gratuity Schedule", on 8th April 1915, Thomas was admitted to No. 1, Stationary Hospital, Lemnos, Greece, with measles but only six days later, on 14th April, he was declared well and discharged to rejoin his unit, which he, officially, did on 22nd April.

[No. 1 Stationary Hospital, on the Greek island of Lemnos came about when, in February 1915, the Greek government offered the island to the allied forces for them to use as a base from which to attack the Dardenelles, less than 70 miles away. In the event the attack failed but the Allies retained Lemnos as a military camp for the proposed landing at Gallipoli, later that year. In the following months, during which time the battle for Gallipoli relentlessly continued, the camp grew to include hospitals and convalescent camps. Generally, only soldiers who were expected to recover within four weeks were admitted to Lemnos; the more serious cases were taken to larger hospitals with more facilities for treatment, such as those in Britain, Egypt, or Malta.]

Gallipoli

In trying to put together Thomas′s story, I had to read and understand as much as I could about Gallipoli, where he was, finally, killed, in the hope of getting some idea as to what he had been doing, from the time he joined his unit, in April 1915, and his death. There was much to read and no single document or book that told me everything I wanted to know so I had to pick my way carefully through a myriad of information, selecting those bits that, I thought, related to Thomas and what he experienced.

The following is a précised history of the battles that took place between late April and early August and I added this because I felt it was necessary to understand what Thomas went through – hopefully, to determine, as accurately as I could, where, why, and when he died. I didn′t, and don′t, intend it to be a history lesson on this episode of WW1, as there are many other sources, on the Internet and in books, which give an amazing great deal of in-depth information on just about everything to do with Gallipoli.

The Terrain and the Trenches

The Gallipoli peninsula is basically barren though there aand rocky. The hills are steep, with many gulleys, re-entrants and narrow ledges. The beaches on which the landings took place are sandy. The weather was fine and warm in the spring, became blisteringly hot in summer and bitterly cold with heavy rain and strong winds in winter.

The Gallipoli Campaign

In late 1914, Germany was faced, primarily, with two major war fronts– the Western, mainly against France and British Empire, and the Eastern, against Russia.

On 25th November 1914, Winston Churchill, as First Lord of the Admiralty, put forward a new plan to the British Government′s War Council, which he believed could bring a quick end to the war. He proposed the opening up of another war front in the Dardanelles, thus weakening the German forces in their having to support the Turkish army, which was considered to be greatly inferior to the allied forces. On January 16th, 1915, the Council gave its agreement.

What Churchill had planned was a heavy naval assault on the Turkish positions in the Dardanelles but when he spoke to Admiral Carden (head of the British Fleet, which, at that time, was anchored off the Dardanelles), the Admiral suggested that a more gradual approach would stand a far better chance of success so Churchill asked him to draw up a new plan which could be submitted to the Council.

A new plan was produced, submitted, and, again, approved by the War Council and, on February 19th 1915, the British Fleet began their attack on Turkish positions in the Dardanelles, while the British and ANZAC troops were put on standby in Egypt.

Things, however, didn′t go as planned, though, at first, it seemed there would be no problem. Then, however, the Turks heavily mined the seas around the Dardanelles, putting the Allied Fleet (which comprised both British and French ships) at great risk. While there were minesweepers, all were manned by civilian crews and under constant shellfire so they, eventually, refused to go out to continue clearing the mines. Ships were sunk and many, British and French were severely damaged, and Admiral Carden realised that there was, what we today would call a quot;Catch-22" situation, the fleet could not attack and destroy the Turkish guns while the mines were there and the Turkish guns were stopping the mine from being cleared so, he called off the attack in order to save the ships.

On March 18th, with the sinking of three British battleships and another three seriously damaged, it was decided that the military should take on the task giving the navy time to repair and reform.

With military support for the Navy now, obviously, imperative, a new army force was created – the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force (M.E.F.), which comprised, mainly, troops from Britain, Australia, and Canada though there were other nations involved.

The decision was made to land troops at Gallipoli but it is believed that, because of the poor state of security at Army headquarters, the Turks, probably, had some idea of the plan.

The plan was, basically, to land troops at several points along the coast, establish a beachhead and move inland.

For the story of Thomas Noakes we need to know no more than the above, at the moment anyway, because, on the 24th April, he rejoined his unit and, on 25th April, the landings started. He had, probably, been released from hospital a little early, because of the imminent landings, though the military wouldn′t have wanted a serious case of measles walking among the troops.

The combined Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, the "Anzacs", were landed at what became, later, known as "Anzac Cove", which is a small and narrow stretch of beach with steeply rising, barren land, open to snipers higher up, with no cover except for the many gullies which scored its surface, up and over which the men would have to climb to get off that beach - and about a mile north of where they were supposed to have been landed. It′s thought that the wrong place was due to a navigational error – whatever the reason, it was pretty disastrous for the Anzacs.

The first off the landing crafts and on the beach were the Australians, and among them, Thomas Noakes. The beach, offering very little cover, soon became crowded. Later that morning, the New Zealanders followed and joined the Aussies who, by this time, had managed to struggle through the rough terrain, just about one and a quarter miles, under the constant fire from the Turkish troops higher up and hidden in the gullies.

The Turks pushed back that initial ANZAC move inland, and the situation became so bad, so bloody and costly in men′s lives, that it was considered taking the troops off again but this, because of what else was going on along the coast, was considered to be impracticable and would have placed the troops in greater danger as they tried to leave so the Anzacs dug in and waited until, eventually, they could be moved.

Attacks all along the coast continued over the next few months, with no real advance being made by the Allied forces and the Anzacs, including Thomas, were moved from battle to battle.

Moving on to Thomas′s last days at Gallipoli, we came to July 29th and the story of Leane′s Trench, for it seems that it would have been at this battle that Thomas was killed.

The Battle for Leane′s Trench

At Gallipoli, on 29th July, because of Turkish attempts to extend their trenches, which threatened the position of the Australians, a decision was made to carry out an attack to capture those trenches.

The attack was, however, postponed for two days to allow for tunnels to be dug right up to the Turkish trenches, where bombs would be placed and detonated as part of the attack, which was now planned for moonrise on the night of July 31st, and the 11th Battalion (with Thomas Noakes) would deliver that attack.

For those interested in knowing more about the battle, there is a very good, detailed, and lengthy account, here – Battle for Leane′s Trench

By the morning, on the 1st August 1915, the position had been captured, and the trench became known as "Leaneprime;s Trench" after the officer (Brigadier General Sir Raymond Leane) who led the successful attack - but it had been won at a price, as they always are – the 11th Battalion had 73 wounded and lost 36 men killed in action, one of which was, almost certainly, Thomas George Noakes.

All soldiers killed at Gallipoli, like all soldiers killed in action, were buried where and when it was possible. A photograph of Thomas′s original simple grave, shows a relative elaborateness that surprised me. He was buried with obvious care, by the Chaplain, S. J. Robertson and, later on, a soldier, Lt Jack Duffy, took a photograph of that grave among many other photographs of many other graves, and these photos he placed in an album, which was bought, in the early 1990s by a Trevor Henshaw – and that is from whom I, eventually, got the picture having seen it on his website (see later)

In time, Thomas′s wife, received his medals, a photograph of the grave, and his memorial plague and scroll but she doesn′t seem to have married again, at least not within the next four years, after which I found no trace of her. They, obviously, due to the shortage of time they were married and saw each other (about two, maybe, three months) had no children. She, eventually, got a pension though it took some time but what happened to her I have been unable to find out.

DOCUMENTATION AND AWARDS

General:

Memorial Plaque and Scroll - The next of kin of every soldier killed in action in WW1 was sent a memorial plaque together with a Scroll to acknowledge the service the man did for his country and the price he paid. Because I have not been able to find the plaque or the scroll for Thomas George Noakes, this link will take you to images of the plaque and scroll for Arthur Charles Hayward, who fought with the Canadian Infantry and died at the battle of St. Julien, in 1915.

"Where the Australian′s Rest" – The Australian Government, realising that most next of kin would never be able to visit the grave of those they had lost, produced a booklet which was sent with the soldier′s medals. It gives a description of the problems that those who carried out the burials had to face and sketches of the "cemeteries" as they were at the time of the publication of the booklet, long before the Commonwealth War Graves Commission came into existence.

War Medals - As a basic fact, each soldier, at the end of the war, was awarded three medals, which became and still are, commonly known as "Pip", "Squeak", and "Wilfred" after three popular newspaper cartoon characters, published in the Daily Mirror, at that time.

I say a "basic fact" because there are many other conditions that were considered before a medal was awarded and, if more detail is wanted there are many websites, which give a far better, and a fuller explanation than I have.

The 1914 - 15 Star was issued to all who those Australian soldiers who served in any theatre of war between 5th August 1914 and 31st December 1915 and became know as "Pip".

British War Medal 1914 ndash; 1920 was issued to all those who served, whether British or from the Empire. This medal became popularly known as "Squeak".

Victory Medal 1914 – 1918 – This medal was awarded to all those who had served between the start of the war and the date of the Armistice. While the same design of medal was issued to all those eligible throughout the Empire, all other allied countries used different designs but the same ribbon.

Thomas′s Original Grave – This photograph of the original simple grave is reproduced with the permission of Trevor Henshaw who has created a website based on the photographs taken by Lt. Jack Duffy, of Gallipoli during the time he served there. Lt. Duffy identified the photos and put them in an old album, which Trevor was lucky enough to see in a shop in Melbourne, and buy.

There is much more on Trevor′s website, which is entitled "Original Graves At Gallipoli", and it′s well worth a visit.

Shell Green Cemetery - This is a copy, from the booklet "Where the Australian′s Rest", of a drawing of the original cemetery, which of course is nothing like the beautiful Shell Green Cemetery (see below) that was built, some years later, and is still maintained by, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

Shell Green Cemetery - This is a beautiful photograph of the modern cemetery where Thomas was, finally, laid to rest – it was taken by Aaron Watkins on his site GoannaTravel and it is shown here with his permission.

Anzac Cove – This is another photograph from Aaron Watkins' website and gives a good idea as to what the Australians faced when they landed on the small and narrow beach with the Turkish soldiers high up on the top firing down on them.

National Archives of Australia

Unlike the British Archives, the National Archives of Australia has many records of their soldiers online, which are both free to view and to download. In the case of Thomas, there were a total of fifty-four separate images of documents and some, with the written permission of the NAA, I have included here. To see all the documentation on Thomas, click on this link National Archives of Australia: B2455 Noakes Thomas George

The following records are those taken from the National Archives of Australia, with their written permission.

Attestation Papers (4 sheets) - These were his "signing-up" papers and they give a reasonable amount personal data.

Casualty Form – Active Service Forms B. 103/1

Medal Form - I've not identifed this form but his medals are mentioned so it became his "Medal Form"!

Record of Field Service

Thomas′s Will – This is a sad thing to read when you realise what he had to leave to his wife in remembrance.

War Pensions Claim

Receipt for photograph

Receipt for the Victory Medal

Receipt for plaque.

Inventory of Effects