John Campbell Dale Warren. John Campbell Dale Warren.
From the book Fallen Saints
John Campbell Dale Warren of Katanning, Western Australia was born at Woodville, South Australia in January 1897. When he was only four months old his mother took him to join his father on Montacollina cattle station on the Strzlecki Creek in the Lake Eyre Country. He attended St Peter’s College 1911-1913 and under the guidance of Canon Girdlestone did very well in all his classes but especially so in Mathematics and French.
In 1913 his father took him out of the Collegein order to afford his siblings a similar opportunity and so John took up farming and worked as a station hand in South Australia before moving to Katanning, Western Australia with his parents. There he enlisted with the Citizens Force and served in Badgebup Troop, Katanning Squadron of the 20th Light Horse Regiment; his strong leadership skills coupled with his outstanding riding ability ensured that over time he became a section commander.
He enlisted in Perth on 28 June 1917 and sailed from Sydney aboard HMAT Medic with the 26th quota of reinforcements for the 16th Battalion on 1 August. He was transferred to the SS Orita at Halifax Nova Scotia on 21 September and after disembarking at Liverpool in early October Private Warren marched in to the 4th Training Battalion at Codford.
Writing from Codford in December 1917 he reported having had a more enjoyable Christmas than he’d expected especially since he had been granted leave on Christmas day 8 a.m., until midnight. He told his family how as they weren’t allowed to travel by train so he and two mates walked to a small village about 8 kilometres from the camp.
Upon reaching the village they found they were just in time for morning service at the church and were later invited to the village squire’s house for dinner. ‘We had it with the upper servants in the servant’s hall, roast turkey, and apple pudding, and port wine to finish up with. After that we sat and talked away till about half past four, when we had tea and cake, as much as we could eat.’ After helping the servants with the washing up etc, they were invited to join the squire and his family in the drawing room and were surprised to find that including his children and servants there were about 30-35 people sitting or standing around a Christmas tree which was lit up with candles. ‘Everyone, including ourselves, got a present from the Master and Mistress of the house; we got a scarf and a notebook each, chocolates, and some packets of cigarettes.’ John and his friends then had a long talk with the kindly squire and after the gifts had been distributed were sent back to the servants’ hall where at 9 p.m., they were given supper.
When the letter was published in the May 1918 issue of The St Peter’s School Magazine the editor wrote the following comment.
Surely there can be nothing more beautiful and inspiring than the thought of these young Australians so soon to meet the great test, making their communion in that quiet old village church with the kindly folk for whose sake they later made the ultimate sacrifice. [i]
During musketry training at Codford, Private Warren qualified as a first class shot but missed being a marksman by only 15 points out of 100. He successfully completed his tests throwing live bombs and although he had not by then undergone his gas test was feeling confident he would have no problems passing that as well. I am alright for this job so far and I expect I shall manage as well as the most of them, and a bit better than ‘Fritz.’ I can throw a bomb better than the majority of our fellows, that is, where cricket comes in. [ii]
On 16 January he was admitted to the Military Hospital at Sutton Veny suffering with Bronchitis and remained there until he was discharged fit for duty to the 13th Training Battalion, Codford at the end of the month. He proceeded to France on 12 February but after joining the 16th Battalion in the field a fortnight later, was taken to 13th Australian Field Ambulance suffering with mumps and at the end of the month was transferred to 7th General Hospital at St. Omer. In the middle of March he was transferred to the Australian Base Depot at Havre and held there until fit enough to rejoin the battalion on 15 April.
In a letter dated 29 June 1918 John told his family he was having a ‘pretty good time’ as the battalion was out of the line for a few days. He said they billeted in a disused water powered woollen factory so were swimming in the river daily and playing plenty of cricket using a pick handle for a bat, and a ball made of a sock filled with old wool.
On the morning of 16th of this month, just 12 months from the day I went to Katanning and got examined and sworn in, seven out of my platoon, and all of two others in the company, made a raid on the Hun about 12 or half- past in the morning and our section of seven got three prisoners, captured a machine gun, and killed about 30 Fritzes, and only two of us wounded. I accounted for a few myself with bombs, and one with my rifle, so we must be winning. [iii]
John found time to write home again on 14 July and like most soldiers who have experienced the madness, filth and terror of war, chose not to dwell on the ever changing fortunes of life and death in battle.
I got through the hop over we had the other day, and also the holding of the new line, which was the worst part of the whole lot. There was church parade today, followed by Holy Communion, to which I went. This afternoon there is to be a cricket match, our battalion against the 15th Battalion, and I am to play. [iv]
He was admitted to 4 Australian Field Ambulance with N.Y.D. Pyrexia (fever) on 18 July but rejoined the battalion in the field 10 days later. When he wrote home on 14 August he told his family he had been temporarily made a runner and thought his new role was not a bad job.
By now you will have heard good news from here, and even better still by the time this arrives, if the weather holds. Our chaps think a lot of the Yanks. They are not so mechanically drilled and kept down as the Tommies, but when it comes to a ‘stoush’ they are well there. [v]
On 16 August, two days after writing his last letter, John Warren was reported as Missing, but this was later changed to Killed in Action; he was 21 years of age.
In a letter to the Secretary for the Department of Defence dated 1 January 1920, John’s father wrote that his father, (John’s grandfather) had raised a volunteer Rifle Company at Williamstown Road in the late 1850’s and another in 1884.
He held an honorary commission as Captain in the Royal Mounted Rifles in which I also served as corporal till his death on 14 Sept 1914, and was among the first nine officers to receive the long service medal. [vi]
In March 1919, Corporal Edward Tilley who had been in the same quota of reinforcements for the 16th Battalion as John wrote how during the voyage aboard HMAT Medic they formed a friendship which grew stronger in England during sport and training.
On 14 August, after a brief period of rest following the attack, the battalion was transferred farther south, and the men bivouaced in the fields around which the villages of Bayonvillers, Harbonnieres and Guillacourt form a triangle. That day in an effort to get away from the Australian zone altogether Warren and Tilley went for bicycle tour through the village of Weincourt and further south to Cayeux and by 5 p.m., were in the Canadian area which on the right of the Australians. There a Canadian officer warned them that if they continued along the road they would be exposing themselves to great danger from German fire. Of course they immediately turned around and that night found shelter in the cellar of a two roomed cottage close to the railway crossing at Guillaucourt.
Tilley said the Germans had abandoned an immense ammunition dump at Guillaucourt station, approximately 300 metres from the cellar they’d stayed in and on 16 August began shelling Guillaucourt in an effort to destroy the dump. By this time the Battalion Orderly room had been established in the cellar and although several shells landed near it there were no casualties.
Shortly after having lunch with Corporal Tilley and three others men John Warren went for a walk but returned about 1 p.m., and came back into the cellar shortly before a shell hit it; Corporal Tilley was buried for nearly an hour before being dug out. Tilley later wrote that John Warren was originally reported ‘Missing.’
Early next morning they found his body, and it was evident that death had taken place instantly following the explosion. They told me he had been buried alongside of Bull and Cobbe in the small British cemetery on the outskirts of GUILLAUCOURT, going towards WEINCOURT, and that a cross had been placed over his grave… [vii]
John’s cousins Carew Reynell (OS) was killed in action at Gallipoli and Thomas Hogarth MM (OS) was killed in action at Beersheba. [viii] [i] St Peter’s School Magazine – W K Thomas & Co, Adelaide, May 1918, p. 75
.
[ii] ibid
[iii] ibid, December, 1918, p. 59
[iv] ibid
[v] ibid, p. 59-60
[vi] Australian War Memorial, Roll of Honour Data Base – Roll of Honour circular – Warren, John Campbell Dale, viewed 1 June 2006
[vii] Australian War Memorial, Red Cross Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau files – John Campbell Dale Warren / 2860807-7837, viewed 16 April 2006
[viii] Australian War Memorial, Roll of Honour Data Base – Roll of Honour circular – Warren, John Campbell Dale ,viewed 1 June 2006
The Death of Campbell Warren
The Western Mail
16 November 1933 – P2
John Campbell Dale Warren
Sometime last year I attended re-union of diggers at Lake Grace, and on my return had a photograph of St. Peter’s Church, Badgebup, published in “The Western Mail,” together with a brief description of that sacred edifice, which is indeed a unique memorial to a fallen soldier. It was erected by Mr. and Mrs. John Campbell Warren, of Dyliabing, in memory of their son, Private John Campbell Dale Warren, of the 16th Battalion, A.I.F. Mr. Warren was in Perth recently, and he gave me a pamphlet with the story of the church and the details of his son’s death.
These details came to hand in a curious way. Mrs. W. K [unclear] personal friend of Mrs. Warren, and well known to the earlier settlers of the district, acted in the honorary capacity of official reader of reports on casualties at the headquarters of the Australian Red Cross Society in London. Mrs. Adam, in the course of her duty, met and questioned Private K. S. G. Tilley, actually the only man who could tell the story. It was indeed a coincidence that one of the few persons in England to whom the name of Campbell Warren meant anything could have met the one man who could give particulars of his death.
Private Tilley’s story was as follows:
Private Warren belonged to the same reinforcement (16th Battalion, A.I.F.) as myself, and a chumship, which subsequently developed into a staunch friendship between us, had its foundation in England, where we were associated in sport as well as in training operations. If I remember rightly, he joined his battalion towards the end of April, or early in May. I saw him many times while portion of the battalion was on rest at La Motte Wood, across the Somme from Blangy Tronville, and again during a very long trying period in the front line during the early summer of 1918, where we were a few hundred yards in front of the battered town of Corbie. On the night of Sunday, June 16, he took part in a minor operation against Pear Trench, near the village of Hamel, and came through successfully.
Though in different companies, we were together again when the battalion was in rest at Daours on the Somme, preparing for the attack on July 4. We both escaped injury during the course of that operation, and were next together at Querrieu, not far from Amiens, where our battalion had three weeks’ rest. Here we all had plenty of cricket and were in fine spirits when it came our turn to go into the danger zone again.
I remember Sunday, July 28, Warren and I took communion together in a small wood near Querrieu, close to the fine Amiens-Albert Road. There were only three others present. The following week Warren was at Rivery, quite close to Amiens, while I was at Corbie. I cannot recollect whether he took part in the general attack on August 8, which was so successful, and in which, unfortunately, many of the friends who had been with us from the morning we sailed out of Fremantle fought their last fight.
On Wednesday, August 14, after a brief period of rest following the attack, the battalion was transferred further south, and the men bivouacked in the fields, around which the villages of Bayon Villiers, Harbonierres, and Guillaucourt form a triangle. That day Warren and I went for a bicycle ride through the village of Weincourt, and further south to Cayeux, and got away from the Australian zone altogether. Towards 5 p.m. we were among the Canadians, who were on the right of the Australians, and a Canadian officer warned us that if we proceeded any further along the road on which we were cycling we would be exposed to the German fire.
Naturally, we quickly returned, and we slept together that night in the cellar of a two-roomed cottage close to the railway crossing at Guillaucourt. The Germans had abandoned an immense ammunition dump at Guillaucourt station, which was within 200 yards of our little home, and on August16 they began to shell Guillaucourt, evidently searching for the dump. At that time the battalion orderly room had been established in the cellar referred to. Several shells landed around us during the morning without causing any casualties. We (Warren, Sergeant Bull, Corporal Cutmore, a mere boy named Cobbe, and myself) had dinner soon after mid-day.
Shortly afterwards Warren went for a walk but returned about 1 p.m. and came down into the cellar when shells again began to arrive in the village. At that time the five mentioned above were together. Big shells were coming into the village every 90 seconds. The fifth shell seemed to me to come much closer to us, and I suggested that we should squeeze ourselves into a small opening like a dugout in one of the walls of the cellar. All agreed. Just as the men were crawling into the opening there was a tremendous crash and the flash of an explosion. A shell had come into the cellar and burst. The building collapsed on top of us, but the framework of the little opening held the weight of the debris off our bodies. I struck a match, but it died out immediately owing to gases caused by the explosion.
Then I spoke to Bull, Cutmore, and Cobbe – the last mentioned seriously wounded in the head. We could hear nothing of poor Warren. I called to him and called also for help, but could get no response. It was quite dark about us, but I did not then think the building had fallen in.
That was the last shell fired into the village that day, and a party soon began to dig for us. After having been buried for nearly an hour I was dug out, and quickly recovered. Sergeant Bull was dead when they got him out, notwithstanding that I had spoken to him, it seemed, not many minutes before. Little Cobbe must have died in my arms some time previously. Cutmore, the last man they discovered that day, is still alive, I think, but he has not recovered from the effects of that explosion.
That afternoon Warren was officially reported “missing.” Early next morning they found his body, and it was evident that death had taken place instantly following the explosion. They told me he had been buried alongside of Bull and Cobbe in the small British cemetery (Heath Cemetery, Harbonnieres, Picardie, France) on the outskirts of Guillaucourt, going towards Weincourt, and that a cross had been placed over his grave. Probably Chaplain the Rev. H. H. Harper, who was with the 16th Battalion at that time, and who took more than the average interest in Warren on account of the boy’s strong leaning towards religion, conducted the burial service, and would know of these particulars. They would also be in the records of the battalion. The battalion had gone from that locality when I reported back.
During our companionship I had many opportunities of studying this young Australian – much younger than myself and I knew he was happy to be enduring the things we had to endure in France. He was fond of and fair in sport, and the finer qualities of manhood were evidently deep written on his soul. He was of the type our country can ill-afford to lose. Additional information
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