John Richard Alan, known as Jack was born in Taree and arrived on the Comboyne Plateau in 1902, aged 25. He took up 328 acres and cleared enough land to start dairying and was the first to send cream, packed on horses, down to the factory at Wingham.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The early years were hard; in 1906 he lost his younger brother to an accident while clearing trees. His brother became the first grave in Comboyne’s cemetery.
Jack’s farm, the ‘Bona Vista’ became one of the best-managed and most prosperous on the Plateau. He worked hard for the establishment of a co-operative butter farm.
Men are wanted and I am a single man. I regard it as my duty to go.
- Jack Alan
But in 1914, the Great War broke out in Europe, and Jack enlisted in September 1915, saying: “Men are wanted and I am a single man. I regard it as my duty to go.”
At 38 years old, he left his farm, never to return to it.
He arrived in France in June 1916 and was transferred from the 18th Battalion to the 19th as a machine gunner. He was lightly wounded by shrapnel in August, but it didn’t require hospitalisation.
His diary talked of the grim conditions in the trenches, the constant shell barrages, stretcher bearing and working to the point of exhaustion. And Jack recorded the horror of World War One.
“Gas is one of the chief factors of destruction which we have to face at the front now. In fact, 75 per cent of our casualties are gas cases.
“Special provision should be provided, not only to those permanently disabled, but for those likely to be at a later period, for, methinks, as years go on, after-gas effects will eventuate and cruelly derange healthy men who return.
“You have no conception of what our chaps have and are going through. It has simply astonished me to note how men will stick it out and play the game to the end.”
His run of good luck ran out in November 1916 when he was ordered to try and take out a sniper and ended up suffering two gunshot wounds, one through his right shoulder, the other a life-threatening wound through his left lung.
A ‘sucking chest wound’ is very painful. The air entering the chest through the bullet holes collapses the lung. It then becomes necessary for the soldier to breathe even deeper with the one remaining good lung.
Each breath becomes an act of will against the pain. A man’s eyes will water with each breath until finally tears run down his face. Jack eventually managed to regain his feet and walked to the dressing station two miles away.
Jack’s wounds were so bad that he was offered a passage to Australia and release from the Army. However, he refused saying, “I am a single man, and am better fitted to the trials of warfare than a married man.”
He felt it his duty to go back and after nine months of recuperation, he was back in the trenches. He didn’t last long.
The following month he took another gunshot wound, this time through his left forearm. It was at night and the Germans had tried to sneak up on his post.
He spotted them when they were only 25 yards away and sprung to action, only to have his machine gun jam. He and the other men in the post were lucky to be able to retreat.
Back he went to England for another six months of recuperation. And then, once again, in March 1918, he returned to the trenches in France.
August 31 was a big day for Jack, he was promoted to Corporal in the morning and won the Distinguished Conduct Medal that afternoon. He was leading a five-man patrol when he spotted 20 German soldiers.
He moved his men around in a flanking movement and set up an ambush. With his men relatively secure in defensive positions and with a good field of fire, he took on a unit four times their strength. The citation reads –
“For conspicuous gallantry and resources during the attack on Mont St. Quentin on the 31st August 1918, with only five men he attacked about 20 of the enemy, whom he observed moving along the western edge of the village, meeting them in hand-to-hand fighting.
“Although three of his men were wounded, he captured 10 prisoners, the remainder being killed or wounded.”
Unfortunately, Jack never knew he had been awarded the DCM as he was killed before it was approved.
On 3 October 1918, Jack was fatally wounded when he took a shell fragment in his abdomen.
Jack was an experienced soldier, he had seen many men get hit and die. Within seconds he likely knew it was a fatal wound - it was just a matter of time.
It is common for families to want to know that their loved one ‘did not suffer’ or that ‘they didn’t suffer long’. The correspondence to his family indicated he was hit on the 3rd of October and died the same day in the field hospital.
However, his medical records indicate he died two days later on October 5. The following day, his unit was withdrawn from the trenches. They never returned to the front as the war ended the following month. Jack almost made it, just three more days.
After the war, the medal was eventually hand delivered to his remaining parent, his mother, Emily in Sydney.
Jack’s farm passed to his family. However, he had asked them to hold the farm for 10 years and for all rentals from the farm to be devoted to returned soldiers in the Manning District.
The family complied with Jack’s wishes and many veterans in the area were helped to get a start after the war.
Jack is buried in the British Cemetery outside the small French village of Bellicourt, 140 kilometers north of Paris. He lies in Plot #2, Row N, Grave #3.
If you’re ever in the area, stop in for a visit, he’s easy to find. Just go to the central monument, walk down three rows and turn left, he’s the third grave on your right. Let him know we haven’t forgotten.