Local Heroes WW1

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Last Updated: Tuesday, 12 May 2015 10:39

Written by Major (retired) Paul A Rosenzweig MA JP

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(Capt) Brian Brock Bayly MC (1884-1917)

South Australian-born Brian Bayly from the South Esplanade, Semaphore went to England in 1915 and was granted a commission in the British Army. He served with the 254th Tunnelling Company, Royal Engineers at Gallipoli and then in France, being wounded-in-action and awarded the Military Cross for conspicuous gallantry, before being wounded in Belgium a second time. Brian Bayly died of his wounds in a field hospital on 30 October 1917, aged 32. He was buried in Nine Elms British Cemetery in Poperinghe, Belgium.

Commemorating the service and sacrifice of Brian and Colin Bayly at the South Australia National War Memorial in Adelaide on Remembrance Day 2014.

Captain Brian Brock Bayly MC (1884-1917)

Brian Brock Bayly was born on 21 November 1884, the seventh child of William Henry Fox Bayly of South Esplanade, Semaphore in South Australia, a civil servant. William had been born at Ackworth in Yorkshire in 1842, the eldest son of the Reverend Edmund Goodenough Bayly MA.

He came to Adelaide in the first six months of 1859 on the Europa, and in 1871 began a long career with the Customs Service. On 5 August 1871, William married Delia Ann Brock (1847-1893) from Queenstown. Brian Brock Bayly was William and Annie’s seventh child, named in honour of his grandfather Daniel George Brock and his great-grandfather William Stocker Brock (1785-1867), both of whom were buried in Alberton Cemetery. Colin was born on 24 August 1886, their eighth and last child. Three years later William Bayly was made First Assistant Landing Surveyor with the Department of Trade and Customs.

Annie died on 2 October 1893, leaving William to raise six sons and a daughter by himself (their first child had died in infancy), with no grandparents to assist. Fortunately the elder boys were in their late teens, but Brian was aged 9 and Colin was 7. Their sister, Nora Brock Bayly, was 13 years of age when her mother died, and undoubtedly played a significant role in helping to raise her three younger brothers, Charlie, Brian and Colin. She was later prominent in the Adelaide social scene and at the Cheltenham races, and during the war took part in patriotic activities such as selling cakes to raise funds on Soldiers’ Relief Button Day. Being the only female in the family, and in her mid-thirties during the war, the loss of Colin and then Brian was no doubt felt as closely as the loss of her own children.

The Bayly brothers finished their schooling at the turn of the century at St Peter’s College, educated in the Anglican tradition. They then attended the School of Mines and Industries: the local newspaper recorded results in 1904 for Brian in Assaying, Machine Drawing, Mechanical Engineering and Surveying, in the same batch as Felix Giles and many other notable South Australians who were the first to enlist in the AIF a decade later. Colin Bayly was there as well, studying Electrical Engineering at the Gawler School of Mines. By this time their father was Sub-Collector of Customs for South Australia.

Colin Bayly

Brian’s younger brother Colin left Adelaide in 1912 to take up engineering in the ‘old country’, and joined the 10th (Scottish) Battalion of The King’s (Liverpool Regiment). On the outbreak of war, on 4 August 1914 Colin Bayly mobilised with the 1st/10th (Scottish) Battalion and deployed to Scotland to man the defences on the River Forth. The battalion then joined the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), embarking at Southampton aboard the SS Maidan on 1 November 1914. Colin was wounded-in-action in December, promoted to Lance-Corporal, and offered a commission in the yeomanry, but was killed-in-action on 16 April 1915 during the Second Battle of Ypres. He was buried in Voormezeele Enclosure No. 3 in Belgium.

Brian Bayly

Brian Bayly followed Colin to England in 1915 at his own expense and, with an engineering degree from the University of Adelaide (1903) and a Diploma in Mining and Metallurgy (1905), was immediately granted a commission in the Royal Engineers. Beyond these qualifications, he had gained considerable experience at Broken Hill and Port Pirie, and in the deep lead mines in Victoria, as well as in gold-dredging in South Australia. More notably perhaps, he had been Inspector of Mines in the Federated Malay States since 1908. Brian was assigned to the 254th Tunnelling Company, RE which supported the evacuation from Cape Helles, and then served in France in the northern Givenchy area from Spring 1916. Sapper William Hackett VC (1873–1916) from the 254th Tunnelling Company was the only tunneller to be awarded the Victoria Cross during the Great War, and today remains entombed beneath the fields of Givenchy.

In France in July 1916, Brian Bayly was severely wounded and was evacuated to England. He returned to the Front a few months later, earning the Military Cross on the Ypres Salient in early 1917:

“For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. He carried out a daring reconnaissance, obtaining valuable information, blew up two enemy mine shafts, and captured three prisoners. He has previously done fine work”.  London Gazette No. 30023, Supplement dated 17 April 1917, p. 3678

Brian Bayly’s death on 30 October 1917, at the age of 32, came following his participation in a routine patrol forward of the trenches: on their return, three men were found to be missing, so Bayly immediately called for three volunteers to join him to search for the missing men (from the CWGC database, these are likely to be Sappers Dawes, Taylor and Thomas). The enemy were alert to their movements by this time, and caught them in the open with shellfire. The badly-wounded Bayly and his men were evacuated, most likely via the 44th Casualty Clearing Station at Lijssenthoek, to a hospital in the rear where the matron happened to be an Australian nurse, who had also been in England on the outbreak of war.

Honours

The notice of Bayly’s death was published with other South Australian fatalities under the title, “Patriots Who Answered the Call” The Mail 10 November 1917

“LATE CAPT. BRIAN BROCK BAYLY, M.C..

Mr. W. H. F. Bayly, of the Semaphore, has been advised by the War Office that his son, Capt. Brian Brock Bayly (Military Cross), of the Capt. Bayly prior to the outbreak of hostilities Royal Engineers, died of wounds on October 30. was Government Inspector of Mines in the Federated Malay States, and proceeded to England, England severely wounded, but again proceeded where he obtained a commission in the 254th Tunnelling Corps, Royal Engineers. He was at the evacuation of Gallipoli and subsequently went to France. In July, 1916, he returned to to the front a few months later. Capt. Bayly was an old St. Peter's boy, and revisited the school when on furlough early in 1914. His youngest brother, Colin, who was a lance-corporal in the Liverpool Scottish, was killed in action in April, 1915”. The Mail 10 November 1917

In the Federated Malay States, the press report of Brian’s death recorded that he, “lived and died splendidly” in realising the great tradition of Imperial service.

This notice of Brian Bayly’s death was published in The Mail (South Australia) on 10 November 1917.

This notice of Brian Bayly’s death was published in The Straits Times (Federated Malay States) on 19 July 1918.

Commemoration Overseas

Like his brother Colin, Captain Brian Bayly MC was also buried “under the sad sod of Belgium” – in Nine Elms British Cemetery in Poperinghe: Plot VI, Row A, grave 11.

Captain Brian Bayly MC was buried in Nine Elms British Cemetery in Poperinghe, Belgium: Plot VI, Row A, grave 11.

Captain Brian Bayly’s entry in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Record of War Dead, Index No. B.3, Nine Elms British Cemetery in Poperinghe, Belgium.

National Commemoration

The names of both Colin and Brian Bayly, who died while serving as members of an allied force, are included on the Commemorative Roll (in a book located in the Commemorative Area) at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.

State Commemoration

Colin Bayly’s name is commemorated on the large honour rolls lining the walls of the crypt inside the South Australia National War Memorial on North Terrace, which was unveiled by the State Governor on Anzac Day 1931. Inside the crypt, bronze panels contain the names of the 5,511 South Australians who fell in the war – Colin Bayly is listed under his regiment, one of the 39 South Australians killed-in-action while serving with British forces. Unusually though, Brian Bayly has not been listed – perhaps because he left from the Federated Malay States and volunteered in the UK, he was not recorded as a South Australian enlistment. However, his entry in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Record of War Dead clearly shows his family as living in Semaphore, SA. So the tally of South Australians who enlisted overseas and were killed or died is actually 40. William Bayly did not live to see Colin’s name on this memorial however: he died in Semaphore on 3 September 1925 at the age of 83. The names of his two soldier sons were included on William Bayly’s headstone in Cheltenham Cemetery as a lasting tribute, but not a permanent one in a redevelopment in 1993 the Bayly family plot was resumed and the headstones removed and, being unclaimed, were eventually destroyed.

Local Commemoration

The Semaphore War Memorial on the Esplanade was dedicated in 1925 to honour those who fought in the war. A temporary ‘Memorial Arch’ of wood and iron was first erected at the entrance to the Semaphore Jetty bearing the banner title, ‘For King & Empire’. On 27 April 1924, four foundation stones for the new memorial were laid at the approach to the jetty – one on behalf of the citizens of Port Adelaide district, one for the RSSILA, one on behalf of the parents of the fallen men, and one on behalf of the widows and orphans. William Bayly and his only daughter Nora were most likely among the several thousand people who attended the unveiling of the monument on 24 May 1925.  

The following year, a granite obelisk was erected on the foundation stones, with an electric ‘turret type’ clock and topped by a marble Angel of Peace with wings outspread. The local newspaper noted, “all the names of those who enlisted from the district or who made the supreme sacrifice cannot be placed on the monument” so it instead bears a simple commemorative plaque.

In Adelaide, William Bayly received his son’s Military Cross, 1914-15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal, plus also the Memorial Plaque with the accompanying Commemorative Scroll and King’s Message.

This is the Commemorative Scroll which was issued to William Bayly in about 1922 in commemoration of his son Lance-Corporal Colin Bayly of the 10th (Scottish) Battalion, The King’s (Liverpool Regiment) who was killed-in-action in Belgium in 1915.

This is the King’s Message which accompanied the Commemorative Scroll, bearing the facsimile signature of King George V.

St Peter’s College

As Old Scholars, both Colin and Brian Bayly have their names inscribed in gold lettering on the Honour Roll in the War Memorial Hall which commemorates the 1,800 students and masters who volunteered for service during World War 1. This hall was opened on 22 September 1929 by the State Governor Sir Alexander Hore-Ruthven VC KCMG CB DSO* (subsequently Governor-General of Australia, 1936-45).

Semaphore & Port Adelaide RSL

For the 2015 commemoration of the Anzac Centenary, the Semaphore & Port Adelaide RSL has created a virtual Honour Board listing the names of over 2,000 local men who volunteered to serve in World War 1.

Colin Bayly’s Memorial Scroll and King’s Message, the more ephemeral of the Great War commemorative pieces, have managed to survive and serve to perpetuate the names of himself and his brother Brian who nobly did their duty:

Let those who come after see to it that his name be not forgotten

Paul Rosenzweig is a retired Army officer and author of military history and biography. He was born in the Le Fevre Community Hospital in Semaphore. Through his Facebook page “Thanks Digger” Paul is helping families research an ancestor who is a military veteran and to promoting remembrance in young Australians. More information and images on these veterans is available through ‘Thanks Digger’: https://www.facebook.com/Thanks.Digger