17 Nov 2015
On Wednesday the 11th November we held our Remembrance Day Ceremony.
The service was student lead with Jamie starting off with the reading the Ode.
Then we were read a story by Jordan Galvin which he had researched during the week about a soldier called James Martin who signed up early and sadly lost his life on the 25th October 1915. Below is this story:
Today is remembrance day and I would like to introduce you to James Martin. He was only 14 years old and was identified as being the youngest soldier to fight at WW1.
He was born in NSW on 3 January 1901. Having just left school to work as a farmhand, he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in April 1915. He told the recruiting officers that he was 18.
He joined the 1st reinforcements of the 21st Battalion with the service number 1553 and trained at Broadmeadows and Seymour Camps in Victoria. In June he left for Egypt on the troopship HMAT Berrima. He embarked for Gallipoli on the steamer HMT Southland, "to have our share of the turks" (letter to his family, 26 August). However, the ship was torpedoed by a German submarine off Lemnos Island and Martin spent four hours in the water before rescue. Private Martin landed with his battalion on Gallipoli on 8th September. They were stationed in the trench lines near Courteney's Post on the ridge above Monash Valley. He wrote to his family (4th October) that "the Turks are still about 70 yards from us...... don't worry about me as I am doing splendid over here". But on the 25th October he was evacuated to the hospital ship Glenart Castle suffering Enteritis. He died of heart failure that evening and was buried at sea. His name is recorded on the Lone Pine Memorial at Gallipoli.
Lest we forget.