Case Study: Edward “Ted” George Lang
The following was submitted as part of my Diploma of Family History. I would love to expand on it a little more when I can. We were not to submit photographs and it wasn't a recount of war, but how war may have affected our ancestors. Please consider that some of this was written as theory, but there is a bibliography of items I researched when writing this and my references are found at the end. I encourage you to look at them and make up your own opinion about what has been written in this case study. DL
Edward ‘Ted’ George Lang was a
boy from the bush.[1]
His family dynamics may have been a factor in him enlisting. He spent
one-hundred weeks training or in hospital, and thirty-seven weeks in battle.
Those weeks of warfare saw him involved in major battles in France, that
ultimately led to the retreat and surrender of the German Army. In those
thirty-seven weeks he was awarded a Military Medal and was wounded twice.[2] His life after returning
was as filled with as many highs and lows. The war ultimately took its toll on
his body and separated him from his family.
The Lang stories tell of twenty-year-old Ted’s attempt to
enlist in the Australian Infantry Forces, 2 March 1916, against the wishes of
his father.[3]
Rose his sister was listed as his next of kin. He was rejected. Ted tried again
the next day at Cootamundra, NSW, falsifying his age as twenty-one.[4] Legend continues that the
enlisting officer knew Ted was lying but accepted his statement. Ted’s Attestation
Papers appear to collaborate this story with several revisions to it, including
the change of age.[5]
Ted Lang was now a soldier in training at the Cootamundra Military Camp.[6]
The stories don’t explain why Ted enlisted. Born and raised
on a farm near Murrumburrah, NSW, his mother had died four years earlier. In
1916 the family home consisted of a father in his seventies, two siblings in
their late thirties, a thirteen-year-old brother and a five-year-old niece.[7] His other six older
siblings had moved away, mostly to Sydney, in close succession.[8] It’s not hard to imagine
he may have felt he did not fit in anymore. His listed address, the Albion
Hotel, was walking distance from the family farm, and the listing of Rose
as his next of kin, indicate that there may have been strained relationships
with the family.[9] An
adventure away from the small, country town may just have been what Ted was
seeking.
The enlistees at Cootamundra, drawn from the local district,
were known as The Riverina Boys.[10]
They were renowned for their height and condition.[11] Ted was close to 5ft 11
inches tall and a medium build.[12] He and around 700
recruits were involved in rudimentary drills and training and disciplinary
and musketry.[13] Special leave on a Saturday evening in Cootamundra
was often fast and furious with many “birthdays” celebrated.[14] After months of preparation,
Ted and around 25 recruits boarded a special military train where he would join
the 20th Reinforcements of the 3rd Battalion in Liverpool.[15] As the train pulled out,
crowds of well-wishers sent them off with a round of Auld Lang Syne.[16]
On 9 September 1916, Ted, aboard the HMAT Euripides,
departed Sydney bound for England.[17] A stopover at Durban,
South Africa, where troops enjoyed local produce, was a welcomed change to the
usual meals of frozen meat, potatoes and haricot beans.[18] Training, including
musketry, continued throughout the voyage.[19] On 26 October 1916 Ted
embarked at Plymouth.[20]
Over the next eight months Ted was involved in training and
commenced with the 1st Training Battalion at Command Depot No. 3, Fovant.
After showing promise he was promoted to Lance Corporal. In March 1917, he was recognised
for his expertise with a Lewis gun in training at Tidworth. During May, Ted was
attached to the 66th Battalion at Larkhill in what was to be his
final training before going to the front.[21]
In mid-June however, Ted was admitted to the Australian
Dermatological Hospital in Bulford.[22] Like one in seven
soldiers who joined the AIF during WWI, Ted had contracted a venereal disease.[23] His recovery took 89
days. Ted had been enlisted for eighteen months and had still not seen action.[24]
New Year’s Day 1918, when taken on strength, Ted re-joined
the 3rd Battalion in France as part of the Australian 1st
Division.[25]
As a gunner, he fought as part of the
front line mobile operations at Ypres, Belgium. In April the division was
instrumental, during the Battles of Hazebrouck, in stopping the German attempt
to capture Amiens.[26] If the Germans had
succeeded, they would have driven a wedge between the British and French
armies.[27] On 14 April, while on
duty at Mont de Merris, German troops tried to place a machine gun within fifty-five
metres of Ted’s post. He left the trenches and by way of rifle fire was able to
cause the enemy machine gunners to retreat. Due to his splendid example of
gallantry and initiative to all ranks throughout the day he was awarded a
military medal.[28]
For the 3rd Battalion, August began with
cricket, football and swimming competitions.[29] As a youth, Ted had
played cricket for his local team so may have enjoyed this break in fighting.[30] On 8 August the battalion,
returning to the Somme, took part in the Battle of Amiens. Zero hour for the
operation was set at 4.20am.[31] Gunner J.R. Armitage
wrote in his diary:
all hell broke loose and we heard nothing more. The world
was enveloped in sound and flame, and our ears just couldn't cope. The ground
shook.[32]
Casualties, that day, were high but the advancement of the
British and Empire troops at the Western Front was the greatest reported in a
single day. Such was the success that it led to German General Erich Ludendorff
declaring that it was “the black day of the German Army in this war”.[33]
The continual push from the 1st Division helped see three German
sections retreat back over their defensive line by over two kilometres.[34] On
24 August, Ted was “wounded in action” but remained at duty.[35] He
had a large scar on his left arm, possibly sustained at this time.[36]
Luck
was not with him though, when on 18 September 1918, he suffered a gunshot wound
to his right knee. He was transferred first to the Casualty Clearing station,
then spent ten days at the Stationary Hospital in Rouen before being invalided
to England aboard the hospital ship Panama.[37] Whilst
convalescing at the Reading War Hospital, his father received several official
telegrams advising him of Ted’s steady progress.[38] Ted
returned to Australian, per the transport ship Kanowna, 5 January 1919.[39]
There
are no photos of Ted in the family albums. His decision to enlist without his
family’s blessing possibly impacted his connection with them for the rest of
his life. Darcy Lang had been raised by Ted’s older siblings and only knew
basic details about his great uncle to share with his children. Little was
known about Ted’s personal life.[40]
This
research led to the discovery of Ted’s illegitimate child, Joan Hardman, unknown
to the current family.[41]
The Lang family tree is scattered with illegitimate children, Darcy being one
of them.[42] There was no reason for
Ted’s siblings to hide this fact from Darcy. Perhaps the older family had no
idea she ever lived. Maybe they were silenced by shame knowing Ted deserted
Joan. It is something that would not have sat well with the staunch Roman
Catholic family.
Ted
went on to have a successful career as a piano tuner and later as a court
bailiff.[43] He married Stella Anderson in February 1926.[44]
Sadly, in 1927 Joan was killed by an automobile.[45]
On 27 September 1929, Ted lost his final battle.[46]
He had a collapsed with pneumonia, hospitalised and died two days later.[47] Cold
winters and gas attacks had weakened his lungs.[48] He
was thirty-three years old. Ted Lang was buried in the Roman Catholic section
of the Tumut New Cemetery.[49]
Not one of his siblings made it to the funeral.[50]
Ted’s
grave sits isolated, removed from the family plot in Murrumburrah.
The
concluding paragraphs of this research are about the final years of a man at
war with his own family. It may be an unusual way to conclude a military case
study. For Ted, there was a time when his war efforts were not celebrated. But
with a new Lang generation, we will remember him.
Lest
we forget.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Australian War Memorial.
Barnett, Corelli, The Great War,
Peerage Books, London, 1979, p. 150.
Cahill, Richard (Lloyd), oral history interview
by Patrick Nolan, 11 April 2002, Australians at War Film Archive, UNSW
Canberra, Archive 622.
City
of Canada Bay, Local History Collection.
Cootamundra Herald.
Corowa
Free Press.
Dansey,
Denver Wood, ‘Gun drill aboard the troopship HMAT Euripides (A14)’, 1914-1919,
original held by Australian War Memorial, Canberra, Accession number
P08286.051.
Diary
of Private J H Armitage, cited by Australian War Memorial, ‘The Battle of
Amiens: 8 August 1918’,
https://www.awm.gov.au/visit/exhibitions/1918/battles/amiens, accessed 12
September 2021.
Dunbar, Raden, The Secrets of the ANZACS: the Untold Story of
Venereal Disease in the Australian Army, 1914-1919, Melbourne, Scribe,
2014.
Following the Twenty-Second, ‘Hospitals:
France’, https://anzac-22nd-battalion.com/hospitals-france/, accessed 20
September 2021.
Government Gazette of the
State of New South Wales.
Gundagai Times and Tumut, Adelong
and Murrumbidgee District Advertiser.
Howie-Willis, Ian, ‘The Australian Army's Two 'Traditional'
Diseases: Gonorrhea and Syphilis - A Military Medical History During the
Twentieth Century’, Australian Military Medicine Association, Vol. 27,
No. 1, https://jmvh.org/article/the-australian-armys-two-traditional-diseases-gonorrhea-and-syphilis-a-military-medical-history-during-the-twentieth-century.
Imperial
War Museums, ‘Amiens 1918: Victory on the Somme’,
https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/amiens-1918-victory-on-the-somme, accessed 18
September 2021.
Murrumburrah Signal and County
of Harden Advocate.
National
Archives of Australia, B2455.
New
South Wales Police Gazette and Weekly Record of Crime.
Register.
Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, New South
Wales.
Sir
John Monash Centre, ‘Chuignes (August 1918)’,
https://sjmc.gov.au/chuignes-august-1918/, accessed 22 September 2021.
Tumut
and Adelong Times.
[1] Birth certificate of Edward George
Lang, born 28 January 1896, Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, New South
Wales, 5394/1896.
[2] Service record of Edward George Lang,
First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920, National
Archives of Australia, B2455, LANG EDWARD GEORGE, pp 1-42.
[3] Personal communication, Darcy Lang to Deborah
Lang, conversations, 1966-2011; Service
record of Edward George Lang, pp. 1-3.
[4] Service record of Edward George Lang,
pp. 1-3.
[5] Darcy Lang to Deborah Lang,
conversations, 1966-2011.
[6] Service record of Edward George Lang,
pp. 1-3.
[7] Birth certificate of John Henry Laing,
born 13 July 1845, Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, New South Wales, 2375/1845
V18452375 30A; Birth certificate of Catherine Lang, born 2 December 1876,
Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, New South Wales, 23731/1877; Birth
certificate of John Henry Lang, born 3 August 1878, Registry of Births, Deaths
and Marriages, New South Wales, 25436/1878; Birth certificate of Charles
William Lang, born 7 April 1902, Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, New
South Wales, 14428/1902; Birth certificate of Josephine May Lang, born 23 May,
1920, Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, New South Wales 29110/1910.
[8] Darcy Lang to Deborah Lang,
conversations, 1966-2011.
[9] Service record of Edward George Lang,
pp. 1-3.
[10] "The Cootamundra Camp: A Personal
Impression", Corowa Free Press, 11 April 1916, p. 3,
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article235203782.
[11] Richard (Lloyd) Cahill, oral history
interview by Patrick Nolan, 11 April 2002, Australians at War Film Archive, UNSW
Canberra, Archive 622; "The Cootamundra Camp: A Personal Impression".
[12] "Deserting Wives and Families,
Service, etc" New South Wales Police Gazette and Weekly Record of
Crime, 4 August 1920, p. 442, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article251741894.
[13] "The Cootamundra Camp: A Personal
Impression"; "THE
COOTAMUNDRA CAMP", Cootamundra Herald, 10 March 1916, p.
2, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article139520530.
[14] "The Cootamundra Camp: A Personal
Impression".
[15] "Military Training Camp", Cootamundra
Herald, 13 August 1915, p. 2, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article139524841.;
Service record of Edward George Lang, pp. 1-3.
[16] "The Cootamundra Camp: A Personal
Impression".
[17] Service record of Edward George Lang,
p. 4.
[18] Letter from Henry (Harry) Jeffery to
his mother, 1916, original held by City of Canada Bay, Local History
Collection, Five Dock Library.
[19] Denver Wood Dansey, ‘Gun drill aboard
the troopship HMAT Euripides (A14)’, 1914-1919, original held by Australian War
Memorial, Canberra, Accession number P08286.051.
[20] Service record of Edward George Lang,
p. 4.
[21] Service record of Edward George Lang,
p. 4.
[22] Service record of Edward George Lang,
p. 4.
[23] Ian Howie-Willis, ‘The Australian Army's
Two 'Traditional' Diseases: Gonorrhea and Syphilis - A Military Medical History
During the Twentieth Century’, Australian Military Medicine Association,
Vol. 27, No. 1, https://jmvh.org/article/the-australian-armys-two-traditional-diseases-gonorrhea-and-syphilis-a-military-medical-history-during-the-twentieth-century/,
accessed 12 September 2021; Raden Dunbar, The Secrets of the ANZACS: the untold
story of venereal disease in the Australian army, 1914-1919, Melbourne, Scribe,
2014, p. 229.
[24] Service record of Edward George Lang,
pp. 4-5.
[25] Service record of Edward George Lang,
p. 5.
[26] Corelli Barnett, The Great War,
Peerage Books, London, 1979, p. 150.
[27] "THE BATTLE OF THE NORTH", Register, 4 July 1918,
p. 9, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article60371078.
[28] Edward George Lang, Military Medal,
Recommendation File for Honours and Awards, AIF, 1914-18 War, 1st Australian
Division: Period 2, Item 3 of 13 (3rd Battalion), Australian War Memorial,
Canberra, AWM28 2/51.
[29] Australian Imperial Force Unit War
Diaries, 1914-1918 War, 3rd Australian Battalion, August 1918,
Australian War Memorial, Item 23/20/42, pp. 2, 30.
[30]
"Cricket" Murrumburrah Signal and County of Harden Advocate, 12
February 1907, p. 1, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article214447938.
[31] Australian Imperial Force Unit War
Diaries, 1914-1918 War, 3rd Australian Battalion, August 1918, p 6.
[32] Diary entry for 8 August 1918, Diary of
Private J H Armitage, cited by Australian War Memorial, ‘The Battle of Amiens:
8 August 1918’, https://www.awm.gov.au/visit/exhibitions/1918/battles/amiens,
accessed 12 September 2021.
[33] Imperial War Museums, ‘Amiens 1918:
Victory on the Somme’, https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/amiens-1918-victory-on-the-somme,
accessed 18 September 2021.
[34] Sir John Monash Centre, ‘Chuignes
(August 1918)’, https://sjmc.gov.au/chuignes-august-1918/, accessed 22
September 2021.
[35] Service record of Edward George Lang,
pp. 40, 43.
[36] "Deserting Wives and Families,
Service, etc".
[37] Service record of Edward George Lang,
p. 40; Following the Twenty-Second, ‘Hospitals: France’,
https://anzac-22nd-battalion.com/hospitals-france/, accessed 20 September 2021.
[38] Service record of Edward George Lang,
pp. 15-24.
[39] Service record of Edward George Lang,
p. 40.
[40] Darcy Lang to Deborah Lang,
conversations, 1966-2011.
[41] "Deserting Wives and Families,
Service, etc"; Birth certificate of Joan Hardman, born 10 March 1920,
Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, New South Wales, 5827/1920.
[42] Darcy Lang to Deborah Lang,
conversations, 1966-2011.
[43] "Local and General", Gundagai Times and Tumut, Adelong
and Murrumbidgee District, 3 November 1922, p. 2,
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article121766335; "Government Gazette
Appointments and Employment", Government Gazette of the State of New
South Wales, 25 January 1929, p. 510,
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article223988555; "Death of Mr Edward G
Lang", Tumut and Adelong Times, 1 October 1929, p. 5.
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article139286438.
[44] Marriage certificate of Edward George
Lang and Stella Isabel Anderson, married 3 February 1926, Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, New
South Wales 3178/1926; "Personal", Cootamundra Herald, 10 February
1926, p. 4, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article143943350.
[45] Death registration of Joan Leila
Hardman, died 7 January 1926, Registry
of Births, Deaths and Marriages, New South Wales 74/1927.
[46] Death registration of Edward George
Lang, died 27 September 1927, Registry
of Births, Deaths and Marriages, New South Wales 16504/1929.
[47] "Death of Mr Edward G Lang".
[48] Darcy Lang to Deborah Lang,
conversations, 1966-2011.
[49] Death registration of Edward George
Lang.
[50] "Death of Mr Edward G Lang".
Comments
Post a Comment