Ewen Ross McDonald

Driver Ewen Ross McDonald was born in 1893 in Edenhope.

By Rosalea Ryan

His next of kin was his father, Donald McDonald, of Ullswater via Goroke.

He was a farm labourer working in the Horsham district when World War I began.

Ewen enlisted on March 15 1916 in Horsham, where he undertook the medical examination and was passed fit.

He reported to the Bendigo depot on June 26 1916 to begin his basic training as part of 19 Reinforcements to 6 Battalion.

He was moved to Broadmeadows camp and his training continued into July.

Ewen’s Service number was 6062. Ewen McDonald embarked from Melbourne aboard HMAT Themistocles on July 28, arriving in England on September 11.

He spent the next two months in further training with 2 Training Battalion in England before being transferred to 38 Battalion.

On November 22 he proceeded to France with 38 Battalion.

He entered the front line for the first time on December 1 when the battalion relieved New Zealand troops in the Houplines area.

Over the next two months the battalion spent time in the trenches at Houplines and Bois Grenier.

In April, Ewen moved with the battalion to Belgium, seeing further action in the Ploegsteert Wood area.

On May 28 1917 the battalion undertook a major trench raid.

The raid went well and a prisoner was captured, but the withdrawal turned into a disaster.

McDonald was wounded in action when he was shot in the neck on July 10 1917.

Nearly half of the raiders were killed or wounded by an Australian artillery barrage landing in their midst as they withdrew.

Ewen was evacuated and sent to 55 General Hospital in Boulogne.

In early June he was transferred to a convalescent depot before returning to the battalion in mid-July.

On July 18 1917 Ewen transferred to 39 Battalion.

He was appointed as firstly a temporary driver then as a permanent driver in the battalion’s transport section to replace a driver who had been taken to hospital wounded.

At the end of July he contracted influenza and was admitted to the line of communication hospital and spent the next month there.

Ewen returned to the battalion at the end of August and took part in the offensive which became known as ‘Third Ypres’.

He took part in the battles of Broodseinde Ridge and Passchendaele.

On February 9 1918 he was granted three weeks’ leave in England, returning to the battalion in early March.

In April 1918 Ewen moved with the battalion to Amiens to stop the German advance after they had broken through Allied lines.

At the end of July he was sent to hospital with trench fever.

He returned to the battalion in early September before a recurrence of the illness on October 25 1918 saw him return to hospital.

He rejoined the battalion in reserve at Hardricourt on November 8 1918 and it was here on November 11 that Ewen’s war came to an end.

He sailed from England on May 27 1919 and arrived in Melbourne on July 18.

Ewen McDonald was discharged from AIF 3 Military District on July 18 1919.

He was repatriated TPE from the vessel Rio Pardo.

[CROSSHEAD]Drivers of WWI

The following extract is from CEW Bean’s Official History, Volume IV, pp 729–730.

It highlights an often-overlooked branch of the AIF.

Major Manton said, “The palm should go not to those who worked at the battery positions but to the drivers who daily and nightly brought up ammunition across like all those Australians who were supposed to be in fairly safe jobs. The drivers took a pride in showing what they could do when they came into the thick of it.”

He added that even the animals came to know when a shell was coming close; and if, when halted, the horses heard the whine of an approaching salvo, they would tremble and sidle closer to their drivers, burying their muzzles in the men’s chests.

These Australians, he added, had won themselves a special name on this battlefield for the way in which they went straight through the nightmare barrages laid on the well-known tracks which they and their horses had to follow.

Where many might hesitate, these men realised that the loss would be less, and the job better done, if they pushed on without hesitation.

This comment was justified.

It was undoubtedly through the conduct of the drivers, as well as through that of the gun-crews and observers, that the Australian divisional artilleries in this battle – as General Gough wrote when they left his army in September – “earned the admiration and praise”.

With thanks: Sally Bertram, RSL Military History Library. Contact Sally at sj.bertram@hotmail.com or call 0409 351 940.