Premier s ANZAC Spirit School Prize Entry Private Joseph Rowen AIF Burial Ground Flers, France. Private Rowen s unit fought at Flers in 1916. By Alice O Connell Loreto College
Emerging out of the Gallipoli Campaign of 1915, the ANZAC Legend and Spirit continues to inspire and characterise Australians today. I believe that the ANZAC Spirit acknowledges the bravery of young soldiers, enlisting for a battle they knew little about, across the other side of the world. The ANZAC Spirit epitomises the courage of Australians in protecting the sovereign rights and freedoms of other nations and peoples, demonstrating others before self. Whilst my great, great uncle Private Joseph Rowen demonstrated a love of freedom and patriotism for his country, his war records do not reflect the recognisable ANZAC qualities of courage, sacrifice and unwavering persistence. However, his experiences reveal the untold story of how a young soldier lived the harsh realities of war on the Western Front, deepening our understanding of the ANZAC Spirit. According to my grandmother, Joseph Rowen s niece, he was an adventurous and gregarious character, who ran a Two- Up School, behind his cafe in Broken Hill. He was born in the small town of Clare in the mid- north of South Australia (Figure One). At the time of his enlistment he was working as a labourer and living at 12 Barnard Street, North Adelaide (Figure Two) with his widowed mother, Harriet Rowen. His father had died when Joseph was very young, hence, as my grandmother concluded, Figure One - Details from Joseph Rowen s enlistment record. (NAA, 2005) Figure Two - Adelaide in 1915, the year Joseph Rowen enlisted. (Intersection of North Terrace and Kintore Avenue, 2011) there was no one to discipline him, or give him guidance, despite having six older siblings. He was the only member of the family to enlist, and my grandmother always remembers her father talking of Joseph, his brother, as a war hero with a photograph of him in his uniform hanging proudly in their house. My grandmother remembers her Uncle Joe having a devil may care, larrikin attitude, however, this bravado may have ill- prepared him for the horrors of trench warfare. Similarly, growing up as the doted, youngest child in a large Irish Catholic family, she believes her uncle went to war with a mix of naïve adventure and Irish colonial rebelliousness.
As a young man of twenty- two, the prospect of travelling overseas and fighting for his country would have seemed adventurous and exciting to Joseph Rowen. He enlisted on the 27 th of July in 1915, and was assigned the title of Private, joining the 12 th Battalion Reinforcements (NAA, 2005). Throughout his three and a half years Figure Three - Australian troops arriving at Marseilles from Egypt. (C04393, 2011) service, he would be transferred between battalions; however, he would not be promoted. According to his records, less than one month after signing the enlistment oath, Joseph Rowen absented himself without leave during training in Egypt (NAA, 2005). On the 11 th of June, 1916, he disembarked at Marseilles in France (Figure Three) to join the allies fighting on the Western Front. In France he fought at Etaples, Tattoo, Rouelles (Figure Four), Bussy, Abbeville and Biesm (NAA, 2005). During this time, he was medically evacuated to England for various injuries and sexually transmitted diseases. Once he returned to France, Joseph Rowen went AWOL to Paris (Figure Five) and was later arrested there. As a penalty for this and his other convictions, he spent time in the Australian Imperial Force Detention Barracks at Lewes in East Sussex, England (Figure Six). Throughout his time in France, he absented himself without leave 11 times, for a total of 121 days, leading him to forfeit 366 days pay (NAA, 2005). At the conclusion of the war, he was escorted back to Australia under custody on the 18 th of October, 1919 on the HMAT Euripides to serve ten years of penal servitude (NAA, 2005). As a further, shameful consequence, he was denied a place on honour rolls and memorials and he did not receive any military medals or a war pension throughout his lifetime. Figure Four - The Australian Base Depot at Lezarde Valley, Rouelles in France where Joseph Rowen absented himself without leave. (A02044, 2011) Figure Five - Paris in 1915. Joseph Rowen visited Paris many times when on Active Service on the Western Front. (Paris 1915, 2007) Despite his court- martials throughout his service, his family in Adelaide were unaware of his plight. The first Harriet Rowen heard Figure Six - The Detention Barracks in Lewes, England. Joseph Rowen was imprisoned here for absenting himself without leave and disobeying a lawful order. (D00885, 2011) of her son s dishonourable behaviour was in a letter from the Base Records in Adelaide on the 17 th of September 1919 (Figure Seven), three months after she had sent a letter to the officer in charge as she had heard nothing from him since December of last year (NAA, 2005). The family had written
letters, however; his mother stated letters we wrote to him have been returned to us (NAA, 2005), causing them to believe he was missing in action or deceased. In the first letter Harriet Rowen had received concerning her son from the Base Records, she was informed that he would be returning to Australia soon, however, upon his return he would serve a sentence of 10 years penal servitude awarded him for being absent without leave and disobeying a lawful command (NAA, 2005). Figure Seven - A letter Harriet Rowen received informing her of her son s whereabouts and sentence. This was the first she had heard of his charges. (NAA, 2005) For Harriet Rowen, the news of her son s charges and sentence would have been both a relief and a devastating shock. During the time of war, there was harsh judgement of those who did not enlist. However, there was an even harsher stigma attached to men who went to fight and then went AWOL. They were called deserters and cowards, and were excluded from war pensions, ceremonies and commemoration (Figure Eight). When talking to my grandmother, it is clear that my great- great grandmother did not want anyone to know about her son s war record. Harriet Rowen was too ashamed to tell her own family about her Figure Eight - Stamps showing the medals Joseph Rowen was due to receive, however, due to his behaviour, Not eligible for war medals was written over the top. (NAA, 2005) son s experiences at war, and certainly would not have considered telling her friends and other members of the community. Charles Bean defined the ANZAC Spirit in his book ANZAC to Amiens (1946) as reckless valour in a good cause...enterprise, resourcefulness, fidelity, comradeship, and endurance that will never own defeat." (Stanley, 2002). I believe that the experiences of Private Joseph Rowen reflect an untold aspect of the ANZAC experience. His three and a half years of war and the documented war records do not typically reveal the ANZAC Spirit and his service on the front line. Instead, they inform us of a young man s experience in a war that many were ill- prepared for. Like many other ANZACs who were not recognised war heroes, Joseph Rowen s records reflect the times he was not engaged in the theatre of war his medical history and his misdemeanours. For his active service, his records tell us little of the contribution he made to the war effort on the frontline, other than his enlistment, which undoubtedly demonstrates the ANZAC qualities of bravery and patriotism. Furthermore, from my grandmother s recollections, it can be understood that after the war, Private Rowen displayed the
ANZAC Spirit qualities of optimism and resilience. Despite the shame of his past, Joseph Rowen went on to live a productive life, owning a business in Broken Hill and actively participating in the local Returned Soldiers League, with his contribution to his community recognised in his death notice in the Barrier Miner newspaper (Figure Nine). Whilst the larrikin spirits and lack of discipline in Australia s young soldiers in World War One was criticised in the years following their return, I believe that the stories of these bad characters as they have been called, should have encouraged understanding rather than outrage. I believe that Joseph Rowen s story brings another perspective to the ANZAC legend. His experiences reveal the harsh reality of war, and how this affected the young men who had enlisted. These men did not find excuses to avoid enlistment and front line service as many did, these bad characters faced the physical and mental challenge of war, finding their only escape from the trauma through absenting themselves without leave. Their stories illustrate that whilst our ANZAC heroes showed the qualities of courage and persistence, they also shared experiences with the bad characters. Of Australia s sixty Victoria Cross winners, many went absent and came before courts- martials. One in ten Australian VC recipients contracted venereal disease during their time of service (Stanley, 2010), similar to Joseph Rowen. John Leak, a VC recipient for his conduct at Pozières in July 1916 refused a sergeant major s orders and went AWOL twice, whilst Private John Ryan, VC, lost a day s pay for failing to parade and disobeying a lawful command (Stanley, 2010). Figure Nine The death notice for Joseph Rowen in the Barrier Miner, 3 rd of March 1952. (Trove, 2012) Many of the labelled bad characters were not in fact bad, as many an offender can be seen in one way or another as responding to the demands of military service or the trauma of war (Stanley, 2010). Whilst they were not ANZAC heroes, they did arrive on the Western Front with courage and perseverance to defend their country. However, Caught up in the most destructive war Australians have ever known, subjected to nameless terrors and the almost certain prospect of violent death (Stanley, 2010), it is not surprising that many attempted to flee. However, I believe it is surprising and saddening to see how these men were treated and misunderstood in their time of service and after their return. By exploring the unrecognised experiences of Australia s war heroes who built the ANZAC legend, and identifying the similarities to my great, great uncle s experience, I have gained a deeper,
more honest understanding of the ANZAC Spirit and Australia s past. I believe Joseph Rowen is truly a forgotten ANZAC, whose experiences should be shared and not shamed. WORD COUNT: 1497