Not Forgotten, 772 Private Robert Clyde SKERRY, 28 Battalion AIF, World War 1

The Dowerin War Memorial has the name N. Skerry. I believe this to refer to Robert Clyde Skerry, who was a farmer, and is listed in the Sunday Times of 19 August 1917 as the brother of Mrs. T.H. Holmes of Dowerin and possibly known as Nobby. Private Robert Skerry, a farmer and the son of Thomas Robert Skerry and the late Elizabeth Skerry, was born in Chiltern, Victoria. He enlisted in Perth on 12 March 1915 at the age of 19 and was placed in the 28th Battalion, which was raised at Blackboy Camp in April 1915 from recruits previously earmarked for the 24th Battalion, which was instead being raised in Victoria.

The battalion left Australia in June, and, after two months spent training in Egypt, landed at Gallipoli on 10 September. Private Skerry embarked at Fremantle on HMAT Ascanius on 29 June 1915, and then travelled with the
28th Battalion for Gallipoli on the HT Ivernia from Alexandria on 4 September 1915. At Gallipoli the 7th Brigade, which included the 28th Battalion, reinforced the weary New Zealand and Australian Division.
The 28th had a relatively quiet time at Gallipoli and the battalion departed the peninsula in December, having suffered only light casualties. For Robert Skerry, however, things were even quieter, as he was admitted to hospital at Gallipoli with diphtheria on 27 September 1915, transferred the next day to the 7th Field Ambulance at ANZAC with tonsillitis and otitis, and on to the 16th Casualty Clearing Station on 6 October. From there Private Skerry was transferred to the General Hospital at Gibraltar via HS
Caledonians and eventually to 2nd Southern General Hospital at Maudlin Street in Bristol on 6 November 1915. After time at the Abbey Wood depot from 27 November 1915, Robert Skerry was in the ANZAC Base Depot at Weymouth from 15 January 1916.

He was finally well enough to rejoin his unit and travelled to Ghezirah in February 1916, rejoining the unit at Moascar on 6 March 1916. Ten days
later Private Skerry was leaving Alexandria to join the British Expeditionary Force in France, disembarking at Marseilles on 21 March 1916 as part of the 2nd Australian Division. The 28th Battalion took part in its first major battle at Pozières between 28 July and 6 August 1916 and on only the second day of this battle Robert Skerry was reported missing and subsequently reported killed in action on 29 July 1916.

Private Skerry was awarded the 1914/15 Star, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal. He has no known grave and his name is on the Australian National Memorial at Villers-Bretonneux. The Imperial War Graves Commission sent Robert Skerry’s father a form for him to order copies of the Register of the Villers -Bretonneux Memorial, the book that is kept in all (now) Commonwealth War Graves Cemeteries listing brief details of all soldiers buried there. Thomas Skerry wrote back saying he had no money to order the books but returned the form so they knew he had received it.