Watercolour of HMT Ascanius
Watercolour by Edwin Charles Garbett of SS Ascanius as troopship during World War 1
Edwin Charles Garbett was born in Melbourne, Victoria on 15 March 1889. He came to Western Australia by cattle ship in 1897 and moved around the southwest and attended many different schools before settling in Midland in 1904. He attended Chidlow Wells School and in 1907 he won a Midland Junction Technical Education scholarship in mechanical drawing, forming part of his apprenticeship in diesel engineering with the WA Government Railways Workshop in Midland.
After Edwin completed his apprenticeship, he moved to Sydney to work on ships, before sailing on a steamer to England. Edwin documented this trip in detail, drawing the workings of the ship’s engine in pencil on various scraps of paper. On arrival in England, he found work as a fitter with a railway company and again, describes their locomotives, illustrating them and recording information.
Edwin returned to Western Australia and continued his work as a fitter at the Midland Railway Workshops before enlisting with the 2nd Light Railway Company on 24 March 1917, his service number was 1909. Edwin undertook further training as a blacksmith and fitter at Broadmeadows in Melbourne before sailing aboard the “Ascanius” in May 1917. He was stationed at St Lucia Barracks, Borden in Hampshire and promoted to 2nd Corporal where he was paid 8/- per day as a fitter. He sailed from Southampton to France in September 1917.
Edwin sent postcards home, stating he was “somewhere in Belgium” is 1917 and from December 1918 until February 1919, he was stationed at Courtrai near the French border with 2nd Australian Light Railway Operating Company. After the Armistice, Edwin was granted leave from June to August 1919 to do a design course at A.H Clarkson Ltd, advertising specialists located in Fleet Street, London. Following this, he returned to Western Australia and his job at the Midland Workshops. Edwin died, aged 42, in 1932, from pneumonia and pleurisy.
Details
Details
Signed EC Garbett 15.11.19. Titled "RMT Ascanius as troopship during Gt War 1914-18".
Launched as the SS Ascanius, the ship was owned by the Ocean Steamship Company or Blue Funnel Line (so called because of their distinctive black topped blue funnels). It was requisitioned by the Commonwealth in 1914 as a troop ship, becoming His Majesty’s Australian Transport A11 (HMAT). Ascanius was the first ship carrying troops of the AIF to leave Fremantle Port in November 1914. On 3 November Ascanius joined the 28 Australian and 10 New Zealand transports under a convoy of warships that had left Albany, Western Australia on 1 November 1914 with lead units of the Australian and New Zealand Imperial Expeditionary Forces.
From August 2023 to February 2024, the Australian Army Museum of WA is presenting an exhibition of Edwin Garbett’s technical drawings and watercolours relating to his wartime service with the Railway Operating Division.
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Australian Army Museum of Western Australia
Australian Army Museum of Western Australia
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