Not Forgotten, 8007 Private Edwin Otis MOSELEY, 16 Battalion AIF, World War 1

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Overview

Commemoration of the military service of 8007 Private Edwin Otis Moseley, 16 Battalion AIF, killed in action,8 August 1915.

Historical information

Private Edwin Otis Moseley was born in Perth the eldest of three sons of Francis Arnold and Lucy Darling Moseley who lived in Cottesloe. Francis Moseley was the Registrar of the Supreme Court. Edwin was educated at Perth High School and Scotch College, Perth. On 1 September 1917 when he enlisted at Northam Moseley, who was aged 36 and married to Edith Isabel Moseley, gave his occupation as bank manager. His address on enlistment is given as Kellerberrin, but that is crossed out and changed to Cottesloe Beach.

Edwin Moseley was manager of the Dowerin branch of the National Bank between 1911 and 1913 and then was transferred to the Kellerberrin branch of the bank in November 1913 before enlisting in 1917. His wife lived at Thorn Lea in Cottesloe. Moseley was placed with the 16th Battalion on his enlistment and after a final leave from 22 to 26 October 1917 he left Fremantle on H.M.T. Canberra on 24 November 1917 heading for Suez, where he was transferred to H.M.T. Kashgar for the remainder of the trip to England, arriving at Codford Camp on 31 January 1918. Between 4 and 20 April 1918 Edwin Moseley was in Brook War Hospital in Woolwich suffering from bronchitis. This was the former Brook General Hospital, turned over to military use in September 1915 and expanded to 1000 beds.

PrivateMoseley went to France through Folkestone on 3 June 1918. Edwin Moseley was placed with the 16th Battalion, which spent much of 1917 in Belgium advancing to the Hindenburg Line. The battalion, along with most of the 4th Brigade, suffered heavy losses at Bullecourt in April, when the brigade attacked strong German positions without the promised tank support. In March and April 1918, the battalion helped to stop the German Spring offensive. At Hamel in June, Lance Corporal Tom Axford was awarded the battalion’s second Victoria Cross.

The battalion then participated in the great allied offensive of 1918, fighting near Amiens on 8 August 1918. This advance by British and Empire troops was the greatest success in a single day on the Western Front, one that German General Erich Ludendorff described as ‘..the black day of the German Army in this war’. Private Edwin Moseley was killed in action on 8 August 1918, and was buried in Heath Cemetery in Harbonnieres, leaving a widow and one child.
Private Moseley was awarded the British War Medal and the Victory Medal. Mrs. Moseley appears to have moved to St Kilda in Victoria some time after the war. A certificate issued by His Majesty the King on account of Edwin Moseley’s service to the Empire during the Great War was destroyed by a picture framer, and Mrs. Moseley applied for and received a duplicate. Private Edwin Moseley had a brother, Lieutenant F.A. Moseley MC who also served. Edwin Moseley is also listed on the Wyalkatchem War Memorial and the Kellerberrin War Memorial, we well as being commemorated at St Columba’s Presbyterian Church in Peppermint Grove and at Scotch College and Hale School in Perth.

Details

Registration number

cwa-org-65-M120

Inscriptions and markings

When the Great War broke out in Europe in 1914, Dowerin was an isolated farming district, several days travel by horse or by coach from Perth. Over the succeeding four years at least 176 men and one nurse served in the armed forces of the Empire. The names of the men who served can be read on the Honour Roll in the Dowerin Town Hall or can be accessed on the museum section of the Shire of Dowerin website.

Fifty-one men from the district died in the Great War and their names are inscribed on the Dowerin War Memorial which was unveiled on ANZAC Day 1936. Subsequent conflicts have seen more names memorialised and each ANZAC Day their sacrifice is honoured and remembered by the community.

Contextual Information

For some years Diane Hatwell had been intrigued by the names on the Dowerin War Memorial. Some were familiar with the families still in the district but some not so. Diane felt It was important for the community that when we said each ANZAC Day “We will remember them”, we had some idea of who and what we are remembering. She set about, to find out who they were, what they were doing in the Dowerin district, and where and how they died. These pages presented through Collections WA represent the current state of this ongoing research and community response.

Geotag

49.873015886049, 2.6723561689682

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