Gordon Mitchell Campbell, RAN

This is the story of Gordon Mitchell Campbell, RAN told through his letters home during the First World War.

When Gordon Campbell was 15 years old, he was inspired to sign on with the fledgling Royal Australian Navy. His father James Campbell had died in 1906 leaving his mother Ethel Norris (Vidgen) and seven children. Gordon spent the first 12 months aboard the navy's training ship HMAS Tingira, he was then assigned to HMAS Encounter in May 1914 and promoted to Ordinary Seaman in January 1915.

The war years …

Gordon wrote to his mother Ethel in 1915 while aboard HMAS Encounter, from Suva, Fiji where the ship was undertaking patrol duties, on the lookout for German shipping, he described the taking of the German sailing vessel Elfriede and a storm they weathered on their way to Apia, Samoa.

Gordon's later postings between 1917 and 1920 when he was discharged, were to HMA Ships: Cerberus, Psyche (pronounced sigh-kee), Swan, Torrens, Anzac and Penguin, rising to the rank of Petty Officer.

In January 1919, Gordon wrote to his oldest brother James 'Jim' Grahame Campbell (1886-1969) from aboard HMAS Swan berthed at Devonport, England. Soon after the armistice was signed in November 1918 the Swan along with six other Australian ships began operations in the Sea of Marmara enforcing the terms of the Turkish surrender, then became part of a larger Allied naval task force anchored off Sevastopol on the Crimean Peninsula.

In his letter Gordon Campbell described their Christmas spent at the fleet base Izmir, east of Constantinople before sailing via Malta and Gibraltar where they encountered a severe gale, during which many of the fleet sustained damage.

Frank Banister Campbell, 11th Light Horse Regiment

Gordon's brother, Frank Banister Campbell enlisted in the Australian Army in March 1915 and served with the 11th Light Horse Regiment, in Gallipoli and the Middle East. While acting as a stretcher bearer during an attack on Gaza, he was reported missing and taken prisoner in 19 April 1917.

In September his mother received a postcard from him posted in May from No 18 Military Hospital, Nazareth saying he was wounded but doing well. However enquiries made by the Australian Red Cross Society Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau confirmed that he had later died at No.5 Hospital in Nazareth a month later, of wounds received in action (gun shot wound left leg, enteritis and septicaemia). The bureau were able to later provided details of his last days after interviewing nurses who had attended to him. Frank was buried at Haifa War Cemetery, Gaza.

Post war years ...

In 1925 Ethel Campbell and her daughters made an around the world trip that included Palestine, and there they viewed the graves of Frank and his first cousin Douglas Dunmore Campbell, 2nd Light Horse Regiment, who was killed in action, 4 August 1916.

Gordon Campbell was discharged from the Navy in 1920 and soon after married Vicky Short, finding employment with the New South Wales Police Force, and rising to the rank of Detective Inspector. He died in 1974 three months after his second wife Jeanette Veronica (Horne).

Read more ...

• OM90-09 Campbell Family letters, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland
• Service Record: Campbell, Gordon Mitchell. National Archives of Australia. Series A6770 Accession 4404910
• Service Record: Campbell, Frank Banister. National Archives of Australia. Series B2445 Accession 1853125
• Australian Red Cross Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau files, 1914-1918. 113 Trooper Frank Banister Campbell