From Life to Immortality
By Marg Powell, Specialist Library Technician, Metadata Services | 6 July 2016
Norman Francis McWaters, 11th Australian Field Ambulance
The only son of the Mayor of Toowoomba, Norman 'Mac' was farewelled in the Town Hall, as he prepared to embark for overseas. Having enlisted in January 1916 with the Australian Army Medical Corps, he spent much of that year training at camp in Enoggera, during the course of which he was promoted to Corporal.
His father's brother Frank McWaters, was already overseas serving with the 8th Light Horse Regiment in the Middle East.
Norman 'Mac' McWaters, 11th Australian Field Ambulance, 1916. 3017 Caldwell Family papers and photographs, State Library of Queensland
Both soldiers wrote letters home, extracts of which were published in the local newspapers. Mac wrote at length about the historically significant area in which he was encamped in England, and with several other Toowoomba lads, toured sights of interest including St Martin's Church, Wareham. Mac joined the 11th Field Ambulance in France in June 1917, after weeks of intensive drill and physical training, making all ranks as fit as possible for the task ahead.
By this time the 11th Field Ambulance was operating in the Ploegsteert and Messines areas, evacuating wounded from the forward aid posts to the casualty clearing stations. Stretcher bearers had to carry the wounded over two miles from the front lines, the terrain resembling a quagmire dotted with shell holes.
Minnie Caldwell, Mac and Bob Caldwell, 1916. 3072 Cardwell Family papers and photographs, State Library of Queensland.
Mac was carrying a wounded man on the afternoon of 17th October, on the Zonnebeke Road, when he and three of his colleagues were hit by a shell. Killed outright, his body was brought down and buried in the military cemetery at the back of the prison at Ypres.
Ypres Reservoir North Cemetery, Plot 1 Row G 67. Courtesy Commonwealth War Graves Commission
The image is taken from very near where his grave is located. 12 months after his death, the family placed a notice in the paper which read:
In proud and sacred memory of Cpl. Norman F. McWaters, and his four comrades, killed in action, battle of Passchendaele, October 17th, 1917. "Just stepped from life to Immortality."
The Toowoomba Mothers Memorial, was constructed in 1922 and bears the names of fallen soldiers from throughout the district. The memorial was funded in large part through the proceeds of flower selling. The sweet violet - Toowoomba's floral emblem - was sold in posies to members of the public by grieving mothers of fallen soldiers.
Mothers Memorial, East Creek, Toowoomba. Image courtesy: Monument Australia, photographer Diane Watson, 2007
"TO THE MEMORY OF THE GALLANT MEN WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES IN THE GREAT WAR 1914 TO 1918 FOR THE SAKE OF FREEDOM AND JUSTICE"
The original photographs of Corporal McWaters were located in a large family collection donated by the descendants of the Caldwell Family.
Further Reading:
- Service Record, National Archives of Australia: McWaters, Norman Francis
- Service Record, National Archives of Australia: McWaters, Frank Eason
- Souvenir : being an unofficial resume of the history of the 11th Australian Field Ambulance, 1919
- Personal. Darling Downs Gazette, 6 January 1916, p4.
- Crpl. McWaters Farewelled. Darling Downs Gazette, 4 November 1916, p4.
- Roman Camping Ground. Darling Downs Gazette, 18 May 1917, p4.
- Roll of Honour. Darling Downs Gazette, 17 October 1918, p4.
- 3072 Caldwell Family Paper and Photographs
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