FRANK MACDONALD

MEMORIAL PRIZE

Molly Cordwell
Ogilvie High School
7th September 2011.
Even for today’s generation, statistics from the First World War are staggering. As the
world’s first global conflict, the death and destruction wrought was so horrific that the
generation who survived believed that never again would the world allow such a conflict to
occur. In Australia, a country with a population of less than 5 million, 416, 809 men enlisted;
15,485 of these men were Tasmanians1. With so many answering the call to arms, the
impact of modern, industrialised warfare was always going to inflict a heavy toll. Every
Tasmanian community and virtually every family would be touched by grief and sadness.
Amongst the volunteers from Tasmania were four young men from North Hobart; Norman
and Eric Hall, two brothers who lived in Mary Street, Ted Sweeney their cousin who lived
just around the corner in Arthur Street and the fourth, a “boy”, Horace Ikin who lived four
blocks away in Smith Street. Their stories over the next eighty years would intersect with
the marriage of my maternal grandparents. Their yellowed letters, sepia photographs and
collected memories tell the story of a nation at war and how that war would tear the heart
out of our local community; while the war may have ended in 1918, for many of its
traumatised victims, this proved to be just the beginning of the battle. The impact of the
war would last long after the fighting had ceased.

At 10 Arthur Street, Ted Sweeney lived less than 150 metres from his two best friends and
cousins, Norman and Eric. Ted was the first to answer the call to duty, enlisting just 23 days
after the outbreak of war2. When Norman’s younger brother Eric enlisted a month after Ted,
he too was swept up in the wave of patriotic euphoria. Within five months all three were
training in Egypt and on April the 30th, Ted wrote a letter to his parents with astounding
news. He had been with the first wave of ANZACs at Gallipoli on April 25th. After the failure
of the Gallipoli campaign Ted, Norman and Eric were dispatched to France and the horror of
the Somme in 1916.

During that first year of fighting in the mud of the Western Front, Norman Hall was killed at
Pozieres. His body was never found3. Ted’s letters to his parents tell of his experiences at
Messines and Ypres. He suffered from pneumonia but by mid-1917 he was back at the front
and received news that Eric had died at Broodseinde Ridge4.

At long last in May of 1917, Horace Ikin was given permission by his parents and sweetheart,
Lillian, to enlist; doing so one month before his 18th birthday. Horrie was fully aware of what
the war held; casualty lists and returning soldiers had smashed all ideas of adventure and
glory. Horrie arrived in France when Ted was at his lowest ebb. Early in 1918, Horrie fell
victim to mustard gas and was evacuated to London; he would never return to the trenches.
His had been but a brief encounter on the fields of death.

1
www.awm.gov.au retrieved 05/09/2011
2
Collected letters of Edward Sweeney dated 17/8/1914 (original in family collection)
3
www.soldierswalk.org.au/soldier retrieved 04/09/2011
4
www.soldierswalk.org.au/soldier retrieved 04/09/2011
On August the 23rd, 1918, Ted Sweeney, my Grandmother’s uncle, was killed5. Amongst the
first to enlist and having survived the worst the war could offer, Ted had fallen with the end
in sight. He was laid to rest in a cemetery 10 km from Amien6, 8o days short of the armistice.

On the 5th of September, 1919, Horrie Ikin returned to Australia7, his home and his
sweetheart to whom he had lovingly corresponded for two years. He married Lillian and
they went on to have nine children. My grandfather was number nine.

Horrie never fully recovered from the after effects of the mustard gas. In his 60’s he
breathed with the aid of bottled oxygen; long, laboured breaths between choking fits of
coughs that turned his face purple. Just as Horrie suffered, so too did Tasmania. For the next
20 years our community would deal with the lingering effects of the war. The Conscription
debates had split the community, white feathers shamed and ostracised many. Successful
pre-war businesses had been re-tooled for war production and now failed to re-orientate
for peace. Total commitment to the war had cost Australia $1,433,208,000(U.S) by 19188.
More money was now needed to put men back to work and upgrade neglected
infrastructure. These crippling debts would bring Australia to its knees during the Great
Depression.

The greatest impact of the war was however the human cost. Norman Hall was just one of
23,000 Australian soldiers with no known grave9; their families would cling to hope for years
that maybe their husband, brother or son might still be alive, somewhere. Their mourning
would go on, unresolved. 58,961 ANZACS killed in the war had left families behind with a
massive burden of grief10. Another 170,000 soldiers would return with grievous wounds or
life threatening illnesses. By 1938 there were still 77,000 totally and permanently
incapacitated servicemen requiring intensive levels of care. A further 180,000 dependants of
those who had died were supported by ongoing pensions. One hundred and sixty five
million pounds funded the national commitment to these on-going victims of the war11.

The parents of Norman and Eric and Ted would not get a pension or any other benefit once
the war was over. Their grief remained with them for life, their sons buried in distant lands.
Horrie’s parents would welcome home a broken but happy man who would go on to raise a
family of his own. But like many who returned, such were the memories of what he had
seen that he never talked about what had happened. With the marriage of Alan Ikin to
Beverly Walker in 1956, the stories of Ted and Horrie merged together to become part of

5 th
Telegram from Lt E. Blacker, Officer in Charge A.I.F Records, 6 Military District, 23 /08/ 1918. (Original in
family collection)
6
www.cwgc.org/search/certificate (Commonwealth War Graves Commission) retrieved 04/09/2011.
7
T. Robinson, Officer in Charge, Base Records, Victoria Barracks, Melbourne, dated 30/03/1938. (Original in
family collection)
8
http://jimmythejock.hubpages.com/hub/World-War-1-The-Cost-of-War retrieved on 05/09/2011
9
http://www.naa.gov.au/naaresources/publications/memento/pdf/memento36.pdf retrieved on 05/09/2011
10
www.awm.gov.au retrieved on 03/09/2011
11
http://www.naa.gov.au/naaresources/publications/memento/pdf/memento36.pdf retrieved on 05/09/2011
our family’s shared history. Their original letters and photographs are treasured keepsakes
and provide an insight into the real and tragic cost of the war and its devastating impact on
close knit communities throughout Tasmania and across our nation.

Word Count: 997

Bibliography:

Primary Sources:
Ikin, B. Interview with Edward Sweeney’s niece, 4th September 2011.
Ikin, A. Interview by telephone with Horace Ikin’s son, 5th September 2011.
Cordwell, A. Interview with Horace Ikin’s granddaughter, 4th September 2011.
Sweeney, Edward. (Ted) The Collected Letters, 1914-18, addressed to Mr and Mrs E.
Sweeney, North Hobart.
Ikin, Horace. (Horrie) The Collected Letters and Photographs, 1917-19, addressed to Miss L.
Wilson.
Australian Red Cross Society Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau Files, 1914-18 War.
www.awm.gov.au/cms_images/, Retrieved 03/09/2011
Embarkation Roll: First World War. 3rd Australian Field Artillery, 1st Australian Division,
www.awm.gov.au/cms_images/
War Diaries of 9th Battery, 3rd Australian Field Artillery, 1st Australian Division,
www.awm.gov.au/cms_images/, Retrieved 03/09/2011
Photographs:
Trethewey, John. The photos of Edward Sweeney, Eric and Norman Hall.
Secondary Sources:

Australian War Memorial Archives,

http://cas.awm.gov.au/photograph/H06000,
http://cas.awm.gov.au/photograph/H06001
Commonwealth War Graves Commission,
www.cwgc.org/search/certificate.aspx?casualty=77748
Carlyon, Les. The Great War, Macmillan, Sydney, 2006.
Friends of Soldiers Walk Inc.: Newsletter, Issue 27,
http://soldierswalk.org.au/Newsletters/FOSW27%20News.pdf
National Achieves of Australia, www.mappingouranzacs.naa.gov.au/, Retrieved 03/09/2011
New Town Primary School, http://newtownprimary.tased.edu.au/
 Best pals before enlistment. In London……..1918.

Eric Hall (L), Norman Hall (C), Ted Sweeney (R). Horace “Horrie” Ikin.

Horrie Ikin….in battle dress…1918. Ted Sweeney, far right, with the Sphinx.