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nom de plume Dorothea Mason Marriott Photography
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8th Infantry Battalion (Vic) 2nd Brigade, 1st Division, AIF The 8th Battalion raised at Broadmeadows Camp north of Melbourne was the last of the four battalions raised in the second Brigade of the 1st Division; as depicted by its colour patch. The rectangle signifies the First Division. The red lower portion indicates the second brigade in the Division and the white upper the fourth battalion in the Brigade. On August 4 1914 Great Britain declared war on Germany. Australia quickly followed the Mother Land’s call to arms. A rush of volunteers flocked to Victoria Barracks in Melbourne and to Broadmeadows Camp north of the city to enlist. From the city and suburbs clerks laid down their pens, shopkeepers and shop assistants walked out of their shops, solicitors paused with their briefs, workmen downed their picks and shovels and from the countryside bushmen, farmers, graziers, shearers, woodchoppers set out on by horse drawn buggy, by train, by horse and on foot starting their journey to join a new type of army - an all volunteer army - the Australian Imperial Force. They were assembled equipped and trained (many had served in the militia so army drill, shooting and field exercises were not new to them) and by late October the Great Convoy began assembling in ports around the country departing over the period 15-25 October 1914 bound initially for Albany in Western Australia to concentrate and pick up their escorts before crossing the Indian Ocean for the Middle East. The 6th Battalion landed at Anzac on 25th April 1915 as part of the second wave, led by Lieutenant Colonel William Bolton. In early May, the 2nd Brigade was transferred from ANZAC to Cape Helles the southernmost tip of the Peninsula, to help in the attack on the village of Krithia.
8th Infantry Battalion Band
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