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7th Infantry Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 1st Division The 7th Battalion was raised as the third battalion 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 brown upper the third battalion. The 7th Battalion was raised at Broadmeadows Camp north of Melbourne. The Battalion's Commanding Officer was the redoubtable and outspoken Howard 'Pompey' Elliot, a lawyer, citizen soldier and veteran of the Boer War.
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 assembed, equipped and trained (many had served in the senior cadets and 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 7th Battalion landed at Anzac on 25th April 1915 as part of the second wave, led by their redoubtable commanding officer. But things got off to a bad start. Landing at North Beach, their landing point was overlooked by an Ottoman machine gun post which opened fire inflicting very heavy casualties and casuing some boats to drift off full of dead and wounded. A total of 5 officers and 179 soldiers were lost. In early May, the 2nd Brigade was transferred from ANZAC to Cape Helles, the suthernmost tip of the Peninsula, to help in the British attack on the village of Krithia. The attack captured little ground but cost the brigade almost a third of its strength. The 7th lost another 6 officers and 87 men with very little to show for it. The Victorian battalions forming the 2nd Brigade returned to ANZAC to help defend the beachhead, and in August the 2nd Brigade fought at the battle of Lone Pine in August. The 7th Battalion distinguished itself at Lone Pine in the August battles, with four VCs awarded.
CPL A.S. Burton, VC, MID (KIA), Lone Pine CPL (later LT) W. Dunstan, VC, MID*, Lone Pine LT (later CAPT) W.J. Symonds, VC, MID, Lone Pine LT (later MAJ) F.H. Tubb VC (KIA), Lone Pine
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