IT’S a non-descript black book, frayed around the edges, pages yellowed after a century.
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In faded handwriting, at times barely legible, is an important slice of history. A first hand account of the Gallipoli landings, written by an Australian soldier.
A diary that didn’t see the light of day until his death in 1952.
The diary belonged to Private Ross Irvine Penman, who, braving the bullets and shells, waded ashore the beaches of Gallipoli just after noon on April 25 1915.
The diary now belongs to his son, Rodger, who only discovered the diary, and his father’s war efforts, after going through his father’s estate following his death.
Enlisting on August 29 1914, he joined the Australian Imperial Force’s 4th Battalion, and was allocated service number 739.
Pvt Penman embarked the HMAT Euripides in Sydney on October 20 1914. It would be two years before he saw home again.
The diary begins Friday January 1 1915, and the first pages are dotted with morse code and semaphore codes.
There are observations about guard duty, receiving letters from home, and the training the Australian troops underwent. “Jan 21. Valley of Despair.
Shooting at 30 yards. All shots low and to the left,” he laments in one entry.
The war became a reality for Pvt Penman, and many others, on April 25 1915. His entry the day before reveals little of the horror that awaits him.
“Sat 24 Apr. Were issued with our … rations (3 days). Left the harbour at 12. Steamed right across the island and anchored… Then going straight there at dawn,” he wrote.
His entry for April 25 covers a page and a half of the diary.
“Here in the Gulf of Saros, lay about til 12… landed at about 12.30… shelling the forts, our battalion filed into a ravine where we remained til about 4.30. When we left for the right flank of the firing line. While on the boat, a fort on the other side of the island opened fire on the transports, went very close to one - 3 shells going over our boat - the realness of the danger only then seemed to come home to us.
“The enemy had us under a continuous … fire and one of our officers was the 4th’s first casualty - wounded in the shoulder. After going in the firing line we very soon had casualties. Tom Sinclair was wounded in the shoulder. Poor Jim Sharp was wounded badly through the stomach and we believe is very bad, if not dead.
"Harry … of No. 2 was shot at 7.15 - he was the closest to me lying about 30 inches on my left. Since then, no more casualties in No.1 but several in No. 2, and one in No. 3. Had a very cold night, which was not helped by rain - we had all discarded our packs while coming into the firing line.
“Continuous firing all night - the biggest result - a waste of ammunition.”
Pvt Penman’s Gallipoli campaign was ended with a sniper’s bullet on April 29. The bullet entered his side, passing through his torso and narrowly missing his spine - “doing a lot of damage” along the way. He was evacuated to the beaches and at dusk was taken to a hospital ship.
The next seven days were spent in a coma. In a small twist of fate, the doctor who signed Pvt Penman’s medical certificate was Dr SP Lyttle, the grandfather of recently retired Goulburn medico Dr Tom Lyttle.
Ross Penman was medically discharged from the Army on September 27 1916. On Armistice Day, he began work at North Sydney Council as a Clerk. He and his family moved to Rylstone, and eventually to Goulburn, taking up a post as Shire Clerk at the former Mulwaree Shire Council. He died in 1952 at the age of 57.
