Contributed by Ron Inglis, October 2021:
John Andrews 27, single, had a distressingly simple service record. A qualified carpenter he enlisted at Warwick Farm on 6 September 1915 and embarked on the Osterley four months later. In Egypt he was allocated to the 2nd Battalion and moved off with them to France, arriving at the Western Front in April 1916. He survived Pozières only to be killed by random shell fire on 3 September 1916, almost exactly one year after enlistment.
For his gravestone in the Railway Dugouts Burial Ground, Zillebeke, Belgium, his parents chose the inscription:
DEARLY LOVED SON OF A. V. ANDREWS OF AUBURN NSW
In the service record of Private Andrews is a heart-rending letter from his mother asking the AIF Records Office where her son was buried. … ‘the reason I wish to know is that after the war is over I intend to go to England and then I hope to see where my boy is buried.’ It is not known if the parents ever made the journey. They were not informed of the grave location until 23 June 1919, almost three years after their son’s death. There was a further mix-up with requested photos of the grave. The parents did not get copies until 1926.
The Railway Dugouts Burial Ground (Transport Farm) south of Ypres in Belgium had around 1,700 graves at the time of the Armistice. Bodies from other battlefield plots were brought in so that today there are nearly 2,500 graves. Identified graves: UK 1,358, Canada 551, Australia 134, Germany 3, India 1, New Zealand 1.
Three Auburn Memorial men are buried in this cemetery. Private Arthur John Andrews 27, Captain Robert Davis Murray 29 and Private John Edward Wheeler 25. All were killed by random shell fire in September/October 1916 when their battalions were ‘resting’ during a ‘quiet time’ on the Ypres Salient. Andrews and Wheeler had been in the AIF for around one year while Captain Murray, a Gallipoli veteran, had been one of the earliest enlistees signing up on 25 August 1914.
John Andrews is honoured on the following memorials in Australia:
- Auburn War Memorial
- Municipality of Auburn 1914-1919 Honour Roll
- Roll of Honour Australian War Memorial Canberra
His decorations:
- British War Medal
- 1914-20 Victory Medal
