Contributed by Ron Inglis, October 2021:
Fourteen days after the declaration of war, the Australian Naval & Military Expeditionary Force (AN&MEF) was assembled with the aim of seizing German colonies and silencing German wireless stations in the southern Pacific Ocean. Six companies of the Royal Australian Naval Reserve, a battalion of infantry, two machine gun sections, a signalling section and a detachment of the Australian Army Medical Corps were loaded onto the Berrima, now a merchant cruiser carrying four 4.7 guns, at Sydney’s Cockatoo Island and the ship set sail on 19 August 1914.
Three Auburn Memorial men were aboard the Berrima – commercial traveller Ernest George Beesley, analytical chemist Selwyn Upton and milk vendor Frank Wilson. All three served as privates, returned safely, were honourably discharged and then proceeded to enlist in the Australian Imperial Force (AIF).
Selwyn Upton, 21, is the only Auburn Memorial man (and one of the few in the entire AIF) to have served in all three Australian theatres of the Great War – Pacific, Middle East, and Western Front. Upton enlisted in the AN&MEF on 16 August 1914 and he served as a private for 206 days. Discharged from the AN&MEF on 4 March 1915, Upton enlisted in the AIF 26 days later.
Private Upton embarked on 26 June 1915, coincidentally again on the Berrima. It is not recorded exactly when he arrived on the Gallipoli peninsular, likely sometime in August 1915. Shortly after being commissioned as an officer in October 1915, Upton was wounded and invalided back to Australia. Recovered, Lieutenant Upton sailed in October 1916 on the Ceramic for England and the Western Front. He crossed to France in December 1916 and was taken on strength of the 20th Battalion, in which he served for six months before being killed in action in May 1917 in the 2nd Battle of Bullecourt.
"Lieut. Upton was leading an attack in front of Bullecourt at 8am on the morning of 3.5.17 when he was killed by a bullet in the head. He was not buried by any member of the Battalion, nor was his body brought back. He was then about 20 yards from the edge of a sunken road. A. Portman. Capt. “C” Coy."
Lieutenant Upton was buried in the HAC Cemetery, Ecoust-St Mein, France. For his grave his father chose the inscription: NOBLY HE LIVED, NOBLY HE DIED
It is not known if Upton had a connection with Auburn, however the names of some distant relatives appear on the honour roll in Auburn Public School and on the honour roll of St Philip's Auburn Anglican Church.
Selwyn Arthur Upton is honoured on the following memorials in Australia:
- Auburn War Memorial
- Municipality of Auburn 1914-1919 Honour Roll
- Mosman War Memorial
- Roll of Honour Australian War Memorial Canberra
His decorations:
- British War Medal 1914-20
- Victory Medal
- 1914-1915 Star
