KININMONTH, James Carstairs, DSO (1891-1954).jpg)
J C Kininmonth (Prefect 1909).
Born on 29 September 1891, the son of James Leslie Carstairs and Euphemia Russell nee Carstairs, he went with his mother and sisters to Scotland, aged five, after his father died in 1896 at Mount Hesse, Winchelsea. They were on the point of returning to Australia some years later, when his mother died in 1903, so instead he returned with his two older sisters late in 1904, and was sent to Geelong College to board. He was Head Prefect in his final year in 1910, rowed for three years in the 1st VIII, and also opened the batting in the 1st XI.
On leaving school he completed 1st year Law at Ormond College, Melbourne University, and then worked on Isis Downs Station, Queensland, before returning to Mount Hesse.
He then enlisted in the AIF in 1914, ‘
offering his services and a car, being appointed a Lieutenant in the Automobile Corps ’, and embarked for Egypt on
HMAT A24 Benalla on 21 October 1914, then on to Gallipoli on 3 May 1915. While on Anzac he transferred to the Ordnance Corps, and contributed several poems to
The Anzac Book, which was produced in the lines on Gallipoli in the closing weeks of 1915.
A Wail from Ordinance by J C Kininmonth published in The Anzac Book, 1916,
On 14 July 1915, a Turkish shell struck a stack of 18-pound shells in the Australian Division Ammunition Park adjoining the Australian Ordnance Depot, setting it ablaze. Kininmonth, the Officer in Charge at the time, led a party who extinguished the blaze by throwing sand and water on the flames. A second shell fell in the immediate vicinity of the working party, setting fire to further ammunition, so the working party could not relax until both fires were extinguished. He was promoted a Companion of the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) for this action in the New Years’ Honours 1917, and was also Mentioned in Despatches on four occasions, 19 July 1915, 9 April 1917, 17 September 1920, and 17 December 1920.
After the Evacuation from Gallipoli, the 1st Division was transferred to the trenches near Ypres, where they played leading roles in the Battle of the Somme, Menin Road and the Third Battle of Ypres. While in France Jim Kininmonth was promoted Major, and in July 1918 he was given leave in England, where he married Phyllis Fairlie Cuningham, whom he had known since he was a teenager in Australia. He had leave in Paris in October, and further leave to England in December. After the war was over he was asked to stay in the Permanent Army, in charge of all Ordnance, however he decided to return to Australia and farming, which he did on 10 January 1919, on
RMS Osterley, having taken his ‘1914 Leave’.
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James C Kininmonth
(Officers & NCOs, 1909).
Jim Kininmonth died at Mount Hesse on 23 September 1954.
Sources: The Anzac Book: Written and Illustrated in Gallipoli by the Men of Anzac, 1916 (reprinted in Affleck p343); Peter and Phyllis Kininmonth, Mount Hesse: History, Humour and Hazards on a Sheep Station 1837-1985; Geelong Collegians at the Great War compiled by James Affleck. p 231 (citing The Pegasus; National Archives).