MACK, Ernest Harold (1886-1916) + Born at 'Berry Bank', Lismore, on 5 March 1886, Ernest Harold Mack was the son of Joseph Mack and Helen nee Dodds. He was a pupil at Geelong College in 1901 becoming a member of the 1st Football XVIII in 1902 and 1903 and the 1st Cricket XI of 1902. He then worked in the pastoral industry until he enlisted near the start of World War I on 21 September 1914.
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E H Mack (War Service).
He embarked on
HMAT A16 Star of Victoria on 25 February 1915 for Egypt, and served on Gallipoli throughout the campaign. He was wounded on 7 August, as described by John Hamilton in his book,
Goodbye Cobber, God Bless You:
'The round, black cricket-ball bombs were rolling, bouncing and exploding everywhere. Ernie Mack had a ‘marvellous escape’ when a bomb exploded close to his leg and ‘the concussion was so great that it turned me completely over and the only thing I had to show for it was a few ragged tears in my uniform’ .
He wrote to his sister in Australia after he was evacuated to Egypt, this letter was later published by Patsy Adam-Smith in her book,
The Anzacs:
‘August 6th . . . . was expected to be the beginning of the end. On that evening the New Zealanders’ Maoris and 500 Gurkhas . . . . drove the Turks back while our 4th Brigade, that is the 13-16 Battalions moved further out to the left and came in on the Turks diagonally and drove them further back . . . . While this movement was being carried out an English Division was secretly landed at Suvla Bay, a small bay about a mile and a half from our left and the idea was that it was to move on over the plain country with the exception of a couple of hills that were known to be guarded by 100 Turks and swing right around on our left to Anafarta township and then spread out and connect with our flank.
The AIF and NZ did heroic work that night and when morning came they looked for the English who were supposed to be on their left front . . . . the English had landed alright but instead of pushing straight on (they were all landed by 9.30 pm) the GOC of the Division had kept the men all night on the beach and did not make a move out till just on five. . . . The enemy scouts had discovered the landing . . . . and had immediately brought up . . . troops from Maidos and had strongly fortified the hills on the plain with trenches (and the Turks are wonderful in regard to trench digging) and there they held the English back while the AIF were two miles ahead with their left flank completely at the mercy of the Turks ...
Some English regiments that were sent over to reinforce the AIF had no more idea of fighting than kids a year old. Mind you these were not the regular British Tommy but part of Kitchener’s army and a bigger collection of dead and dying men you never saw, they have not the pluck of a louse and all their officers think of doing is to ape the regular officer when on parade, but when in action the first thing he does is to lose his head and tell his men to retire. It is an absolute fact that the AIF and NZ’s out on the left, though they had been fighting continuously from the 6th, point blank refused to let the English relieve them in the firing line as on two other occasions where they did the Englishmen raced them down to the bottom of the hill as they considered the fire was too hot to hold the trenches. Of course the Australians had to turn round and drive the Turks out of the trenches again . . . . losing a lot of men in doing so ...
On the 21st Aug. another move from the left was started, the idea being to work right round from the left across the Peninsular to Maidos. The AIF advanced, took and held all they were told but the English only advanced and in three or four places were driven back again that night. . . . It is taken as a recognised fact by everybody of the AIF that there is absolutely nothing left for anyone but to get killed or wounded, though being wounded does not save them for as soon as they recover they are sent back again. The AIF are being used as nothing else than gun fodder. . . . You know you always hear people say that they would like to be in a bayonet charge, but the bayonet charges of previous wars are absolutely child’s play to present methods and the person who says he likes them is fit for the asylum.’ He was evacuated to England on HS Huntsgreen on 30 August 1915, returning to Egypt on 10 March 1916.
While in England he wrote again to his sister in October, 1915, telling of Bean’s letter and of some of his friends still on Gallipoli:
‘I don’t mind stopping over here so much as I heard unofficially that all the Australians who have been doing the fighting for so long are being sent back to Egypt to train and build up their numerical strength during the winter and going back in the spring. I suppose you have seen that Eric Whitehead (Old Collegian) and Col Cramond were killed during our charge of Aug 7th. Did you read Bean’s account of our charge? I don’t know if it was published in the Australian papers but it was not too bad for a journalist as they usually write the biggest lot of rot anyone can read. This article of Bean’s however has been published in all the English papers and has been widely read.
As it often happens I am the centre of a great deal of interest when anyone hears that I belong to the 8th Light Horse and of course I have to relate the episode and of course I never forget to leave out all the blood curdling happenings of that morning. There were numbers of our chaps who luckily were not in that charge as they had been sent away sick and included in the lot were Frank Stodart (Old Collegian), Rod Urquhart, Swanny Edgar, Noel Rutledge, and Tom Austin (of Lake Bolac, Old Melburnian)... Now that Bulgaria has come in against us there will be a tremendous amount of dirty work out our way and poor old England will have her hands full meeting so many nations. There is great talk of conscription over here as they cannot get the men to enlist nearly fast enough.’ Ernie Mack wrote again after the Evacuation:
‘Well how did the people in Australia take the Evacuation of Anzac? It was awfully bad luck that it had to happen and it cut us all up though we had a feeling of relief at the same time. There are a number of reasons advanced in favour of it but of course we do not know yet what the official reason is. First of all, I expect, the chief trouble was landing stores and secondly now that Russia is obtaining all her necessary munitions through Japan and round by the Arctic Sea it is not such an important matter to capture the Dardanelles. It was a wonderful feat to embark all the men and stores from Anzac and Suvla with so few casualties and we are most anxious to hear how it was done. The general opinion is that it could have only been done by coming to some arrangement with the Turks but that is very hard to believe ...
You enquired what was wrong with my knee. Well, the trouble was, a bloodthirsty Turk threw a bomb at me when I was lying outside their trenches on Aug 7th, and when it exploded it burst right beside my knee. Just by luck it burst upwards and except for one piece that gouged a lump out of my calf I got off free at the time. The trouble came later when the concussion affected the sinews and cartilage of the knee and I have had a devil of a time, and only for Mrs Montgomery looking after me I don’t know what would have become of me. When I was on the beach leaving Anzac a sniper got to work on me and his seventh shot got me through the arm but missed the bones of the elbow by a fraction of an inch. It has healed up till there is hardly anything to show now.’
Ern Mack went with the 8th Light Horse to Palestine, where he died of wounds on 23 December 1916 at New Zealand Mounted Brigade Field Ambulance, El Mustagidda, after the Battle of Magdhaba, aged 29. H S Gullett in the Official History wrote of the events of that day:
‘Dismounting about a mile and a half from the Turks, the two Australian regiments advanced quickly over the first 1,000 yards. As the opposition of the enemy rifles grew strong, each squadron moved by troops in bounds of from twenty-five to fifty yards, with the Lewis gunners always forward and doing excellent work in keeping down Turkish fire. When the front line was within 500 yards of the enemy trenches, the squadrons were halted and additional ammunition brought up. This was the first engagement in which the men carried two bandoliers, and the innovation added so much to the fire-strength of the regiments that it was adopted during the remainder of the campaign. Soon after 3 o’clock the line resumed its advance by troops successively, and the 8th Light Horse Regiment, always singularly unlucky, suffered many casualties at this stage. Captain M B Higgins¹ and Lieutenants E H Mack and E G Down were killed as they led their men, and Lieutenant J T Currie was wounded; only ten men of other ranks were killed or wounded - a graphic comment upon the bold leadership by junior officers. With the Wellingtons on their right, the two Australian regiments fixed bayonets about eighty yards from the enemy trenches, and then charged right home. For a few minutes the Turks engaged fiercely in a hand to hand encounter, and several of their men were killed with the bayonet before the general surrender. The Australians then covered with their fire the advance of the Wellingtons, and, as the New Zealanders advanced to close quarters the Turks in front of them raised the white flag. The 8th Light Horse Regiment, which had encountered the stiffest of the opposition, pressed on and captured a second position, taking in all 250 prisoners.’ Lieutenant ‘Ern’ Mack was buried at El Arish Military Cemetery by Captain Chaplain C F Williams, of New Zealand Mounted Rifle Brigade, ‘south-south-west of Gaza, in a double grave boarded by sandbags and marked by two wooden crosses, 465 yards north-east of the telegraph line’. His family was informed of his re-interring at Kantara War Cemetery, Egypt - Grave F. 164 on 17 December 1921.
'Ern' Mack’s nephew, Sub-Lieutenant Joseph Mack, Royal Australian Navy (attd. Devonport Division), HMS Defence, was killed in action at the Battle of Jutland on 31 May 1916, the last, and largest, of the great battleship battles. At the time of his death he was aged 19, the son of Joseph Gardner Mack and Margaret Rose nee McCallum, of Geelong. He was born at Berry Bank, Lismore, his name is commemorated on Panel 18, Plymouth Naval Memorial, Devon, England. Ern Mack wrote to his sister Mary in June 1916,
'Have just read an account of the big naval fight in which the Defence was sunk. Expect poor old Joe went down and is a dead’un now. Bad luck for poor old Daisy as I expect she was greatly cut up when she received the news.' Jutland was the last, and largest, of the great battleship battles. Neither submarines nor aircraft played any part in the battle, despite the plans of both sides. Never again did battle fleets meet again in such numbers.
His brothers,
John Dodds Mack (1880-1957), Sidney Arthur Mack (1884-1958), Norman Oscar Mack (1887-1961), and
Stanley Mack (1889-1960), were also educated at Geelong College.
Pegasus in August 1925 recorded the following about Ernest's father, Joseph Mack: 'On the 5th June last a very interesting festival took place at Berry Bank, upon the occasion of the 80th birthday of Mr. Joseph Mack. Although not an Old Collegian, Joseph Mack has at all times taken a very lively interest in our College. His sons, Jack Dodds, Sidney Arthur, Ernest Harold, Norman Oscar, and Stanley attended the school. Ernest gave his life in the Great War, Jack and Stanley were both spared to return. Joseph Mack was born at ‘Mamre’, near Colac, in 1845. He was the son of J. G. Mack, who arrived in Victoria from Tasmania in 1840, and built the present Mack's Hotel in Corio Terrace. He managed ‘Mamre’ for the late James Austin, afterward purchasing Berry Bank the day following Black Thursday (7th February, 1851).
Joseph Mack is supposed to be the oldest resident in the Berry Bank district, where he celebrated his 80th birthday on the above-named date. At the festival there were assembled 26 of his; children and grandchildren, in addition to nearly 100 farmers and their families, who had purchased land on the Berry Bank Estate. The hall was decorated with Geelong College and Scotch College colours. After partaking of the good things provided, dancing and music brought to a close one of the most unique and delightful gatherings ever held in the district. We extend to Mr. Joseph Mack our warmest congratulations, and trust he may long be spared to enjoy his present good health'
¹Mervyn Bourne Higgins, the son of Justice Henry Bourne Higgins and Mary Alice Higgins, of Malvern, born 8 November 1887, an Old Melburnian, and grandson of Dr George Ernest Morrison, Adjutant 8LH Regiment. He graduated in Law from Ormond College, and went on to further his studies at Balliol College, Oxford. He had returned home to enlist in the AIF, and served on Gallipoli and in Sinai and Palestine. He is buried at Kantara War Memorial Cemetery, Egypt – Grave A.190.
Sources: Joseph Mack - Pegasus August 1925 p29; Geelong Collegians at the Great World War compiled by James Affleck. pp65-68 (citing Australian War Memorial; Commonwealth War Graves Commission; H S Gullett, The Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-18 Vol VII Sinai and Palestine www.firstworldwar.com/battles/jutland.htm (Michael Duffy); ; John Hamilton, Goodbye Cobber, God Bless You: The fatal charge of the Light Horse, Gallipoli, August 7th 1915; Patsy Adam-Smith, The Anzacs; Photo Pegasus August, 1917.)