[Editor: This article, regarding the death of Lieutenant Malcolm Chisholm, during World War One (1914-1918), was published in the Evening News (Sydney, NSW), 5 November 1914.]
An Australian falls.
Son of Dr. Chisholm, of Sydney.
An Australian, Lieutenant Malcolm Chisholm, who had a brilliant future, has died from wounds received while fighting against the Germans in Belgium.
He was the elder son of Dr. William Chisholm, of Macquarie-street, Sydney, and was 22 years old. Educated at the Sydney Grammar School, where he achieved considerable success, it was hoped he would follow in his father’s footsteps and become a doctor. But it was his ambition to be a soldier. Going to England about four years ago, he passed examinations and was granted a commission in the East Lancashire Regiment.
It was during the fighting at Mons in August that Lieutenant Chisholm was wounded in the stomach. He was in the magnificent rearguard action that Field Marshal Sir John French has fully described in his dispatch.
A pencil note was received by Lieutenant Chisholm’s parents from his major telling of the injury, and that it was regretted they were unable to take the wounded with them. The information was also given that Lieutenant Chisholm had been made comfortable under shelter. A couple of days later another message was received to the effect that the soldier had been seen by a nurse, and that he was being looked after by an English doctor in German territory. Then there was silence until a notification was received of his having died. The news reached Sydney yesterday.
When the last mail left England Lieutenant Chisholm’s brother, Colin, was being trained with Kitchener’s Army.
Source:
Evening News (Sydney, NSW), 5 November 1914, p. 5 (Final Edition)
Also published in:
Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners’ Advocate (Newcastle, NSW), 6 November 1914, p. 5 (entitled “Death of an Australian”)
Editor’s notes:
Lieutenant William Malcolm Chisholm, known as Malcolm, was the first Australian to be killed in World War One; however, he was serving with a British regiment, not with an Australian military unit (his family had moved to England in 1910).
Dr. = an abbreviation of “Doctor” (plural: Drs.)
John French = Sir John French (1852-1925), a British Army officer who served in the Boer War and the First World War; he was promoted to the rank of Field Marshal in 1913; he was born in Ripple (Kent, England) in 1852, and died in Deal (Kent, England) in 1925
See: “John French, 1st Earl of Ypres”, Wikipedia
Kitchener = Herbert Kitchener (1850-1916), a British Army officer who served in the Mahdist War (the Anglo-Sudan War), the Boer War, and the First World War; he was promoted to the rank of Field Marshal in 1909
See: “Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener”, Wikipedia
Mons = the capital city of the province of Hainaut (Belgium); the Battle of Mons (1914) was a battle fought in the vicinity of Mons during the First World War (1914-1918)
See: 1) “Mons”, Wikipedia
2) “Battle of Mons”, Wikipedia
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