PRIVATE 3392A, VICTOR MAXWELL OWSTON, 53RD BATTALION AUSTRALIAN INFANTRY FORCE.


PRIVATE 3392A, VICTOR MAXWELL OWSTON, 53RD BATTALION AUSTRALIAN INFANTRY FORCE. KILLED IN ACTION 19TH JULY 1916.


Before the war, gardener Victor Maxwell Owston, had come to Ilkley to work for Robert Dalton, who had the post office at 54 Skipton Road, Ilkley. Robert Dalton also had a market garden and sold the produce in his shop. Therefore, he needed someone with Victor's skills grow and provide good quality fruit. Victor was not a native of Ilkley, but had been born in Darrington, near Pontefract in 1887. His father, an auctioneer and estate agent, moved his family to the Woodhouse area of Leeds, where Victor was educated. Victor seems to have tired of life in Yorkshire and in May 1912 set sail, aged 25, for a new life in Australia. In Sydney he obtained employment as a waiter at the Union Club on Bligh Street in the city. On 5th August 1915 he went into the recruiting office at Warwick Farm, in the west of Sydney, and joined the Australian Army. In December 1915 he embarked on a troopship,HMAT Euripides, arriving in Egypt just after Christmas where he was assigned to the 53rd Battalion, Australian Infantry Force. The 53rd Battalion was nicknamed 'The Whale Oil Guards' because their commanding officer insisted that they use oil to ensure that their helmets where shiny. The battalion arrived in France on 28th June 1916 and were sent to the Western Front. Instead of the Somme sector the battalion went into the front line south-west of Armentieres near to the village of Frommelles. The 53rd Battalion where involved in an utterly ill planned assault on the German lines, on 19th July 1916, which resulted in the deaths of several hundred Australian soldiers. Victor was one of those who was reported missing and presumed dead. Months later his remains were discovered and buried in the British Military Cemetery at Ration Farm. He is also remembered on Ilkley War Memorial



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