Myrton Trangmar Allan Killed in action 1892-1916 and brother Keith Trangmar Allan 1896-1964

Myrton Trangmar Allan 1892-1916, son of Percy and Alice Allan was born on 24 July 1892 in Woolwich Sydney. After an education at at Riverview College and serving two years as a Corporal in the senior cadets Myrton studied law at Sydney University. He put aside his five years work at a solicitors in Newcastle to join the Australian Army on 23 June 1915. By this time, he was aged 22 years 11 months and was assigned to the 7th reinforcement of the 20th battalion.  He disembarked his ship at Marseilles on 3rd April 16 and was promoted to Lieutenant shortly afterwards.

Myrton

Here is an excerpt of the letter he wrote back to his father nearly four months later on 27 July 16.

It was reprinted in the SMH on 15/11/1916

SOLDIERS' LETTERS: HEAVY BOMBARDMENTS."HADES " WITH THE LID OFF."

 A vivid description of this (May 5) bombardment was given in a letter from

the late Lieut Myrton T. Allan to his father, Mr. Percy Allan, Assistant Director-General

of Public Works, from which the extracts that follow are made. The other officer mentioned in the letter, Captain Ferguson (son of Mr. Justice Ferguson), was also subsequently killed in France.

"I was," the letter runs, "ordered to join the battalion the day after I wrote my last

letter, and after some hours in the train and some more hours on foot was sent straight on into the trenches (I nearly wrote drenches'). I had to go dickens of a way through saps in the dark, down Queer-street, past the White City, and on to Safety-alley to Nonesuch Hall, off Snipers'-alley; but don't use that as my address, as the Post Office people really know   very little geography. I had a very cosy little dug-out with a nice soft mattress made of wire-netting. The first few days things were very quiet, only an occasional bullet whizzing over or a shell going back to the billets. 1 Fritz, who is about 300 yards away, stuck up a notice one day 'Advance Australia, If you can.' Things had been quiet like this ever since the Australians arrived until the third night after I got hero. Then they started.

It was just dark, and I had gone down to the end of the company to see that they were standing to arms, and was talking to the sergeant, watching them drop a couple of

shells on one of our saps? Then I saw a bomb coming and we ducked, and then a shell,

and we slipped into the shelter of one of the bays in the front trench. After that they

lifted the lid off Hades. Bombs, rifle grenades, shells, coalboxes, Weary Willies, and whizz- bangs were all bursting at once. They made some noise, but the thing that impressed me most was the tearing, rending sound they made, like gigantic hail tearing along before a thousand-mile-an-hour gale through an orchard. Then in the middle of the rumpus word came that a machine-gun near us in the next company had lost their magazine. We had some empty bays between us and our reserve gun, so I had to hop along. You would have laughed at me doing the snake act close up against the front wall, and every now and again, flopping into a pool of green, slimy water, and then, when I hit a traverse, where there was no bank in rear, waiting till I heard one burst, and then flying round. When I finally got to the machine-gun place I found that the crew of the gun which had been blown out had come along before me with their gun.

I finished up the rest of the show in the M.G. dug-out. After the bombardment was over I

had to go along to B Company, near to ours, and see how they were. It was tough

going; there were hardly any duck-boards (these are the wooden footways raised above

the mud) left, and two or three times I fell down holes two or three feet deep. I got

rather a shock when I switched on my torch and on looking up found no parapet between

me and the Germans-blown clean away-and fully expected some shots at the light. Things

were in a deuce of a mess there-parapet and dug-outs and everything mere heaps of earth.

This was Ferguson's company. (He is now a captain.) Naturally I had no time to yarn

with him. The three officers with him were 'outed'-one missing and two badly wounded,

and he also had about 60 men badly wounded. We were lucky, as we had only two killed and eight wounded in the trench, and three killed and about half a dozen wounded elsewhere.

They did not quite have our range; a lot of stuff just cleared the parapets, and a lot

went low down in front, and rocked the whole show like a ship in a rough sea. There is

very little talk of Gallipoli now. Our division reckon we got more shells that night than they got the whole time at Gallipoli. I was rather anxious for a time, as, when they lifted their range on to our supports, and shut off their machine-guns, we made sure they were coming.

Instead of this, they started sending up flares by the dozen. I had not heard our artillery,

but learned afterwards that they put in over 4000 shells, and Fritz was evidently very much afraid we were going to counter-attack. Anyway, we got relieved last night, and I have my platoon in a nice, quiet, peaceful place in the supports all round the edge of a cemetery, while the others are back in billets."

He was wounded and died from the gunshot wounds he received in action. His records show he was in charge of the Gordon dump near Pozieres, Somme when a Mills grenade exploded in a bag which he was placing in the truck. He was badly wounded in the stomach and thigh and died shortly after at the 6th Australian Field Ambulance Station.

He is buried at the Becourt Military Cemetery, Picardie, France 1 ½ miles east of Albert at the time known as the Gordon Cemetery.

A portion of a letter from his commander was printed in Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate Wednesday 18 October 1916 p 7 paying tribute to Myrton’s sacrifice.

"Your eldest son died of gunshot wounds in the jaw, in the 6th Australian Field

Ambulance on the 27th July. I find he was regarded as a very gallant officer, full

of courage and initiative, and that he had a fine future before him. Unfortunately

these are the sort of chaps that we are losing, and Australia will be for ever poorer for such losses."

From his service records

I have previously written about his brother Herbert Trangmar Allan and his esteemed career in both World War I and II.

It must’ve been tough for father Percy Allen who was a civil engineer and Assistant Director General of Public Works to see his youngest son Keith enlisting age 20 only two months after Myrton’s death and with Herbert still fighting.

Keith goes to war

There’s probably no stopping those who have been in Junior Cadets at school from wanting to sign up when old enough. Keith Trangmar Allan b 1896 enlisted on 13 September 1916 after obtaining his parents’ consent as a private in the 20th Infantry 19th reinforcement and left our shores on 7/2/1917 on HMAT Wiltshire. After marching He served in France and Belgium was invalided to England with Traumatic Neuromimesis (Shell Shock wound)

Keith returned as a Lance Corporal to Australia on 13/12/1918.  Keith later went to went to New Guinea to work with his older brother through the 1920s. He married Joslyn Kendray Castleton on 26 February 1927 in Rabaul, New Guinea and later returned to Australia to be a farmer and grazier at Inverell.  

Due to his previous experience in New Guinea and previous war service he re-enlisted during WWII when war spread to the Pacific theatre of war in New Guinea.  Although unfit for active service he served with ANGAU- Australian New Guinea Administrative Unit, which was an Australian Army unit that was formed on 21 March 1942 during World War II and was responsible for the civil administration of the Territory of Papua and the Mandated Territory of New Guinea. This was a highly regarded unit, it’s major responsibility of the unit was to organize the resources of land and labour for the war effort by recruiting, organising and supervising local labour for the Australian and American Forces which entailed the infamous “Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels”. He was stationed around Port Moresby, New Ireland and New Hanover.

After the Pacific action Keith returned to Australia as a Lieutenant and Acting Sergeant to his property “Stirling” in Inverell. He died in 1964 and is buried at Inverell Cemetery.