Private Gordon Nicholson (51st Battalion)

Gordon Nicholson was born in 1887 in Cottesloe, Western Australia, to John William and Mary Jane nee Kitson. John died when Gordon was eight, and he was working as a painter and still living with his mother in Loma Street, Cottesloe, when he enlisted on 17 August 1915, aged 28.

Initially assigned as a private in the 28th Battalion, Gordon was promoted to sergeant in December and embarked at Fremantle on 12 February 1916 on Miltiades, bound for Egypt. On arrival he reverted to the rank of private and on 2 April 1916, was taken on strength with the 51st Battalion. After two more months spent training, on 5 June 1916 he embarked in Alexandria on Ivernia for Marseilles, arriving on 12 June.

Gordon fought in the Battle of Mouquet Farm from 10 August and died between 14-16 August. The Australian War Memorial notes “few military historians have felt all this was a price worth paying... Even Charles Bean, Australia’s official historian, and generally charitable towards those in high command, could find nothing positive to say about Mouquet Farm.”

Bean wrote, “the scheme of operations ran at great cost… until, like some clumsy machine, it came groaning to a halt in front of Mouquet Farm. The last seven efforts to restart it, undertaken with vast labour and devotion, had resulted in only one or two jerks of the wheels, grinding out through mud and blood a few yards of almost valueless advance.”

Indeed, Gordon was just one of 2049 Australian casualties at Mouquet Farm.

A number of friends and family, including his mother, Mary, acknowledged Gordon’s loss with annual, poetic, heartfelt memorial notices. In time Mary received his personal effects including a first aid book, military books, notepads, photos, some handkerchiefs and a scarf.

Gordon's body was never recovered and his name is on the memorial at Villers Bretonneux.

Two of Gordon's older siblings, his brother Joseph and his sister Violet, named their sons after their beloved brother lost in WWI; John Gordon Nicholson was Joseph’s only son and Gordon, Violet’s firstborn son. Neither lived to old age. John Gordon was lost in a flying accident in Townsville during WWII, aged 21, and Gordon in Cottesloe in 1973, aged 48.