Craddom, Joseph

No.1734 – Private Joseph Craddom – 11^th Battalion AIF

Joseph Craddom was born in Perth WA in 1890 to Mr and Mrs M Craddom. He was educated locally and after leaving school took up an apprenticeship in tinsmith under the tutelage of F Instone of Fremantle. Joe completed his 6 years of being an apprentice and continued working in this field. Joe also spent 4 years in the 11^th Australian Infantry Regiment. The electoral roll for 1910 shows him living at 120 Quarry Street Fremantle.

On the 18^th January 1915 Joe went to the Perth recruitment office and offered his services to the AIF. He was accepted as fit with the medical examiner finding him to be 5 feet 5 & ¼ inches tall, weight of 115 lbs; chest measurement of 33-35 inches; fresh complexion; blue eyes and black hair. His religious denomination was Roman Catholic. After spending a month in the depot camp Joe was allotted to the 4^th Reinforcements to the 11^th Battalion AIF. He trained with this group in WA until the 19^th April 1915 when they embarked from Fremantle on the H.M.A.T. “Argyllshire”. They arrived in Egypt in the middle of May but did not stay long as they were sent straight on to Gallipoli. Joe was taken on strength of the 11^th Battalion at Anzac Cove on the 4^th June 1915.

On the 26^th June Joe was evacuated sick with influenza, he was firstly sent to Lemnos Island and then further back to Alexandria in Egypt. He took a few weeks to recover and was finally well enough to rejoin the 11^th Battalion on Gallipoli on the 24^th August 1915. On the 11^th September 1915 he was admitted to hospital with diarrhoea and was transferred to hospital in Port Said Egypt. The rest of 1915 was spent in hospitals in Egypt while he recovered from dysentery.

Joe spent the first 7 months of 1916 in the Base Details Camp, where he had been on the Headquarters guard. On the 2^nd August 1916 he left Alexandria bound for England where he marched into the AIF Depot in the UK. He would spend 1917 in England at both the AIF Depot and No.1 Command Depot. On the 27^th December 1917 he arrived at Southampton for the journey across to France. After only a couple of days in the infantry depot at Le Havre, Joe marched out to join the 11^th Battalion AIF, being officially taken on strength on the 2^nd January 1918. The 11^th Battalion were then in Belgium holding the line in newly captured territory, which was very wet and muddy. They would be in this vicinity until March when the Germans launched their massive Spring offensive. The 1^st Division was just sent down to the Somme in early April to try and stem the German breakthrough when they were immediately recalled to the north as the Germans had just broken through up there.

Sent to the region around Hazebrouck, the 1^st Division would stay in this region from April to July 1918 during which time they halted the German advance and began to recapture some of the German gains. On the 23^rd June 1918 Joe was badly hit by a shell, suffering severe wounds and a fractured skull. He was admitted to the 1^st Australian Casualty Clearing Station where he died the same day. He was buried at Longuenesse St Omer Souvenir Cemetery in plot V.B.82. After his death notices were put in the West Australian newspaper from his family.