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Anderson, Silas

1891 Private Silas Anderson - 28th Battalion AIF

Silas Anderson was born on 16th March 1888 in Fremantle Western Australia to Alfred and Emily Anderson. He had three siblings, Percy (1890), Albertina (1894) and Alfred (1900).

The family initially lived King Street East Fremantle before moving to 172 Hampton Road (later renumbered 98 Hampton). During this time Silas was working for Fremantle Municipal Council. Sadly in 1911 Silas's younger brother Percy died.

Silas then moved to 152 Hubble Street East Fremantle in 1915 and then 125 King Street (Later renumbered to 63 King Street) and his father was still living here when Silas enlisted.

On the 25th June 1915 Silas enlisted into the Australian Imperial Force. He was found to be fit for enlistment with the medical examiner recording his physical attributes as;

Height - 5 feet 6 & 3/4 inches tall;

Weight - 130lbs;

Chest Measurement - 33-35 inches;

Complexion - Dark;

Eyes - Grey;

Hair - dark;

Distinctive marks - Tattoos- Man and P Anderson on left upper arm; Girl and clasped hands and heart on left fore arm; flags and ship right upper arm, snake and pierced heart, girl reclining and another girl right fore arm.

Upon his successful enlistment, Silas was sent to Blackboy Hill Camp and was assigned to the 3rd Reinforcements to the 28th Battalion.

He trained with this group in WA for the next few months but their embarkation orders soon came through and Silas embarked from Fremantle aboard the HMAT Anchises on the 2^nd September 1915.

Silas arrived in Egypt just over three weeks later but he hardly had any time there as he was quickly packed off to the Dardanelles. Even though the 28^th Battalion had arrived after the August battles they were losing a steady stream of men to sickness and Turkish fire so reinforcements were needed.

Silas arrived at Anzac on the 12^th October 1915. The 28^th Battalion were stationed in the northern sector at Cheshire Ridge. Silas survived the last few months of the Gallipoli campaign and evacuated with his battalion in December 1915. They then returned to Egypt in January 1916.

Silas and the 28th Battalion only had tow more months in Egypt as on the 16th March 1916 they departed for France, arriving at Marseilles on the 21st March 1916. After being disembarked Silas and his unit were entrained for Northern France. They would be sent to the Armentieres sector where they would have their first experience of the Western Front.

From April to June 1916 the 28th Battalion were in the line near Bois Greiner and Fleurbaix. On the 21st May 1916 Silas was wounded when shrapnel struck him in the leg. He was evacuated to hospital in France but after a week was shipped to England where he was then admitted to the 3rd Northern General Hospital. It was a serious wound and he remained in hospital for the next few months.

Silas was only released from hospital in October 1916. He was then sent to No.1 Command Depot Camp at Perham Downs. He spent the next several weeks in this camp while he regained his fitness. On the 27th November 1916 Silas was then granted a two week furlough but he might have enjoyed himself a bit to much. After reporting back to camp in December 1916, Silas was diagnosed with venereal disease and was then sent to the 1st Australian Dermatological Hospital at Bulford. Silas remained a patient here until the 2nd March 1917.

He then returned to No.1 Command Depot Camp at Perham Downs. Silas then got into trouble for using a fake leave pass and was subsequently court martialled and fined 79 days pay.

After a few months at No.1 Command Depot Camp Silas it appeared Silas's wound meant that the medical authorities would not let him return to his unit in France. Instead in July 1917 Silas was transferred for duty with the Australian Red Cross Section at AIF Headquarters at Horseferry Road in London. Silas continued this work for the remainder of the war, and continued after the Armistice on the 11th November 1918.

On the 4th June 1919 in Bermondsey St Mary Magdalene Church, Silas got married to 18 year old Gladys Irene Marlow. (pictured above).

They initially took up residence at 6 Aberdour Street Tower Bridge Road Bermondsey London. A daughter Gladys was born in London in 1919.

On the 2nd December 1919, Silas, Gladys and new daughter Gladys boarded the transport ship Shropshire and sailed for Australia. The ship arrived at Port Melbourne on the 13th January 1920 and the family then had to get another ship to return home to Fremantle.

After arriving back in Fremantle, Silas was given a medial assessment at No.8 Australian General Hospital in South Terrace Fremantle and was then discharged from the AIF on the 14th April 1920.

After arriving back in WA, the family returned to live at King Street East Fremantle until 1922. During this time another daughter called Gwen was born in 1921. They then moved to Moreing Road and then Swan Street Bicton (later Attadale).

In 1929 Silas became involved in a police chase of an armed suspect called Hall. Harry Hall, a pig farmer had shot and killed two men and shot and wounded another family, including the wife and children. The police chased and soon surrounded him.

As reported by the Truth newspaper;

DID MAGPIE DRIVE MANIAC HALL TO HIS DEATH ?

 
 
HALLS DEATH
A Magpie Drove Him to Death Declares Anderson
DID BIRDS HAVE WEIRD INTENTION?

WILD STORIES HAVE CIRCULATED OF THE MANNER IN WHICH Hall met his death,"

Silas Anderson told "Truth's" Fremantle rep. on Thursday. "It has been said that when he saw police encircling him from all sides he shot himself. The facts, as I saw them are different. My opinion is that it was a magpie that made him pull the trigger which sent a bullet through his mouth into his crazy brain.

I am employed by the Fremantle Council to do sanitary work and on Tuesday morning I returned home after having finished my morning shift. I live in Moreing road Bicton. Approaching my house I saw a motor car coming towards me with Detective Sergeant Fraser and another detective. They stopped and asked me whether I had seen any man running down my way, after I had told them that I lived in the nearby house. I replied that I had seen no one and just at that moment Hall was seen by us running through the bush. "There he goes, Sergeant" the other dec. said. Sergeant Fraser said to me: "See that man? Keep an eye on him; don't let him out of your sight; we'll go across this way and meet him on Canning-road when he comes out."

"Is this the man" I asked. "Yes, watch him, but take no risks," I was told again.

So I followed Hall, keeping at a certain distance. He went towards my house and stopped near the fence, even looking over it, towards my little girl of 10 years, who was in the yard gathering eggs for my breakfast. He then turned away from the fence and walked about three yards towards me and I stepped quickly behind a tree when I saw him loading his revolver. He was then standing not more than 50 yards from me and I saw Detective Sergeant Fraser approaching from the other side. He had his face turned in my direction. At that moment, a magpie, who has its nest nearby, flew at him from the rear and picked his head and in the same time I heard a shot and .saw Hall crumple together in a heap. Hall was dead. I am certain that Hall mistook the magpie for a bullet fired at him. The buzzing noise in flying of this bird is very much like the music made by a whistling bullet and he must have thought that a bullet just grazed his head. Afraid to be shot at and not killed but merely wounded and put out of action, to be hung later, he preferred to do the job himself properly. My little girl ran inside the house and shouted: "Mother, there is a man who shot himself and he has frightened all the pigeons away."

Both Booth and Lamb told "Truth" that magpies flew down on to Hall as he made his way through the bush.

A more matter of fact account was later published in the states newspapers, including the Great Southern Herald;

PALMYRA SHOOTING TRAGEDY.

THREE PERSONS KILLED; FOUR INJURED.

- A terrible tragedy was enacted at Palmyra, a suburb of Perth, on Monday night, when an apparently demented man ran amok with a revolver. He visited two homes, using His gun with deadly effect.

The victims were:—

Dead:

BANKS, ROBERT, aged about 46,

taxi driver, married. Bull's Creek, Palmyra.

BURTON. HARRY, aged about 35. milkman, married.

HALL HARRY, aged about 45, retired farmer.

Injured:

HEPBURN, ARTHUR, poultry farmer. High-road, Palmyra,

married; bullet wounds in body, condition critical

HEPBURN, MRS., bullet wound in neck; in hospital, condition serious.

HEPBURN, CLARENCE MAUD,

aged 8; bullet wound in leg.

HEPBURN. JESSIE, aged 9; grazed bullet wound In leg; she is being treated at the hospital as an out-patient.

According to a police report.

Harry Hall, one or the deceased, was the man responsible for the tragedy.

He, until six months ago, owned a block adjoining that of the Hepburns, which he conducted as a pig farm. He is said to have complained of imaginary grievances and that his belongings were frequently interfered with. In a statement given to the police, Hepburn, who was then in a critical condition, said that late on Monday night he was reading a newspaper in a front room of his house in Bull's Creek-road, with his wife sitting alongside him. Both heard a noise in the kitchen, and his wife went there; then he heard an explosion and his wife's scream, and he ran to the kitchen door. From there he saw Hall standing about 3ft. from the doorway, and as he entered the room Hall fired point blank at him, the bullet entering the lower part of his chest. Hepburn made an attempt to get a weapon to defend himself and his wife, bat Hall fired several shots at him, four of them entering his body. Hepburn heard his little daughter crying, but when he tried to get to her Hall shot him again.

Owing to his weak condition Hepburn was unable to tell the police any more about the happening, but subsequent investigation showed that his wife had been shot in the neck and his daughter in the leg. It appears that after the firing of the last shot at Hepburn, Hall left the house and made his way to that of Banks, which is situated about half a mile away. It was learned that at the time the man, who it is believed was Hall, made his entry to Banks house, Mr. and Mrs. Banks and two of their children were asleep in the same room. Mrs. Banks was awakened by an explosion, bat when she got a light she found that her husband had been shot through the temple. He died soon after arrival at the Fremantle hospital, and he did not speak after he was shot.

Hall must have walked to the top of the bed and held the revolver close to Banks' head. He had gone before Mrs. Banks saw him at close quarters.

Actually no person now living, so far as can be ascertained, saw Hall again until he shot himself, it is believed, in the bush near the Melville Road Board's office on the Canning-road. But at 4.30 a.m. on Tuesday another dead man was found in Waddell road. A milkman on his round noticed another milkman, subsequently Identified as Burton, lying helpless in his cart. A cursory examination was sufficient to show that he was dead. He had been shot through the back at close quarters. However, Hall was not to continue his mad escapade much longer. From Booth's house he made off in to the bush towards the Canning road, and the police party circled the spot in cars. Detective-Sergeant Frazer and Constable Davies approached from one side, and Detective Blight and Constable Campbell from behind the man. Davies then noticed that Hall was loading his revolver and called a warning to Frazer. Frazer then yelled to Hall, "Drop that gun!" Hall took no notice, and for a time it appeared that Hall intended to fight. However, when he saw that he was completely hemmed in, he raised the revolver and shot himself in the temple. When the police got to him he was dead.

Whatever the truth of this tragedy was, Silas and his family were fortunately not to be among the victims. Arthur Hepburn, an ex soldier with the 43rd Bn, survived his wounds.

Silas continued working as a Municipal Council Employee through the 1920's to 1940's, with the family still residing in Swan Road

For a time during World War Two Silas moved to 64 Pakenham street (60-66 Pakenham) in Fremantle and remained there till 1949.

In 1954 the family returned to live at 2 Swan Road Bicton/Attadale.

Silas died on the 12th September 1958 in Attadale aged 73. He was buried at Fremantle Cemetery plot Anglican MON A7 0283.