Bishop, Arthur

2570 Private Arthur Bishop - 1st Pioneer Battalion AIF

Arthur was born on the 4th March 1893 in Toodyay WA to Anthony and Emma Bishop. One of eight siblings, William (1880), Alfred (1882), Albert (1884), James (1886), Annie (1888), Adelaide (1890) and Alexander (1897).

In 1914 he was living and working at 235 High Street Fremantle (later renumbered 189 High St) and was working as a motor driver.

Arthur enlisted into the Australian Imperial Force on the 23rd June 1915 and was accepted as fit for service. The medical examiner recorded his physical attributes as;

Height - 5 feet 5 inches tall;

Weight - 128lbs;

Chest Measurement - 33-35 inches;

Complexion - Dark;

Eyes - Brown;

Hair - Black.

Upon his successful enlistment, Arthur was sent to Blackboy Hill Camp where he was assigned to the 8th Reinforcements to the 11th Battalion AIF. He had a few months of training in WA with this group but on the 1st September 1915 entrained down to Fremantle Harbour where they boarded the transport ship HMAT Anchises in Fremantle Harbour and set sail for Egypt.

After their arrival in Egypt Arthur was sent into the AIF reinforcements camp but did not remain there long as by October 1915 he was on Gallipoli though he was soon evacuated to Lemnos Island in December 1915.

With Gallipoli being evacuated Arthur and the 11th Battalion returned to Egypt in January 1916. They then trained for the next few months in the Egyptian desert.

On the 11th March 1916 Arthur was transferred to a new unit called the 1st Pioneer Battalion. The Pioneer's could be utilised as infantry but their main role was in construction and maintenance of front lines, communication trenches and rear areas. On the 26th March 1916 the 1st Pioneer Battalion was sent to France, disembarking at Marseilles on the 2nd April 1916. 

The men were then entrained north to the Armentieres region. The 1st Pioneers would have their first experience of the Western Front near Bois Greiner and Fleurbaix. They would be in this region from April to June, then then 1st Australian Division was sent to the Somme battlefield.

From mid July 1916 the 1st Pioneer Battalion were making preparations for the infantry attack on Pozieres village. The infantry attack went ahead on 23rd July 1916 and captured the village. Arthur was wounded when shrapnel hit him in the foot and he was evacuated to the 1st Australian Field Ambulance. He was then taken to the 3rd Casualty Clearing Station where after further treatment, he was put on an ambulance for the French town of Rouen and was admitted to No.8 General Hospital.

After a few days here Arthur was transferred to England. He was then admitted to Graylingwell War Hospital. He remained here till the 2nd September 1916 and was then released from hospital and he went to No.1 Command Depot Camp at Perham Downs.

Arthur was soon transferred to the Pioneer Training Camp at Larkhill. On the 23rd November 1916 Arthur took four days of unofficial leave and after reporting back to camp on the 27th November 1916, he was fined 14 days pay and was given 168 hours detention.

On the 2nd December 1916 Arthur again went absent without leave but this time did not return until he was arrested by civil police at Nottingham on the 6th June 1917. He was then court martialed for his long absence and was sentenced to years imprisonment with hard labour. He was then sent to Chelmsford detention barracks.

It appears that Arthur only had to serve a month or so in the detention barracks as he got married on the 8th August 1917 at All Saints Parish Church Springfield Essex England to Doris Mary Wildman (Nee Page). Doris was from Nottingham which explains why he had been in this area. Doris was a widow whose husband had been killed earlier in the war and already had a son.

After his marriage it appears Arthur was returned to the Pioneer Training Camp and was sent back to France in November 1917. When he rejoined the 1st Pioneer Battalion on the 22nd November 1917 they were then situated near Ypres in Belgium. The 1st Pioneers spent the 1917/18 Belgian winter south east of Ypres near Hollebeke. Arthur had a spell in hospital ill in January 1918 but was otherwise with his unit.

As a result of the German breakthrough on March 21st 1918 on the Somme, the Australian Divisions began to be sent south from Belgium. The 1st Australian Division was the last of the divisions to leave and had just reached Amiens when news came through of another German breakthrough from the front they had just departed from, so the 1st Australian Division were returned to Northern France to help stem this breakthrough.

Along with British units, the 1st Australian Division helped stop this German advance in the Hazebrouck and Nieppe Forrest sector of northern France. Through April till July 1918 Arthur was with the 1st Pioneer Battalion as they constructed defences and trenches in this sector.

In August 1918 Edward and the 1st Australian Division were sent to join the other Australian Divisions on the Somme near Amiens. Arthur got into trouble on the 8th August 1918 for going into Amiens without permission.

A large advance took place from the Villers-Bretonneux front on the 8th August 1918. The 1st Australian Division advanced on the 9th August to further the gains already made.

Arthur and the 1st Pioneers were in constant action from August 9th to September 18th when they were pulled out of the line for a rest.  Arthur was given Leave to England on the 27th October 1918 and was there when the Armistice was announced, but he returned to his unit on the 13th November 1918.

When the Armistice was announced on 11th November 1918 the 1st Pioneers were making preparations to return to the front, but instead they were soon sent to Belgium, to what had been German occupied areas for the last four years. The 1st Pioneers were in the Charleroi area.

On the 19th January 1919 Arthur returned to England and was sent to the AIF Camp at Sutton Veny. Arthur would not wait to be assigned a berth on a troopship home but as he had a wife, step son and a new son born in 1919 called Arthur, a berth for all four of them on the same ship would take a while.

On the 21st June 1919 Athur and his family boarded the transport ship Kongin Louise and set sail for Australia, disembarking in Fremantle on the 3rd August 1919.

Arthur was discharged from the AIF on the 17th September 1919.

After their return home the family moved to Cottesloe at a house on the corner of Broome and Perth-Fremantle Road.

Another son Raymond was born in 1920 and a daughter Enid in 1925.

After his return home his father Anthony died in Fremantle on the 19th September 1919.

In 1920 the family were living at Eric Street Cottesloe where they lived for the next thirteen years though the couple were divorced in 1933.

In 1936 Athur was given custody of two children while one stayed with ex wife;

On the 1st August 1936 he married Helen Turnock and they took up residence at 32 York St Subiaco. During this time Arthur was working as a motor engineer.

In 1937 they moved down to Mt Barker near Albany and Arthur was still working as a motor mechanic. They moved to Maylands in 1940

Arthur served again in World War Two, service number W40236, serving in 1941 before being discharged as medically unfit.

Arthur died on the 23rd May 1966 at Hollywood Hospital aged 73. He was cremated at Karrakatta Cemetery.