Blain, Joseph William

2049 Private Joseph William Blain - 44th Battalion AIF

Joseph William Blain was born in Malinmore Donegal Ireland on the 13th December 1892 to Robert and Margaret Blain. He had a younger sister called Ellen born in 1896. Joseph was educated locally as the family continued to live at Malinmore Donegal.

Joseph and his sister Ethel came to Western Australia on the 4th January 1913 aboard the ship SS Armadale.

By 1915 he was living at a boarding house at 275 High St Fremantle and was working as a Collecting agent.

Joseph Married in 1916 to Annie Louisa Prout and they moved to 7 Mandurah Road South Fremantle.

On the 31st January 1916 Joseph enlisted into the Australian Imperial Force and was accepted as fit for service. The medical examiner recorded his physical attributes as;

Height - 5 feet 8 inches tall;

Weight - 127lbs;

Chest Measurement - 32-36 inches;

Complexion - Fresh;

Eyes - Blue;

Hair - Brown.

Upon his successful enlistment he was sent to Claremont Camp and was assigned to No.66 Training Depot. After a few weeks he was then transferred into the 3rd Reinforcements to the 44th Battalion AIF. He trained with this group at Claremont Camp until the 10th October 1916 when their embarkation orders arrived and they entrained for Fremantle Harbour where they boarded the transport ship HMAT Suffolk. The ship then set sail for England, reaching Plymouth on the 2nd December 1916. The men were then disembarked and were sent to the 11th Training Battalion on the Salisbury Plains.

Joseph trained in England for the next few months. On the 25th February 1917 he was sent across to France where he was sent to the 3rd Australian Division Base Depot at Etaples. However a few days after joining he was sent to an isolation camp as he had fallen ill. He was sent to the 26th General Hospital at Etaples and was diagnosed with jaundice. He remained in hospital in France till the 18th May 1917 and was then returned to England.

Upon arrival in England Joseph was sent to the 3rd London General Hospital and he was a patient here from the 20th May to 6th July 1917. He was then sent to the 3rd Australian Auxiliary Hospital where he spent another week. On the 13th July 1917 he was then given a two week furlough and was supposed to report into the No.2 Command Depot Camp on the 27th July. However, during his leave he went to Ireland and again became ill and was admitted to a hospital in Londonderry. He was a patient there for a few weeks but eventually made it to No.2 Command Depot Camp at Weymouth on the 21st August 1917.

In September 1917 Joseph was transferred to No.4 Command Depot Camp at Codford and in October was transferred to the Overseas Training Brigade Camp at Longbridge Deverell. On the 27th November 1917 Joseph was sent back to France and went to the 3rd Australian Division Base Depot Camp at Rouelles.

On the 28th November 1918 he was taken on strength of the 44th Battalion AIF. From December 1917 to March 1918 the 44th Battalion were holding the front line positions in Belgium south east of Ypres.

On the 1st February 1918 Joseph was evacuated sick with influenza. He was sent to the 11th Field Ambulance and then the 2nd Australian Casualty Clearing Station. He was then admitted to the 2nd Canadian Stationary Hospital. He remained there till the 17th February 1918 and was then sent to England. As well as the influenza he was also diagnosed with severe asthma.

On arrival in England Joseph was sent to Bethnall Green Military Hospital. On the 8th March 1918 hew as then transferred to the 3rd Australian Auxiliary Hospital. On the 15th March 1918 Joseph was transferred to No.3 Command Depot Camp. Due to his health not being well enough to return to France, Joseph was retain in this camp for the next six months.

On the 13th September 1918 he was sent to the 1st Australian Dermatological Hospital with venereal disease. He remained in this hospital till the 10th December 1918.

He was then sent to No.1 Command Depot Camp until March 1919. He was given a berth on a transport ship early in 1919 but did not embark though the records are sparse on detail as to what Joseph was doing in England for the remainder of 1919.

On the 18th December 1919 Joseph finally embarked on the transport ship Kongin Louise and set sail for home, reaching Fremantle on the 28th January 1920. After his arrival he was sent to No.8 Australian General Hospital in South Terrace Fremantle for a medical check up.

Joseph was discharged from the AIF on the 13th March 1920.

After his return home to his wife at 7 Mandurah Road, (now 234 South Tce?) he found employment with Fremantle prison as a warder and then they moved to 87 Holdsworth Street Fremantle (later renamed 7 Holdsworth).

In 1927 Joseph helped to stop a prison escape. As reported in the Geraldton Express on the 26th January 1927;

Joseph William Blain, a warder, who came on duty at 0 o'clock- in the morning, said that when walking towards the boiler house he saw a man's head near the cowyard. Further along he saw another head, and on investigating found the two accused. Thompson was in the act of throwing a chain over the prison wall. The chain fell back to the ground. The accused also had with them an iron hook, and some pieces of piping. When he called out to them the two men ran back to the

boiler house.

Help soon arrived for Joseph and the two escapees were returned to their cells.

A daughter Shirley was born in 1927 and then Joseph secured work at Albany at Pardelup Prison Farm near Mt Barker.

Joseph worked as a warder here until his sudden death on the 10th December 1938. The Southern Sentinel newspaper in Mt Barker published an obituary;

Obituary

THE LATE MR. J. W. BLAIN.

Mr. Joseph William Blain, Officer-in-Charge Pardelup Prison Farm Mt. Barker died on Saturday last at the Mt Barker District Hospital after a brief illness, at the age of 46 years. Born in County Donegal, Ireland, Mr. Blain came to this State 26 j ears ago. He served in France with the 44th Battalion from 1916 until the Armistice and on his return to this
State he joined the Prisons Department and had been in the service for the last 19 years. For 11 years of this period he was at Pardelup Prison Farm and for the last six years had been officer-in charge. Mr. Blain was very popular within and without the service and highly respected by
all classes of the community. The funeral cortege moved from the residence of the Superintendent of the Fremantle Prison, Mr. D. R. Jones, 10 The Terrace, Fremantle, yesterday afternoon and proceeded
to the local cemetery, where the remains were interred in the Church of
England portion. Canon E. M. Collick, who was formerly chaplain of the 44th. officiated at the graveside. At the conclusion of the service, Bugler Beasey, R.A.A., sounded the last post and reveille. 

Joseph was buried at Fremantle Cemetery plot Anglican Mon A6 0404. His wife Annie lived until 1976 and was then buried with Joseph.

(Joseph's photo courtesy of the Blain family ancestry page)