Former resident and Finley High School teacher Graeme Hosken will return to Finley in April to launch his book titled Finley and the Great War.
Hold tight - we’re checking permissions before loading more content
The book launch will take place at the Finley RS Club on Sunday, April 23 at 2.30pm.
Graeme spent more than 13 years in Finley as a social science teacher.
He met and married Helen Telfer, a home science teacher, and they began their family.
His latest book covers the history of 81 men who enlisted from Finley, of which 14 were born and bred here.
It also tells of post-war Finley, the opening and allocation of soldier settlements in the Blighty area between 1918 and 1923 and what is now known as the RSL between 1919 and 1939.
A grant of $3000 was applied for and received to assist with the production and printing of the book.
Further information can be obtained, and pre-orders made by contacting Graeme on 0488 574 622.
As a teaser for the upcoming book, Graeme has provided the following piece on local soldier Private Claude Gedye, who served with the AIF 23rd Battalion.
•••
The war has taken toll of another locally-reared lad in Claude Gedye, the second son of Mr and Mrs Leonard Gedye, formerly of the Grand Central Hotel, Cobram.
Buller, as he was called by his schoolmates here, was not out of his teens when he joined the colours, and had not been long in the fighting zone when the end came.
He was born in Finley, where his childhood days were spent, but afterwards resided in this town for several years and finally enlisted from Yarra Glen. His parents have the sincere sympathy of numerous friends in this district. (Source: Cobram Courier, August 1, 1918).
Claude Gedye was born in Finley on June 26, 1897, to Leonard and Mary Gedye. He was educated in Finley, Cobram and at Hassett’s Coaching College, Prahran.
When Claude enlisted on August 22, 1917, his father, Leonard, was publican of the Grand Hotel, Yarra Glen, and Claude was working as a plumber in the same area.
Claude had six months military training in the senior cadets and had served for 18 months in the 50th Battalion (Militia).
He was aged 20 years and one month when he volunteered and stood 5’5¼” tall with a weight of 128lb and chest measurement of 33-36 inches.
Claude had fresh complexion, blue eyes and brown hair. His religious denomination was Church of England.
Claude was given a farewell at Yarra Glen on 15 September, 1917:
Pte Claude Gedye, son of Mr L Gedye, of the Grand Hotel, was tendered a send-off in the Victoria Hall on Saturday night last. Cr. C Bath, JP, occupied the chair. Mr Cunningham Brown apologised for the absence of Mr and Mrs Gedye. During the evening dancing and games were interspersed with songs and musical and elocutionary items. During the evening the chairman, in a very appropriate speech, presented Pte Gedye with a suitably inscribed wallet, and his remarks were supported by Constable Ramsay. Supper was then served, and dancing was again indulged in. Items were rendered during the evening. (Source: The Lilydale Express, September 21, 1917).
Two days before embarking on November, 21 1917, Claude was allocated to the 20th Reinforcements to the 23rd Battalion (6th Brigade/2nd Division). He sailed on HMAT A71 Nestor from Melbourne and disembarked at Suez, Egypt, on December 15. After a little over three weeks in Egypt, the reinforcements boarded HT Abbassia on January 8, 1918, and arrived in Taranto, Italy, on January 13.
Though not stated in his file, Claude probably entrained for the French coast, where his draft would have boarded a boat for Southampton, where they arrived on January 23, 1918.
On the same day that Claude arrived at the 6th Training Battalion at Fovant, an ‘A’ was added to his regimental number due to duplication with another member of the 23rd Battalion.
On February 25, 1918, Claude was admitted to the 2nd Australian Auxiliary Hospital at Southall with laryngitis and bronchitis. He was discharged back to the 6th Training Battalion on March 19 and proceeded to France from Folkestone on April 23.
After two days at the New Zealand Base Depot at Etaples (April 24-26), Claude marched out to join the 23rd Battalion. He was taken on strength on May 3, 1918.
Private Gedye was wounded in action at Le Hamel on July 4, 1918, receiving shrapnel to his right shoulder, and was admitted to the 6th Australian Field Ambulance.
On July 4, he was conveyed to the 47th Casualty Clearing Station, where Claude died of his wounds on July 8, 1918. He was buried in the Croupy British Cemetery, 10 miles north west of Amiens, in Plot III, Row E, Grave 3.
In April 1919, Bertha Gedye (Claude’s sister) signed for her brother’s personal effects which had been returned on the Austral Glen.
The package contained one wrist disc, a YMCA wallet, photos, letters, cards, a diary, metal mirror, a looking glass, one metal star, a gold boomerang, threepenny piece and a jug purse.
Leonard Gedye signed for his late son’s Memorial Scroll on July 9, 1921, Memorial Plaque on November 15, 1922, and Victory Medal and British War Medal on June 4, 1923.
When the Gedye family composed the epitaph for Claude’s headstone in 1921, Mr Gedye had submitted one that was longer than the maximum allowed length of 66 letters and spaces.
He was advised of this by Base Records Office, but did not reply to their letter, hence the requested epitaph was going to be abbreviated. According to the IWGC’s paperwork from the 1920s, the epitaph to be engraved on the headstone was going to be ‘In memory of our dead son who died in defence of King & country. These are the words on his headstone today.
Columnist