25. WW1 – Sgt S.A. Webb
2247 Sergeant Stuart Allan WEBB
Saluting their Service - Grahame Old
Introduction
The following letter was printed in the Collie Mail in March 1917;
Collie Mail (Perth, WA : 1914 -1918). Saturday 31 March 1917 page 2.
Mrs S A Webb, late of Cardiff, WA and now of Neath, NSW, has received the following letter from Company Sergeant Major G A Walker, 28th Infantry Battalion AIF:
“I want to sincerely sympathise with you, Mrs Webb, over your great loss in my best pal, Stuart; but now, keep up a very brave heart, for we have the greatest of hopes in his being taken prisoner. He was wounded and was put away safely in an underground dug-out until night, when the stretcher bearers would be able to take him out. Well, just at dusk, the Germans attacked, and we were driven out of the trench, and there is no doubt that they would find him there wounded and take him prisoner. We all here are living in hopes that such is the case. I will take this opportunity of telling you, Mrs Webb, of the high esteem in which your husband was held by all ranks in this battalion. He was one of the best sergeants in C Company.”
Company Sergeant Major Walker’s letter of hope to Mrs Webb proved correct, when Sergeant Stuart Webb was listed as a Prisoner of War in a German POW list received in London in march 1917. One can only imagine the joy of Mrs Stuart when officially told her husband was alive in Germany. This story looks at the war service of Collie Boy Stuart Alan Webb.
Stuart Webb was born in 1890 in the town of ESK, QLD. He and wife, Annie May, moved to the bustling mining community of Cardiff, near Collie WA, prior to the outbreak of WW1. Like many of his fellow miners he enlisted into the Army for the ‘great adventure’ in July 1915. After training at Blackboy Hill he was posted to the 28th Battalion 4th reinforcements, joining the battalion in January 1916 in Egypt after the disastrous Gallipoli campaign. In March 1916 he found himself sailing to France and the battlefields of the Western front.
The 28th Battalion took part in its first major battle at Pozieres in June/July/August 1916, another disastrous battle for Australian forces with 23,000 battle casualties (7,000 killed in action). The ‘father’ of the Australian War Memorial Charles bean reported that Pozieres Ridge “is more densely sown with Australian sacrifice than any other place on earth”.
Stuart Webb was among the wounded, he had been promoted to Corporal in March 1916 and then Acting Sergeant in June 1916, three days later he was wounded in action with shell wounds to the thigh and buttocks. He was hospitalised for the next two months before returning to his battalion in September 1916 and promoted to Sergeant.
After Pozieres the 28th Battalion had been rested and brought back up to strength in a quieter sector of the front in Belgium. The battalion was then returned to the south in October to take part in the confused and costly battle of Flers in the Somme valley. The Somme battlefields had been deluged with rain making attacks by the allies against entrenched German forces a costly exercise. Attacking troops were sucked down by the mud and became easy targets for German machine gunners and riflemen. It was here on 16 November 1916 that Stuart Webb was again badly wounded with shrapnel wounds to the thighs and shoulder; stretcher bearers carried him back to safety to await medical evacuation. He was rested in a dug out however German forces counter attacked and re-took the trenches forcing the Australians to withdraw. Sgt Webb was left in in the trench and later reported missing in action. In February 1917 he was officially listed as a POW by the German Red Cross.
Red Cross missing in action and POW reports on 2247 Sgt S A Webb follow:
9/02/1917
London- From German List dated 25/01/1917- ” Missing 16-18/11/1916- Prisoner of War- Wounded – Shrapnel wound of Right Shoulder and Thigh. Interred at Krgs. Lazarett 5, Cambrai “.
10/02/1917
Informant Pte. A. Bayle, 4376, 28th AIF D Company, 3rd London General Hospital Wandsworth - ”Informant says Webb was brought down into a German dug-out which the 28th had taken to wait for the Ambulance to take him to Hospital. Meanwhile the Trench was re-taken by the enemy, and so far as informant knows Webb was not removed from the dugout, so there is a possibility he may be a prisoner, or the Germans may have killed him. This was at Flers. Eyewitness - He was in the attack. Description- Dark, Tallish, very nice chap “.
12/02/1917
Informant- Pte. John Coleman, 4089, 28th Battalion AIF A Company, Ford Hospital Devonport- ”The Germans attacked, and retook a trench on November 14, 1916, between Guedecourt and Le Transloy. The stretcher bearers had put Pte. Webb in a dugout, as he had a broken leg, so when the Germans retook that trench, they must have taken Webb prisoner, for neither he, nor the wounded German with him were there when we again took the trench “.
Stuart Webb was repatriated to London from Germany on 19 December 2018, he was hospitalized in England before being returned to Australia in September 1919 and was discharged medically unfit in November 1919. Stuart Webb died on the 30th of June 1964 aged 74 years, he is buried in the Sandgate Cemetery Newcastle NSW. His wife Annie May died several years later and is buried alongside Stuart.
‘Lest We Forget’