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Cyril David MC INTYRE
| Rank | Reg/Ser No | DOB | Enlisted | Discharge/Death | Board |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Private | 5491 | 20 | 8 Jun 1915 | 28 Jul 1919 | 2 |
Private Cyril David McIntyre (1895 - 1935)
Father’s Banking Career
In 1915 Mr William McIntyre was transferred from Hobart to Brisbane to take up his appointment as Manager of the Commercial Bank of Australia Limited at 239 Queen Street. His wife, Mrs Isabella McIntyre accompanied him. Their two sons, also bankers, having already enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force, had left the country to serve abroad. Their names - Lieutenant P. W. McIntyre and Private C. D. McIntyre - are on the honour board which was unveiled by Rev. Dr E. N. Merrington on Sunday 10 September 1916.
William McIntyre’s career in banking began in Sydney where he joined the Mercantile Bank of Sydney in 1883. When the Mercantile Bank of Sydney was absorbed by the Commercial Bank of Australia Limited (CBA) in 1892, he was appointed as a branch manager in which capacity he served in Gosford for 12 years, Warracknabeal for seven years, Hobart for five years and Brisbane where he was branch manager of the CBA from 1915 till his retirement in 1927.
Mr W. McIntyre became well known for his commercial activities, particularly while he held the honorary position of president of the Brisbane Chamber of Commerce. In addition to his business interests he was active in freemasonry, church and sporting organisations. He was vice chairman of the committee of management at Saint Andrew’s Presbyterian Church. His first wife, Mrs Isabella McIntyre died in February 1929. Later the same year he married Margaret Crookey in Brisbane. Mr William McIntyre died on 9 October 1934, aged 72 years. His funeral service was held at Saint Andrew’s Presbyterian Church and his body was interred in the Toowong Cemetery.
Early life
Cyril David McIntyre, the younger of two sons of William and Isabella McIntyre, was born in Gosford, New South Wales in 1895, seven years after the birth of his brother Percival. He attended school in Warracknabeal in Victoria and the Friends’ High School in Hobart where he obtained passes at the end of 1912 in the junior public examination conducted by the University of Tasmania. In his late teens, he chose banking as a career just as his father and older brother had done and obtained employment in Hobart as a young banking officer.
Enlistment
In his youth he gained military experience in senior cadets over a three year period but was discharged from this activity on account of ill health. War broke out in early August 1914 and Cyril’s brother promptly joined the Australian Army.
In all probability Cyril McIntyre knew of the idea and formation of the casualty clearing hospital later to be called a casualty clearing station. The No. 1 Australian Casualty Clearing Station (1ACCS) had been raised in Hobart late in 1914 and consisted of 93 men including seven doctors. After some seven weeks of training in camp, the new unit had embarked for Egypt. Keen to serve as a member of the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) as his brother had done, Cyril McIntyre took steps towards joining this newly formed unit by first of all obtaining his father’s written consent as he was only 20 years of age. His father's letter of 3 June 1915 is shown in the photo gallery and read as follows:
“I hereby consent to my son Cyril David McIntyre aged twenty serving with the Australian Imperial Forces – Army medical corps to be trained in nursing duties for convalescent depots England.
Yours faithfully
W. McIntyre” 1
Secondly, he presented himself for medical examination at Claremont in Tasmania on the next day and the examining medical officer considered him fit for active service.
With his father’s permission and an affirming medical certificate, Cyril McIntyre felt encouraged to complete his attestation paper to enlist in the AIF at Hobart on 8 June 1915. He was 5 feet 9 inches (175 cm) in height and weighed 140 lbs (63.5 kg). He gave his religious denomination as Presbyterian and nominated his father as next-of-kin.
At Claremont Army Camp, Tasmania on 6 September 1915, Private C. D. McIntyre, regimental number 5491, was appointed to 9th Reinforcements 1st Australian Clearing Hospital.
Gallipoli
His unit embarked from Melbourne on 15 September 1915 on board SS Makarini, bound for Zeitoun Training Base in Egypt. On 30 October 1915, he landed at Gallipoli and joined 1ACCS on an area of beach about 20 feet by 20 feet (only 6 metres square), operating under extreme pressure, with very limited equipment.
The Casualty Clearing Hospital (Station) was reliant on the piquet boats to transfer casualties to the ships offshore but with the boats being used to land troops or stores the unit often relied on Naval officers who commandeered a large Lighter (which had an awning erected to assist the stretcher cases); a Horse Float (which also had an awning); and ships cutters (which were small and not ideally suited to stretcher cases). Since April, the unit had cleared casualties for two Divisions (about 30,000 men), while being exposed to shrapnel from artillery fire. In the first three days it had treated around 2,100 casualties, working 20 hour days. Inevitably the physical stress and exhaustion took its toll. Within two weeks of the commencement of the operation and thereafter, influenza, dysentery and pleurisy, as well as wounds from shrapnel, took men away from duty, including senior medical officers. On 7th August, after a large attack, 1937 casualties had been evacuated, 400 of whom were lying on the beach when no boats were available to transfer them and no available accommodation could be found on any hospital ships if they could be transferred. After an urgent message for more ships three arrived from Lemnos.
By the middle of August 1ACCS was seriously undermanned. Private McIntyre was amongst reinforcements intended for the unit but delayed in Cairo working at hospitals. By 14 August 1915 the number of non-commissioned officers and men was down to 45. On top of this on 1 July 1ACCS had been linked with 13th CCS (Walkers Beach) and 16th CCS (No. 2 Outpost).
The Medical Control Officer, 1ACCS was Lieutenant Colonel Giblin who had returned to his duties after contracting severe influenza and bronchitis, and was responsible for all evacuations to the hospital ships from Anzac beach.
When Private Cyril McIntyre eventually arrived at 1ACCS at the end of October 1915, freezing conditions and rough seas made treatment and evacuation of sick and wounded extremely difficult. Between 27 and 30 November conditions were so poor that no evacuations were possible. On 13 December Lieutenant Colonel Giblin was transferred to Egypt and Major Campbell took over as commanding officer.
On 19 December all casualties were transferred to 1ACCS and evacuated at 11.10pm. 1ACCS then evacuated the peninsula in 2 groups, the first group evacuating at 2am on the 20th and the final party consisting of 1 Officer, 1 NCO and 6 men departing with the final covering party of 68 men.
Between 25th April and 20th December 1915, a total of 37 100 men were evacuated through No.1 Australian Casualty Clearing Station on Anzac beach. This was an outstanding achievement for a new type of unit, made up of a good officer group and volunteers. The other ranks, mostly from Tasmania and aged in their mid to late twenties, comprised 19 semi-skilled workmen and labourers, 15 skilled tradesmen, six miners, six clerks including Cyril McIntyre, six farmers and graziers, one medical student, seven waiters or servants and nine others.
The men of the 1st Australian Casualty Clearing Station were among the first to land and the last to leave. They embody the Anzac spirit of selfless courage.
Flanders
The Australians returned to Egypt after the evacuation where they prepared to enter the European theatre of war. Private McIntyre left Alexandria on 29 March 1916 for Marseilles on 3 April and arrived at the Western Front at the ‘nursery’ sector in the vicinity of Armentières in French Flanders. He needed hospital treatment for a few days in April because he sprained his ankle while off duty shortly after arrival. 1ACCS opened in May 1916 at Estaires within the command of the British Second Army. In May 1917, 1ACCS moved slightly further north to Bailleul, where it had a busy time during the battle for Messines Ridge, and in July it moved again to Outtersteene, a site near the major railhead at Hazebrouck. Here the work was intense during the mustard gas attacks in the Armentières sector. The CCS itself came under shell fire and on 26th September, a shell fell at the back of the officers’ ward, but fortunately did not explode. The patients were evacuated and the nurses sent to 2ACCS for the afternoon, but returned later. After this, a concrete dug-out was built in the nurses’ compound.
1917
On 18 October 1917, Private McIntyre suffered a fractured metacarpal. He was admitted first to No. 2 Stationary Hospital at Abbeville in France but was sent to the Graylingwell War Hospital at Chichester for treatment, followed by admission to the 3rd Auxiliary Hospital at Dartford before discharge to Hurdcott. He did not return to the Front until July 1918 when the war was turning in the Allies’ favour. During the summer of 1918 when 1ACCS opened up at Blendecques, a few miles out of St Omer, with the nurses billeted in nearby houses. 1ACCS received casualties from the AIF 1st Division raids at Merris and Méteren. Working alongside 2ACCS they dealt with some 8,000 casualties during June and July.
At the beginning of September orders were received to move back to Hondeghem to support the advance of the British Fifth Army, and then again to the south of St Omer at the St Venant Lunatic Asylum. With the fall of Lille at the end of October 1ACCS moved again to Fretin, to Tournai and then the Convent School at Halle until March 1919. Private McIntyre embarked for the United Kingdom from Le Havre on 18 March 1919 and returned to Australia with the nursing staff on board the hospital ship Wyreema.
Post War
Private C. D. McIntyre was discharged from the AIF in Brisbane, where his parents lived, on 28 July 1919. He received the 1914/15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal for his services.
Cyril McIntyre lived with his parents at Boonbyjan in Bowen Terrace then at Mairaki, Adelaide Street, Clayfield. He was employed at first as a clerk but later launched his own advertising business, C. D. McIntyre and Company. He joined Saint Andrew’s Presbyterian Church as an adherent in the year 1920. On 14 September 1927 he married Elsie May Roberts, elder daughter of Mr S. Roberts (of Barry and Roberts department store) and Mrs Roberts, at St John’s Cathedral, Ann Street, Brisbane. Rev. Francis de Witt Batty officiated and Mr George Sampson presided at the organ. The bridegroom’s present to the bride was a diamond and sapphire ring. They spent their honeymoon motoring in the Northern Rivers District of New South Wales.
Cyril and Elsie McIntyre lived at Biarra Street, Yeerongpilly. Cyril was a keen golfer and member of the Brisbane Golf Club. His mother died in 1929. His father who in 1932 had entered into partnership with Cyril in his advertising firm, died in 1934. Cyril did not enjoy good health and died at the early age of 40 years on 9 July 1935. He was survived by his widow and young children, Roderick Noel and Anne. His body is buried in the McIntyre family grave at Toowong Cemetery.
Footnotes
1. Letter dated 3 June 1915, W. McIntyre to The Commandant, Military Forces, Hobart
References
• National Archives of Australia, military records, World War 1
• Australian War Memorial, embarkation rolls, unit histories
• The Official War Diary of No. l Casualty Clearing Station. Ref. AWM 4(26/62], Australian War Memorial
• Australian Electoral Rolls, 1919 – 1972
• Brisbane City Council, cemetery records
• Queensland Register of Births, Deaths and Marriages
• England and Wales Civil Registration Marriage Index, Apr May June 1916, Kensington District, page 436
• Annual Report, 1921, Saint Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, Brisbane, page 42
• Ancestry on line
• The Ryerson Index on line
• Examiner, Launceston, 6 January, 1912, page 9
• Mercury, Hobart, 10 January 1913, page 2; 18 November 1915, page 4
• Telegraph, 15 September 1927, page 14
• Queensland Figaro, Brisbane, 24 September 1927, page 1
• Telegraph, Brisbane, 9 October 1934, page 9
• Courier-Mail, 10 October 1934, page 1; 13 July 1935, page 20
Compiled by Noel Edward Adsett, Brisbane. April 2017 ©
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