Private William Dalton Lycett, 2063, of the 4th Field Ambulance A.I.F. enlisted on 12th September 1914, he embarked on the 22nd December 1914 at Melbourne on the H.M.A.T. “Berrima” and spent his Christmas on board boat.
This extract is from his diary which can be found online at Anzacs.net: -
Tuesday 22nd December, 1914
We broke camp at 10 a.m. and marched to the Broadmeadows Station where we entrained for Port Melbourne and boarded the S.S. Berrima which is to take us to our destination which is unknown to us at present. We left the wharf at 5 p.m. and steamed till 6.30 p.m. when we dropped anchor off Sandringham where we remained for the night.
Wednesday 23rd December, 1914
We raised anchor and steamed away at 5 a.m., reaching the heads about 7.45 a.m., after passing which we dropped the Pilot and took in tow the Australian Submarine AE2, continuing our journey in pleasant weather with no further events of note for this day.
Thursday 24th December, 1914
I forgot to state at first that the bugle sounded lights out at 9 p.m. when every man is supposed to be in his hammock. I woke on this morning after a lovely night's sleep at about 6 a.m. and on getting on deck found we had lost some time through the hawser which connected the submarine to our boat parting at 4 a.m.. This had been fixed up and we were off again but at 9.30 a.m. the same thing happened again and we had to heave to for a couple of hours while it was fixed up again. I started this morning to give a hand in the hospital at meal times. The hospital is splendid and we have at present 6 cases, all minor. The food has been splendid so far and this afternoon I was told to have my meals and to sleep in the saloon along with the rest of the tent division, up to now we had been sleeping below with the other men. We had a concert in the evening and there were some very good items.
Friday 25th December, 1914
Xmas day on the water with a church service at 10 a.m. which I could not attend as I was on duty in the hospital. We are somewhere in the Australian Bight. I had a splendid dinner pork and plum pudding being the chief items. The afternoon and evening passed away quietly with nothing else worthy of note.
Saturday 26th December, 1914
Boxing Day, we sighted a steamer which we think is the Ulysses, it has been in sight all day. I have been assisting all day while Captain Dawson has been vaccinating the troops.
Sunday 27th December, 1914
Sunday very quiet, everyone busy writing in case we touch Albany tomorrow.
Monday 28th December, 1914
Anchored outside Albany this morning about 6 a.m.. Moved to within half mile of wharf about 10 a.m. No chance of getting on shore. We finished the vaccin. this morning. A lot of the boys have been fishing over the side and have caught a lot of Mackerel, I had no line. We had a Patriotic Concert tonight.
(Will Lycett in 1910, at the age of twenty migrated to Australia from Middlesborough in the County of Durham with his parents, five brothers and one sister. He had served his apprenticeship as a boilermaker alongside his father in the Railway Workshops at Crewe in Cheshire. Four years after his arrival here war was declared and he enlisted on 12th September 1914. He survived the war and died in April 1975. )
Of all the ANZAC troops who left for the 'Great War' one in five (80,000 of them) were never to return home. So it was with the Lycett family - five served and only four came home, his brother Private Frederick James Lycett, 46th Battalion was killled in action on 18th July 1917 at Hill 63 in Belgium he was 19.
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