Australians at Summerdown Camp, Eastbourne.

April 1915 saw the opening of the Summerdown Convalescent Camp, underneath the South Downs in Eastbourne. The camp held 3,500 convalescing soldiers and the facilities on site included a Cinema. All nationalities were sent to Summerdown to recover and later in the year Australians started to arrive.

Summerdown Camp, Eastbourne.

The Eastbourne Gazette contains an interesting article on the first Australian arrivals. The Soldiers give quite an account of fighting the Turks and this is also a time in England before conscription was introduced. Recruiting rallies were frequent and the Newspaper capitalizes on the fact the some men have not yet “answered the call” whereas these Australians have traveled 12,000 miles for King and Country.


“Australians and New Zealanders

Arrivals from the Dardanelles

Among the wounded soldiers now at Summerdown Camp are some Australians and New Zealanders who arrived last week from the Dardanelles. They are men who took part in the landing at the onset of the struggle now proceeding.

In the course of conversation a miner from New South Wales mentioned that the invaders were transferred from transports to barges which were towed to the shore by steam-tugs. Every time a tug put off with a convey of barges full of soldiers it was noticed that they were bombarded with the utmost regularity by the Turks, and the troops were anxious to know how the enemy learnt of their departure so accurately. They discovered the means employed on the second day. As they were advancing a Turk was discovered in a hole covered by bushes. With him he had sufficient food to last fourteen day; and there were about forty homing pigeons, one of which he liberated as each tug put off. Needless to say, he was given a short shrift.

Asked what struck him the most about England, a New South Wales man said that some of them had been driven up to the parade and he was amazed to see the number of young fellows not in khaki who came to look at them while they themselves had travelled thousands of miles to fight for King and country.

Among the overseas men at the camp are Sergeant Steed, Corporal Nixon, Privates McCauley, Rose, McCabe, East, MacBeth, Spang, Earl, Morgan, Bice, O’Donnell, Smith, Maxwell, Hasselt, Gallagher, Hensley and Godden (Australians) and Private Howell and Avery (New Zealanders)."