By GARRY HOWE
THE district’s first Gallipoli hero, Private Ernie Gardiner, fought back tears as he stood to address the crowd in a packed and immaculately decorated Berwick Hall for his Welcome Home celebration in September 1915.
It all became a bit too much for the wounded soldier when his mind turned to the horrors of that mountainous battlefield that became known as Anzac Cove.
Private Gardiner’s war lasted only three days – injured so badly that he had to return to Australia and was unable to re-join his comrades – yet he devoted the next few years to ensuring there were plenty of others to fulfill their duty and reinforce those bravely defending the Empire.
Soon afterwards promoted to sergeant, the former Berwick State School and Berwick Grammar student became the shire’s recruiting officer, imploring others to follow his lead.
No-one could say the Gardiners weren’t doing their bit, with three of Ernie’s brothers also seeing action and two of their nephews not making it home.
When presented to that Berwick Hall crowd in September 1915, Private Gardiner was received with cheers.
He said he was happy to be there, proving the truth of the old saying “There is no place like home”.
The Berwick Shire News and Pakenham and Cranbourne Gazette reported that Private Gardiner went on to give the particulars of his movements from the time of his enlistment until his arrival in Egypt.
“When referring to the fighting at Gallipoli, where he was in the trenches for three days before being wounded, he was overcome with emotion, the recollections of the sad events transpiring there coming back to him when he made the remark that his tent-mates, with the exception of two, had been killed,” the report read.
It appears he had been shot in the jaw and his mother had received a telegram to the effect that he was seriously ill.
To read more, pick up a copy of the Pakenham Gazette’s souvenir Anzac edition or subscribe at http://starcommunity.com.au/epapers/.
