From Tel-el-Kebir 1882 to Montbrehian, France 1918

The story of Joseph Baxter DCM, The Black Watch and Australian Imperial Force

Alphonse de Neuville’s painting of the Battle of Tel-el-Kebir depicting the Black Watch charging the Egyptian trenches - Joe Baxter among them.

When I first started researching for this post, I intended to write about the known former British Army recipients of the Distinguished Conduct Medal that served at different times with the Australian Military Forces. I had already written about Major Albert Cooke-Russell DCM, in a previous post, of which the attraction was that he served in the Scots Guards, a regiment that I had the honour of serving with in the early nineties. There were at least seven other such men, of which one, Harry Bamber of the East Lancashire Regiment, won his DCM in South Africa during the Boer War and served as a platoon sergeant in the 5th Battalion, AIF—in 1939, he owned and trained the racehorse Rivette that won both the Caulfield and Melbourne Cup. While Bamber is a story in itself, I felt that the story of Private Joe Baxter DCM who was killed in action five weeks before the Great War ended was a story worth writing about. Joe Baxter had actually seen enough active service for any man, even before the Boer War, where he was awarded the DCM.

Born as Joseph Baxter to William and Mary Baxter at Alvah, Banff, Scotland, in October 1863, he was very much a character, even when a youngster. While attending the Alvah Public School, he was known for keeping the teachers on their toes, so much so that his antics appeared in Banffshire Schools and The Rock, while at the same time they paid tribute to his military service.

He enlisted in the 42nd (The Royal Highland. Black Watch) Regiment at Perth, Scotland, on 13th May 1881, being described as a ploughman with a ruddy complexion, grey eyes, and brown hair. On 1st July 1881, the 42nd became known as The Black Watch (Royal Highlanders) during the Cardwell reforms, and Joe was posted to its 1st Battalion. Joe did not need to wait long to see his first battle, as his battalion, part of the Highland Brigade, took part in the Egypt War in 1882 and was present at the battle of Tel-el-Kebir on 13th September 1882. Here, the Black Watch, wearing kilts, scarlet Scottish service frocks and white foreign service helmets, with fixed bayonets took part in the assault against the Egyptian position that was later immortalized in Alphonse de Neuville’s painting, The Storming of Tel-El-Kebir. A Banffshire school poet wrote at the time,

On Tel-el-Kebir’s fateful day,

Egyptian hordes soon quit the fray,

When they beheld, at break of day,

The “Forty-Two” and Baxter!

By 1884, Joe was a lance corporal and still serving with the 1st Battalion, The Black Watch, when, as part of the 2nd Infantry Brigade, they were sent to the Eastern Sudan against Osman Digna’s Mahadist Army, known to the soldiers as Fuzzy-Wuzzies. The battalion fought at the battles of El Teb on 29th February and again at Tamaai on 13th March 1884, where on both occasions they defeated Digna. At El Teb, the commanding general, Sir Gerald Graham, wrote in his dispatches that, ‘The Royal Highlanders were somewhat out of hand when referring to them clearing the enemy from the old sugar refinery. It was at Tamaai that the Black Watch from the brigade square were ordered to charge the Mahadists, who, taking advantage of the gap, surged in. They were driven out, but the Black Watch had suffered heavy casualties. The following year, at the battle of Kirbekan on 10th February 1885, he was in action once more and took part in a bayonet assault against the enemy positions – it was Joe’s fourth pitched battle where the battalion used their bayonets in savage fighting, he was just twenty-one years of age.

Sergeant Joseph Baxter proudly wearing his campaign medals for the Egypt and the Sudan campaigns (Ancestry.com)

By the time of the Second Anglo-Boer War, Joe was a sergeant in the 2nd Battalion, The Black Watch; however, although the war started in October 1899, he did not arrive in South Africa until the end of 1901. He first served in the Cape Colony and the Orange Free State, then on 20th February 1902, at Blaauw Kop in the Transvaal, the battalion was in action, and Joe greatly distinguished himself. The Perthshire Advertiser on 1st April 1902, under the heading ‘A gallant Black Watch Sergeant. Stirring Story of Heroism’ recorded the details surrounding Joe’s bravery:

‘It would appear that from three detached companies of the 2nd Black Watch, under Lieutenant Colonel Berkeley, who are at present holding an important position-a group of kopjies 40 miles east of Standerton and close to the Vaal, named Blaauwkop-a working party was sent out to a farm on the riverside to cut firewood for the camp. Taking one of five waggons which accompanied them, Sergeant Baxter and half a dozen men crossed the river. He posted vedettes from a small party of mounted infantry, who were with him for that purpose, and was proceeding to work when the alarm was given that a strong force of Boers was advancing to the attack, they came on with a rush, firing as they came, cutting off Sergeant Baxter and his party from the drift. The gallant Sergeant, however, was equal to the occasion. Outspanning the oxen from the waggon, he swam them across the river, all his party, he then thought, having got safely across. The Boers were now dismounted and firing heavily. Finding on muster that there was one man missing, and knowing he must be somewhere on the other side, Sergeant Baxter, under a heavy fire from the enemy, and at the risk of a chance shot from the remainder of the working party who had been employed previous to the attack on the side nearest to the camp, and who were now engaging the enemy, swam the river, found his man, and brought him over in safety. It was an act requiring the utmost coolness, courage, and resource, and these qualities were in Sergeant Baxter not found wanting.’

On 5th September 1902, at Perth, Joe was discharged to a pension from the Black Watch after 21 years of service, of which he had served almost four years in Egypt, three years in Malta, where his wife Annie died, three years in Gibraltar, and eleven months in South Africa. His character was graded as very good, with him being in possession of five good conduct badges. The following month, the London Gazette of 31st October 1902 announched his award of the Distinguished Conduct Medal and Mentioned-in-Despatches. The DCM was a coveted award and second to the Victoria Cross for the other ranks.

In 1914, as a widower with allegedly five children, he traveled to Victoria, Australia, where he resided with his sister Hannah Baxter at Cashmore Heath, Portland, Victoria. When war came again in 1914, Joe seems to have sat it out for a while, then being described as a cook, on 8th September 1917, he lowered his age by ten years and enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force, signing his name with the postnominal DCM emblazoned on his dossier.

Joe Baxter’s signature as it appears on his Australian Imperial Force attestation papers (National Archives of Australia)

He was an acting corporal at the 1st (Depot) Battalion at Broadmeadows camp, and then just prior to embarking on 15th March 1918, he was involved in an unsavory ‘soldiers dispute’ when he assaulted a blind returned soldier, who the press were recording as being Recruiting Sergeant Hugh Hanley Ephrus Ball, formerly of the 9th Light Horse, who lost his eyesight and right hand at Gallipoli. Both Ball and the press had been writing since late 1915 that Ball had been awarded both the Victoria Cross and DCM which is puzzling as he most definitely was not entitled to either award. A witness recalled that they were traveling on a train, and Ball was wearing a Highland Kilt with a Black Watch sporran that greatly upset Joe. Then a heated argument broke out, during which Joe yelled at Ball, that he was a former sergeant and a DCM recipient. He then called Ball an imposter, punched him in the face and knocked his head through a carriage window cutting Ball’s head. Although receiving a summons to appear in court on 22nd March, Joe had actually embarked on active service and there is no mention of the incident in his service dossier. The magistrate said that he would have been fined ten shillings or to serve three months of hard labour; although he must have believed that Ball was indeed a VC recipient, it was not until 1922 that a member of the public asked Ball to prove his claim to the medal, which he could not.

Soon after the incident, Joe was allocated to the 1st General Service Reinforcements that embarked from Sydney aboard the Persic on 20th March 1918, and unusually traveled via New York, USA, where an Australian correspondent was made aware of his previous service.

While at sea, aged 54 years, he was promoted to corporal for the period of the voyage and arrived in England on 25th May, where he joined the 5th Training Battalion at Fovant, England, and reverted to the rank of private. Within a week he was promoted to acting corporal and allocated to the 21st Battalion Details. His experience was not in doubt, though his age was thought to be too old to serve in France, and notwithstanding, he was promoted to acting sergeant on 16th July and a month later appointed as a provost sergeant.

Eventually, following three months at Fovant, Joe finally embarked on 6th September for France; however, he once again relinquished his acting rank. As a 55-year-old private, wearing the DCM and four campaign medal ribbons, on 14th September he joined ‘D’ Company, 21st Battalion, in the field at Cappy that formed the Corps Reserve. The battalion had first seen active service at Gallipoli and had been on the Western Front since June 1916, so he was very much among veterans. Interestingly, on the 25th September, the battalion was ordered to be disbanded, however, the men refused to obey the order that was viewed as being a mutiny. The very same day the order was later rescinded, albeit only for a few weeks.

On 5th October, the 21st Battalion took part in the Battle of Montbrehian, East of Peronne; that was the last AIF infantry action of the war in which Joe Baxter DCM, was killed – his first time in action since 1902. There were a number of witnesses to his death, some that differ slightly, but essentially, he was killed during the second hop-over, when resting at a sunken road to advance, when a high explosive shell killed both Joe and Private John A. Barclay instantly. Private Charles S. Larcombe, who had known Joe since leaving Australia, said that he dropped at his feet and that ‘he had not a mark on him, but he was black in the face.’ Private Claude W. Francis, who was wounded by the same shell, provided a slightly different description:

‘I was 2 yds away at the time the shell exploded, and I was wounded by the same shell. I saw his body lying out in the open field and I examined it, but he was beyond all aid. He was bleeding from a wound in the chest and I could see the blood on his Tunic.’

The attack went in, and Joe was later buried with a stick to mark the spot, then moved to the Ramicourt Communal Cemetery before finally being buried at the Tincourt New British Cemetery after the war. Interestingly, the Red Cross investigation into his death recorded descriptions of him as follows:

Lieutenant Frederick Gawler MC: ‘Thickset, elderly man, with a pointed beard, quite an old man.’

Lance Corporal Alfred E. Crawford: ‘He was about 5 ft. 7ins, well built, fair, 63 years of age, and wore eight decorations.’

Private Francis H. Carey: ‘He was a short man, well built, red face, about 66 years of age, known as Joe.’

Private Bertram Paget: ‘He was a short man, nuggety build, fair complexion, about 45 years of age, and he won a D.C.M. in the South African War.’

For a soldier whose service spanned 36 years, with his first battle being at Tel-el-Kebir in 1882 wearing a scarlet frock and a kilt, it is quite sad to think that he died in the last hours that an AIF infantry battalion was in action on the western front. He was no doubt proud of his service with the Black Watch and particularly the award of his DCM; however, the altercation that he had with Sergeant Hugh Ball on the train before embarking does leave an unresolved blemish on his record; however, it was not until the 1920s that Ball stopped calling himself a VC—Joe was right after all, Ball was indeed an imposter. If you ever venture to France on a battlefield tour, visit the grave of Joe Baxter DCM and tip your hat.

References:

Australian War Memorial: 1DRL/0428 Australian Red Cross Society, Wounded and

Missing Enquiry Bureau files, 1914-18-50006 Private Joseph Baxter.

Australian War Memorial: AWM4 23/38/38 Part 2. 21st Battalion, AIF War Diary.

National Archives of Australia: B2455-50006 Private Joseph Baxter.

Ararat Advertiser and Chronicle., 23 March 1918.

Dimboola Banner and Wimmera and Mallee Advertiser., 29 March 1918.

London Gazette.

Perthshire Advertiser., 2 April 1902.

Portland Guardian., 4 June 1919.

The Rock, February 1926.

Snook, Mike., Go Strong into the Desert.

With Kitchener to Khartoum, Roberts to Pretoria and Monash to Messines