On Armistice Day 1918 Archibald Haddow must have felt a mighty wave of relief. The fighting was over. He had survived the war.
The twenty three year old from Queensbury Street, North Melbourne had left his job as an engineering draftsman in February 1916 to enlist with the 11th Field Company Engineers.
By November of 1917 he was engaged on the Western Front where his company saw action at Armentieres, Villers Bretonneux, and the Somme battles leading up to the assault on the Hindenburg Line. Overall he served for 12 months and 20 days.
At the end of 1918, after a peaceful Christmas, the men of Archibald’s company were no doubt keen to get home. The war was now over. The celebrations were finished.
But the repatriation process was a major task for the A.I.F. and it wasn’t until February of 1919 that the 11th Field Engineers were ferried back to England to wait for transport back to Australia.
On arrival at Southampton Archibald Haddow was ill and was sent to the 1st Australian Field Hospital at Sutton Veny in Wiltshire suffering from bronchial pneumonia. After five days in hospital his condition worsened. He was listed as “dangerously ill”.
Then at 7.40 pm on the 21st February 1919 Archibald Haddow died.
Four days later he was given a military funeral and buried in the St John the Evangelist churchyard at Sutton Veny.
Thoughtfully the AIF authorities sent a detailed report of the funeral to Archibald’s parents back in Melbourne. You can read it today in his war service file. The report lists the names of “Relatives or Friends present at the funeral – Cousin Captain J.D.Haddow, 59th Bn A.I.F., Miss Maddow, 11 Woodquest Ave Herne Hill, London……” etc and provides a list of those who had sent flowers – “Flowers were sent by “Cousins at Douglas”, “Dr Carrell”, “Mother and Father”, “Cousins Jim” and “Andrew Haddow”.
On his tombstone are inscribed these words:
Archie Sleeps
We Shall See Him
In The Morning