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[Page 1]
[Transcriber's note:
A full account of the action and death of Brian Pockley on 11 Sept. 1914, appears in Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–1918, Vol 10, pages 58-59 including a photograph of Captain B.C.A. Pockley.
Able Seaman W.G.V. Williams, who was mortally wounded, was being carried by Leading Stoker William Kember to whom Captain Pockley gave his Red Cross brassard. Capt. Pockley suffered a similar injury to Williams shortly after and both were transferred to the "Berrima" where tragically both died. Thus Capt. Pockley became the first Australian officer fatality of the war, and AB Williams, the first serviceman. Both were buried at the cemetery at Herbertshohe.
See also an account by his great great nephew in the diary of Ambrose O'Hare, O'Hare war diary, 12 August 1914-15 October 1918 / A. O'Hare. MLMSS 2935]
[Letter from Major F.A.Maguire, to Dr F.A. Pockley]
Rabaul
New Britain
7th November
1914
Dear Dr Pockley,
I am in receipt of your letter & cannot tell you how sorry I am that you should have been left so long in suspense waiting for news of Brian's death & the particulars in connection with it. I understood from Captain Donaldson & Private Henderson that they had written to you at length & given you full particulars. I will now give you the whole story as I know it, & try to explain where there seems to be mystery.
When we left Sydney the Force consisted of a battalion of infantry & a naval brigade of five hundred men, all under the command of Colonel Holmes. The Army Medical Corps under Lt. Col. Howse, V.C. was in charge of the health of both parts of the force, as no naval surgeons