Maitland-born Digger Joseph Stratford has been named the first Australian soldier ashore at Gallipoli at dawn on April 25, 1915.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Stratford’s service records at National Archives Australia prove he was born in Maitland and he worked as a labourer.
His mother’s 1914 address was listed as Lismore.
Private Studley Gahan told a northern NSW newspaper in 1916: “Joe Stratford was the first of Australia’s troops ashore at Gallipoli.
“Lieutenant Jones was second, and I was third.”
In Roll of Honour documents held at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, a notation authenticates Lance Sergeant Stratford’s place in history: “Stated by eye witnesses to be the first Australian ashore on Gallipoli.”
That landing has earned him a permanent place in Australian military history and made his mark for almost a century.
Military historian David Dial’s research has found Stratford spent three years with the NSW Lancers.
He enlisted at Townsville in Queensland on October 5, 1914, when he was 34 years old and was a soldier with the 9th Infantry Battalion.
Stratford was reported wounded and missing at Gallipoli after he threw himself onto an enemy machine gun position after landing.
A court of inquiry on June 5, 1916, found he was killed in action on April 25, 1915.
The caption on the 1914 studio portrait of 1179 Lance Sergeant Joseph Stratford, 9th Battalion reads:
“A labourer with three years service in the NSW Lancers before enlisting in October 1914.
“LSgt Stratford left Australia for Egypt with the 1st Reinforcements in December 1914.
“He landed on Gallipoli on April 25, 1915, and, according to his Red Cross Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau file, was killed attacking a Turkish machine gun position after landing.
“Newspaper reports attributed LSgt Stratford as the first man ashore on Gallipoli on April 25, 1915, however the claim was later questioned by the official historian Charles Bean, who wrote that Lieutenant Duncan Chapman, later killed at Pozieres in 1916, was most probably the first man ashore.”
Aged 34 when he was killed, LSgt Stratford has no known grave.