Written by Josh Lynagh.
A copy of the wartime diary of a Mount Gambier doctor who was at the landing at Gallipoli will soon be put up for auction, expected to fetch between $4,000 and $6,000.
In the transcribed diary, Dr Frederick David Jermyn tells of his experience as a doctor over a near eight week period of The Great War, beginning with the departure from Egypt on April 11th 1915 and details the disastrous landing at Gallipoli on the 26th.
Dr Jermyn was born in Port Fairy on June 4th 1865, and moved to Mount Gambier in 1895, registering as a doctor on April 4th. Shortly after, he was commissioned as a lieutenant in the South Australian Mounted Rifles, and served in the Second Boer War as a Captain from 1900-1902.
Earlier in 1898, Frederick's younger brother Walter also registered as a doctor when he moved to Mount Gambier. Together the brothers established a general practice on the corner of Sturt Street and Ferrers Street, ironically the current site of the Mount Gambier RSL.
The doctors' practice was a large gable-roofed dolomite house and was designed by Thomas M. Hall and built by H. Knight.
It later served as an office for other doctors after the brothers finished in 1917, then a solicitors' office and flats, before being used as the site of Hopgood's Used Cars.
Frederick Jermyn volunteered for the Australian Imperial Force in October of 1914 at the age of 49, before joining the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force on April 12th, 1915.
In the diary, Jermyn gives an eye-witness account of the landing of the British 29th Division, where he speaks of the "heap of bodies" he saw lying on the beach and how the next day was a "perfect morning" before all hell broke loose once again.
He showed real admiration for the Australian soldiers, praising their dedication and "guts" when speaking of a night-time attack by Turkish forces.
"Hurrah for Australia's low boys. I've studied them such in the last seven months. They'll curse and booze and blaspheme to beat the Band, they'll do any old thing, but God they've got guts when the time arrives, they stuck it and they fought back all through the night."
He also speaks in graphic detail of the "Hell" of the war, and how even when things seemed quiet, that rarely meant it was safe.
"Of course, some of our birds had to be flash and go and have a wash during the slight lull in the shelling and in consequence three were wounded and one killed. That is the sort of thing that annoys me, it really is so damn silly. Its not like a man being killed doing his job."
Jermyn was admitted to hospital with glaucoma shortly after the writing of the diary entries, and returned to Australia in 1915. He was issued with the 1914-1915 Star, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal. After the war, he moved back over the border to Victoria as a Medical Officer, and died in Wandin, Victoria in 1948 - his brother Walter dying just two years earlier.
Sources:
Sydney Mail and NSW Advertiser via Trove (Photo of Frederick Jermyn)
SA Department for Environment and Water (Hopgood's Used Cars photo)
Virtual War Memorial Australia (Biography)
Australian War Memorial Collection (Further information)
Digital Library of the University of Adelaide (Medical information)
Michael Treloar Auctions (Diary exerpts)
 |
| (Sydney Mail and NSW Advertiser Feb 3. 1900.) |
In the transcribed diary, Dr Frederick David Jermyn tells of his experience as a doctor over a near eight week period of The Great War, beginning with the departure from Egypt on April 11th 1915 and details the disastrous landing at Gallipoli on the 26th.
Dr Jermyn was born in Port Fairy on June 4th 1865, and moved to Mount Gambier in 1895, registering as a doctor on April 4th. Shortly after, he was commissioned as a lieutenant in the South Australian Mounted Rifles, and served in the Second Boer War as a Captain from 1900-1902.
Earlier in 1898, Frederick's younger brother Walter also registered as a doctor when he moved to Mount Gambier. Together the brothers established a general practice on the corner of Sturt Street and Ferrers Street, ironically the current site of the Mount Gambier RSL.
The doctors' practice was a large gable-roofed dolomite house and was designed by Thomas M. Hall and built by H. Knight.
It later served as an office for other doctors after the brothers finished in 1917, then a solicitors' office and flats, before being used as the site of Hopgood's Used Cars.
Frederick Jermyn volunteered for the Australian Imperial Force in October of 1914 at the age of 49, before joining the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force on April 12th, 1915.
In the diary, Jermyn gives an eye-witness account of the landing of the British 29th Division, where he speaks of the "heap of bodies" he saw lying on the beach and how the next day was a "perfect morning" before all hell broke loose once again.
He showed real admiration for the Australian soldiers, praising their dedication and "guts" when speaking of a night-time attack by Turkish forces.
"Hurrah for Australia's low boys. I've studied them such in the last seven months. They'll curse and booze and blaspheme to beat the Band, they'll do any old thing, but God they've got guts when the time arrives, they stuck it and they fought back all through the night."
He also speaks in graphic detail of the "Hell" of the war, and how even when things seemed quiet, that rarely meant it was safe.
"Of course, some of our birds had to be flash and go and have a wash during the slight lull in the shelling and in consequence three were wounded and one killed. That is the sort of thing that annoys me, it really is so damn silly. Its not like a man being killed doing his job."
Jermyn was admitted to hospital with glaucoma shortly after the writing of the diary entries, and returned to Australia in 1915. He was issued with the 1914-1915 Star, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal. After the war, he moved back over the border to Victoria as a Medical Officer, and died in Wandin, Victoria in 1948 - his brother Walter dying just two years earlier.
 |
| (One entry of the diary // Michael Treloar Auctions) |
Sources:
Sydney Mail and NSW Advertiser via Trove (Photo of Frederick Jermyn)
SA Department for Environment and Water (Hopgood's Used Cars photo)
Virtual War Memorial Australia (Biography)
Australian War Memorial Collection (Further information)
Digital Library of the University of Adelaide (Medical information)
Michael Treloar Auctions (Diary exerpts)
Also a special thanks to Rob Forgan.
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