1st Field Company, Australian Engineers, Australian Imperial Force
Archie Evatt Bland was a Gloucester boy, who like many of his compatriots, had emigrated to the Dominions but returned to fight for ‘the old country’ in its hour of need.
He was born in Gloucester in early 1885, the son of Samuel Bland who was a journalist and his wife Emma. Both parents had died over a decade before the outbreak of the Great War. Archie was educated at Dean Close School, Cheltenham and was a talented footballer and played for Gloucester City FC.
After leaving school he undertook a college based engineering course and for a time worked for a firm in Dudbridge, near Stroud.
According to a report in the Gloucestershire Echo he also spent time in Russia before emigrating to Australia in May 1911. He became a civil and mechanical engineer at Manly, a beachside suburb of Sydney and married in 1912.
Following the declaration of war he enlisted in the Australian Army, as a Private on 16 September 1914. On 22 December, he embarked from Melbourne as part of the 1st Re-enforcement draft and arrived in Alexandria, Egypt on 3 March 1915, where he joined the 1st Field Company, Australian Engineers, as a Sapper.
He landed at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915 and remained there until 27 December, when he returned to Egypt. Field Companies undertook a variety of duties supporting the front line troops and although dangerous work Archie’s service on the Peninsular saw him stay free of wounds and sickness.
On 6 March 1916 he was promoted to Second (or Lance) Corporal and on the 28th of that month landed at Marseilles, enroute to the Western Front.
The 1st Field Company was part of the Australian 1st Division and on 23 July 1916 the division was a lead element in the attack on the Somme village of Pozieres. The attack went in at 12.30am and was successful in that a large part of the village was captured.
However, German artillery shelled the ruins of the village remorselessly and by the time the battle ended the 1st Australian Division had suffered 7,700 casualties.
Archie Bland was wounded on 23 July and was taken to 44 Casualty Clearing Station at Puchevillers where he died. He now lies in Puchevillers British Cemetery and is commemorated on the Manley War Memorial and on the Australian National War Memorial in Canberra.
Research by Graham Adams