Edmund Goulburn Pawson

PAWSON, Edmund Goulburn- – – SPC 1910-1911

DoB:- – 1894, Tallarook, VIC

Father:- – Charles John Pawson

Mother:- – Catherine Elizabeth, nee Crough

Edmund and his brother, Charles, attended the College as day boys from Black Hill, Ballarat.

Service No:- 2282

Rank:- – Private, Driver

Unit:- – 10th Company Australian Army Service Corps (AASC)

Edmund Pawson enlisted in the AIF on 20 August 1914, soon after war was declared. He was aged 19 years and 10 months, was five feet, seven and a half inches tall, and worked as a butcher. He had a fair complexion, blue eyes and fair hair. He was not married at the time of his enlistment.

Private Pawson embarked from Melbourne aboard the Armadale on 20 October 1914, sailing to Egypt. He was hospitalised with pneumonia in Cairo on 8 March, spending several weeks in treatment until 5 April 1915. After his discharge from hospital, he underwent more training in Egypt until he proceeded from Alexandria to Gallipoli on 7 August 1915. He suffered from lumbago (inflammation of the muscles in the lower back) and was hospitalised for a month between October and November 1915.

Pawson was transferred at the end of 1915 with the remaining Anzac troops back to Heliopolis. In March 1916, he proceeded to the UK where, for many months, he was transferred between several training camps, possibly because he was a Driver, but this is not clear from his record. On 9 January 1917, he was assigned to the London School of Cookery. It seems that soldiers in the Army Service Corp often had jobs such as baker and butcher, and were instrumental in keeping the troops supplied with fresh foodstuffs. This would make sense for Private Pawson, as he was a butcher by occupation.

At the end of January 1918, Pawson proceeded overseas to France, marching out to be posted to 26th Coy AASC. It seems that he remained in France until September 1918, when he was able to prepare for his return to Australia from the Italian town of Taranto. He boarded the Port Sydney on 8 October, and disembarked at Melbourne on 2 December 1918.

Back in Australia, Edmund resumed his career as a butcher, and he lived for a while in East Brunswick at 1 Mitchell Street. By 1924 he had moved to Mildura and was working as an orchardist. He was also married to Elsie, although the College could not locate their marriage record. Edmund and Elsie remained in Mildura until the early 1950s. The electoral rolls show that by 1954 the couple had moved to Belmont in Geelong, and Edmund had retired. They remained in Belmont until Edmund’s death on 21 January 1967, at the age of 72. Elsie survived her husband, dying on 23 December 1986. They are buried together in the Geelong Eastern Cemetery.

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