This is your life - Otto Arthur Tiedemann ANZAC
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| Australian War Memorial Indigenous Poppy |
I write this letter in memory of my Great-Uncle Otto Arthur Tiedemann. If things had been different I might have known him just as I knew my grandmother. And how I wish it were so. Instead I shall just have to be content with my imaginings of who he was and who he might have become had his life not been cut short.
Abridged version: Uncle Otto, of German, English and Aboriginal Descent, was orphaned age 7, shipped around several foster homes, joined the AIF age 16 and died at Fromelles on 19 July 1916 aged 17. He has been added to the Indigenous Serviceman's List and is remembered fondly.
Dear Uncle Otto,
You were born Otto Arthur Tiedemann on the 19th Nov 1898 in West Maitland to your parents John Eric Tiedemann and Mary Ann Tiedemann nee Hole. I can only imagine how proud they were to have you, another son to fill the void of the one they had lost a few years earlier, and you were a little brother for George, Martin and Etty.
With your very German father and a name like Otto, combined with the Aboriginal and English ancestry of your mother mixed in equal parts, I can’t quite guess what it was like for you growing up in that small country town.
Soon you would share your parents with more siblings, two little sisters Dora and Alice, though poor little Alice was taken from you before she was old enough to play. Did you even understand where she went?
With that pain still fresh in your mind, it must have been almost unbearable when your mother died suddenly. She had a heart condition, and having just lost a baby, how stressful that would have been for her. Life had taken its toll.
Now you and your siblings had only your father for comfort. As a miner I am sure that he worked long and gruelling hours at Greta Colliery. Did he have time and energy left to care for 5 children? Did he share your grief?
We know he was a good man, a hero who had risked his life to retrieve his comrades from a mine disaster a few years before, with a certificate hanging on the wall as proof of his valour. But how was he to cope on his own with these young ones.
Your step-brother George was not too much trouble as he was employed at the local newspaper even then at 15. But with Martin as the next eldest at only 10, how much could he be relied upon to help look after his younger siblings while Father was at work? Was there a neighbour or someone else? Your father was doing it tough, he had an accident at work and his hand was crushed, he had several fingers amputated, but he was back at work again soon. He had hungry mouths to feed.
Eventually he found you another mother, someone to help him with his burden, her name was Nellie. Did you like her? Was she good to you? I hope she was. She married your Dad and you gained another step-sister almost your age, Lilian, someone else to share your space and Nellie was going to give you yet another sibling... a brother or sister, you wouldn’t know.
Just as this news came, there was more. Your father had been involved in another accident at the mine, but this time he wasn’t the rescuer and no one could save him. He didn’t linger long, he didn’t have time to say goodbye. Now you were alone, you and your siblings with your new step-Mum.
How would Nellie have coped with all of you, five step-children? With her grief and with her poor circumstances? She probably had little left to give to ease your own pain of being orphaned. At least you had your brothers and sisters to hold onto.
Nellie couldn’t cope and took you all to Sydney where she gave you up into the foster system, it was the 7th February 1906 when she said goodbye to you, though to be honest given the short relationship with your father, did she care? I am guessing she did, as she provided the money from the Miner's Accident Fund to pay for your foster care. You were recorded as being of Protestant religion aged 7 and 4/12, also incorrect by a small amount. She didn't even know your names properly though and they were recorded wrong and you were too young to ever know the difference, now you became Arthur Otto.
When you were first fostered, the four of you stayed together, but 4 children under 11 was a big ask for anyone. 58 yr old widow Susan Norris took you all in a few days after you arrived at the "Depot" and you went to live at "The Grove" on Richmond Road in Blacktown. I imagine as a widow she could use the extra money that came from fostering all of you.
About 18 months later Susan moved you all to "Avondale" at Wetherill Park and it was here that you were separated from your siblings, although still in the area you no longer lived together. You were shipped around to several different homes and no doubt worked as a farm labourer. You lived with the family of Charles Paull Senior, an orchardist in Frank Street Wetherill Park and then you went on to John.A Smith who was another orchardist and one of Paull's neighbours in Frank Street. Paull's were still running the orchard in the 1930's long after you were gone. I wonder how they treated you? Did you enjoy the country life?
Your sister Etty also had a rough life, and ended up pregnant to one of the foster carers sons who was ten years older than her, she was only 15 when they married to protect her honour. Dora was sent away to live with another of Susan's adult male children in Bondi until he went off to Tasmania leaving her with her sister, now living in Newtown. You were being separated gradually. Martin left foster care as soon as he was old enough and went back to West Maitland hopefully reunited with George and you ended up in a shelter. Did you go back to live with Etty now that she was married?
It was in October of 1915, shortly before your 17th birthday you applied at Victoria Barracks to enlist in the Australian Imperial Force. You stated that both your parents were dead and that you had state consent. I think that unlikely if you needed to lie about your age! Later that month you went to Holsworthy barracks and joined up to the army and to go to war. Was it adventure that drew you in or an escape from your life as it was? Or a bit of both? We will never know.
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| HMAT Aeneas |
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| The interior of a ward of the No. 4 Auxiliary Hospital in Cairo Courtesy of the Australian War memorial (CC) |
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| Moascar from Major "Banjo" Paterson's Tent Courtesy of the Australian War Memorial (CC) |
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| Kinfaun's Castle Troop Ship Charles de Lacy, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons |
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| The trenches Courtesy of the Australian War Memorial (CC) |
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| The battlefield of Fromelles Courtesy of the Australian War Memorial (CC) |
The old no man's land of Fromelles battlefield viewed from the north-east corner of Sugar Loaf Salient looking towards the line from which the 15th Australian Infantry Brigade began their attack on 19 July 1916. During the engagement the 5th Division, penetrated the third German line, but was forced to withdraw owing to German troops flooding the ditches in which the Australians had entrenched and to the exposure of the flank to heavy artillery and machine gun fire.
You were part of the attack that day. I don't know exactly what happened. But this is the view that the enemy had. They would have easily seen you all coming. What a fruitless battle.
An excerpt from the Australian War Memorial
The battle of Fromelles on 19 July 1916 was a bloody initiation for Australian soldiers to warfare on the Western Front. Soldiers of the newly arrived 5th Australian Division, together with the British 61st Division, were ordered to attack strongly fortified German front line positions near the Aubers Ridge in French Flanders. The attack was intended as a feint to hold German reserves from moving south to the Somme where a large Allied offensive had begun on 1 July. The feint was a disastrous failure. Australian and British soldiers assaulted over open ground in broad daylight and under direct observation and heavy fire from the German lines. Over 5,500 Australians became casualties. Almost 2,000 of them were killed in action or died of wounds and some 400 were captured. This is believed to be the greatest loss by a single division in 24 hours during the entire First World War. Some consider Fromelles the most tragic event in Australia’s history.
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| Notification of you missing, Killed in Action |
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| Showing medals that were awarded |
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| The Last Post Courtesy of the Australian War Memorial (CC) |
Each year at the Anzac Service I wear replicas of your medals to honour you, and although we never met, you are lovingly remembered.
Beautiful tribute Julie! 🇦🇺
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