Sergeant Arthur Thomas Farr fought and died in WW1.

IT WAS a century ago this month that details emerged of the death of an Australian war hero who, after fighting in Gallipoli, was sent back to be a hero again.

He was Sergeant Arthur Thomas Farr (MM), my great-uncle, who for the past 100 years has rested in the well-tended grounds of Achiet-Le-Grand cemetery in northern France, close to where he was killed in February, 1917.

I know he was 173cm tall, 70kg in weight, a 29-year-old bachelor from Ingham in northern Queensland. His parents, Ellen and William, and three brothers lived in Townsville.

He might have had the necessary charm in his job as commercial traveller, but in battle he was an offensive piece of work against the enemy.

He left with the 15th Battalion from Brisbane on HEAT Seang Bee in October, 1915 for Egypt, Gallipoli and France. He was promoted to sergeant, and conducted a brave rescue which earned him a Military Medal less than a year after that embarkation.

And then he was sent back to the front line, where he disappeared.

Arthur Farr’s family heard he had been killed months after his death.Source:Supplied

I know these basic facts and much more because the Australian Army then, and probably now, had a fundamental bureaucratic trajectory: If possible paint it; if not possible, fill out a form.

I even know Ellen Farr wrote to the Army for duplicate photographs of “my noble son”, and had to enclose a postal note worth one shilling and sixpence for the copies.

Thanks to the manic military form filling, many Australian families are able to peek into the lives of ancestors who, like Arthur Thomas Farr, left circles of family and employment to perform mightily — beyond their own forecasts — on the terrible stage of the Great War.

Family tradition is important but the official detail tells so much, and the Australian War Memorial website is a superb place to start. They want to help, and if they don’t have what you need they will point you to where it is.

Sergeant Arthur Thomas Farr fought at Gallipoli, but was sent back to the front line in France where he was killed.Source:Supplied

These were ordinary fellows in uniform a century ago. For many their prime allegiance was not to Empire or generals but to those around them.

Arthur Thomas Farr was like that.

He was a bomb thrower — in charge of hand grenade lobbing.

From August 5-11, 1916, he and his section were operating northwest of Pozieres when, according to the citation, “ he did exceptionally good work and showed courage of high order”.

“Under heavy fire he assisted Sgt Moore to carry in Sgt Morgan of the 16th M.G section, who was wounded and lying in an exposed position,” it continued.

Then on August 7 he “did a piece of exceptionally good work bombing a German trench and was the cause of the capture of eight Germans”.

Aggressive little bugger. He was awarded the Military Medal on August 28.

The MM (Military Cross for commissioned officers) was created in March, 1916, for Empire forces including, of course, the Anzacs, to some grumbling. It was seen as a cost-saving measure to replace the Distinguished Conduct Medal.

The DCM came with a 20 pound bonus and an extra six pence on a pension. There was no cash for a MM, which was sound economics because 115,000 were awarded in WWI.

Whatever the money quibble, there was no doubt Arthur Thomas was a hero, and he went back to do it again.

But on February 1, 1917, he disappeared in combat and as a military form said soon after, “particulars not yet to hand”.

The Army form compilers were as relentless as the war itself, and in April, 1917, eyewitness accounts were recorded, with the help of the Red Cross.

A Pvt Wesplade reported: “He was looking after a chap who was wounded in a shell hole, and we had to retire.

“And we found he had been left there.”

A more conclusive testimony came from Pvt Haynes.

“We went over the top about 9.30am, 1st February at Guaudcourt,” he reported.

“I saw him killed in ‘ no mans land’. I was about 15 yards away from him.”

It wasn’t until June, 1917, that some precision was added, by a Pvt Boyd.

“We had a stunt at Guaudcourt and had taken the German trench, but a German machine gunner had got into a shell hole on our flank and was being very troublesome,” he told authorities.

Arthur Thomas and a rifleman Castle crawled towards the German and got close enough for Castle to offer to risk a shot. “Never mind, I’ve got two bombs here,” said Sgt Farr.

The German in the shell hole was “destroyed” by a grenade timed to detonate as soon as it landed.

Boyd said: “He got to within a few yards of the shell hole, and took the pin from one of the bombs and let the spring go, and he held the bomb for three seconds and then threw it so that it burst the moment it pitched in the shell hole.”

Boyd continued: “Sgt Farr then sent Castle back and went on further by himself and never returned.”

The Germans killed him, and then buried him with great respect, making sure his grave would be identified later.

Vale great-uncle Arthur, and others this Anzac Day, a century later.