Branch of Service

Army

Conflict

World War I (1914-1918)

Date of Enlistment

02/11/1914

Place of Enlistment

Royal Military College, Duntroon ACT

Gender

Male

Date of Birth

11/03/1893

Place of Birth

Northcote, Victoria

Address (at enlistment)

Royal Military College, Duntroon ACT

Occupation

Soldier

Next of Kin

Son of Sidney Frederick and Ellen Durston of Tennyson Street, St. Kilda, Victoria.

Final Rank

Lieutenant

Final Unit

16 Battalion AIF

Died of wounds 9 May 1915, Gallipoli, Turkey, aged 22 years

AWM Roll of Honour Memorial Panel 79, Canberra ACT
Lone Pine Memorial, Gallipoli, Turkey
Large stone tablet on outside of northern wall of St. John's Church, Reid ACT

Durston entered the Royal Military College, Duntroon in the second intake of cadets on 7 March 1912. He was a member of the guard of honour at the Canberra commencement ceremony on 12 March 1913. He graduated early from RMC, along with his classmates, on 2 November 1914 and was appointed as a Lieutenant in the 16th Battalion. The 16th Battalion was part of the 4th Brigade and landed on Gallipoli during 25/26 April 1915. In the early stages of the campaign they held a position near Quinn's Post.

Bean states that Durston died on 10 May 1915. On the night of 9/10 May the 15th Battalion launched a raid on the Turkish trenches opposite Quinn's Post. However, there were gaps between the raiding parties when they reached the trenches and these gaps were occupied by Turks who then attacked the Australians. A group of men from the 16th Battalion were ordered to charge from Quinn's Post to support the men of the 15th Battalion, amongst them Durston. According to Bean; "a cheer was heard, and in the dim light men were faintly seen charging from the rear. What happened next is not certain. Some of the men believed the enemy was attacking them from the rear. Shots were fired at them - possibly some by the Australians, certainly many by the Turks. Some of the figures fell. There was a cry: 'Don't fire - they're our own men.'" The charge was finished. One of the men in the charge saw Durston fall, badly wounded. Another saw him lying wounded in the Turkish trench but shortly afterwards the position was bombed and occupied by the Turks. The Roll of Honour states that he died of wounds on 9 May 1915 and one witness believed that he died on a hospital ship, however the Roll of Honour does not give a burial place.

Charles Bean, 'Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-18' (Vol. II, p.110, 111)
Colonel J.E. Lee, 'Duntroon: The Royal Military College of Australia 1911-1946', 1952
AWM Collections Record : P05772.003
The Duntroon Society, ‘The First Class’, Newsletter 2/2011
NAA RecordSearch - Series B2455 (First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920)
Stories from the ACT Memorial, 'The Honour Guard at the Canberra Commencement Ceremony', ACT Heritage Library www.library.act.gov.au/find/history/stories_from_the_act_memorial