Branch of Service

Army

Conflict

World War I (1914-1918)

Date of Enlistment

14/08/1914

Date of Discharge

18/01/1918

Place of Enlistment

Royal Military College, Duntroon ACT

Gender

Male

Date of Birth

19/02/1894

Place of Birth

Gympie, Queensland

Address (at enlistment)

Royal Military College, Duntroon ACT

School(s) Attended

Brisbane Grammar School (Queensland)

Occupation

Soldier

Next of Kin

Charles Boase (father), Medway via Gympie, Queensland

Final Rank

Major

Final Unit

9 Battalion AIF

According to Bean, Boase landed with Major Brand, the 3rd Brigade's Major, early on 25 April 1915 on Gallipoli. Boase crossed the 400 Plateau (Lone Pine) immediately south of Owens Gully and got to the end of the plateau before he and his men were driven back by the Turks. They sought shelter in a position known as The Cup. Boase was driven out of there by shrapnel and dug a covering position on the edge of the Daisy Patch where he was wounded on 26 April. He was evacuated in a barge to the Derfflinger but while lying next to the ship at dawn it was overturned and Boase and the other wounded men were thrown into the water and nearly drowned. He was sent to hospital in England where two shell fragments were removed from his thigh. He was promoted to Major in October 1916 and served in Staff positions with the 5th Brigade and the 7th Brigade (from August 1917) until returning to Australia in January 1918.

Boase remained in the army after the war and was posted to Perth where he married in 1922. During World War 2 he served in senior positions in the AIF with the 7th Division and the 11th Division and ended the war commanding Western Command in Perth. On his retirement in 1951 he held the rank of temporary Lieutenant General, Southern Command in Melbourne. Boase died on 1 January 1964 in Melbourne.

Description - height 5 feet 6 inches, weight 148 pounds, chest 36 inches.

Charles Bean, 'Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-18' (Vol. I)
AWM Collections Record : C00115, P00151.003
Colonel J.E. Lee, 'Duntroon: The Royal Military College of Australia 1911-1946', 1952
Australian Dictionary of Biography online
http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/adbonline.htm
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