Edward Thomas Budgen (1868-1925) – he took his family to Australia

Edward Thomas Budgen (1868-1925) and Alice Jane Hacker (1868-1943).
My great-grand uncle and aunt.

Edward Budgen was born in the Sussex parish of Worth on 28 April 1868, and was baptised by his parents Thomas Budgen and Maria Dolamore on 7 June that year. He went to live in Australia, served in the Great War and was taken prisoner by the Germans.

Born into a large family that moved around from Worth, to Horley and then Reigate in Surrey, Edward worked initially as a clerk and a gardener.

He got into trouble with the law in 1891, appearing before Reigate Borough Bench with his brother William and two friends, charged with extinguishing seven lamps in the borough in what appears to have been a drunken prank. All were described as respectable young men but PC Turner told the court that he’d seen and heard them late at night in various streets putting the lights out. He had no doubt that the men he saw were the defendants, who’d pleaded not guilty. Another police officer said he’d visited the Budgens at their father’s Bell Street home after the incident, where Edward told him they’d been in the Elm Shades pub until gone 11pm on the night. However, he had denied being involved. The court convicted all four of them and fined the defendants 2s 6d and 6s costs each. See the Surrey Mirror 20 June 1891.

In 1898 Edward was described as a soldier on his marriage certificate, his address given as 90 Broke Road, Haggerston in east London. His bride was Alice Jane Hacker of Betchworth, Surrey, born in 1868 and the daughter of coachman John Hacker and his wife Jane. The couple married on 10 January in St Paul’s Church, Haggerston.

Edward had joined the Rifle Brigade the year before the wedding, described at the time as 5ft 5ins tall, with brown hair, brown eyes and a scar on the back of his head. Just a month or so after his wedding he was posted to India with the 3rd Battalion, where he served for almost seven years. He was promoted to corporal in 1900 and acting sergeant a year later. In 1903 he was reduced to the ranks after being found guilty of drunkenness while on duty. He left the army in 1909.

At the 1911 census he was working as a gardener, living in More Place Cottages in Wonham Lane, Betchworth, with his children and 83-year-old mother-in-law Jane. At some point after the 1911 census, Edward sailed to Australia to establish a new life. His wife and children were recorded as arriving on the Geelong in South Australia in May 1913.

They next crop up in Australia in 1914, when Private Edward Thomas Budgen, service number 1556, enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force – an all-volunteer force formed for overseas service – early in the First World War.

His enlistment papers dated 8 December showed that he was a clerk on signing up but strangely he put his age at 40. The family address was Colley Street, Lower North Adelaide in South Australia. It was noted that he’d served eight years in the army back in England and had spent four years in the reserve. The documents described him as having a fair complexion, 5ft 5ins tall, with brown hair and eyes.

On 19 February 1915, he said goodbye to his family and embarked for active service abroad, arriving in Egypt on 3 April shortly before the disastrous Gallipoli campaign got underway involving numerous ANZAC forces. He was a member of the 10th Battalion, which was recruited in South Australia, and together with the 9th, 11th and 12th Battalions, formed the 3rd Brigade. By 31 May, Edward was already facing a court martial, charged with desertion. The charge sheet said that while a member of the 3rd Reinforcement of the 10th Battalion, Edward deserted the service at his camp at Zeitoun on 2 May when under orders for embarkation. He was AWOL for just one day.

He pleaded not guilty. 2nd Lieutenant Cook told the hearing that he’d put Private Budgen in a guard tent at 9am on 1 May for being drunk. When he returned several hours later, he’d sobered up so he sent Edward off to get his equipment and clothing, warning him not to leave the camp under any circumstances as preparations were underway for transportation to the front. Another officer said that Edward was present at a muster parade on 1 May but wasn’t on the following day, when the troops were being entrained. On cross-examination by Edward, the officer admitted there was no muster roll. A third officer then saw him in camp on 3 May and had him confined. He said Edward was sober at the time.

In his defence, Edward said he’d marched out from camp to embark for the front with his unit but was sent back because he had diarrhoea. Treated with chlorodyne, he said he could not remember anything more until Sunday, 2 May. On that day he reported to a Sergeant Reynolds, but that officer had subsequently left for the front so could not confirm the account. Edward said he did not remember being detailed to go to the front on 1 May.

His excuse wasn’t accepted and he was found guilty. Court president Major G D Ross sentenced him to 90 days imprisonment with hard labour and forfeiture of 119 days’ pay.

In September 1915 Edward joined the Military Expeditionary Force and sailed on the Kingstonian (pictured top) to Gallipoli, arriving at a time when this notorious expedition was in its final months. It’s unclear what role Edward played, if any, in the defence of the front line.

By 23 December 1915, his rank was lance corporal in the 10th Battalion. Six days later he disembarked in Alexandria. He transferred to the 50th Battalion in February 1916, based at Serapeum in Egypt. The 50th Battalion was raised in Egypt as part of the doubling of the AIF and about half of its recruits were veterans from the 10th Battalion. For a time he was a temporary corporal, serving in the forces defending the vital Suez Canal.

On 5 June 1916 he left Alexandria for France, disembarking at Marseilles a week later. The 50th fought in its first major battle at Mouquet Farm between 13 and 15 August and suffered heavily. On 16 August, Edward was wounded in action and admitted to hospital in Rouen. Three days later he was transferred to England with gunshot wounds. Documents show he had leg, arm and head injuries. The gunshot wound to his arm was described as severe and it looks as if he received hospital care for several months.

In December, he was briefly AWOL and punished, fined four days’ pay. However, by 3 February 1917 he was travelling from Folkestone to France on the SS Victoria to rejoin his unit at Etaples. On 2 April 1917 Edward was wounded and captured at Noreuil, one of numerous villages the Germans had fortified to help protect their Hindenburg Line. It was attacked by the Australian 50th and 51st Battalions, with the 49th and 52nd in support, on the morning of 2 April. The 50th, coming from the south, met heavy opposition and many men were killed, wounded or captured.

Edward was taken as a prisoner of war and interned at a camp at Zerbst in Germany. Some would say he was unlucky, others that his capture saved his life by taking him away from front-line action.

A witness on the day, who thought that Edward had been killed, reported back to officers: “I was with this man when he was hit… We were making an attack and were advancing along rising ground, towards the village of Noruie [sic], Bapaume Front. In the morning when near Sunken Road I saw him fall, probably hit by machine gun. He was lying down as if killed. The last I saw of him was when stretcher bearers were taking him away. Ground was held. I know nothing of his burial. I was wounded soon after and was removed to the rear. He was short, thick set, about 38 years. Brown complexion. Came from South Australia.”

Documents from the Zerbst camp, which include confirmation of his birthplace and date of birth, state that he had shrapnel in his hip and further letters suggest that his wounds did not heal quickly and that he was in hospital for many months. A note from February 1918 reported that he had undergone an operation the previous November to remove shrapnel and two small pieces of bone. A postcard from March 1918 said: “Very pleased to say I am still progressing favourably and am able to get about a little once again…” He underwent several follow-up operations while in the camp. Edward’s wife Alice received a parcel of his effects some months after his capture, including a razor, 3 handkerchiefs, letters, and a pocket ledger.

“Kriegsgefangene volker” by Wilhelm Doegen showed that on 10 October 1918, a month before the Armistice, the Zerbst camp was home to thousands of French, Russian, British and Italian soldiers – with the odd Romanian and American thrown in for good measure. After Germany’s surrender, the men were released but early in 1919 Edward was still in a convalescent ward after being repatriated to England. In March he was fined four days’ pay when he went AWOL again, this time for four days.

On his repatriation to Australia via Alexandria, the authorities noted that he had a gunshot wound to the thigh, which I assume was the injury to his hip noted on becoming a POW. Edward was finally discharged from active service on 30 May 1921 but he didn’t have long to enjoy a life of peace in his new home of Torrensville, in the west of Adelaide, for he died on 10 August 1925. A report to the coroner recorded that a doctor has been called to Edward’s home at 22 Hutchinson Street that evening but he was already dead when he arrived. His view that Edward died of heart disease. Alice said that Edward had talked about a pain in his chest a few days earlier. He was buried in West Terrace Cemetery in the city. His wife Alice died in Torrensville on 29 October 1943.

The couple had three children:

• Edward Thomas Budgen, born 8 December 1905 in Bosham, Sussex. Edward served in the Second World War with the Australian army. His enlistment papers listed his occupation as bandmaster and music teacher. He married Maud Penhall in 1940 and lived in South Australia all his life, dying in 1994.
• Florence Alice Budgen. Florence was born in Reigate, Surrey, England, in 1908 and married Alfred John Ancell in South Australia in 1933. She died in Salisbury City, South Australia.
• Ethel Grace Budgen. Born in Betchworth, Surrey, England, in 1910, she married Clyde James Horsfall Turner in 1934. She died in Tea Tree Gully City, South Australia, in 1996.

Sources: Ancestry.co.uk, Findmypast.co.uk, Sussex Family History Group BMDs and census records. Australia, WWI Service Records, 1914-1920 – includes POW details from the Red Cross. Australia, Death Index, 1787-1985. Other sources mentioned in the text. Surrey Mirror 20 June 1891. Trove, Australia’s newspaper archive.