CAPTAIN ROBERT ADAM CLINTON

1st Tunnelling Company

Born 25 October 1879 at Taradale, near Ballarat, Victoria, Robert was the son of Adam Donaldson and Wilhelmina (nee Cameron) Clinton. The Electoral Roll of 1906 records him as a miner at Laverton, Western Australia.

At Charters Towers, Queensland on 20 September 1915, Robert completed an Application to Enlist in the Australian Imperial Force. He gave his address as c/o The Court House Hotel, Charters Towers.

His application was approved in Townsville on 23 September and he completed the ‘Attestation Paper of Persons Enlisted for Service Abroad’ on 27 September 1915.

In December 1915 he completed an Application for a Commission in the A.I.F. Mining Corps. He recorded that he was a graduate in Mining Engineering & Metallurgy, having gained these qualifications at The Ballarat School of Mines. His previous military service amounted to 12 months with the Upper Burma Volunteers, 4 weeks A.I.F., Brisbane, 4 weeks Engineer Corp, Brisbane and 3 weeks Mining Corps Brisbane. He stated that he was a provisional Lieutenant, his appointment made on his qualifications as a Mining Engineer in civil life.

He named as his Next-of-Kin his sister Mrs Isabel Miller Malleson of “Stonehenge”, Normanby Road, Caulfield.

In February 1916 he completed a second Application for a Commission in the A.I.F., adding to the previous application that he had qualified for appointment as a 2nd Lieutenant in November 1915.

He was medically examined by Captain Rupert Dufty Heggaton, A.A.M.C., who recorded that Robert was 5ft 8¼ins tall and weighed 11 stone 2 pounds. Captain Heggaton certified that he was ‘capable of bearing the fatigue incident to the performance of military duty’.

Robert embarked on Ulysses with No.2 Section, No.1 Company of the 1st Australian Mining Corps. Lieut. Ronald Butler Hinder commanded the Section with Lieuts. Frederick George Phippard and Robert Adam Clinton as Section officers.

At a civic parade in the Domain, Sydney on Saturday February 19, 1916, a large crowd of relations and friends of the departing Miners lined the four sides of the parade ground. Sixty police and 100 Garrison Military Police were on hand to keep the crowds within bounds. The scene was an inspiriting one. On the extreme right flank, facing the saluting base, were companies of the Rifle Club School; next came a detachment of the 4th King’s Shropshire Light Infantry, then the bands of the Light Horse, Liverpool Depot, and the Miners’ on the left, rank upon rank, the Miners’ Battalion.

Following the farewell parade in the Domain, Sydney, the Australian Mining Corps embarked from Sydney, New South Wales on 20 February 1916 on board HMAT A38 Ulysses. The Mining Corps comprised 1303 members at the time they embarked with a Headquarters of 40; No.1 Company – 390; No.2 Company – 380; No.3 Company – 392, and 101 members of the 1st Reinforcements.

Ulysses arrived in Melbourne, Victoria on 22 February and the Miners were camped at Broadmeadows while additional stores and equipment were loaded onto Ulysses. Another parade was held at the Broadmeadows camp on March 1, the Miners’ Corps being inspected by the Governor-General, as Commander-in-Chief of the Commonwealth military forces.

Departing Melbourne on 1 March, Ulysses sailed to Fremantle, Western Australia where a further 53 members of the Corps were embarked. The ship hit a reef when leaving Fremantle harbour, stripping the plates for 40 feet and, although there was a gap in the outside plate, the inner bilge plates were not punctured. The men on board nicknamed her ‘Useless’. The Miners were off-loaded and sent to the Blackboy Hill Camp where further training was conducted. After a delay of about a month for repairs, The Mining Corps sailed for the European Theatre on 1 April 1916.

The ship arrived at Suez, Egypt on 22 April, departing for Port Said the next day; then on to Alexandria. The Captain of the shipwas reluctantto take Ulysses out of the Suez Canal because he felt the weight of the ship made it impossible to manoeuvre in the situation of a submarine attack. The Mining Corps was transhipped to B1 Ansonia for the final legs to Marseilles, France via Valetta, Malta. Arriving at Marseilles on 5 May, most of the men entrained for Hazebrouck where they arrived to set up their first camp on 8 May 1916.

A ‘Mining Corps’ did not fit in the British Expeditionary Force, and the Corps was disbanded and three Australian Tunnelling Companies were formed. The Technical Staff of the Corps Headquarters, plus some technically qualified men from the individual companies, was formed into the entirely new Australian Electrical and Mechanical Mining and Boring Company (AEMMBC), better known as the ‘Alphabetical Company’.

Robert was promoted to Lieutenant on 15 June 1916.

Robert was promoted to Captain rank on 6 May 1917, replacing Lieutenant Wilfred Avery who had been killed in action on 25 April.

On 20 June 1917 Lt.Col. Stevenson, Royal Engineers, Controller of Mines, Second Army, submitted the following recommendation:

Robert was quoted in a statement to the Red Cross concerning Sapper Spence mentioned above:

On 3 May 1918 his Next-of-Kin was advised of the award of the Military Cross to Robert.

He was detached to the 1st Australian Division Engineers on 12 June 1918 and worked with the 2nd Field Company Engineers (2FCE).

On 14 September his transfer to the 1st Australian Division Engineers was approved.

15 September he was wounded in action and admitted to the 53rd Casualty Clearing Station (CCS). The War Diary of 2FCE records:

He was transferred by Ambulance Train 19 and admitted to the 2nd Red Cross Hospital, Rouen on 18 September suffering a shell wound to the right forearm, severe. On 21 September he was invalided to England by the Western Australia and admitted to the 3rd London General Hospital.

On 28 October 1918 he was deemed fit for general service and on 12 November he was discharged from hospital to the Overseas Training Brigade and proceeded overseas to France on 28 November. He marched in to the Australian General Base Depot (AGBD) at Havre on 30 November and rejoined his unit on 7 December.

Robert marched back into the AGBD on 20 March 1919 and marched out to England on 21 March.

He was granted leave with pay and subsistence from 28 March until 28 June to further his study of Metallurgy at the Penfoil Tin Smelting Company in Cornwall.

He returned to A.I.F. Headquarters on 30 June and marched in to No.2 Group, Sutton Veny on 14 July for return to Australia.

Robert left London on 22 August 1919 on board HMAT A68 Anchises, disembarking in Australia on 14 October 1919.

His appointment as an Officer in the A.I.F. was terminated on 6 December 1919 and he received his British War Medal and Victory Medal on 5 March 1923.

In 1921 Robert married Frances Helen Buckland (nee Heyward) at East Coolgardie, Western Australia. Frances was born in 1875, the daughter of William James Heyward and Matilda T Evans. In 1895, Frances had married Stephen Walter Buckland in Victoria.

In 1925 he was living at Yerranderie, NSW.

The 1930 Electoral Roll records Robert Adam Clinton, Mining Engineer, and Frances Helen Clinton, Home Duties, living at The Waldorf, Milson Road, Neutral Bay, New South Wales.

Sent an advanced copy of ‘The War Story of Oliver Holmes Woodward, Captain, 1st Aust. Tunnelling Company’, he replied to Woodward:

Robert Adam Clinton M.C. died on 9 May 1936.

He is commemorated in the Garden of Remembrance, Springvale Necropolis, Melbourne, Victoria, Wall 2A Row D. His remains are located at the Wall of Remembrance 1A Niche 296.

Frances Helen Clinton (nee Heyward) died in Geelong, Victoria in 1959 aged 84.