Brian and Dalton Doherty

Service number: 9536

Rank: Driver

Unit: ASC

Service:

Date of death:

Cemetery or memorial details:

War Grave Register notes:

Source: National Archives of Australia

Dalton Doherty was born at Forest Lodge, and was a motor mechanic. He enlisted on 1 October 1915, next of kin his mother, living at Sydney Road, Manly.

He was badly wounded by an accidental grenade explosion, and was invalided home to Australia in March 1918. His brother Brian Doherty also served.

The Manly Daily 7 March 1917 printed the following letter received by Mrs Kate Doherty of Norton Street, Manly, the mother of Gunner Brian Doherty, who was with the 2nd Divisional Ammunition sub-park in France.

“France December 17, 1916:

As you can see by the above address, I am in Dick’s unit now, although not with him, as his claim for me went through pretty quickly. We see each other every morning though, and are together any spare time we have. I am no longer a ‘footslogger’, but a ‘leatherhead’. Anyhow, no more standing for hours up to my waist in icy water and slush. France would be a very nice place if it wasn’t for the snow and the cold and the general wetness of everything. I was out till 5.30 this morning in a blinding snowstorm that was just like feeling your way through a curtain of white wool – only very cold wool. It’s not so bad though, on the back of a lorry as marching through it with a pound or so extra on your feet every step. 

Things are fairly quiet in the lines – only the same old thunder of the guns going. We don’t give Fritz much time to get lazy on it, as our side manage to get the range fairly often. There’s a lot of new hands over now – no one I know though. We chaps only who have been on Gallipoli have a gold ‘A’ over our battalion colours to distinguish us from the late lots, and our own wound stripes too. I will always be entitled to wear my 3rd colours as well as the DAP, too, but I think more of the first, as I have worn them so long now. You ought to see Dick’s lot! Their uniforms are held together with grease, as they are soaked in petrol. But with it all they keep themselves clean, as what Dick says is right – the man who lets himself get careless is the one who loses heart and goes sick or ‘takes the knock’. He has been eight months on the lorry now without a break, except one stretch out on ‘No Man’s Land’ with a wiring party. Dick has a clean uniform socked away, and he says that when this ‘big noise’ is over he will put it on and forget all about the last twelve months. He also has a Persian kitten that lives on the lorry with him, as comfortable as you like, that he is going to try to keep for you. Strikes me i t will be ‘some cat’ before you see it. They are a fine lot in the MS’s – real dinkum men – and the work, to put it mildly, is ‘solid’.

We sleep, live, eat and cook on the lorries . Up till lately they have had a whole lot of luck, as they have lost very few. Sometimes one goes ‘dopey’ and stops a heavy shell. Bullets would only mean Blighty, but the shells they dodge would mean ‘Nap-poo’ altogether. It’s a marvel that any of them are left, as they have been in some very warm corners. But you don’t worry over us, as now I see a chance of ‘doing the duration’. The ones who go over the top have precious little, believe me. We were yarning yesterday as to what it will feel like when we are all together again. The question is – when? But never mind; it won’t be too long. I am sending you a card of the town nearest to us (can’t tell you its name), and you can see what a quaint old place it is. Notice that long, straight row of  poplars against the skyline on that hill. We go up there every day or so. You would laugh at the mixtures we buy to eat there, as nothing comes amiss to us. I got a letter from Dick from you, dated 29/10/16, yesterday. Not too slow anyhow. ”

Brian Doherty, a motor driver in civilian life, enlisted in April 1915. He was wounded at Lone Pine, and spent six months in Egypt recuperating; he refused to be sent back to Australia, as it would have meant he would have lost his chance to rejoin the fight. He then served in France with the 2nd Ammunition Service Park, driving lorries loaded with ammunition, enduring numerous close calls.

His older brother Dalton Doherty, known as Dick, also served with the same outfit. In May 1917, an accidental grenade explosion left him with severe chest wounds, and after hospital treatment in England, he returned to Australia in March 1918. The brothers were reunited when Brian’s ship came home in 1919.

 Brian was a natural letter -writer, and several of his letters home were sent by his mother to newspapers around NSW, and can be accessed through the Trove website. One written about the same time as the one above says:

“The cold is past describing. Any lorry left standing a night has the oil frozen as hard as cement – and what sort of joy it is trying to swing her for a start! As my ‘light duties’ comprise working out in the open, with the icy wind blowing over miles of snow, I know all about the subject. I think if I tried I could be really eloquent about it.”

JMacR

Brian died 1976, Dalton died 1950.