Harold (Rollo) Edwin Salisbury Armitage was born of the 11th November 1894, the eldest child of Henry James Armitage and Martha Elizabeth Rowe. He was baptised at St. Bartholomew's, Norwood, South Australia on the 10th November 1895.

Rollo’s siblings were Bessie Eleanor (b 1896), George William Thomas (b 1889) and John Henry Alfred (b 1905).

Rollo commenced his schooling at Houghton, where his father was the Head Teacher from 1895 to 1913. In February 1908, he was awarded a School of Mines and Industries country scholarship.

Rollo passed the Junior Examinations in English History, Geography, Arithmetic (credit), Algebra, and Inorganic Chemistry in December 1908, and in March 1909, he was appointed an Education Department Monitor at the Houghton School.

In January 1910, Rollo passed the Pupil Teacher examinations, which gave him the opportunity to study at Adelaide High School. Rollo attended AHS in 1911 and 1912. He passed the Senior Examinations in English Literature, Modern History, Arithmetic and Algebra, Geometry, Trigonometry, Physics, and Drawing. He was 42nd on the General Honours List.

In addition to his involvement in the Senior Cadets, Rollo played cricket for AHS in 1912. In December 1912, Rollo passed two subjects in the Higher Public Examinations (English Literature and Geometry/Trigonometry).

Cricket

Rollo played cricket for the Adelaide University Cricket Club in the B Grade in the 1914/1915 season. Rollo was listed as an emergency for the team on a number of occasions.

Although named as an emergency for the University B Grade team for the match on 30th October 1914 against the Sturt Oval side (Sturt B Grade Team), he ended up playing in this match due to another player's unavailability. Although he was out stumped for a duck, the match has several interesting facets to it.

Included in the Sturt Oval team were 19-year-old Victor York Richardson (Test cricketer, all-round champion sportsman, and grandfather of the Chappell brothers) and his older brother Osma Voy Richardson. Even though it was a B Grade match, it was played on the Adelaide Oval. It is sad to note that Osma was also killed in WW1 at Villers-Bretonneux in August 1916.

Rowing

Newspaper reports after Rollo’s death state that he was involved in rowing at AHS and while at the University.

Rollo’s WWI experiences are well documented in a published biography and in letters home to his parents, which were recorded in three letterbooks. Some of Rollo’s letters were published in South Australian papers during his war service.

The three letterbooks, with carbon copies of transcriptions of letters written by Armitage to his parents, are held by the Australian War Memorial. The books seem to have been compiled by his parents from the letters they received. They cover:

• Australia to Gallipoli, 20 April to 24 November 1915;

• Lemnos, Egypt, Sinai, 2 December 1915 to 4 June 1916; and

• the Mediterranean trip and France, June 1916 to April 1917.

Details of Rollo’s experience in the Cadets/Senior Cadets and Citizens Military Forces were listed on his application for a commission. Rollo was 5’8” tall, 10 stone 9 pounds, and aged 20 years and three months when he applied for a commission in the AIF. At the same stage, his younger brother, George, moved to the new Naval College at Jervis Bay as a Cadet Midshipman.

Rollo gained his commission as a second lieutenant with the Fifth Reinforcement, 10th Battalion, on 24th March 1915. Rollo left Australia for active service abroad on 20th April 1915 onboard the HMAT Hororata (A20) and joined the 10th Battalion at Gallipoli on 2nd June 1915.

Mr. H. J. Armitage has received a letter from his son, Lieutenant Harold Armitage, dated from Gaba Tepe, June 7, 1915, from which the following extracts are culled:

“We left Alexandria for Lemnos in the Australind, a real old tub. At Mudros we shipped into tugs for the run across to Gallipoli. German submarines were about, so we expected a swim for it. We reached Gaba Tepe safely. It was only 4.30 a.m., but the Turks were awake, and shells were soon dropping round our boat. One fell so near that some of the men were splashed.

“I had to distribute my men at their several stations, and as they belonged to eight different battalions you can reckon I had my work cut out. I knew nothing about 'Sniper's Corner', 'Double-up Point,' or 'Hurry-up Bend,' but I soon found them out, as the snipers let go directly I reached each spot. Most of their shots passed well overhead, but at one place three struck the bank just in front of me, and another cut a branch just behind my back.

“However, I got my men safely into their bases, and then found I'd been moving about for two hours in broad daylight, where it was only reckoned safe to travel at night-time. At 10 o'clock I reached the 10th Battalion, and after five weeks’ travel with comparative strangers it was nice to greet the old companions. There were many faces missing though, and the 10th lost a big proportion on April 25, but those who went out died as heroes should, and on the old heroic ground.

“I was sent into the trenches straight away with C Company. I found officers and men splendid in every way. The men are mostly miners, so trenching is child's play to them, and they have made model retreats, perfectly shot- and shell-proof.

“The Australians and the navy men are sworn brothers now, and each admires the other. Our boys cannot say too much for the great help they received from the Jack Tars. They say one cruiser used up all its 4.7 in. ammunition, and the '.....' borrowed a boatload, which turned out to be 8 in. stuff, yet the 'handy men' made that fit somehow, and kept up the use. One lot left their boat, picked up the rifles of fallen men, and joined in a charge, whilst all the time, through shot and shell, the boats were moving busily.

“If you want to know really what our boys did and what opinion Englishmen have of them, just ask some of the naval men who helped to run them ashore.” - Published in The Advertiser (Adelaide, SA: 1889–1931), 26 July 1915.

On the 4th August 1915, Rollo was promoted to Lieutenant and continued to fight at Gallipoli until the “Fighting 10th” were withdrawn from the peninsula on the 21st of November 1915.

On the 26th February 1916, Rollo was transferred to the newly formed 50th Battalion at Tel-el-Kebir, Egypt, and on the 12th March 1916 he was promoted to temporary Captain. He was later promoted to the rank of Captain on the 15th April 1916.

On the 5th June 1916, Rollo embarked with the 50th, leaving Egypt to join the British Expeditionary Forces in France. He arrived at Marseilles, France, on the 12th June 1916.

Extract from book Hurcombe's Hungry Half Hundred by Dr. Roger Freeman, pp. 63–64
Letter from Captain Harold Armitage (50th Battalion) to Mr. Armitage (father):

"Since last writing to you I have been to HELL — and have had the luck to get back again. I am not in a mood for writing, so will stop and finish later on...

"Well, anyhow, we've had our first "Big Action" as the 50th Battalion — and we got rather singed, though we were successful in getting the objective. We left Albert on the 12th August in the morning, in fighting order for certain support trenches. Little did we think that a few hours’ time would see us "over the top" and well into Hun's trenches. Still, we got over — and some of us have come back.

"When we arrived at the support trenches we got orders to go up to some trenches N.W. of Pozieres — and at 10.20 p.m. we had to hop out and at them. We set out for the "jumping off" place, and got along very well until within ½ mile of the front — and then we got iron foundries, Essen, Krupp, and the Harz Mountains thrown at us.

"The Huns knew the exact location of the communication trench (one of theirs), and lobbed into a length of about 400 yards a shell every 10 yards every 5 seconds. That is what the 50th got through before starting work. The trench was absolutely smashed, and we lost a fair number of men.

"Our next trouble was to keep alive in the front-line trench — our jump-off place — and for 4½ hours the Huns simply poured shells onto us. Amidst all this we had to make our dispositions for the attack — and then we were able to lie "doggo" for 30 minutes before doing our little dash.

"At last 9.34 came — we got over the top and "lined up" about 40 yards out by 9.40. Then IT began. IT was our artillery preparation. Talk about a wall of bursting flame! We had to take about 800 yards of Hun trench — and that 800 yards had three minutes of awful bombardment, a sheet of flame the whole length representing the bursting shells. The dust from the explosions, and the intense glare, cast an orange glow over the proceedings.

"While this was going on we sneaked up to about 50 yards of the objective. It was a weird sight — our boys steadily advancing against a background of solid, golden flame — and the noise!! It was terrific!!

"The artillery lifted back 50 yards, and then came the supreme moment of the lot. "Right-o. Charge!" and, with a sounding of whistles, we jumped up and charged like blue hell across those few yards. My word, the boys travelled!! — no cheering, bayonets carried at "high port" — and we reached the trenches; or what was left of them.

"We found only about 42 live men — the rest were knocked out. Beresford soon bombed these into the "Kamerad" attitude — but we only took five unwounded prisoners.

"Then work "started"! We had to dig in almost a fresh line of trench — my word, the boys did dig — and we had a very decent line before dawn.

"All that day (13th) we got blue blazes, shelled from dawn until late dusk — but our "diggers" had been so good that we had few casualties. Fritz made two or three tries to form up for a counter-attack — but we’d get in early, and by being alert kept him from concentrating on us.

"On the 14th he gave us seven hours of perfect inferno. What a time we had. Few of us thought we’d get through that day, but we stuck it O.K.

"That night we were sent out on a very difficult stunt: we had to go out to the left, and advance to dig in "on the skyline". By this time we’d lost about two-thirds of our men, we’d had no sleep since late on the 11th, and the men were dead tired with three nights of hard, heavy digging.

"We got out O.K. and forward into positions on the objective — but Fritz spotted us and made our lives precarious with machine guns and shells. Herbert was temporarily smashed up, Beresford was blown out by a shell (shell-shock), Dryden, Rhodes, and Fowler wounded.

"D Company was forced back, leaving the remnants of the other three companies under Rule and myself. I tried hard to get the men dug in, but after 30 minutes of hell — and vain endeavour (with open flanks) — I gave word to get back to our line. I lost 43 men in a very short hour!!!!

"All that night Fritz rained angry shells on us, and all the next day, too. It was terrible — but we held fast.

"At 9 p.m. we were relieved, but even then our troubles did not end — we were shelled all the way home, and had a corporal buried.

"Altogether "C" lost 105 men — 19 killed, 16 missing (blown to bits mainly), and the rest wounded. Scott was badly hit — I doubted whether he would get to the ambulance. I had just promoted him.

"Our boys earned their name "The Fighting Fiftieth" after 4 days of hell and 4 nights of double HELL, on ONE issue of water and half a dozen biscuits!!!!

"I am satisfied my training was O.K. — the boys were well tried — and the trail proved them true and brave. Anyhow, we've opened the way to Mouquet Farm, and perhaps to Thiepval as well.

"God guarded me — for I was reckless at times — and I hope in 10 days’ time He will again help me.

"Stretcher bearers were kept so busy in the rear that they couldn’t get anywhere near to us until the 4th day, and then Donald Kerr reached us. But in the meantime many had died from wounds. I have recommended Kerr for the V.C., and he deserved it.

"Scott, my first batman, was made a Lance Corporal a few weeks ago and was doing well, while in the stunt of the 12th, 13th, 14th he did marvellous work. He would have gained three stripes easily, but on our way back on the 14th, from our abandoned positions, he was badly struck in the back by bits of shell.

"I got him into the lee side of a shell-hole and fixed him up as best I could, but I am afraid there was internal bleeding. The outward bleeding had stopped but I could not dress the wounds — and I knew an impromptu stretcher of rifles and coats would start the bleeding again, so we had to wait for proper stretchers.

"No stretchers came till we were relieved, but the Battalion who took our place promised to look after Scott and 4 or 5 others whom I'd left. The Battalion was badly shelled and, so far, Scott has not passed through the Field Ambulance.

"Things like this take away all the feeling of glory in a stunt, but it was absolutely impossible to get away with any wounded except the walking cases. At the last I risked things and allowed 4 stretcher parties of 4 men each to take in 4 cases on improvised stretchers, but 5 men of B and C Companies were left for the relieving Brigade."

Rollo never knew that he had been specially mentioned in Sir Douglas Haig’s dispatches dated 9th April 1917. The MiD was awarded posthumously.

“The Perfect Day”
Extract from Dr Roger Freeman’s Hurcombe’s Hungry Half Hundred

Next morning, after a hot bath and breakfast, I hurried out to interview tailors, base kit stores, and so on, to get ourselves respectfully attired. And at lunchtime we were so far from home.

The useful police put us wise to a good place to lunch, hence we arrived at the “Trocadero.” The place was crowded, and I was slowly walking in when I suddenly heard a familiar voice sing out:

“Taka Heeme Army” – a pure Anzac cry from Egypt.

I looked round and caught sight of Murray Fowler waving a napkin at me. And there, in a mob around his big table, I saw: Hancock, Moule, Blackburn, Giles, McCann, Jose, Inglis (all old 10th), Dey, Baily (27th), and Hewitt of Artillery – all our S.A. chums.

You can imagine how Cornish and I welcomed them.

That meal cost us £9.18.0 – but Blackburn doesn’t get the V.C. every day, so it was excusable.

We spent the afternoon at the Hippodrome, in the Royal Box, watching Flying Colours – and this cost us 5 or 6 pounds. I’m afraid we rather took charge of the show, but McCann does not get the M.C. every day.

Then we had dinner together and “bang went many more sixpences” – more theatre – Happy Day – and I remember joining in with the song “The Perfect Day” before parting.

It was a perfect day too, I can assure you; the best and first time I have ever been “perfect” in all my life – but it was worth it – for you can’t imagine how pleased we ten of the old 10th were to be together once more.

Very penitently next morning I went to service at the Abbey.

Initial reports of Rollo’s death stated that he had died on the 3rd March 1917 however this was due to an error on behalf of the AIF. It was also reported that Rollo was an acting Major at the time of his death, but there is nothing on his service record to support the temporary promotion. 

In February 1917 the Germans took the Allies by surprise by withdrawing from their front line to consolidate along the much stronger Hindenberg Line. However to hinder the Allies advance they fortified a number of “outpost Villages”. 

The 50th and 51st Battalions were responsible for attacking one of the “outpost Villages” called Noreuil (France) on the 2nd April 1917. 

Harold Edwin Salisbury (Rollo) Armitage was killed in action on the 3rd April 1917 at Noreuil. After the battle, his body was recovered and buried in Noreuil Australian Cemetery, plot C 21. 

His moving epitaph reads: 'A Loving Son, A Devoted Officer, A Soldier And A Man.' 

A number of moving biographies relating to Rollo’s life and service were published in the South Australian papers during April 1917. Dr Roger Freeman's book "Hurcombe's Hungry Half Hundred" contains two letters written to Rollo’s father giving details of his son’s final months.

Sadly for the Armitage family, the early incorrect reports of Rollo’s date of death and delays in the provision of his will and the return of his personal effects resulted in delays in finalising his estate.

Probate was granted on Rollo’s estate (valued at £290) in August 1917. His personal effects as detailed below were returned to Australia and arrived on the 26th October 1917 onboard the “Euripidies”.

For the complete profile on HES Armitage including photographs, newspaper articles, documents and sources prepared by Beth Filmer for the AUFC/AUCC WWI Memorial Project (with assistance from Rob O'Shannassy & Janne Filmer please see the Adelaide University site AdelaideConnect at https://connect.adelaide.edu.au/nodes/view/25748