Robert Hare HAMMOND

Robert ‘Bob’ Hammond was born on 16 February 1893 in Albert Park, Victoria. His parents were Charles Frederick and Eliza (née Anderson) Hammond. He attended Scotch from 1907 to 1909.

Robert was a clerk when he enlisted on 18 February 1915 in Melbourne, Victoria. He served in the 6th Field Ambulance with the rank of Private. His Regimental Number was 3149.

Robert died on 25 April 1919 in Melbourne, Victoria. He was 26 years of age.

Service record

Bob Hammond was 21 when he enlisted. Unusually for a Scotch Collegian of the era, he had two tattoos on his left arm. He was allotted to the 6th Field Ambulance. He caught diphtheria at Broadmeadows camp and was in Fairfield Hospital for 33 days. He embarked with the 6th Field Ambulance for the Middle East on 4 June 1915. With them he embarked to join the Australians on Gallipoli on 30 August 1915, though he later claimed he had suffered from diphtheria for the previous five weeks. On 7 December he had to be evacuated to a hospital ship with cardiac trouble, or VDH (valvular disease of the heart). He later said he had shortness of breath for a month before this. There were other medical troubles, and when he arrived at Alexandria, Egypt, on 11 December 1915 he was immediately hospitalised with illness (see below). He was able to return to his unit on 28 December.

In March 1916 he contracted scarlatina (scarlet fever). He did not return to his unit till May, nearly 7 months later. Within a day of his return he seems to have been sick again, with more cardiac trouble. The Scotch Collegian reported early in 1916 that he had been ‘engaged in post office work’ in Egypt as a result of his strained heart. A report in May said that he had not been on full duty since 10 December 1915, on Gallipoli. In June a Medical Board declared his irritable heart a result of active service, originating at Gallipoli, and more particularly ‘infection and strain’ (see below).

On 4 July 1916 Bob embarked for Australia with ‘irritable heart’, arriving in Melbourne on 2 August. He was treated in Melbourne for three days for the same illness that had hospitalised him in December 1915, and was then discharged from the AIF as permanently unfit on 22 August 1916. He died at the Caulfield Military Hospital on Anzac Day 1919. The cause of death on his death certificate (reproduced in his service file) was pulmonary tuberculosis and emphysema.

Robert Hammond is buried in the Brighton Cemetery, Victoria, Australia.

Photographs and Documents:

Bob Hammond returned from Gallipoli to Egypt and was hospitalised in Egypt in December 1915.

Comments of a Medical Board in May 1916.

A Medical Board declares Bob Hammond’s illness a result of active service.

Sources:

1. Australian War Memorial – Embarkation Roll
2. Mishura Scotch Database
3. National Archives of Australia – B2455, HAMMOND R
4. Scotch Collegian - 1916
5. The AIF Project - https://www.aif.adfa.edu.au/showPerson?pid=124824