Captain Kendall HAMMAND AAMC
Attached 25th Battalion AIF
By Ian Curtis
1
Vestigia nulla retrosum – No backward steps2
Kendall Hammand was born in Waverley, Sydney on 9 April 1881, the son of Thomas Hammand and Elizabeth (née Kendall). He was baptised on 15 August 1885 in the Church of England faith.
Kendall was educated initially at St Mark’s Crescent School,3 Darling Point, then Sydney Grammar School 4 before joining the medical faculty at Sydney University. Kendall was a keen swimmer and was a member of the Waverley Swimming Club. While at university, he served one year in the Sydney University Scouts.
On graduating as a Bachelor of Medicine (M.B.) in April 1907,5 he accepted a position as a medical officer at the Toowoomba General Hospital between 1907 and 1908. Leaving Toowoomba, he again studied at Sydney University and in 1909, gained a second degree, Master of Surgery (Ch.M)6
With those qualifications, he sailed on the Eastern in 1909, as ship’s surgeon, from Sydney to Melbourne and on to England. In 1911, Kendall was a resident doctor in the St Pancras area of London.
On return to Australia, he took up private practice at Clifton, on the Darling Downs, Queensland. He also sent patients to St Canice’s, the private cottage hospital at Nobby, just north of Clifton, founded by Nurse Elizabeth Kenny.
Kendall became well respected in the district and when the prime minister of Australia announced that Australia was at war, Kendall conducted the medical examinations of the men who enlisted at Clifton. On 8 May 1915, Kendall married Margaret Mary Edwards of Clifton, then, on 10 May, submitted an application for a commission in the Army. At the same time, Nurse Kenny was accepted for military service.
On Thursday 13 May, a large gathering of the local community convened to farewell Kendall at the Club Hotel. The shire chairman, John Logan, indicated that the community appreciated the humanitarian motives that inspired Kendall to volunteer. The president of the Chamber of Commerce, Mr JC Gillan, then presented him with a gold watch suitably inscribed, and indicated that his new wife would later be presented with two silver entrée dishes.
Doctor Kendall Hammand joined the 25th Battalion as Medical Officer on 13 May 1915. He stood 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighed 150 pounds. He joined the unit at Enoggera where it undertook initial training. On 28 June, the battalion left Enoggera by train for Pinkenba where they boarded HMAT A60 Aeneas. The ship sailed at 11am on 29 June with the battalion band playing “Auld Lang Syne”.
On 1 July, the ship berthed at Woolloomooloo, Sydney. The men spent a week at the Sydney Showgrounds before re-embarking at 1pm on 7 July.
By the time the ship had reached Suez on 4 August, four men of the battalion had died, three from pneumonia and one from meningitis.7 The battalion disembarked and caught a train to Zeitoun and then marched two miles to Polygon Camp at Abbassia, five miles from Cairo, where they undertook further training.
On 4 September 1915, the battalion boarded HMT Minnewaska at Alexandria and sailed to Lemnos, arriving on 7 September, where they disembarked. On 11 September, they boarded HMS Sarnia and made the four-hour trip to Gallipoli, disembarking at a pier on North Beach. The next day, the 25th Battalion, as part of the 7th Brigade, reinforced the depleted New Zealand and Australian Division. However, the battalion had a relatively quiet time because the last major Allied offensive had been launched and turned back the previous month. The battalion moved firstly to Lower Cheshire Ridge, where they were subject to shrapnel and machine gun fire and sniper attacks.
In early October they moved to The Apex, close to the Turkish line and were subject to bomb attacks. In November, the battalion was relieved and moved back to a reserve position. They had been subject to heat, flies, lice and stench of the dead, as well as dysentery, for which Kendall would have treated the men, in addition to shrapnel wounds caused by bomb attacks.
November brought a complete climate change – extremely cold weather, including sleet and deep snow which caused frostbite. Kendall treated 25 men for this condition and authorised their evacuation. On Gallipoli, the 25th Battalion lost 21 men killed in action, 16 died of wounds, 7 died of disease and 354 men were wounded.8
On 18 December 1915, the battalion was evacuated on HMAT A20 Horarata from Gallipoli to Lemnos. After rest and recovery, they sailed to Alexandria, arriving on 9 January 1916. They disembarked and moved to a camp at Tel el Kebir, near Ismailia, where the 25th Battalion commenced reorganisation and refitting. On 30 January 1916, while on duty, Captain Kendall Hammand died in Egypt. The cause of death was a bullet wound to the head.9
The exact circumstances of Hammand’s death are unclear, apart from the proceedings of the Board of Inquiry. Evidence was given that Hammand had borrowed a pistol from a fellow officer on the pretext of getting some shooting practice. However, he did not leave his tent to go to the range. He died from a single shot to the right side of the head, with an exit wound visible on the left side. The board found that there is no evidence to show that it was not the result of an accident, and that the accident resulted from Hammand’s lack of knowledge of the mechanism of the weapon.10
Dr Robert Likeman continues:
This is an odd statement to make about an officer who had been at Anzac for three months and it was clearly a well-intentioned means of concealing a suicide.10
The following day, Kendall was buried by The Reverend William Charles Smith, Anglican Chaplain, 25th Battalion, at Tel el Kebir War Memorial Cemetery.
Kendall’s wife received letters of condolence. The Chaplain wrote saying that Doctor Hammand had intended to get some practice with his revolver in order to become proficient in its use. However, while he was cleaning, or examining it, the weapon went off. At 10.45am an officer in the next tent heard the shot and found Hammand unconscious with a head wound. After removal to 5th Field Ambulance, Captain Kendall Hammand died at 11.40am.
The Reverend William Smith said the whole battalion “deplored the death” and paid tribute to “the tireless and zealous manner in which the doctor had carried out his duty in the operations at Gallipoli.” Sadly, Mrs Hammand had recently received a letter from her husband dated 12 January, stating that he was “quite well” and had forwarded her “a valuable Egyptian brooch, as a memento of safe return from Gallipoli to Egypt.”
In Toowoomba, soon after news of his death was received, a tribute paid to Dr Hammand outlined his many qualities and stated that “during his term as House Surgeon at Toowoomba General Hospital, he was one of the most popular resident surgeons occupying that position.”11
Kendall Hammand was eligible for the 1914-15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal.
The medals were sent to his widow, along with a Memorial Scroll in 1921 and a Memorial Plaque in 1923. He is commemorated on the Clifton War Memorial, Sydney Grammar School (Central Panel A-Z, Fallen Sydneians)12 Sydney University Honour Roll, Toowoomba Soldiers’ Memorial Hall World War I Roll of Honour, Toowoomba Mothers’ Memorial, and at the Australian War Memorial (panel 104).
Sydney Grammar School – World War I Roll of Honour13
Charles Ackroyd Hammand14
Kendall’s brother, Sergeant Charles Ackroyd Hammand15, enlisted in Brisbane on 6 May 1915 (4 days prior to his brother) and was posted to the 15th Battalion AIF.
Charles was invalided out of the army with chronic influenza after serving at Gallipoli. He visited Kendall’s widow Margaret at Clifton in April 1916, before proceeding to his home in Sydney.
Charles was born at Waverley on 9 May 1888 and attended Sydney Grammar School and Sydney University where he obtained an Arts Degree and played Rugby for the University as a lock forward. He was a member of the Sydney University Scouts who were called up in August 1914 to defend the cable station at La Perouse, on the coastline of Botany Bay, south of Sydney.
Charles Hammand was a Rugby Union International, playing two tests on the 1908-09 Australian Rugby Union tour of Great Britain. The team also represented Australia at the 1908 Olympic Games, but Charles was not picked in the team to play the one game against Cornwall, the English champion team which represented Great Britain.
Team picture of “The Wallabies” touring party 1908. Charles is in the back row, third from the right.16
Captain Kendall Hammand’s name on the Clifton War Memorial17 Note the incorrect spelling of his name18
“Dr Kendall Hammand had a retiring disposition, but his sterling qualities earned for him the esteem and love of all and widespread regret will be felt at his death. His manliness and patriotism prompted him to offer his services for his country and it may truthfully be said of him that ‘Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.’” 19
Kendall’s wife Margaret never remarried. She lived in the Toowoomba area for the remainder of her life. She would place a notice in the Darling Downs Gazette 20on the anniversary of his death.
In loving memory of Dr Kendall Hammand, who died of wounds at Tel el Kebir on January 30th 1916. Inserted by his sorrowing wife.
Margaret passed away on 16 April 1961 at the age of 78 years. She was buried in the Roman Catholic section of the Drayton and Toowoomba Cemetery.
Inscription on gravestone of Margaret Mary Hammand21
In Loving Memory of Mrs Hammand – Widow of the late Dr Kendall Hammand
Captain Kendall Hammand’s Memorial Plaque, 1914-1915 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal proudly displayed at the Maryborough Military & Colonial Museum.
‘Lest we Forget’
References
Doneley B, Black over Blue: The 25th Battalion AIF
Likeman, LTCOL Robert, Gallipoli Doctors
NAA: 2455 Hammand, Kendall
NAA: 2455 Hammond (sic), Charles Ackroyd
University of Sydney Archives
Clifton War Memorial booklet.
www.peoplepill.com/people/elizabeth-kenny
www.heuristplus.sydney.edu.au
www.sydgram.nsw.edu.au
The Sydney Morning Herald
Darling Downs Gazette
Daily Standard
Bundaberg Mail and Burnett Advertiser 17 March 1916, page 4
Endnotes
- NSW State Archives & Records
- Motto of 25th Battalion AIF
- The school was part of the now heritage listed St Mark’s Church of England, Darling Point. The foundation stone was laid in 1848 on land given by Thomas Sutcliffe Mort, auctioneer, wool merchant and industrialist.
- SGS World War I servicemen, compiled by P Creagh. The school lost more ex-students in the Great War than any other school in Australia.
- The Sydney Morning Herald, 29 April 1907, page 8
- University of Sydney Archives
- Unit War Diary 25th Battalion AIF AWM4 23/42/5
- Doneley, page 32
- NAA Personnel Records
- Likeman, Gallipoli Doctors, page 184
- Darling Downs Gazette, 10 February 1916, page 4
- www.sydneygram.new.edu.au
- www.sydneygram.new.edu.au Charles’ name is on left panel A to L – Returned Old Sydnians and Masters.
- Discoveringanzacs.naa.gov.au
- Charles Ackroyd Hammand was a theatrical professional and named his brother Kendall as his next of kin. His surname (like his brother’s, sometimes) was misspelt as Hammond when transcribed on his military records.
- Wikipedia. The Team were the original “Wallabies”, given this name when they arrived in England, by the British press
- Qldwarmemorials.com.au
- Kendall Hammand’s name was spelt a number of different ways (sometimes Kendow, and Hammond instead of Hammand) in his military records; also on Clifton War Memorial
- Darling Downs Gazette, 10 February 1916, page 4
- Darling Downs Gazette, 30 January 1919, page 4 Roll of Honour
- www.tr.qld.gov.au Deceased search
ANZAC Biographies
On our website you will find the biographical details of ANZAC (as well as British) servicemen & women whose medals or other memorabilia form part of the collection on display at the Maryborough Military & Colonial Museum, Maryborough, Queensland, Australia.
Array