The First World War Drum
George Bimrose, 41st battalion AIF, service number 327
G.R Bimrose, one of the soldiers photographed in the Queenslander Pictorial, supplement to the Queenslander, 1916. John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, 5 August 1916.
George Bimrose was born in Herberton on 17 May 1896. He enlisted in Townsville on 18 October 1915 and embarked for Brisbane.
George purchased his drum while in training at Enoggera camp in Brisbane in 1915. He played it in the 41st battalion’s departure march through Brisbane, then in South Africa, in England and finally in France.
George with his Battalion reached France in late 1916 and moved up to the front line. “We took over on Christmas Eve 1916 and got hell. His spies knew we were coming and we got half of Germany’s shells.” In June 1917 George’s luck ran out, in the attack on Messines Ridge, Belgium. “We were fighting in gas helmets for eight weeks and I got gas, thrown into a gas shell hole. I must have got all his gas as I woke up in Dartford England weighing 8 stone.”
After recovering in hospital in England, he played with the AIF Hercott Command Band throughout the UK and Ireland.
George was repatriated to Australia and discharged from the army in July 1918, medically unfit due to gas. He returned to Herberton and began civilian life as a barber. He recalled the day the news came through that the First World We was over, “When the Armistice was signed the town went mad. Whistles were blowing everywhere and the hotel keepers would not let us pay for the drink. We had to go around them all.” He still had his drum which he brought out for the great occasion. “They had a great day on Armistice day. I played the drum and led all the schools to the railway station”
This drum was played by George in the first Armistice Day march in Herberton before coming to Cairns in 1920. Here it marched in the Anzac Day Dawn Service parade with the Cairns City Band for 25 years. It was also played at the Victory Day Celebrations in Cairns at the end of the Second World War.
George joined the RSL immediately upon his return to Australia and remained involved with their activities for the rest of his life. He died in 1967.
His much travelled drum remains on display in the Kokoda Hall Museum at the Cairns RSL Subbranch.
Drum belonging to Drummer G.R. Bimrose, 41st Battalion, WW1 – Kokoda Hall Museum
Private George Richard Bimrose, Herberton’s Hundredth Centenary Newspaper 1880-1980. Courtesy of the Herberton Mining Museum.
References
Herberton’s Hundredth/National Library of Australia
www.catalogue.nla.gov.au/catalog/1611975
Trove
www.trove.nla.gov.au/work/197484100?keyword=%22G%20R%20Bimrose%22
Virtual war Memorial