Harold Edward Elliott

Australian politician

Major General Harold Edward "Pompey" Elliott, (19 June 1878 – 23 March 1931) was a senior officer in the Australian Army during the First World War. After the war he served as a Senator for Victoria in the Australian parliament. Elliott entered the University of Melbourne as a resident at Ormond College in 1898 to study law, but left in 1900 to serve in the Imperial Bushmen in the South African War. He was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal, and given a British Army commission, but chose to remain with the Victorian Imperial Bushmen as an attached subaltern. He returned to Australia in 1901, but went back to South Africa to serve with the Border Scouts, who patrolled remote and inhospitable areas. In December 1901, he distinguished himself in repelling a numerically superior Boer force, and received a congratulatory telegram from General Lord Kitchener. After he returned to Australia, he completed his law degree and became a solicitor. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Militia in 1904, and he was promoted to lieutenant in 1905, captain in 1909, major in 1911, and lieutenant colonel in 1913, commanding the 58th Battalion (Essendon Rifles). After the outbreak of the First World War, Elliott joined the Australian Imperial Force (AIF), and formed and commanded the 7th Infantry Battalion, which he led in the landing at Anzac on 25 April 1915, and the Battle of Lone Pine in August. In March 1916, he became the commander of the newly formed 15th Infantry Brigade, which he led in the disastrous Battle of Fromelles in July 1916. In March 1917, the German retreat to the Hindenburg Line gave Elliott a rare chance to display his tactical acumen in an independent command as the 15th Brigade operated as an advance guard of the British Fifth Army. It fought in the Second Battle of Bullecourt in May 1917, and the Battle of Polygon Wood at the end of September 1917, when Elliott's leadership transformed a near defeat into a victory. In the Second Battle of Villers Bretonneux in April 1918, he won another famous victory. Elliott won the 1919 federal election as a Nationalist Party of Australia candidate for the Senate, and was re elected in the 1925 election. His involvement with returned servicemen's issues led to his redrafting of the constitution of the Returned Sailors and Soldiers Imperial League of Australia, and he played an important part in the Victoria Police strike, making a call alongside Lieutenant General Sir John Monash for members of the AIF to come to Melbourne Town Hall and sign up as special constables. In 1926, he was appointed to command the 15th Brigade again, and the following year was finally promoted to the rank of major general, and became the commander of the 3rd Division. Suffering from chronic post traumatic stress disorder, he killed himself in March 1931.

Harold Edward Elliott was born 19 June 1878 in West Charlton, Victoria, the third son and fifth child of eight children of a farmer and prospector, Thomas Elliott, and his wife Helen, née Janvrin. To his family, he was nicknamed "Harkey". He grew up on the family farms, and attended the local school, known as the Rock Tank. In 1894, his father was one of six men who made a sensational find on the goldfields at Coolgardie, Western Australia. They sold their claim to the Earl of Fingall for £180,000 and a sixth interest. Fingall then floated it in London as a company valued at £700,000. This changed the family's circumstances. Debts were paid, and the farms acquired outright. The family moved to a new house named "Elsinore" near Lake Wendouree in Ballarat, Victoria. In January 1895, Elliott commenced at Ballarat College, a private Presbyterian boys' school, where one of the school houses, "Elliott", is now named after him. Despite concerns about the adequacy of his Rock Tank education, Elliott topped his class in Latin, bookkeeping, and Bible studies in his first year. He topped the class in seven of his eight subjects in 1896, and went on to become dux of the school in 1897. Elliott entered Ormond College, the Presbyterian hall of residence at the University of Melbourne in 1898 to study law. Between 1883 and 1896, law students had been required to first obtain a Bachelor of Arts degree before going on to study law. This had been changed, but Elliott, who was under no financial pressure to complete his degree quickly, elected to follow the old route and complete an arts degree first. He also represented Ormond College in football and athletics, and joined the University Officers' Training Corps. In March 1900, the Imperial authorities asked the Australian colonial governments to raise a force of 2,500 Imperial Bushmen for service in the South African War. Elliott decided to interrupt his studies to serve, and was one of 4,000 applicants for the 626 positions allotted to Victoria. He was accepted for the Victorian Imperial Bushmen, and trained at Langwarrin, Victoria, before embarking for South Africa on 1 May 1900. In another aspect of his life, Elliott would join the United Grand Lodge of Victoria as a Freemason in the old and established Naval & Military Lodge No 49.

The Victorian Imperial Bushmen were initially based at Marandellas in case the Boers invaded Southern Rhodesia. In January 1901 they moved to the Cape Colony, where they were attached to a Coldstream Guards force under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Henniker. This sometimes formed part of a larger force under the command of Colonel Herbert Plumer. On 28 February 1901, a 16 man detachment of Victorian Imperial Bushmen under the command of Captain Joseph Dallimore tracked a party of Boers. During the night, Elliott, now a corporal, stole the Boers' 54 horses without waking them. At dawn the bushmen surrounded and attacked the Boer party's encampment, and compelled all 33 of them to surrender. For his part, Elliott was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal, the British Empire's second highest award for gallantry by other ranks after the Victoria Cross, and mentioned in despatches. He was given a British Army commission as a lieutenant in the 2nd Battalion, Royal Berkshire Regiment on 20 November 1900, but he remained with the Victorian Imperial Bushmen as an attached subaltern. He embarked for Australia on 22 June 1901, reaching Melbourne on 12 July. His British Army commission was cancelled at his own request. On 24 August 1901, he sailed for South Africa again on the SS Britannic. There, he obtained a commission as a lieutenant in the Cape Colony Cyclist Corps on 18 October 1901. He then joined the Border Scouts, who patrolled remote and inhospitable areas. In December 1901, he distinguished himself in repelling a numerically superior Boer force under Commandant Edwin Alfred Conroy. For this he received a congratulatory telegram from General Lord Kitchener that read: "Please tell Lieut. Elliott that I am very pleased with his conduct and that of his men in driving off Conroy and saving horses." The war ended in May 1902, but Elliott remained with the Border Scouts until they were disbanded in September. In addition to his Distinguished Conduct Medal, Elliott was awarded the Queen's South Africa Medal with four clasps (Rhodesia, Orange Free State, Transvaal, and Cape Colony), and the King's South Africa Medal with two clasps (South Africa 1901 and South Africa 1902).

In 1903, Elliott returned to his studies, completing his arts degree. Instead of staying at Ormond College, he lived at "Endersleigh", a residence in Drummond Street, Carlton, owned by Alexander and Mary Campbell. The following year he commenced law, winning a residential scholarship to Ormond College. He was also commissioned in the Militia as a second lieutenant in the 5th Infantry Regiment. He returned to Ormond in 1905, where he was joined by his brother George, who had also been dux of Ballarat College, and went on to play football for Fitzroy and University in the Victorian Football League. Elliott graduated in 1906 with his Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws with second class honours, sharing the Supreme Court Prize for the top law student. A law degree was not sufficient to allow one to practise law; aspiring lawyers had also to complete articles. Elliott joined the firm of Moule, Hamilton and Kiddle on Market Street. While working on his articles, he lived at Endersleigh and courted Belle and Kate, the daughters of its owners. He completed his articles in August 1907, and was dismissed by Moule, Hamilton and Kiddle, since the firm would now have to pay him a living wage. Elliott practised as a solicitor in Stawell, Victoria, for a while, before returning to Melbourne, where he formed a partnership with a fellow solicitor, Glen Roberts, with offices in Collins Street. He bought a house called "Dalriada" in Northcote, with a loan from his father, and married Kate Campbell there on 27 December 1909. They had two children, a daughter, Violet, born in March 1911, and a son, Neil, in June 1912. His militia career also flourished, and he was promoted to lieutenant in 1905, captain in 1909, major in 1911, and lieutenant colonel in 1913, commanding the 58th Battalion (Essendon Rifles).

On 14 August 1914, soon after the First World War began, Elliott was given the same rank in the Australian Imperial Force (AIF), and command of the 7th Infantry Battalion, one of four Victorian battalions in Colonel James Whiteside McCay's 2nd Infantry Brigade. Elliott's first action was to ask Major Walter McNicoll to be his second in command, a position McNicoll readily accepted. He then supervised the raising of his battalion. Three of his eight companies were drawn from the northern suburbs of Melbourne, but the other five came mainly from central Victoria. He took particular care over the selection of officers. The newly formed battalion marched from Victoria Barracks to the training camp at Broadmeadows, Victoria, on 19 August. Elliott believed that Australians would take readily to military discipline if the reasons for it were properly explained. McCay was disturbed at the numbers of men without prior militia training that were being enlisted, but some of the battalion's recruiting area had no militia units. Instead, Elliott relied on the quality of the militia's officers and non commissioned officers to produce well trained soldiers. On 18 October, the 7th Battalion entrained for Port Melbourne, where it boarded the SS Hororata for England. While it was en route, the destination was changed to Egypt. In Egypt, the battalion was re organised, changing over to the new establishment of four companies instead of eight, and McNicoll left to take over command of the 6th Infantry Battalion. Elliott established a mystique as a larger than life personality, and his idiosyncrasies drew intense devotion and loyalty from his men. He acquired the nickname "Pompey" after the famous football player Fred "Pompey" Elliott, who played 209 games for Carlton and Melbourne. Throughout the war, he was accompanied by a black charger, called "Darkie", who (with subtle encouragement) would spot the smallest irregularities in the men. Years later, his men were still convinced that it was the horse who had noticed the errors their commander had berated them for. For the landing at Anzac on 25 April 1915, the 6th and 7th Battalions travelled from Lemnos in the The plan called for the troops to be landed by tows—wooden rowboats towed by a powered craft; but when the ship came under fire with no sign of the tows that were to take the troops ashore, the ship's master decided that the 7th Battalion must proceed ashore in the ship's rowboats. Elliott was strongly opposed to this, as the men would have to row a long way, and the battalion would become disorganised from the start, but had to give way. Elliott went in the fifth boat. When his boat and the one following were about from shore, they were met by a steam pinnace, which towed them to Anzac Cove, where Elliott stepped ashore about 0530. The plan called for the 2nd Brigade to advance on the left towards Hill 971, but Colonel Ewen Sinclair Maclagan told him that the plan needed to be changed, and that the 2nd Brigade was required on the right, around the 400 Plateau. Climbing up to the 400 Plateau to view the situation for himself, Elliott was wounded in the ankle. He was helped down to the beach, where he remained for several hours, insisting that others were more severely wounded than himself. Eventually, he was taken to the hospital ship HMHS Gascon, and thence back to Alexandria. Elliott was admitted to the 1st Australian General Hospital in Heliopolis on 7 May 1915, was discharged on 26 May, and rejoined the 7th Battalion at Anzac on 5 June.

After the evacuation, the 7th Battalion was returned to Egypt, where Elliott rejoined it on 15 January. On 15 February, he was appointed to command, with the rank of brigadier general, ]]
In March 1916, the 5th Division was sent 35 mile (56 km) across the desert to defend the Suez Canal. The crossing was first attempted by the 14th Brigade, who suffered badly. Elliott personally inspected the route, talked with officers familiar with it, and drew up a new timetable for the march, managing to get his men across with only a handful of casualties. On the march, one man forgot the ban on smoking. Elliott characteristically started to scream at the man, even threatening to shoot him. Out from the ranks came a shout: "If you shoot him, I'll shoot you." When the soldier who called out was brought forward and explained that no one talked to his brother like that, Elliott sent the man to his school for non commissioned officers, with the rationale that anyone who could stand up to himself in full flight clearly had leadership potential. On arriving at Suez, the water that the Battalion had been promised was nowhere to be found. They were assured that the water was coming, but hours later it still had not appeared. Elliott then made one of the "vigorous protests" that he was becoming famous for. He even threatened to march them back across the Suez Canal to get them a drink. "It was outrageous to deprive men of water in the desert" Elliott thundered. He was assured that the water would be available at 5.30 the next morning. Elliott was up at 0500, and found many of his men had been unable to sleep due to their thirst, and were licking at the taps around camp. He found the camp's Chief Engineer who informed him that the Egyptian civil authorities had not provided enough water for the troops in camp, and that he had strict orders not to start the pumps before 0800, as it would wake the II Anzac Corps Commander, Lieutenant General Sir Alexander Godley. Elliott remounted his horse and went to II Anzac Corps Headquarters, where he informed a yawning staff officer in silk pyjamas that unless the water was turned on in the next five minutes, the brigade would be assembling and telling the Corps Commander exactly what they thought of him. The staff officer made a phone call, and Elliott was warned that he shouldn't make such a fuss again. He simply replied that he would do whatever was needed to help his men whenever he had to.

Elliott embarked for Australia on the RMS Orontes on 15 May 1919, sharing a cabin with an old friend, Brigadier General Gordon Bennett. They arrived back in Melbourne on 28 June, and his AIF appointment was terminated the following day. and offices in Collins Street. His involvement with returned servicemen's issues led to his redrafting the constitution of the Returned Sailors and Soldiers Imperial League of Australia. His grave bears the epitaph (from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar) "This was a man". His papers are held by the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.

Elliott was portrayed by Francis Bell in the 1985 Anzacs television miniseries. Pompey Elliott was one of the six Australians whose war experiences were presented in The War That Changed Us, a four part television documentary series about Australia's involvement in World War I. A street in Ascot Vale, Victoria, was created in the Whiskey Hill subdivision around 6 km north of Melbourne in around 1930 and named after Elliott. The street is called Elliott Street and is a time capsule of early 1930s architecture.