John Bryson Dunsmuir - Link to Grangemouth

L/Cpl John Bryson Dunsmuir

3080 L/Cpl, ‘A’ Company, 56th Infantry Battalion, 14th Infantry Brigade, 5th Australian Division.

Age: 31

Date of death: 26.9.17

Buried: Aeroplane Cemetery, Grave VI.B.39

Family history: He was the youngest of two sons and a daughter of Robert and Marion  Dunsmuir. The family emigrated to Australia from Bo’ness Road, Grangemouth, in 1908. Before he emigrated to Australia John was employed by Muirhead & Son, Timber Merchants in Grangemouth. When the Battalion was in France John enjoyed some leave from 24 July to 5 August 1917 and he visited Grangemouth.

He was living with his parents at ‘Avondale’, Forest Road, Bexley, Sydney, and working as a sawyer when he enlisted on 17 September 1915 joining the 20th Battalion, 7th Reinforcements to undertake his training and then joined the 56th Battalion at Tel-el-Kebir on 16 February 1916. He was promoted to Lance Corporal on 1 June 1916. On the 16 June the Battalion left Alexandria and disembarked in Marseilles.

Action leading to his death

On the 26 September the Battalion went into the attack on Polygon Wood the attack opening at 5.30am. There were to be two objective lines, the first at around 800 yards to include the Butte in Polygon Wood and Tokio spur, with the final objective 400 yards further forward to include the Flanders I Line behind Polygon Wood, and the whole of Tokio spur and the southern outskirts of Zonnebeke. The shattered remains of the Polygon Wood was a wasteland of a few skeletal trees and blasted tree stumps and countless water filled shell holes.

Trench map showing Polygon Wood and the front line as at November 1917

There were numerous German blockhouses amongst the shambles of the wood waiting to confront the 14th and 15th Brigades as they went forward. The mound of the Butte now exposed above the levelled trees had been turned into a defensive position by the Germans and gave them an excellent view over the Australian positions. This position was overwhelmed by the Australian 53rd Battalion. At 7.30am on 26 September the 56th and 55th Battalions advanced towards the final objective beyond the wood on the Flanders I Line. The artillery pounding the German wire and pillboxes and the pillboxes were quickly secured. On the right of the 56th Battalion there was serious opposition with considerable machine gun fire from pillboxes along the Polygonbeek. Attempts to take them by the 56th Battalion proved costly, with the positions being secured by the 59th Battalion. Two blockhouses beyond the Flanders I Line continued to fire on the Australian positions and small parties from the 56th and 55th Battalions went forward and captured them taking 45 prisoners but they then withdrew as the position was within the ANZAC artillery barrage line. The new outpost line along the Flanders I Line was secured and consolidated and the Butte, now 250 yards behind the line, was used to observe the German positions and by artillery spotters to direct fire down on the German lines.

The German blockhouse known as Scotts Post taken by the Australians. Authors image

 Selection of the remains of German pillboxes in Polygon Wood

L/Cpl John Bryson Dunsmuir. Authors image

John’s effects of a wallet, notebook, letters, photos, and cards were returned to his sister Elizabeth, who he had named as his next of kin in his Will, on 17 December 1917 from the AIF Kit Store in London.  His family was advised on 16 September 1924 that his remains had been found by the IWGC and buried in Norfolk Cemetery, south east of Albert. However, they wrote on 29 November 1924 advising them that the IWGC had made an error and that his remains were buried in Aeroplane Cemetery.