Reid, Andrew Lambert

[1] Sir Stanley Melbourne Bruce (1883–1967) commanded the Melbourne Grammar Cadets during Andy's time. Bruce was born at Stadbroke, a few doors from the home of John Goodall's grandfather in Grey Street, St Kilda, and he later became Prime Minister of Australia.

[2] The schools the Reids attended had been established by early colonists who benefitted from the Public Schools they attended in Britain. They wanted equivalent institutions here for their sons. Andy attended St Peter's when Rev Henry Girdlestone (1863–1926) was headmaster. Girdlestone was a former stroke of an Oxford Eight, who became acting headmaster of Melbourne Grammar School between 1917 and 1919, and patron of the Melbourne University Boat Club when Barney Allen was president of both it and the National Ice Skating Association of Australia. In 1912, Andy's schoolmate, Simon Fraser Jr, rowed in the first Australian eight to compete at the Olympics.

[3] Reid lived at the Reid family home, Locksley, in Haverbrack Avenue, Malvern. In his prime, he was 5-feet 7 1/4-inches tall (171 cm), with a 35- to 37-inch chest and weighed 142 pounds (64.4 kg). He had a fair complexion, brown eyes and dark brown hair. Three scars on his left arm and shoulder blade, and one on his left knee, were probably stick or skate-blade injuries.

[4] In the years between 1911 and 1929, Australian men aged between 18 and 60 were required to perform militia service. Training and service had been compulsory in time of peace since 1911, and the Government was empowered to call up 'unexempted’ males in time of war. All three Reid boys had to train and serve in the army at some point, but Andy had chosen to soldier earlier in the Commonwealth Cadet Corps in Adelaide and Melbourne, for two years from the age of 13 or 14.

[5] Duntroon was modeled on the Royal Military College of Canada, and the military colleges of Britain and the United States.

[6] Reid transferred from the Royal Park Depot to D Company of the 38th (Bendigo) Infantry Battalion in Bendigo. Sir George Victor Lansell (1883–1959), a former Melbourne Grammarian, became its captain in May 1916. Andy subsequently transferred to 49th Battalion. Oddly, Andy had resigned his officer commission and re-enlisted in January, 1916 as a Private, then a Sergeant, in the same Battalion. This story is more accurately described in another of his obituaries, "Enlisting soon after war broke out, he soon earned his stars; but finding that owing to a surplus of junior officers he would be detained in camp for some months, Andrew Reid resigned his commission and re-enlisted in order to get to the trenches with his pals. When the newly enlisted ex-officer marched back to camp the whole place rang with cheers and applause. But the lost commission was soon picked up in the trenches. Liuet Andrew Reid died as he lived — a sport in the highest sense of the word."

[7] The conditions at Messines made that battle a byword for suffering, and few landscapes are more redolent of war. Over 850,000 died there, including 325,000 British soldiers. He was 27-years-old when he was killed on June 9th, 1917. He was buried West of Yaer Canal on the northern outskirts of Ypres (now Ieper), West Flanders, Belgium and he is listed on the Menin Gate Memorial at the eastern exit of the town, 'REID, Lt Andrew Lambert, 51st Battalion, 9th June 1917, Age 27. Son of Henry Newman Reid and Lucy Reid, of 9 Blackfriars St, Sydney. Native of Melbourne.' [97, 99] Since the 1930s, with the brief interval of the German occupation in the Second World War, the City of Ieper has conducted a ceremony at the Memorial at dusk each evening to commemorate those who died in the Ypres campaign.

[8] Messines was considered a strong strategic position, not only from its height above the plain below, but from the extensive system of cellars under the convent known as the 'Institution Royale.' The village was taken from the 1st Cavalry Division by the Germans in November, 1914. An attack by French troops in November, 1916 was unsuccessful, and it was not until June, 1917 at the Battle of Messines in which Andy was killed, that it was retaken by a New Zealand Division; perhaps the first clearcut British victory. Now marked on maps and signed as Mesen, there is a well-known sequence of aerial photographs that show, over a few months, the total destruction of this village. It was ground into dust. Andrew Reid's name is also carved on the Great Cross at Messines Ridge British Cemetery, on the Nieuwkerkestraat road at Mesen in Belgium.

[9] Reid entered Duntroon Military College about 1913, just two years after it had been established on the old Campbell family homestead in Canberra. There he gained a commission as 2nd Lieutenant on June 5th, 1915, graduating with a Diploma of Arts (Military) after completing the 18-month military and academic course. He served seven months as Provisional Lieutenant and six months as a Lieutenant with the 48th Kooyong Infantry of the Australian Citizen's Military Force (CMF), now the Army Reserve. He enlisted on January 18th, 1916 and left Australia on A54 Runic on June 20th, 1916. He was attached to the 51st Battalion and proceeded to France in October where he served throughout the winter, and where he was promoted once again to Lieutenant a few months later. He spent a few days leave in London immediately prior to going into action at Messines.

[10] In Adelaide "... The advertisement below announces that a "Great Ice Hockey Match" would be played on Wednesday October 12th, 1904. Names of the players are not known, but four of them would have been Mr Newman Reid's sons; Hal, Andy, Les (Snowy) and Dunbar Poole." [2]

[11] Andy was named after his uncle, a pioneer of Mildura in north-western Victoria who died at the age of 23, the same year Andy was born.

[12] The first Australian club team in 1907, simply named "Glaciarium", and in 1908 Melburnians, Beavers and Brighton; the original four. They were joined by Ottawa in 1910.

Napoleon's Ghost: Adelaide Glaciarium, Legends of Australian Ice, Ross Carpenter, Online
Cradle of a National Sport: H Newman Reid and Melbourne Glaciarium, Legends of Australian Ice, Ross Carpenter, Online