Philip Sylvester Cantwell was born at Ballan in country Victoria on the 15th January 1882. His father was Philip Cantwell and his mother was Alice Leahey. Phillip Snr and Alice were married in 1880 and Phillip Jnr was the first child. HIs brother, John Patrick Cantwell was born in 1883.
Alice Leahey died in in 1889 and Phillip snr then married Mary Mcgee and had several children, his family now including the exsisting children of Mary. They had one child, Bridget Angela Cantwell, alsways known as Angela.
Phillip was living with his parents at Hunterston Farm at Ballan in 1903 and is listed as Farmer.
In 1914 Phillip is living with his brother John at Childers in Gippsland still listed as Farmer.
On the 9th Feb 1916 Phillip enlisted at Melbourne. He was single and listed as a farmer. He lists as his contact address that of his brother John Cantwell, as Clarendon Street, East Melbourne. This may be correct but his brother was farming at Childers in Gippsland. John may have used a rooming house in Clarendon Street when in Melbourne.
He spends some time at both Seymour and Broadmeadows and on the 3 July 1916 embarked on SS Ayreshire ex Melbourne. The troops disembarked at Plymouth on the 2 September 1916 and were taken on strength with 6th Training Battalion.
On 20 October 1916, Phillip was admitted to Fargo Hill hospital with Scabies and was then discharged on 10 November, 1916.
On the 19 November 1916 he proceeded to France ex Folkstone on the SS Onward.
He was taken on strength with the 21st Battalion AIF on the 9 December, 1916.
He was reported missing in action on the 3 May 1917. The War diary of the 21 Battalion for that day states:
'Attack on Bullicourt commenced at 3.15am. Vey heavy shelling by enemy. Casualties very severe against enemy machine gun posts. By 8.15am 4 officers and an estimated 200 other ranks are dead.'
The action continued for the full day and into 4th May,
It seems that Phillip may have been killed by heavy enemy shell fire and his remains so shattered as not able to be identified.
The Court of Enquiry on the 24 November 1917 lists him as Killed in Action 1917. He has no known grave.
HIs brother, John Patrick Cantwell died at Nazxareth House, Ballarat, in 1964. There are no records that he ever married. The Cantwell brothers' half-sister, Angela, died in 1970 at Geelong. 'Hunterston' the original family homestead in Ballan, continued to be occupied by other members of the Cantwell family until about the 1980s, but no longer live there.
I am still working on war diary for 21st Battalion to track Philip Cantwell's place of death and the official Court of Enquiry report of 24th Nov 1917
Peter Fielding
Further information about the Cantwell family supplied by Clare Cantwell by e-mail on 24/02/2018.