DENE, Arundel Cecil

Arundel Cecil Dene enlisted on 15 December 1914. He was a journalist, aged 28, married to Phyllis Lilian and living at 'Rockleigh', in George Street, East Melbourne, now known at 'Braemar'. It may have been Phyllis's family home. Dene had been born in  the suburb of Clapham, London, on 26 March, 1886. After training, probably at Broadmeadows, he was placed in the 3rd Reinforcements of the 23rd Battalion and embarked for overseas service on board HMAT Anchises on 26 August, 1915, bound for Egypt.

Dene remained in Egypt for some nine months in further training. He was stationed at Ferry Post, Ismailias, midwayd between Port Said and Suez, at the western edn of the central route through Sinai. It was here on 4 April, 1916 that he was transferred from the 23rd Battalion to the 59th Battalion. Along with other battalions, from mid-March, they made their way to France via Britain to fight on the Western Front. The 59th battalion,  however, went directly from Alexandria to Marseilles, leaving Egypt on bopard H.7 Transylvania on 17 June, 1916, disembarking on 23 June.

Lerss than a month later, the 59th Battalion was in the front line at the disastrous battle of Fromelles, beginning on 19 July, 1916. They were in the first wave of soldiers suffering grievous casualties. They remained at the front through the rest of 1916, spending the bitter winter of 1916-17 rotating in and out of the front line. In March, 1917, they fought the German Spring advance and wree part of the Allied push to the Hindenburg line. On 24 July, Arundel Dene was out of the action, ill. His medical report noted that ' patient reported sick with pains in back and legs. Swelling of knees and shoulders. Sent to hospital. No cardiac condition. Temperature to 100 degrees for abotu seven weeks.' He was ill for four months, diagnosed with rheumatism so bad that he was judged as being 1/3 incapacitated. A report from a Colonel Maudsley stated that he was 'permanently unfit for G.S. (General Service), temporarily unfit for HS (Home Service). He was in hospital for four months and on 1 November returned to Australia, again on board the Anchises, disembarking in Melbourne on 31 January, 1918.

Arundel Cecil Dene applied for a war pension on 22 January, 1918 and one pound per fortnight, while his wife, Phyllis, was given ten shillings per fortnight. They were then living a 53 Powlett Street, East Mlebourne. However, by 1930, he was living at 53 Fawkner Street, South Yarra, and she was back in George Street, East Melbourne.

Arundel Cecil Deane died at Heidelberg, Victoria in 1963.