SCHULER, Phillip Frederick Edward

Phillip Frederick Edward Schuler (often known as Peter) was born c. 1889 in East Melbourne.  At this time his father was living at Brentani Terrace, Grey Street, East Melbourne, now part of the site on which the Mercy Private Hospital stands.  Soon afterwards the family moved to 28 [now 62] Jolimont Street, Jolimont where they stayed for about three years before moving to their permanent home in Lisson Grove, Hawthorn.  Phillip was the only son, and oldest of the three children, of Gottlieb Frederick Heinrich Schuler and his wife Sarah Deborah (Dolly), nee Strahan.  Gottlieb arrived in Austalia as a child with his family who settled in Bendigo.  He grew up to become a reporter with the Bendigo Advertiser and in 1879 obtained a position with The Age.  In 1900 he became its editor and remained so until his death in 1926.

Phillip, too, became a journalist as well as an accomplished photographer.  In 1914 his father appointed him war correspondent for The Age, and he sailed on the Orvieto with the first of Victoria's troops to serve in the war.  The Orvieto was the flagship for over forty warships and transports that left King George Sound, W.A. in late October, carrying between them 20,000 men and 7477 horses.  C.E.W. Bean, official war correspondent, and later the author of the official war history, was also on board.  The two men became good friends and colleagues.

While Bean had been appointed sole official war correspondent and as such held the only Australian press accreditation to join the landing at Gallipoli on 25 April, Schuler had to get there by more devious means. Eventually after a pleading letter to the British commander, General Sir Ian Hamilton, he was granted permission to land at Anzac Cover in late July.  In the intervening weeks, in Egypt, he reported back on what Mark Baker describes as 'the scandalous neglect and mistreatment of wounded Australian soldiers.' He arrived in time to witness the battle of Lone Pine, and the charge of the Australian light horsemen at the Nek.  He chronicled it all in the most vivid terms for the readers back home in Melbourne.  And he took hundreds of photos, now possibly the most important collection held by the Australian War Memorial. He stayed until the evacuation and then returned to Australia.  He immediately started work on a book, Australia in Arms, a history of the Gallipoli campaign.  John Monash said of it after reading the proofs, ' it will be quite the best and fullest story yet published of the whole Anzac campaign and is remarkably accurate in details (more so that Ian Hamilton's dispatches)'.

On 7 April 1916, before his book was published, Schuler had enlisted.  He had previously served in the militia in the 5th Battalion, transferring to the Australian Intelligence Corps as a second lieutenant on 20 February 1911 and was assigned to the Australian Service Corps on 11 March 1912.  But he refused a commission and as a private he was appointed to work as a driver with the 3rd Divisional Train (Australian Army Service Corps).  By mid-May he had become Lance Corporal.  On 6 June 1916 he embarked on the Persic.  After time training in England he proceeded to France on 21 November 1916. He was promoted to 2nd Lieutenant on 8 February 1917.  As the last mentioned of a series of detachments on 19 June 1917 he was posted for duty as Divisional Catering Officer.  Four days later, on 23 June, he died of gunshot wounds to left arm, right leg, face and throat.  A small item in the Ballarat Courier a week later reported that, 'he was wounded by a bursting shell while inspecting a camp kitchen', what Charles Bean said was 'a chance salvo'.  He died at the 2nd Casualty Clearing Station and was buried at the Trois Arbres Cemetery, Steernwerk, near Armentieres. Amongst personal items returned home to his family was 'One Wooden Box (sealed) contg:- 1 typewriter',