SERVICE PERSON RESEARCH
SERVICE PERSON DETAILS
Service Person’s
Name
Rank
Service Number
Regiment/Unit or
Ship or Squadron
Colin Morgan Reade
Private
383
2nd Light Horse Regiment, B Squadron
Date of Birth
17 August, 1896
Place of Birth
Rockhampton
Family Details
Single
One sister; Valerie
Son of George and Charlotte Morgan-Reade
Age at Enlistment
Place of Enlistment
19 years 1 month (enlistment papers); 18 years (actual age)
Brisbane
Date of Death
30 May 1915
Place of Death
Pope’s Hill
Cemetery or
Memorial Name
Grave or Memorial
Number
Shrapnel Valley Cemetery
Plot III, Row F, Grave 18
PHOTO:
Source: Australian Light Horse Association 2015, Personal Histories Colin
Morgan Reade, http://www.lighthorse.org.au/personal-histories/personalhistories-boer-war-ww1-1/personal-histories-colin-morgan-reade
(Accessed 20 February 2015)
SERVICE PERSON’S STORY/EULOGY:
Prepared by Ayla Tartic
On 17 August 1896, in colonial Rockhampton, Charlotte Morgan-Reade (the first white woman born on the
peak downs) gave birth to her first child, Colin. Colin’s father, George, was the son of a Royal navy officer.
He was a London-born stockman who was the manager of Vergemont, a large cattle station south-west of
Longreach when Colin was born. Colin was one of “the little teeth at the cutting edge of the great war
machine” (Lighthorse.org.au, 2015). The details of his tragic experience are not unfamiliar to the history of
the Anzacs.
At the age of 5, Colin, his parents and his sister, Valerie, moved from Vergemont to Bladensurg, a big sheep
run outside Winton, which is now an Australian national park. At the time, Colin’s childhood resembled
that of the average bush boy - lots of riding and stock work on a property notable for its vivid landscapes of
red earth and shimmering white ghost gums (Lighthorse.org.au, 2015). Colin was taught by his mother
until he was 10 years old then his schooling meant boarding at The Southport School on the current day
Gold Coast. At school, Colin was an average student and an above average cricketer.
At the end of 1912, Colin left school and returned to Bladensburg to work with his father. Just under two
years later, World War 1 broke out. That same year, a week after his 18th birthday, Colin went on a lifechanging train ride to Brisbane where he enlisted the following week. Due to an unknown reason (possibly
a clerical error or simply in attempt to appear older) his enlistment papers convey Colin as being 19 years
and one month at the time of enrolment.
Colin’s medical records depicted him as being small and slim weighing only 52kg with a height of 169cm.
Using the knowledge and understanding of today, Colin would be classed as underweight. Colin was
posted to B Squadron, 2nd Australian Light Horse Regiment, and began training immediately at Enoggera
Camp.
The training lasted only 3 weeks but was frantic and furious nonetheless. On 21 September 1914, Colin
boarded the troopship Star of England on the Brisbane River as part of the 2nd Australian Light Horse
(ALH). There is only one surviving wartime letter that he wrote. It was written off the New South Wales
coast and addressed to his sister, Valerie, then at boarding school in Toowoomba:
Dear Girlie,
Just a few lines to let you know that all is well on board the ship. We did not call in at Sydney as we were
going direct to Albany in West Australia for coal, but we are going into Port Melbourne for repairs. Captain
Markwell (CO of A Squadron and also an old Southport School Boy) has been as sick as a dog, but not so
Sunny Jim who has been in good health, bar a slight cold, which has given me fits for a day or so. The work
on board is a bit hard, especially stables. It seems very funny sleeping in hammocks after the hard ground.
Tell Dad we are going via the Suez Canal, calling at Port Said for coal.
I remain your ever loving bro,
Colin
PS: Remember me to all the people I know.
In actual fact, the ships did not need repairs but were urgently ordered to Melbourne due to reports (which
turned out to be false) that the German Pacific Fleet was en route to the Australian east coast. It’s
interesting because although the ships were called to Melbourne by accident, this false alarm formed an
important decision. While the ship was in Melbourne, the regiment’s CO, LT-Col Robert Strodart requested
and attained permission from the Prime Minister at the time; Andrew Fisher, for emu plumes to be worn as
part of the uniform. Fisher agreed that the plumes should be adopted by all the light horse regiments
rather than purely as a ‘battle honour’ awarded to the old Queensland Mounted Infantry.
Everybody on the convoy believed that they would be passing through the Suez, en route to England
before heading to the Western Front. However, each of the 19 ships disembarked their troops in Egypt.
Therefore, in the beginning of December 1914, Colin began intensive training and preparation in the
desert. In April of the following year, the light horse regiments stayed behind while Anzac troops set off for
the Dardanelles. The light horse regiments’ initial goal was to essentially follow through and pursue the
fleeing Turks after the break through of the infantry. After ten days of the Gallipoli landing, the regiments
were ordered to join the stalemated battle without their horses due to escalating desperation. Along with
the 1st ALH from New South Wales, Colin’s regiment arrived under fire at Anzac Cove on May 12. The
official history provides a very fascinating observation at this point; “These regiments were composed of a
fine class of men, mostly coming from farms or from sheep and cattle stations; but many of them were very
young and almost entirely inexperienced. So raw indeed were they that when, during their transfer to the
beach, two shrapnel shells, with a shriek like a steam siren, burst over the water near them, some of the
men thought that their own troops were ‘having a game’ with them. They were undeceived only when a
man in one of the punts slid into the bottom, wounded” (Bean, 1981).
Two days later, 500 men belonging to the ALH were rushed up to Quinn’s Post, a highly dangerous position
overlooking Anzac Cove. The opposing trenches were no more than 15 to 20 metres apart, creating an
intense and contested position. The post was actually named after Major Quinn, who was also an exSouthport School Boy, however older than Reade. Colin’s baptism of fire was instant and vividly
documented by South-African born Maurice Weeks, a fellow member of the regiment. “The enemy’s
trenches are only a few yards away. It is nearly impossible to put a rifle out of a loop whole without getting
hit. There were three or four rifles smashed up in the afternoon. Bombs came in fairly thick and our
casualties soon began to get heavy, a good many by bombs, could not use a periscope - they used to break
them every time”. However, the men very quickly became skilled at tossing the bombs back to the Turks or
overwhelming them with sandbags. By the end of his first day at Quinn’s, Weeks also added, “They put 23
bombs around us in the afternoon. It breaks one’s nerves a bit. There are hundreds of men piled up between
the trenches and in the gully to the right. The smell is pretty solid. Our trenches are alive with maggots.
There are Turks, Australians and Royal Marines piled together in places”. This entry from Week’s diary was
published in the April 2002 issue of Australian Light Horse Association ‘Spur’ (Page 19).
A week after the Turkish attack against the Anzac positions, Colin and the rest of the 2nd ALH, had been
relocated to Pope’s Hill. The Light Horsemen joined ‘the great slaughter’ where 10,000 were killed in a
matter of hours. The Turks made another attempt only 10 days later which saw Major Quinn himself killed.
It was on Sunday 30 May, during the aftermath that Colin was shot dead on Pope’s Hill. Major George
Bourne, commander of B squadron, wrote to Colin’s father, revealing the news:
“He was in the trenches at Pope’s Hill and, during an attack on Quinn’s post by the Turks, we were pouring
fire into the advancing enemy. Colin had just shot a Turk and, elated by his success, raised his head a little
over the parapet to have another try, but a bullet hit him in the forehead. He died before the bearers could
cart him to the beach. He was buried by Captain Green our CE chaplain”.
Since 1:30am, the Rev. George Green had been occupied with burials and countless sprees to the firing
line. With the help of another chaplain he had buried 26 Australians and 20 Turks. Nevertheless, Green
made a specific mention of Colin’s tragic death in his diary. “Among the casualties of the 2nd Regiment,
was Colin Morgan-Reade – a taking lad of Southport School, the youngest member of the regiment – not
much more than 18 years. He was shot through the head in the morning. I was with him at the last, but
thank god he was quite unconscious….”.
It took more than a month for his parents on Bladensburg to receive the cable informing them of his death.
Soon later, they were sent a photograph of his grave and ‘one brown paper parcel’, as prudently described
in the ‘Inventory of Effects’, containing ‘Disc, patent-lighter, letters, belt, coins and note-book’. Three
medals came after the end of war; the 1914/15 Star, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal and a
leaflet titled ‘Where the Australians Rest’.
Apparently his mother, Charlotte, never truly recovered from the loss. However in hopes of continuing his
legacy, Colin’s younger sister, Valerie, named her eldest son after him; Colin George Milson (1919-1975)
who was to become one of the RAAF’S most decorated airmen.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Australian Light Horse Association 2015, Personal Histories Colin Morgan Reade,
http://www.lighthorse.org.au/personal-histories/personal-histories-boer-war-ww1-1/personal-historiescolin-morgan-reade (Accessed 20 February 2015)
Bean, C. 1981, The Story of Anzac, St. Lucia, University of Queensland Press in association with the
Australian War Memorial
National Archives of Australia 2015, READE Colin Morgan: Service Number – 383,
http://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=8026432,
(Accessed 20 February 2015)
Wikisource 2015, George Green - 2nd Light Horse Regiment Gallipoli Volume 1,
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:George_Green__2nd_Light_Horse_Regiment_Gallipoli_Volume_1.djvu/49 (Accessed 20 February 2015)