Pte Malcolm Rankin (Lilydale), 21st Battalion: In a letter to his uncle in Lilydale –‘You will see by this that we are in England. When we arrived we were taken ashore in freighters and got aboard the train, but not in open trucks this time, we had third class carriages. We had a journey of about 200 miles through some of the most lovely country and beautiful scenery I have ever seen, I can’t describe it on paper. We came through the counties of Cornwall, Devon, Somerset and Wiltshire. I have often heard of the Devonshire Devons, but I did not think I would ever see them. They are just cutting the meadow hay. It is their best time ever over here now. They don’t seem to waste any ground over here. There are not many farms and the lanes are narrow. You can hardly describe the scene.
Well we came to a camp on the edge of Salisbury Plains. It was a good camp but we were only there two days when we were marched to Salisbury Plain, only a few miles from historic Stonehenge, that we used to read about in our books at school. If I get through alright I will not regret coming’.
Pte Frederick Randolph (Lilydale), 13th Light Horse Regiment: Is evacuated from the field to hospital in France suffering from dysentery.
The following local soldiers leave Australia bound for Europe on the HMAT Runic-
Dvr Cecil Watson (Olinda), 10th Field Ambulance
Pte Roy Cahill (Gruyere), 10th Field Ambulance
Sgt William Thompson (Wandin), 38th Battalion
Irwin Campbell (Mt Dandenong): Leaves his job as a farm hand at Mt Dandenong and enlists in the AIF, he is 22 years old and married.