Medcalf - one of the pyramid 700

Among Margaret Medcalf’s treasure-trove of family photographs and memorabilia is a small black and white photograph of her mother Rita.

Miss Medcalf’s father, World War I Digger Ferdinand George Medcalf, carried the image of his then-fiancé with him to the beaches of Gallipoli and on to the mud and trenches of the Western Front while he fought as a member of the WA-raised 11th Battalion.

On the back of the folder Medcalf had written his war service details, and sitting above that is a list of army service ranks from Private up to Captain, all dated.

All have been crossed out except the rank and date at the top of the list: Captain 12/3/16.

It is a record of his rapid promotion through the ranks.

11TH BATTALION COMPLETE LIST | SEARCH THE PYRAMID PICTURE - INTERACTIVE | SEE THE FULL CHEOPS PYRAMID PROJECT | IN SEARCH OF THE UNKOWN ANZACS | THE STORY BEHIND THE PICTURE

It is not surprising that he was promoted quickly, for he was clearly a leader and man of courage.

That much is evident in the citation which accompanied his Distinguished Service Order, awarded for action at Pozieres, France.

It says he had showed “conspicuous gallantry when, in leading his company in an attack he put the crew of a hostile machine gun out of action with a bomb and captured the gun”.

“He showed unfailing courage and resource in holding captured ground.

“When wounded in three places and unable to walk, he ordered the stretcher-bearers to take up a seriously wounded man and leave him to crawl to the rear,” the citation says.

Medcalf was an original Anzac, having sailed with the 11th Battalion from Fremantle on October 31, 1914, aboard the transport vessel Medic, which set sail for the war with the Ascianus.

He is in the famous picture on the pyramid. In the grid-referenced pictured he is number 543.

The ships were joined at sea on November 3 by the main convoy carrying Australian and New Zealand troops which had left from Albany.

The Medic, one of the ships on which the troops sailed to Egypt.

The 11th Battalion, along with the 9th, 10th, and 12th Battalions formed the 3rd Brigade, which was the covering force for the Anzac landing at Gallipoli on April 25, 1915, and was the first ashore about 4.30am.

Medcalf was to say after the war that he had been fortunate in being one of the first to land on the beach because he and his section managed to get some cover in the sandhills before heavy firing began.

After a few months he was wounded and evacuated to the island of Mudros, and after the withdrawal of the Anzacs from Gallipoli he went on to fight on the Western Front.

After being wounded again in the course of winning his DSO, Medcalf was evacuated to Britain for treatment and returned to Australia in 1917.

He married Rita in 1917 and settled in Albany, where he set up a practice as a surveyor, work which took him all around the State.

Miss Medcalf was born in 1926.

George Medcalf and mates at the Sphinx

She said she could recall a photo of the 11th Battalion on the pyramid at Cheops hanging on a wall of the family home.

Her father died in 1969, and she was appointed State archivist in 1971, and around that time donated the family copy of the Diggers on the pyramid photo to the State Library.

She said her father hardly ever talked about his war experiences, but she believed it changed him as a person.

“I think he was a very gregarious outgoing person who played a lot of sport before the war,” she said.

“After the war he was a very reticent sort of person,” she said.

She also remembered that a wounded elbow sometimes caused him problems.

“Sitting in the car next to him you would have to be careful not to knock his elbow,” she said.

And looking back, she was very proud of her father.

“They were all brought up to have a feeling of duty towards the country and fellow man,” she said.

“He was extremely determined and when he set himself to do something he did it to the best of his ability.

“I think that was what they were taught, I don’t think he was unusual.”