David was already a local hero prior to his enlistment. Described as
an all-round athlete, he had captained the Ryde Football Club in the previous
year and he had also rescued a boy from drowning in the Parramatta River, for
which he had been honoured with a life-saving certificate. David Chestnut’s
story is but one of the many we are searching to uncover in the Ryde goes to
War Project.
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| Private David Chestnut born 1890, Ryde |
When David enlisted in the Australian Imperial Forces on 7 September
1914, he was 24 years old. The son of William & Lizzie Chestnut,
fruitgrowers from Regent Street, Ryde, he was working as a carpenter. He left
Australia in board the Transport A38
Ulysses on 22 December 1914, as part of the 13th Battalion. From Alexandra
he departed for the Gallipoli peninsula.
After surviving the Gallipoli landing, it was during one of the
following nights that David went missing. He was reported as leaving his dugout
on Pope’s Hill to fill water bottles and never returned. He was formally listed
as missing in action on 2 May 1915, but it was not until after a Court of
Inquiry held at Serapeum, Egypt in April 1916 that David was officially listed
as Killed in Action on the Gallipoli Peninsula.
David’s personal effects which included a Housewife (mending kit), 3
brushes, prayer book and postage stamps were subsequently returned to his
mother, Lizzie in Ryde.
David’s contribution
was remembered on 4 different war memorials within the Municipality of Ryde:
·
The
Ryde Public School Honour Board
·
Ryde
Wesley Uniting Church Honour Roll (at the time of WWI- it was the local Wesleyan
Methodist Church),
·
Ryde
Town Hall Honour Rolls,
·
Ryde
Civic Centre Memorial Book.
