By Anthony McAleer
One of the most extraordinary stories to come out of the First World War was an incident that happened to a Lilydale soldier while serving in Europe.
Robert Shell had grown up in Lilydale and had attended the Lilydale State School for his education. In late 1915, aged just eighteen years old, he left his job as a horse driver and enlisted in the AIF. From mid-1916 he served with the 21st Infantry Battalion on the Western Front where he was hospitalised a number of times.
Towards the end of the war he was resting one day in a reserve area when a group of German prisoners of war were marched past under guard. Suddenly from amidst the prisoners he heard in an Australian accent said: ‘G’day Bob’. He looked around to discover that amongst the prisoners was a friend he’d gone to school with at the Lilydale State School – in a German uniform.
Chatting with him, he told Robert that being of German descent, he had gone back to Germany with his family just before the war started and ended up being trapped there and was eventually conscripted into the Germany Army. Robert then spoke to his Sergeant and explained that this prisoner was actually from Australia and would make a good interpreter for the AIF. But the Sergeant told him that as he was a German prisoner of war – ‘that was that’.
After the war Robert returned to Lilydale and around 1920 he was walking down the Main Street when suddenly he saw coming towards him the same school friend he last saw in a German uniform. Recognising him, he said to Robert ‘G’day Bob, glad to see we both made it back’. Sadly though, that was the last time they saw each other.
It is amazing to think that two soldiers from this area happen to meet on the Western Front, when there were so many thousands of soldiers stationed there during that period. But what makes this more phenomenal is that even though they were both from Lilydale, they happened to be serving on opposing sides – one with the Australian Army, the other with the German Army.
From the Mt Evelyn RSL’s publication – ‘Home Front – The Impact of the First World War on the Shire of Lillydale’. Available from the RSL via ebay.
