CORPORAL EDWARD ERNEST STAINSBY
AUSTRALIAN INFANTRY
10TH NOVEMBER 1917 AGE 23
BURIED: PASSCHENDAELE NEW BRITISH CEMETERY, BELGIUM
"We were in the support at Broodseinde Ridge on November 10th and during a gas-shell bombardment two men, of whom Stainsby was one, took cover in the same dug-out. No one knew they were killed until the next morning, and then as they were missing, the dug-out was excavated, and their remains were found, and identified by Captain Ellwood ... by their paybooks. Two temporary crosses were put up. I knew Stainsby very well. He was tall, fair, clean shaven. He came from Richmond."
Private D Llewellyn
Witness Report for Australian Red Cross Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau. 19 February 1918
Not all the witnesses agreed on this version of events: CSM Hardwick said that the casualty was in his dug-out in the support lines at Zonnebeke Ridge when a H.E. [high explosive] shell exploded on the dug-out killing Stainsby instantly. "I was 30 yards from the casualty at the time of his death and gave orders for them to be dug out but he was dead on recovery".
Edward Stainsby (Teddy to his family), his brother and his father all served in the war. Teddy went first, embarking from Australia in July 1915, his brother William went second in March 1916, followed by father, Edward Allan, who enlisted at the age of 43 just before his second son embarked. Edward Allan left Australia in October 1916 and returned in March 1919.
It was father, Edward Allan, who chose his son's inscription. To his parents and his four surviving siblings - Will, Leslie, Jim and Nellie - Teddy was 'our boy' whose duty had been nobly done. In this they were quoting the letter King George V had sent to the army on the eve of its departure for France in August 1914. In this letter, the King wrote that he had "implicit confidence in you my soldiers. Duty is your watchword, and I know your duty will be nobly done". It's possible that the same letter was sent to all soldiers throughout the war on the eve of their embarkation but I have no evidence for this.