James Herbert Wigg

Herbert was a London-born Australian soldier whose promising civilian life and sporting achievements were cut short when he became one of the first Australian casualties of the Gallipoli Campaign in 1915.

Civilian Life - Herbert James Wigg was born in London on 7 April 1889 to George Herbert Wigg and Elizabeth Ann Wigg. His father worked as a warehouseman's clerk, later described as a mercantile clerk. Herbert had a younger sister, Ethel, and attended the John Lyon School before emigrating to Australia in 1900, when he was about eleven years old. As the Harrow Observer reported: “He left Harrow many years ago now for Australia, but he is still remembered as a bright and lively boy, full of promise.”

After settling in Australia, Herbert continued his education at the Church of England Grammar School, Melbourne, where he studied from 1901 to 1909. During his school years he became an accomplished race walker, representing the school in inter-school athletics and winning the Victorian one-mile amateur walking championship while still a student. After leaving school he entered agricultural work and was employed as an overseer at Deniliquin Stud Park in New South Wales when war broke out.

Military Life - Herbert enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force, serving as Private 517 in the 5th Battalion, Australian Infantry. His battalion landed at Anzac Cove on 25 April 1915 as part of the second wave of the Gallipoli landings. During the intense fighting that followed, he was wounded and evacuated from the battlefield.

Herbert died of his wounds at sea on 27 April 1915, two days after the landing, while being transported from Gallipoli. Because he was buried at sea, he has no known grave and is commemorated on the Lone Pine Memorial at Gallipoli. Contemporary reports described him as one of the first members of the Australian contingent to lose his life in the campaign.

The Gallipoli Campaign ran from April 1915 to January 1916. It was a huge and costly failure, especially for Winston Churchill whose idea it was. The PM, HH Asquith, fired him. He then joined the Scots Guards in the trenches on the Western Front before being promoted to Lt Col and commanding the 6th Bn Royal Scots only to return to politics in Lloyd George's Government as Minister for Munitions.