Lieutenant Penistan James Patterson, 12th Battalion

Killed in action 25 April 1915

Pen Patterson

i was the only son of the late Reverend James Patterson and

Annieii Patterson.

iii He was born at Swan Hill, in north-west Victoria, but

spent most of his childhood in Bendigo, where his father was the minister at

the local Presbyterian church. The church sent the Patterson family to Port

Pirie, where Pen went to high school. He also was a member of the Port Pirie

Public School Cadets, where he excelled.iv

His aptitude in military work saw Patterson go to study at the Royal Military

College, Duntroon.v He was just completing his final year there when war

broke out. Receiving his commission, he sailed with the first contingent to

the Dardanelles and was appointed commander of No. 1 Platoon of the 12th

Battalion.vi

Patterson was with the 12th Battalion at the dawn landing at Gallipoli. His

boat landed at a point north of ANZAC Cove, and Patterson and his platoon

quickly moved to the top of Walker’s Ridge. vii

Photograph: H15819

While digging in on the ridge, Turkish counter-attacks endangered the position. The Australians advanced

against the Turkish troops. It was during this advance that Lieutenant Patterson was killed while leading his

platoon.viii

In the turmoil of the following days and months, his grave was lost and he is now commemorated

on the Lone Pine Memorial.

Pen Patterson was mourned, not only by his widowed mother and three sisters,ix but by a wide circle of friends

and the church where his late father had worked for 11 years.x Learning of his death, a friend of the family

remarked, “little did we think that when Pen Patterson was running about in Swan Hill as a happy boy that in a

few years he would lose his life fighting for his country in a foreign land”. xi

He was the first Duntroon graduate

to die in the war.

Meleah Hampton, Australian War Memorial Historian

i Popularly known as “Pen”: ‘Killed in Action: Lieutenant Patterson’, Swan Hill Guardian and Lake Boga Advocate, 10 May 1915, p.2 ii The Melbourne Argus, 6 May 1915, p.1

iii Bendigonian, 13 May 1915, p. 24 and Bendigo Advertiser, 10 May 1915, p.2

iv ‘Public School Cadets Competition Firing’, Port Pirie Recorder and North Western Mail, 18 December 1909,

p.5 v ‘Late Lieut. Patterson’, Bendigo Advertiser, 6 May 1915, p. 7

vi Report of Officer Commanding 12th Battalion in attestation papers.

vii Report of Officer Commanding 12th Battalion in attestation papers.

viii Report of Officer Commanding 12th Battalion in attestation papers.

ix Death notice for Annie Westland Hardman Patterson, Launceston Examiner, 16 October 1944, p.2

x ‘Killed in Action: Lieutenant Patterson’, Swan Hill Guardian and Lake Boga Advocate, 10 May 1915, p.2

xi ‘Late Lieut. Patterson: Solemn Unveiling Ceremony’, Swan Hill Guardian and Lake Boga Advocate, 26 June

1916, p.2