A Record of the BAGE Family History

Captain, 3rd Field Company, Australian Engineers - Killed in action at Silt Spur, 7th May 1915, aged 27. Son of Edward and Mary Charlotte Bage. He lived in 'Cranford' East St. Kilda, Melbourne. He is buried at Beach Cemetery.

Robert was educated at the Church of England Grammar School and left with First Class Honours in 1904, and with a Warden's Scholarship to Trinity College, the University of Melbourne. He graduated from the University in 1910 with the Degree of Bachelor of Civil Engineering. On the social side, Robert took full part in University life, being Hon. Secretary of the Students' Representative Council. He also rowed in the Trinity College Eight.

He began his military career in 1909 as a Second Lieutenant with the Corps of Australian Engineers in Queensland, but transferred to the Royal Australian Engineers with the rank of Lieutenant in 1911. He was stationed at the Submarine Mining Station, Swan Island, and Victoria and for some time was in command of the Station.

In 1911 he obtained Leave without Pay and joined the Australian Antarctic Expedition under Sir Douglas Mawson as Astronomer, Assistant Magnetician and Recorder of Tides. He was with the Antarctic Expedition for two years and three months, and was one of the six volunteers who formed the relief party that was left in Antarctic for a second winter when Sir Douglas and his ill-fated companions failed to return to the winter quarters.

Robert Bage was the leader of the Southern Sledging Party, which accomplished a perilous journey of 600 miles. From this experience, he contributed a chapter to Sir Douglas Mawson's book ''The Home of the Blizzard''.

For his work in Antarctic, Lieutenant Bage was awarded the King's Polar Medal.

On mobilization Orders, issued in August, 1914, Robert took up duty at Port Phillip Heads. He volunteered for active service, and was appointed second in command of the 3rd Field Company (Engineer) with the rank of Captain and was killed at Gallipoli on May 7, 1915.

It was said of Robert Bage that he was one of the most promising young officers of the permanent forces and was very popular amongst both brother officers and the men under his command.

In 1916, his mother, Mrs Edward Bage, presented to the University of Melbourne a sum of One Thousand Pounds to create a Scholarship in memory of her son. The Robert Bage Scholarship is still being awarded some eighty-six years later. It is presented by the Faculty of Engineering to assist postgraduate students engaged in research.

It is interesting to note that an earlier edition of The Varsity Engineer contains a long letter from Captain Bage, written in 1911 when he was stationed in the Antarctic, which gives an account of the hazards and trials he was experiencing on that particular expedition.

From web-site about Antarctic Expedition;-

The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Home of the Blizzard, by Sir Douglas Mawson

R. BAGE, twenty-three years of age, single, was a graduate in Engineering of Melbourne University and a lieutenant in the Royal Australian Engineers. A member of the Main Base Party (Adelie Land) and leader of the Southern Sledging Party, he remained in the Antarctic for two years.  During the first year he was in charge of
chronometers, astronomical observations and tidal records, and throughout the second year continued the magnetic work and looked after stores.

From Index;-

Bage, R., at the main base; work at the hut; the tide-gauge; transit house; food experiences; search for the dogs; with the Southern Sledging Party; return to the hut; on building a tent; snow-blindness; return to Aladdin's Cave; note left by, at Cathedral Grotto; return from the south; visit to the `Aurora'; the relief expedition; winter work;   wireless work; magnetograph records; the home journey; account of.

... In this work I was aided by Professors Masson and David and by Miss Ethel Bage,
who throughout this busy period acted in an honorary capacity as secretary in ...

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From www.anzacs.org 
2nd Lieutenant in Corps of Australian Engineers, Queensland, 1909. Transferred to Royal Australian Engineers as Lieutenant, 1911, submarine mining station, Swan Island, Victoria.

Astronomer, assistant magnetician and recorder of tides with Sir Douglas Mawson's 1911 Antarctic expedition. Stayed away two years and three months, as he was one of the six volunteers forming the relief party that was left in the Antarctic for a second winter when Mawson and his companions had failed to return to winter quarters on time. Lieutenant Bage contributed the chapter 'The Quest of the Southern Magnetic Pole' to Mawson's book 'The Home of the Blizzard.' Awarded the King's Polar Medal in 1915.

Took up duty at Port Phillip Heads in 1914, on return from Antarctica.
Appointed Captain, 3rd Field Company Engineers 18th October 1914. (War Services of Old Melburnians 1914-18 p66, 125).

Only son of the late Edward Bage, merchant, of Melbourne and Cranford, Fulton Street, East St. Kilda. Entered Melbourne Grammar School 1900, obtained Witherby scholarship, 1901. Left the school in 1904 with 1st class honours in physics at matriculation and a warden's scholarship to Trinity College, Melbourne. Obtained 1st Class honours in chemistry. Rowed in College Eight, and was honorary secretary of the Students' Representative Council. While in Antarctica was leader of the southern sledging party which accomplished a hazardous 600 mile journey. (Brisbane Daily Mail 19 Jun 1915 p13).

The toll that war is taking of our bravest and best is strikingly shown in the death of Captain E. F. R. Bage, states the Melbourne Argus. Here was a young man who before the war had enshrined his name in the book of Australian heroes. During the two and a quarter years he was away with the Mawson Antarctic Expedition he amply proved the fine temper of his courage and resolution. He was one of the choicest spirits of that gallant band, and at twenty-five years of age had crowded a world of romantic achievement into his life. Yet immediately war broke out he volunteered for service, and it was second in command of the 3rd Field Company engineers that he fell.

Killed while marking out a proposed new trench on the forward slope of Silt Spur, on the southern edge of the Lone Pine Plateau:
'At 3 in the afternoon Bage and Drake Brockman went out, eight men under Lieutenant Selby of the 11th accompanying them. ...It has been estimated that at least five machine-guns were directed upon them. Bage was hit first in the arm, then in the leg, and finally through the head, and killed; Selby and two others were wounded. Bage's body was left until dark, when at great risk one of the covering party, Lance-Corporal Joyce, and some men of the 11th, searched for and brought it in.' (Bean V2 p257 quoted, 258n. diagram p257).

'Captain Bage was killed by a bullet. Went out in front of firing line to mark out a trench and got picked off. It was only natural, very bad luck tho'. The enemy's guns killed a few men today,. Knocked up a couple of guns. Killed an artillery officer.' (Probert, Cpl. J.K. No. 1, 4 Section, 2nd Field Company, Engineers. Diaries. 7 May 1915).

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Fellow Researcher Jim Bage came across details of how Robert BAGE was killed in a book he was reading titled 'Official History of Australia in the War of 1914 - 1918', Vol. 11 The Story of Anzac by C. E. W. Bean;-

pages 257 - 259 ...........where it was required, he ordered that an officer of engineers should first go out in daylight and mark its line with pegs. At that moment there came up the trench Captain Bage, a regular officer of the Royal Australian Engineers, well known in the Commonwealth as a member of Mawson's Australasian expedition to the Antarctic. "Here's the man, cried Bridges, and directed Bage to make the survey.

To mark out such works was a traditional duty of military engineers; it would avoid unplanned digging, and Bridges did not ask of Bage more than he himself would have performed. Nevertheless the task could hardly have been more perilous. At 3 in the afternoon Bage and Drake Brockman went out, eight men under Lieutenant Selby of the 11th accompanying them. Crossing the head of the first valley - Allah Gully - they reached the crest of Silt Spur. Here Selby's men lay down in order to give covering fire, if necessary, while Bage, Drake Brockman, and two young sappers crawled down the fore-slope to mark the trench. The two officers, holding a stretched cord between them, had fixed the southern face of the proposed redoubt, and Bage was hammering in with a stone, the eastern peg, when the Turks at the head of the same knuckle, and also farther back on Lone Pine, 250 yards distant, opened fire. It has been estimated that at least five machine-guns were directed upon them. Bage was hit first in the arm, then in the leg, and finally through the head, and killed; Selby and two others were wounded. Bage's body was left until dark, when at great risk one of the covering party, Lance-Corporal Joyce, and some men of the 11th searched for and brought it in.

A prominent point on the coast between Murphy Bay and Ainsworth Bay. Discovered in 1912 by the AAE (1911 - 14) under Douglas Mawson, who named it for Lt. R. Bage, the expedition's astronomer, assistant magnetician and recorder of tides.